DETAILED ACTION
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
2. 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 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.
Status of Claims
1. The following is a non-final office action in response to the applicant’s arguments/remarks received 11/10/2025.
2. Claims 1, 3 – 14 and 16 - 22 are currently pending and have been examined.
3. Claims 1, 3 and 14 have been amended.
4. Claims 2 and 15 have been cancelled.
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
1. A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 11/10/2025 has been entered.
Information Disclosure Statement
1. The information disclosure statement filed on 07/09/2025 and 01/12/2026 are in compliance with the provision of 37 CFR 1.97, 1.98 and MPEP § 609. It has been placed in the application file and the information referred to therein has been considered as to the merits.
Response to Arguments
The arguments/remarks presented by the applicant/applicant’s representative on 11/10/2025 along with the amendments made to the independent claims were thoroughly reviewed, a further search and consideration was conducted, see new grounds of rejection presented below.
Claim interpretation
1. Limitations appearing in the specification but not recited in the claim should not be read into the claim. E-Pass Techs., Inc. v. 3Com Corp., 343 F.3d 1364, 1369, 67 USPQ2d 1947, 1950 (Fed. Cir. 2003) (claims must be interpreted "in view of the specification" without importing limitations from the specification into the claims unnecessarily) [MPEP 2106 Sec I, C]. “Though understanding the claim language may be aided by explanations contained in the written description, it is important not to import into a claim limitations that are not part of the claim. For example, a particular embodiment appearing in the written description may not be read into a claim when the claim language is broader than the embodiment.” Superguide Corp. v. DirecTV Enterprises, Inc., 358 F.3d 870, 875, 69 USPQ2d 1865, 1868 (Fed. Cir. 2004). [MPEP 2111.01 Sec II]. Thus, the Examiner interprets Applicant’s claims "in view of the specification" and does not “import into a claim limitations that are not part of the claim”.
2. When multiple limitations are connected with “OR”, one of the limitations does not have any patentable weight since both of the limitations are optional.
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) 1, 3 - 8, 11 – 13, 14, 16 - 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bao et al. (US 2022/0070712) in view of Yerramalli et al. (US 2024/0244570 A1), Lee et al. (US 2022/0086794) and Khoryaev et al. (US 2016/0095080 A1).
Claim 1, Bao discloses: An apparatus in a radio access network (see figure 8, label 105), the apparatus comprising at least one processor (figure 8, label 810), and at least one memory (figure 8, label 860) storing instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor (¶ 0106 - ¶ 0107), cause the apparatus at least to:
select at least one user device from a plurality of candidate user devices provided by the network as a reference for reference signal time difference (RSTD) measurements;” (Figure 7B, box 730, at least two UEs are present whereby “the first UE” is performing measurement at 730 and 740 of figure 7B;¶ 0091, one such measurement is RSTD; figure 7A, box 720; ¶ 0069 states the target UE 603 and anchor UE 605 may be configured to provide measurement specific to SL. ¶ 0069 further went on to state:
“That is, for positioning in which at least one anchor UE 605 is used as an anchor point, the target UE 603 and/or at least one anchor UE 605 may be configured by the LMF 220 and/or a gNB to take certain SL-based and/or SL-assisted measurements to facilitate SL positioning. When configured by gNBs, the target UE 603 be configured by its serving gNB (gNB1) and anchor UE 605 may be configured by its serving gNB (gNB4)) “
From the above excerpt, there are multiple candidate user device (anchor and target UEs’) provided withing the network and the fact that a particular UE (603 or 605) is being configured, implies a selection of one of a user device (gNB or LMF) to perform SL measurements for RSTD (see ¶ 0069).
