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.
(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.
Claim(s) 1-2, 14-15, 18-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1)/(a)(2) as being anticipated by Nam (US 2023/0086126 A1).
Regarding claims 1, 14 & 18, Nam discloses a sidelink positioning reference signal (SL PRS) transmitting method, wherein the method is performed by a first terminal, terminal and and the method comprises:
a processor (see processor [0118]); a transceiver connected to the processor (see transceiver [0120]); a memory (see memory [0120]) configured to store executable instructions for the processor;
transmitting/receiving (see transmit [0096] and UE receiving) first information on a first sidelink channel resource (see [0083], fig. 2, sidelink control block 225, SL-PRS bust 230, here “The sidelink control block 225 may include a PSCCH (e.g., which may carry SCI-1, among other information), SCI-2, and one or more DMRS…. SCI-1 and/or SCI-2 in the sidelink control block 225 may carry or otherwise convey information for an associated SL-PRS burst 230 (e.g., the time domain resource allocation (TDRA), frequency domain resource allocation (FDRA)”), and
transmitting/receiving (see transmit [0096] and UE receiving) a first SL PRS on a first SL PRS resource (see [0095], fig. 3, first symbol portion 305/310, DMRS 315, PSCCH 320, SCI-2, SL-PRS 330, gap symblols 335);
wherein the first information is used to indicate a transmission mode of SL PRSs on the first SL PRS resource (see [0096], fig. 3, SL-PRS 330 which carries a transmission pattern such as a staggered comb pattern, where the SL-PRS 330 may be distributed on different subsets of frequency resources in successive symbol durations and “SL-PRS 330 may receive control signaling (such as SCI-2) indicating one or both of the candidate slot and the SL-PRS burst pattern.”).
Regarding claims 2, 15 & 19, Nam discloses the method according to claim 1 terminals according to 14 & 18, wherein the first sidelink channel resource and the first SL PRS resource are a group of associated resources (see [0003], “each of the control blocks identifying resources for respective PRS bursts that are multiplexed within a single subsequent slot’) in a time-frequency structure (see [0003], “within a same slot, thus overlapping in time and frequency range”); wherein the time-frequency structure includes n groups of associated sidelink channel resources and SL PRS resources, and n is an integer greater than 1 ([0003], clearly demonstrates more than one group of resources, therefore an integer greater than 1).
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.
Claim(s) 3, 16 & 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nam in view of Du et al. (US 2020/0137736 A1)
Regarding claims 3, 16 & 20, Nam discloses the method according to claim 2 and terminals of claim 14 and 18,
Nam does not explicitly disclose however Ji explicitly discloses wherein the time-frequency structure corresponds to one or more first time domain units in time domain (see first time domain units [0040]), each first time domain unit includes m second time domain units (see L time domain units in [0105]), and m is an integer greater than 1 (see integer L is greater than 1, [0105]); n sidelink channel resources and n SL PRS resources (see [0039], “the position of the at least one resource set in the second time domain unit meets any one of the following:[0040] N first time domain units occupied by the at least one resource set are N first time domain units ”) in the time-frequency structure correspond to different second time domain units (see claim 7, n first time domain units associated with sidelink); the n sidelink channel resources correspond to a same plurality of second time domain units; and a plurality of second time domain units corresponding to a same SL PRS resource are consecutive in time domain (see claim 7, “The method according to claim 4, wherein a position of the at least one resource set in the second time domain unit meets any one of the following: N first time domain units occupied by the at least one resource set are N first time domain units located at the end of the second time domain unit, wherein N is a positive integer; N first time domain units occupied by the at least one resource set are located at any positions in the second time domain unit; or N first time domain units occupied by the at least one resource set are located following the last first time domain unit occupied by a physical sidelink”);
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to combine the teachings of Nam with that Ji. Doing so would conform to well-known standards in the field of invention.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 4-13, 17 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Sahin et al. (US 2025/0055625 A1)
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to K. WILFORD SHAHEED whose telephone number is (469) 295-9175. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 9 am-6pm; CST; ALT Friday. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. The examiner’s Supervisor, Jinsong Hu, can be reached at (571)272-3965, where attempts to reach the examiner are unsuccessful.
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/KHALID W SHAHEED/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2643
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