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 § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
In claim 1, applicant discloses “first reference SRS resource information” and “a second SRS resource”, but fails to clearly point out which limitation applicant want to claim, “resource information” or “resource”?
Furthermore, there is no clear definition about the relationship between “first reference SRS resource information” and “a second SRS resource”, i.e., it’s unclear about the reason causes the network device to configure “a second SRS resource” based on “the first SRS resource information”.
Claim 1 recites " first reference SRS resource information” but has insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation. Based on the context in the claim, applicant is using “first” and “second” to identify different elements, however, limitation has not been claimed in correct format, the word “a” should be used in front of the limitation.
In claim 2, the language appears to be a literal translation into English from a foreign document and is replete with grammatical and idiomatic error. For example, it’s unclear about the meaning of “a start symbol location”, “a frequency domain position” etc.
Claim 3 recites " at least one reference terminal device” but has insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation. Also, it’s unclear about the relationship between “to-be-positioned terminal device” and “reference terminal device”.
Claim 4 recites " at least two reference terminal devices” but has insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation. Also, it’s unclear about the relationship between “to-be-positioned terminal device” and “reference terminal device”.
Claim 5 recites limitation of “a plurality of pieces of reference SRS resource information” but fails to provide more definition to point out whether this limitation refers to a part of “reference SRS resource information”. Additionally, it’s unclear whether the limitation “reference SRS resource information” in here refers to “first reference SRS resource information” in claim 1.
Claim 6 recites the limitation “receiving…first indication information”, applicant need to use “a” in front of “first indication information” to identify the sequence of the information. Also, it’s unclear whether the “first indication information” received at the same time as the network device receiving “the first reference SRS resource information” or in the later time, because the claim further discloses the configuration requires both “the first reference SRS resource information and the first indication information”.
Claim 7 recites the limitation “receiving…second indication information”, applicant needs to use “a” in front of “second indication information” to identify the sequence of the information. Also, the claim depends on claim 1 which hasn’t “first indication information”, so the claim has insufficient antecedent basis for limitation “first indication information”. Additionally, the claim has the same issue as claim 6 discussed set forth above.
Claim 8 depends on claim 1, has the same issue discussed for claims 6-7 set forth above. Additionally, the claim does not clearly define the meaning of “reference resource”, i.e., it’s unclear about the difference between the first SRS resource and the second SRS resource.
Claims 9-20 have the similar limitations as claims 1-8, they are rejected for the same reason as claims 1-8 discussed set forth above.
Corrections are required.
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 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Edge et al. (US PUB 2022/0039053 A1).
Regarding to claim 1, Edge teaches the invention as claimed including a resource configuration method [abstract], comprising:
receiving, by a network device [gNBs 110, Fig. 1], first reference sounding reference signal (SRS) resource information from a location management device [LMF, par. 0062; par. 0051, 0059, 0105]; and
configuring, by the network device, a second SRS resource for a to-be-positioned terminal device [UE 102, Fig. 1] based on the first reference SRS resource information [par. 0059, 0062-0065, 0074, 0076, 0120, 0128].
Regarding to claim 2, Edge teaches wherein the first reference SRS resource information comprises one or more of the following: a start symbol location, a quantity of occupied symbols, a sending periodicity and offset, a transmission comb and offset, a cyclic shift, a frequency domain position and offset, or a frequency hopping configuration [par. 0067, 0078, 0091, 0138, 3GPP protocol].
Regarding to claim 3, Edge teaches wherein the first reference SRS resource information is related to an SRS resource of at least one reference terminal device [neighbor gNBs 110-2, 110-3, 110-4, Fig. 3A-B, Fig. 4-8, par. 0099, 0135, 0137].
Regarding to claim 4, Edge teaches wherein the first reference SRS resource information is related to SRS resources of at least two reference terminal devices, and wherein the first reference SRS resource information is information about the SRS resources of the at least two reference terminal devices, or the first reference SRS resource information is information obtained based on the SRS resources of the at least two reference terminal devices [par. 0135-0137, 0141, 0145-0147, 0195].
Regarding to claim 5, Edge teaches wherein the receiving the-first reference SRS resource information from a location management device comprises:
receiving, by the network device, a plurality of pieces of reference SRS resource information and priority information of each of the plurality of pieces of reference SRS resource information from the location management device, wherein the plurality of pieces of reference SRS resource information comprise the first reference SRS resource information [par. 0093-0095, 0245-0247]; and
wherein the method further comprises:
sending, by the network device, information about the second SRS resource to the location management device [par. 0105-0108].
Regarding to claim 6, Edge teaches wherein the method further comprises:
receiving, by the network device, first indication information from the location management device, wherein the first indication information indicates to configure, for the to- be-positioned terminal device, the second SRS resource that completely overlaps the first SRS resource in time domain, or indicates to configure, for the to-be-positioned terminal device, the second SRS resource that partially overlaps the first SRS resource in time domain, wherein the first reference SRS resource information is related to the first SRS resource [par. 0112-0118]; and
wherein the configuring, the second SRS resource for the to-be-positioned terminal device based on the first reference SRS resource information comprises configuring, by the network device, the second SRS resource for the to-be- positioned terminal device based on the first reference SRS resource information and the first indication information [par. 0062-0065, 0074, 0076, 0120, 0128].
Regarding to claim 7, Edge teaches wherein the method further comprises:
receiving, by the network device, second indication information from the location management device, wherein the second indication information indicates an offset between the first SRS resource and the second SRS resource, and wherein the first reference SRS resource information is related to the first SRS resource [1310 Fig. 13, par. 0253-0255]; and
wherein the configuring, by the network device, the second SRS resource for [[a]] the to-be-positioned terminal device based on the first reference SRS resource information comprises:
configuring, by the network device, the second SRS resource for the to-be- positioned terminal device based on the first reference SRS resource information and the second indication information [par. 0254-0256].
Regarding to claim 8, Edge teaches wherein the method further comprises:
receiving, by the network device, third indication information from the location management device, wherein the third indication information indicates that the first SRS resource is a reference resource, and wherein the first reference SRS resource information is related to the first SRS resource [par. 0125, 0130-0132].
Regarding to claims 9-12, since they claim the same limitations as claims 1 and 3-5 form different prospectors (receiving vs sending), they are rejected for the same basis as claims 1 and 3-5 set forth above.
Regarding to claims 13-20, since they are applause claim of claims 1-8, they are rejected for the same basis as claims 1-8 set forth above.
Conclusion
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/JINSONG HU/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2643
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