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 .
Claims 1-20 are pending.
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-4, 6-10, 12-16 and 18-20 are rejected under both 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Manolakos et al, application no. 2021/0297206, hereinafter known as Man.
As to claim 1, Man dicloses a communication apparatus, comprising: at least one processor and at least one memory coupled to the at least one processor (Man, figure 4, [0087]-[0095] UE (Communication apparatus) of the art with memory and processor), wherein the at least one memory stores instructions for execution by the at least one processor to cause the communication apparatus to perform operations including: obtaining a resource for a positioning reference signal (PRS) (Man, [0110], base station allocates sidelink resources including SL-PRS to UE); sending sidelink control information (SCI) (Man, [0113]-[0114], control messages shared between UE and second UE on the SCI-2), wherein the SCI comprises first indication information, and the first indication information indicates the resource for the PRS (Man, [0136]-[0137], SCI-2 include PRS resources for second UE); and sending the PRS on the resource for the PRS (Man, [0126]-[0128], using SCI2 for SL-PRS signaling).
As to claim 2, Man discloses wherein the SCI comprises first-type SCI and second-type SCI, a resource for the first-type SCI is predefined, the first-type SCI comprises second indication information, the second indication information is related to a resource for the second-type SCI, and the second-type SCI comprises the first indication information (Man, [0113]-[0114], [0136-[0137],SCI-1 and SCI-2, SCI-1 containing control information for SCI-2 used in communications on the sidelink).
As to claim 3, Man discloses wherein the first indication information indicates one or more of the following: whether the resource for the PRS occupies a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) or a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH), whether the resource for the PRS is a PRS-dedicated resource, and location information of the resource for the PRS (Man, [0110], base station allocates sidelink resources including SL-PRS to UE).
As to claim 4, Man discloses wherein an indication indicated by the first indication information for the location information of the resource for the PRS comprises: at least one of a time domain position or a frequency domain position of the resource for the PRS; or a number or an index of the resource for the PRS, wherein the number or the index of the resource for the PRS is determined based on a predefined mapping relationship between at least one resource and at least one number or index (Man, [0136]-[0137], fig. 12, time and frequency domain location information for sidelink resources).
As to claim 6, Man discloses wherein the communication apparatus is a first communication apparatus, and the operations further comprise: receiving a measurement result from a second communication apparatus, wherein the measurement result is obtained by the second communication apparatus based on measurement of the PRS sent by the first communication apparatus; and performing positioning based on the measurement result (Man, [0115-[0125], measuring round trip time specifically to determine positioning).
As to claim 7, Man discloses a communication apparatus, comprising: at least one processor and at least one memory coupled to the at least one processor (Man, figure 4, [0087]-[0095] UE (Communication apparatus) of the art with memory and processor),), wherein the at least one memory stores for execution by the at least one processor to cause the communication apparatus to perform operations including: receiving sidelink control information (SCI), wherein the SCI comprises first indication information (Man, [0113]-[0114], control messages shared between UE and second UE on the SCI-2), and the first indication information indicates a resource for a positioning reference signal (PRS) (Man, [0136]-[0137], SCI-2 include PRS resources for second UE); and receiving the PRS on the resource for the PRS (Man, [0126]-[0128], using SCI2 for SL-PRS signaling).
As to claims 8-10 and 12, the claim are rejected as applied to claims 2-4 and 6 respectively above by Man.
As to claims 13-16 and 18, the claim are rejected as applied to claims 1-4 and 6 respectively above by Man.
As to claims 19 and 20, the claim are rejected as applied to claims 7-8 respectively above by Man.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 5, 11 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Man in view of Zhang et al, application no. 2023/0362868, hereinafter known as Zhang.
As to claim 5, Man discloses wherein the operations further comprise: receiving information about the resource for the PRS configured by a network device (Man, [0110], base station allocates sidelink resources including SL-PRS to UE). Man does not disclose however Zhang discloses and determining the resource for the PRS in a predefined resource pool; or determining a predefined resource as the resource for the PRS (Zhang, [0020]-[0026], predefined resources including for PRS).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Man to include the limitations of and determining the resource for the PRS in a predefined resource pool; or determining a predefined resource as the resource for the PRS as taught by Zhang. Resources can be predefined set for all kinds of communications including PRS that enable devices in the network to quickly pull the required information to commence communications.
As to claims 11 and 17, the claim are each rejected as applied to claim 5 above by Man in view of Zhang.
Conclusion
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/GAUTAM SHARMA/ Examiner, Art Unit 2467
/HASSAN A PHILLIPS/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2467
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