measure a plurality of RSTDs between at least two respective positioning reference signals (figure 7B, label 730 and 740: ¶ 0091 - ¶ 0092: the first UE is performing two measurements, the first measurement pertains to a second UE using a first reference signal that is transmitted via a sidelink. The first UE is performing a second measurement in view of a second reference signal that originates from a base station, and as seen in ¶ 0091 the measurement can be RSTD), and a sidelink positioning reference signal received from the at least one user device selected as the reference; (figure 7B, label 730 and 740: the first UE is performing two measurements, the first measurement pertains to a second UE using a first reference signal that is transmitted via a sidelink) and
transmit, to a network element of a core network, a report [¶ 0080, the reports can be sent to the LMF which is a network element of the core network = figure 2 label 240] comprising:
an identifier of the at least one user device selected as the reference for the RSTD measurements, [last line of ¶ 0096 in view of block 750 of figure 7B: a “single measurement report” contains both the first and second measurement may be tagged with the UE ID, this information is received by a location server=LMF (¶ 0034)]
an identifier of a resource associated with the sidelink positioning reference signal received from the at least one user device, (see the last sentence of ¶ 0096: the measurement can be tagged with RS ID = PRS resource with respect to the first measurement which as seen above pertains to the SL reference signal = block 730 of figure 7B)
Bao mentioned a selection of the first UE pertaining to RSTD but does not disclose the report consisting of a time stamp of the sidelink positioning reference signal received from the at least one user device. However, to better clarify the examiner position of the selection limitation the reference of Yerramalli is relied on see figure 14 at step 1424 the target UE and a peer UE is being selected by a network entity for measurement of SL PRS (step 1431) [¶ 0125] after which the position information 1436 is transmitted to the network entity [the network entity here can be TRP or server = ¶ 0104]. These PRS measurements helps to determine the position of the mobile device which involves the determination of RSTD [¶ 0103]. Note that ¶ 0122 discloses two peers are being present however more than two peers can be configured by the network (provision by the network).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Bao’s system in view of Yerramalli. The motivation for making the above modification would have been to develop a technique for selecting a device to perform the positioning operation(s) involves multiple devices. [see ¶ 0023 of Yerramalli].
Both Bao and Lee do not disclose: the report consisting of a time stamp of the sidelink positioning reference signal received from the at least one user device. [Time stamp is interpreted with regards to the applicant’s specification particularly paragraph 0110, the timestamp could be the reception time of the SL PRS at the target UE or transmission time of the SL PRS at the anchor UE]. It should be noted in ¶ 0087 of Bao, Rx-Tx measurements pertaining to the reference signal of the SL PRS is reported to the serving TRP and not the actual transmission time of the SL-PRS, however, in the analogous art of Lee, ¶ 0155 disclose the above missing feature: a UE can be selected as the serving UE in which it will report to the base station/server the time point (interpreted as the time stamp) in which the selected UE receives a PRS signal from another UE (UE to UE communication of PRS is known as sidelink PRS transmission) . It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Bao’s system in view of Yerramalli and Lee. The motivation for making the above modification would have been for a network (e.g., a base station such as an eNB or gNB) to improve positioning performance of the UE by using the UE [see ¶0150 of Lee].
Bao in view of Yerramalli and Lee does not disclose: a measurement report indicative of a plurality of measured RSTDs relative to the at least one user device selected as the reference for the RSTD measurements, such difference is seen in the analogous art of Khoryaev: In ¶ 0056, the target UE (being selected as seen in the primary reference) uses the received positioning signals and its synchronized clock to determine the RSTD, this is interpreted as the user device selected as the reference for the RSTD measurements. Further ¶ 0072 (last sentence), the target UE may measure a plurality of RSTDS over sidelink channels with the anchor UEs, and reports the RSTD values to the location server (see also ¶ 0055 and the last sentence of ¶ 0056, ¶ 0064 - ¶ 0065, in which the base station RSTDs are reported as well). As a result, the combination of ¶ 0056 and ¶ 0072 cover the amended portion of claim 1. NOTE: in ¶ 0047, the target UE receives PRSs from both the base stations and anchor UEs of Khoryaev and in ¶ 0067 of Bao the target UE to perform measurements from anchor UE and gNBs. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Bao’s system in view of Yerramalli, Lee and Khoryaev. The motivation for making the above modification would have been for the determination of the position of mobile devices based on information communicated through device-to-device (D2D) communications to obtain additional measurements of position metrics that can be used to determine relative or absolute positions of the mobile devices. [see ¶0014 of Khoryaev].
