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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement filed 6/2/25 fails to comply with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.98(a)(4) because it lacks the appropriate size fee assertion. It has been placed in the application file, but the information referred to therein has not been considered as to the merits.
Claim Objections
Claims 2-8, 10, 12-18 and 20 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 2, line 4, “sequence of chip” should be --sequence of chips--.
Claim 12, line 4, “sequence of chip” should be --sequence of chips--.
Appropriate correction is required.
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 10 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claims 10 and 20 each recite the limitation "the least-squares error" in the last line of each claim. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Correction is 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)(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.
Claims 1 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Pan et al. U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2025/0093452.
Regarding claim 1, Pan discloses a method for generating a corrected channel impulse response (CIR) estimate by a receiver of a ultra-wideband (UWB) device (¶ [0035]), comprising: computing a correction matrix based on a sequence of chips, a number of chips being N, as a channel calibration coefficient matrix is acquired (Fig. 7: step 702; ¶¶ [0101]-[0102]), and where a positioning signal includes a number of data elements considered to be N chips (also see Fig. 8, ¶¶ [0107]-[0114]); receiving a pulse signal corresponding to the sequence of chips, the pulse signal being a multi-path propagated signal corresponding to a non-zero chip in the sequence of chips (i.e. see Fig. 9: step S902); determining a CIR estimate for the pulse signal (step S910); and computing the corrected CIR estimate for the pulse signal based on the correction matrix and the CIR estimate (step S912).
Regarding claim 11, Pan discloses an ultra-wideband (UWB) device (¶ [0035]), comprising: a receiver operable to perform a UWB communication (¶¶ [0036]-[0039]); a memory capable of storing program instructions, parameters, codes, estimates and matrices (internal memory – Fig. 16); and a processor (Fig. 16) coupled to the receiver and the memory, wherein the processor is operable to execute the program instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the UWB device to perform the following operations: computing a correction matrix based on a sequence of chips, a number of chips being N, as a channel calibration coefficient matrix is acquired (Fig. 7: step 702; ¶¶ [0101]-[0102]), and where a positioning signal includes a number of data elements considered to be N chips (also see Fig. 8, ¶¶ [0107]-[0114]); receiving a pulse signal corresponding to the sequence of chips, the pulse signal being a multi-path propagated signal corresponding to a non-zero chip in the sequence of chips (i.e. see Fig. 9: step S902); determining a CIR estimate for the pulse signal (step S910); and computing the corrected CIR estimate for the pulse signal based on the correction matrix and the CIR estimate (step S912).
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.
Claims 9 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pan et al. in view of Reddy et al. U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2025/0039826.
Regarding claims 9 and 19, Pan discloses a UWB device and associated method for generating a channel impulse response estimate, as described above, but does not expressly disclose that the sequence of chips corresponding to the UWB pulse signal comprise a ternary sequence. Reddy discloses that a UWB signal may be represented by a ternary sequence of chips (¶ [0073]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to use a ternary sequence of chips for a UWB signal, as suggested by Reddy, in the UWB device of Pan, as it is a known way to represent a positioning sequence in a UWB system, yielding predictable results (see MPEP § 2143.I.A).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-8, 10, 12-18 and 20 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, and amended to overcome the objections and rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 112(b) set forth above.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to David B. Lugo whose telephone number is 571-272-3043. The examiner can normally be reached M-F, 9-6.
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/DAVID B LUGO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2631 6/24/2026
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