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 .
This action is in response to the claims filing date of 1/18/2025. Claims 1-20 are pending and have been considered below.
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 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter.
In claim 19, a "computer-readable storage medium" is being recited; the broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim drawn to a computer readable storage medium typically covers forms of non-transitory tangible media and transitory propagating signals per se in view of the ordinary and customary meaning of computer readable media. Therefore, a transitory computer readable storage medium would reasonably be interpreted by one of ordinary skill in the art as signal, per se. Thus, this subject matter "computer-readable storage medium" is not limited to that which falls within a statutory category of invention because it is limited to a process, machine, manufacture, or a composition of matter. Signal per se is a function descriptive material and a function descriptive material is non-statutory subject matter. Dependent claim 20 is rejected for similar reasons as above.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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)(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) 1,10,19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Outes Carnero et al. (US 2024/0154707; Carnero hereinafter).
Regarding claim 1:
Carnero discloses a system and method for vertical positioning (abstract; figures), comprising:
receiving, by a server, measurement report (MR) information sent by a base station, wherein the MR information is reported by a terminal device to the base station (para 55, partially reproduced herein with emphasis {characterisation of the current vertical antenna pattern gain is estimated using periodical measurements reported by the UEs..}; figure 1; para 152-154 {measurements from every UE served by the antenna (i.e. served UEs), which provide information about the distance between respective UEs and the serving cell. [0153] RSRP measurements reported by served UEs…});
obtaining, by the server, engineering parameters of the base station based on the MR information, wherein the engineering parameters comprise base station cell site height (para 3,24; para 64 {…base station antenna height above ground elevation level }; para 150 {antenna height above ground elevation level}), base station downtilt (para 65 {effective tilt of the base station antenna…}; para 86-87), and base station antenna azimuth (para 110 {azimuth antennas sharing the same tilt value }; para 198-206);
extracting, by the server, feature information of the terminal device from the MR information (para 110 {signal strength measurements of the reference signal from UEs served in the first cell, positional information}); and
inputting, by the server, the feature information of the terminal device and the engineering parameters of the base station into a preset artificial intelligence (Al) model and running the preset Al model to predict a first height of the terminal device, wherein the Al model is obtained through training by using engineering parameters of a plurality of base stations and feature information of a plurality of terminal devices as input samples and using a preset height as a label (para 80-82 {generate model coefficients by processing the input data in a training model, at step S103. In certain embodiments, the training model is trained using a prediction model. The prediction model is configured to model three components …}; figures 4a-4b; para 110-113; para 114 { re-compute the RSRP measurements for all UE}; and see throughout the disclosure).
Regarding claim 10:
Carnero discloses all of the subject matter as described above in claim 1, and further discloses a communication apparatus, comprising: a communication interface (figure 2a, 2b; see figure 3a [interface 303]; fig 3b); at least one processor connected to the communication interface (301 in fig 3a); and a memory storing instructions (302 in fig 3a) connected to the at least one processor through the communication interface that, when the instructions are executed by the at least one processor (para 106-107; and throughout the disclosure), cause the communication apparatus to perform the function as described above, thus claim 10 is rejected with similar rationale under the teachings of the prior art as above.
Regarding claim 19:
Carnero discloses all of the subject matter as described above in claim 1, and further discloses a computer-readable storage medium storing program instructions (para 30-33; para 35,36,49; figures) that enable a computer device to perform the function as described above (see throughout Carnero’s disclosure), thus claim 19 is rejected with similar rationale under the teachings of the prior art as above
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 2,11,20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Carnero et al. (US 2024/0154707) in view of Raghavan et al. (US 2022/0200681).
Regarding claims 2,11,20:
Carnero discloses all of the subject matter as described above except for specifically teaching wherein the MR information comprises at least one of: sounding reference signal (SRS) beam information and the feature information comprises an SRS beam feature extracted by the server from the SRS beam information, the SRS beam feature comprising an SRS beam energy feature obtained by performing dimensionality reduction on the SRS beam information; or synchronization signal block (SSB) beam information and the feature information comprises an SSB beam feature extracted by the server from the SSB beam information, the SSB beam feature comprising an SSB beam energy feature obtained by the terminal device by performing dimensionality reduction on a vector comprising a plurality of detected reference signal received powers (RSRPs) of each serving cell.
However, Raghavan in the same field of endeavor discloses a system and method for data communication wherein the MR information comprises at least one of: sounding reference signal (SRS) beam information and the feature information comprises an SRS beam feature extracted by the server from the SRS beam information, the SRS beam feature comprising an SRS beam energy feature obtained by performing dimensionality reduction on the SRS beam information; or synchronization signal block (SSB) beam information and the feature information comprises an SSB beam feature extracted by the server from the SSB beam information, the SSB beam feature comprising an SSB beam energy feature obtained by the terminal device by performing dimensionality reduction on a vector comprising a plurality of detected reference signal received powers (RSRPs) of each serving cell ([note: optional claim language require only one element, prior art may be teaching more]; see Raghavan, para 102,107,113; figs; and throughout the disclosure).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use teachings of Raghavan in Carnero in order to generating position information based on the at least one angle based positioning measurement with reduced overhead in signaling [5,6] (KSR: Combining Prior Art Elements According to Known Methods to Yield Predictable Results).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-9,12-18 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Yerramalli et al. (US 2024/0114473) discloses a system and method for optimization of signaling for beam shape assistance data for location determination.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HIRDEPAL SINGH whose telephone number is (571)270-1688. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00-5:00 M-F.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Hannah S Wang can be reached on (571) 272-9018. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/HIRDEPAL SINGH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2631
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