Claim 14 recites similar features using respective language and are also rejected by the applied references for similar reasons as claim 1. Claim 14 was amended a bit different which is:
“…provide, to a target user device, a plurality of candidate user device for use as a reference for measuring a reference signal time difference (RSTD);”
However, such difference is seen in the reference of Yerramalli, ¶ 0124, that is the target UE has the ability to select the other peers, later in ¶ 0124 it is suggested that the target UE is provided/configured with the information of multiple Peer UE (“…If the target UE 1401 is configured with a preference to use either public or private UEs for SL signal transfer for positioning, then the target UE 1401 may be configured to select whether to use a UE for SL signal transfer for positioning based on one or more other criteria (e.g., accuracy providable, latency providable, etc.”) this is done in order to select the peer UE for SL-PRS measurement which entails RSTD [¶ 0103].
Claim 3, Bao further discloses: The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least two respective positioning reference signals further comprise at least one of: a downlink positioning reference signal received from a network element of the radio access network, or a sidelink reference signal received from another user device. [see figure 7B, box 730 and 740].
Claim 16 recites similar features using respective language and are also rejected by the applied references for similar reasons as claim 3.
Claim 4, Bao further discloses: The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the report indicates that the reference is used for measuring the RSTD [¶ 0091 and ¶ 0128] between the downlink positioning reference signal and the sidelink positioning reference signal received from the at least one user device selected as the reference. [figure 7B, label 750 in view of ¶ 0096 - ¶ 0097, the measurement pertains to RSTD and is sent via a single UE used as the target UE (reference UE), the information reported pertains to PRS resources that is sent by both the base station and second UE, see also ¶ 0129 of Lee].
Claim 5, Bao further discloses: The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the synchronization source information indicates at least one of: an access node, a cell identity, a physical cell identity, the physical cell identity and a synchronization signal block identity, the physical cell identity and a transmission and reception point identity, or a global navigation satellite system. [last sentence of ¶ 0096 that is the TRP ID. All the parameters mentioned above can be sent in a single report as suggested in ¶ 0096. It should be noted here that the term TRP can be refer to as the gNB see ¶ 0026].
Claim 17 recites similar features using respective language and are also rejected by the applied references for similar reasons as claim 5.
Claim 6, Lee further discloses: The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the time stamp of the sidelink positioning reference signal received from the at least one user device indicates a reception time of the sidelink positioning reference signal at the apparatus. [¶ 0155 disclose the above missing feature: a UE can be selected as the serving UE in which it will report to the base station/server the time point (interpreted as the time stamp) in which the serving UE receives a PRS signal from another UE (UE to UE communication of PRS is known as sidelink PRS transmission)].
Claim 18 recites similar features using respective language and are also rejected by the applied references for similar reasons as claim 6.
Claim 7, Lee further discloses: The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the report further comprises a location of the at least one user device at the time stamp, wherein the at least one user device is selected as the reference. [¶ 0150 and ¶ 0154, the time point (time stamp) is sent in the report to the network, see
Claim 19 recites similar features using respective language and are also rejected by the applied references for similar reasons as claim 7.
Claim 8, Bao in view of Yerramalli further discloses: The apparatus according to claim 1, further being caused to: receive, from the network element of the core network, an indication indicating a plurality of allowed synchronization sources for the reference, wherein the plurality of candidate user devices are synchronized to at least one of the plurality of allowed synchronization sources. [Bao: see figure 3 and 4, in view of ¶ 0053 and ¶ 0101, multiple TRPs is synchronized with a single UE; Yerramalli: figure 14 at step 1424 the target UE and a peer UE is being selected by a network entity for measurement of SL PRS (step 1431) [¶ 0125] after which the position information 1436 is transmitted to the network entity [the network entity here can be TRP or server = ¶ 0104], ¶ 0122 discloses two peers are being present however more than two peers can be configured by the network.
Claim 20 recites similar features using respective language and are also rejected by the applied references for similar reasons as claim 8.
