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 § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101, the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claims do not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because the “readable storage medium” described in the claims cover both transitory signal and non-transitory media. The specification does not explicitly limit the claimed technology to only non-transitory embodiments.
Allowable Subject Matter
The independent claims contain patentable subject matter. However, regarding independent claims 1 and 14, it would need to be clear that the “first terminal” is wireless. It would need to be clear what the “radio access network device” is. It would need to be clear how the “first terminal” determines a target SL positioning reference signal configuration in a novel way. It would need to be clear how the “first terminal” determines the SL positioning reference signal from the target SL positioning reference signal configuration in a novel way. It would need to be clear who the “first terminal” sends the SL positioning reference signal to.
Regarding independent claim 8, it would need to be clear what the “radio access network device” is. It would need to be clear that the “first terminal” is wireless. It would need to be clear what the “transmission resources associated with the target SL positioning reference signal configuration” are. Other than receiving a message from a positioning server and sending the message to a “first terminal,” it would need to be clear what the “radio access network device” does in a novel way. If the “radio access network device” simply acts as a relay between the positioning server and the “first terminal”, the applicant would need to focus on the “first terminal” independent claims instead.
Ren, Wu, and Nam are references that disclose the inventive concept.
Conclusion
Any response to this Office Action should be faxed to (571) 273-8300 or mailed to:
Commissioner for Patents
P.O. Box 1450
Alexandria, VA 22313-1450
Hand-delivered responses should be brought to
Customer Service Window
Randolph Building
401 Dulany Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the Examiner should be directed to Joel Ajayi whose telephone number is (571) 270-1091. The Examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday from 7:30am to 5:00pm.
If attempts to reach the Examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the Examiner’s supervisor, Jeanette Parker can be reached on (571) 270-3647. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571) 273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free) or 703-305-3028.
Any inquiry of a general nature or relating to the status of this application or proceeding should be directed to the receptionist/customer service whose telephone number is (571) 272-2600.
/JOEL AJAYI/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2646
Prosecution Insights