DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 2, 4-6, 8-11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Imbimbo et al (WO 2021/219357; art cited by applicant).
Regarding independent claim 1, Imbimbo teaches a method for verifying a location of a terminal (page 8, lines 23-24: “Exemplary embodiments include methods (e.g., procedures) for validating one or more positions determined by a user equipment (UE).”), comprising: obtaining, by a network side device, first location information of the terminal (page 8, lines 27-29: “The exemplary method can include receiving, from an application function (AF), a first request for validating one or more first positions determined by a user equipment (UE)” and page 10, lines 28-29: “the first request comprises said one or more first positions”); and verifying, by the network side device, the first location information according to first information (page 30, lines 30-32: “validating said one or more first positions by retrieving, from the communication network, one or more second positions of the UE that were determined by the communication network” and page 11, lines 7-9: “The GPS coordinates may be correlated, or matched, to the known coordinates of the UE in the communication network to see whether the GPS coordinates are correct. This entails the validation process.”); wherein the first information comprises at least one of the following: additional information reported by the terminal, wherein the additional information is used for verifying the first location information; or a positioning signal used to obtain the first location information, wherein the positioning signal comprises a specific positioning signal (page 11, lines 5-7: “GPS coordinates may be provided by the UEs. The GPS coordinates may be validated by using positioning information known in the network, and established by the network”).
Regarding independent claims 10 and 16, the claims recite similar subject matter as in claim 1. Therefore, similar rationale is applied as for claim 1. See also claims 1-2.
Regarding dependent claims 2, 11 and 17, Imbimbo further teaches receiving, by the network side device, capability information, wherein the capability information is used for indicating whether the terminal supports reporting of the additional information. See claim 2.
Regarding dependent claims 4, 13 and 19, Imbimbo further teaches wherein the additional information satisfies one of the following: being reported by the terminal when the terminal is triggered; being reported by the terminal based on a specific positioning method or using a common field; or being reported by the terminal periodically. See page 25, lines 18-19 and page 36, lines 26-29.
Regarding dependent claims 5 and 14, Imbimbo further teaches wherein the method further comprises: sending, by the network side device, first configuration information, wherein the first configuration information is used for configuring at least one of the following: whether the terminal needs to report the additional information; specific positioning scheduling positioning request information, wherein the positioning scheduling positioning request information is used for instructing the terminal to report the additional information; or specific request information, wherein the request information is used for instructing the terminal to report the additional information. See page 26, lines 3-7.
Regarding dependent claim 6, Imbimbo further teaches wherein the method further comprises: sending, by the network side device, second configuration information, wherein the second configuration information is used for configuring at least one of the following for the specific positioning signal: a time period range; a frequency magnitude range; a repetition number range; magnitude of a transmission comb; or a fixed configuration used, wherein the fixed configuration comprises at least one of the following: a time configuration, a frequency domain configuration, or a sequence configuration. See page 26, lines 10-19.
Regarding dependent claim 8, Imbimbo further teaches wherein the first location information is obtained through measurement by using a first positioning method, wherein the first positioning method comprises a positioning method based on the network side device or a network-standalone positioning method, and the first positioning method comprises: multi-round trip time (Multi-RTT) positioning. See page 20, lines 26-31.
Regarding dependent claim 9, Imbimbo further teaches wherein the network side device comprises a core network device. See page 15, lines 18-24 and page 16, lines 8-11.
Regarding dependent claim 20, Imbimbo further teaches a processor and a memory, wherein the memory stores a program or an instruction runnable on the processor, and the program or the instruction, when executed by the processor, implements the steps of the method according to claim 10. See page 42, line 29 to page 43, line 5.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 7, 12, 15 and 18 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Examiner's note: Examiner has cited particular columns and line numbers in the references as applied to the claims above for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings of the art and are applied to the specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested from the applicant, in preparing responses, to fully consider the references in entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the Examiner.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. References Park et al (US 2014/0002301), Fan (US 2014/0074950), Edge et al (US 2017/0251055), Zhu et al (US 2020/0163012), Manolakos et al (US 2022/0065978), Santarone et al (US 2023/0004689) and Hao et al (US 2024/0089900) are cited because they are pertinent to the method and apparatus for verifying a location of a terminal. However, none of the cited references teaches or suggests the further arrangements as recited in the dependent claims 3, 7, 12, 15 and 18.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DON NGUYEN VO whose telephone number is (571) 272-3018. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday to Friday from 9:00 to 6:30PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kenneth N Vanderpuye, can be reached on 571-272-3078. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/DON N VO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2634
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