Claim 11, Bao further discloses: The apparatus according to claim 1, further being caused to: report, to the network element of the core network, an identifier of the plurality of candidate user devices. [last line of ¶ 0096 in view of block 750 of figure 7B: the measurement may be tagged with the UE ID, this information is received by a location server=LMF (¶ 0034)]
Claim 12, Bao further discloses: The apparatus according to claim 1, further being caused to: receive, from the network element of the core network, an indication to use a single reference for measuring the RSTD, wherein the at least one user device is selected based at least partly on the indication to use the single reference, the at least one user device comprising a single user device. [see figure 7B, particularly 730 in which a single RS is being used, since a fist measurement is conducted in 750 of 7b via a serving UE (target UE = reference UE)].
Claim 13, Bao further discloses: The apparatus according to claim 1, further being caused to: receive, from the network element of the core network, an indication to use multiple references for measuring the RSTD, wherein the at least one user device is selected based at least partly on the indication to use the multiple references. [see figure 7B, label 730 and 740, two reference signals are being used, and two measurements are conducted at 750 respectively].
Claim 21, Bao further discloses: The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is further caused to: transmit, to the network element, synchronization source information indicating at least one synchronization source of the at least one user device. [synchronization source information is interpreted in view of the applicant’s specification ¶ 109, which is the identification of the base station or other entity sending the PRS and is seen in the reference of Bao=last sentence of ¶ 0096 that is the TRP ID. All the parameters mentioned above can be sent in a single report as suggested in ¶ 0096. It should be noted here that the term TRP can be refer to as the gNB see ¶ 0026].
Claim 22 recites similar features using respective language and are also rejected by the applied references for similar reasons as claim 21.
Claim(s) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bao et al. (US 2022/0070712) in view of Yerramalli et al. (US 2024/0244570 A1), Lee et al. (US 2022/0086794), Khoryaev et al. (US 2016/0095080 A1) and Shreevastav et al. (US 2024/0236615 A1).
Regarding claim 9, Bao in view of Yerramalli, Lee and Khoryaev discloses: The apparatus according to claim 1 (see rejected claim 1)
Bao in view of Yerramalli, Lee and Khoryaev does not disclose: receive, from the network element of the core network, an indication indicating one or more synchronization sources that are not allowed for the reference, wherein the plurality of candidate user devices are not synchronized to the one or more synchronization sources that are not allowed. However, Shreevastav discloses the above feature, see ¶ 0021. Certain cell and TRP (synchronization sources) is being excluded with regards to positioning measurement. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Bao’s system in view of Yerramalli, Lee, Khoryaev and Shreevastav. The motivation for making the above modification would have been for allowing the network to know which cells a deferred positioning configuration should be active in order to remove negative system impact [see ¶0019 of Shreevastav].
Claim(s) 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bao et al. (US 2022/0070712) in view of Yerramalli et al. (US 2024/0244570 A1), Lee et al. (US 2022/0086794), Khoryaev et al. (US 2016/0095080 A1) Duan et al. (US 2024/0012129 A1).
Regarding claim 10, Bao in view of Yerramalli, Lee and Khoryaev discloses: The apparatus according to claim 1 (see rejected claim 1)
Bao in view of Yerramalli, Lee and Khoryaev does not disclose: transmit, to the at least one user device or to the network element of the core network, one or more suggested time stamps for measuring a downlink positioning reference signal at the at least one user device or transmitting the sidelink positioning reference signal from the at least one user device. However, Duan discloses the above feature, see ¶ 0216 in view of the latter part of ¶ 0140.DL PRS measurement is being performed, the reception time of the PRS (time stamp) at the UE is indicated from the base station. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Bao’s system in view of Yerramalli, Lee, Khoryaev and Duan. The motivation for making the above modification would have been for the positioning of user equipment using received positioning reference signals [see ¶002 of Duan].
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MAHARISHI V KHIRODHAR whose telephone number is (571)270-7909. The examiner can normally be reached 6:00 AM - 3:00 PM.
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MAHARISHI V. KHIRODHAR
Examiner
Art Unit 2463
/MAHARISHI V KHIRODHAR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2463