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 (IDS) submitted on 01/19/2025 has been considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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 1-2, 10, 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. (U.S. 2025/0097893).
With respect to claim 1, Li et al. disclose:
An apparatus (e.g. refer to the communication apparatus 1300 of Fig. 13, which performs the steps of the first communication apparatus of Fig. 6 (e.g. a terminal device (UE, [0264]), [0266], [0267]-[0268] or [0270] and last two lines of [0255]) comprising: a machine-readable storage (module) storing instructions (not shown in Fig. 13, refer to the disclosed (machine-readable) storage module [0620]); and at least one processor coupled to the machine-readable storage (refer to the processing module of Fig. 13, [0620] and the last sentence of [0646] processing module also referred to as a processor), the at least one processor being configured to execute the instructions (refer to at least [0620]) to: obtain a first phase value for a first beam (Fig. 6 refer to step 602 “..to obtain at least one first phase…” [0291]-[0292] and [0282]-[0284] first positioning reference signal transmitted the second communication apparatus at moment 1. A first value using the first positioning reference signal is obtained by the first communication apparatus (terminal) in 602, the claimed “for a first beam” is disclosed in at least [0362]-[0364] and Fig. 9C, disclosing a first receive beam (beam 1) is used to receive the at least one first positioning reference signal (received and measured in 602). Also refer to [0328]); obtain a second phase value for a second beam (Fig. 6, step 605, and [0328], Fig. 8A, Fig. 9C Beam 2 (second beam) is used to receive the second positioning reference signal and obtain the second phase value); generate phase association data characterizing a phase association between the first beam and the second beam based on the first phase value and the second phase value (Fig. 6, refer to at least the first information 607 generated by the first communication device, [0349]-[0350] “The first information is information about phase correlation between the first phase information and the second phase information”, [0362] and [0366] “correlated” and “not correlated” cases, [0370], [0375]-[0376], lines 4-7 of [0379] “…the first label is a first beam label correlated with the first phase information, and the second label is a second beam label correlated with the second phase information”, [0381], “Each beam label corresponds to a direction range of a receive beam”, [0388] through Table 3. Also refer to related [0397]. The first information is information about phase correlation between the first phase information and the second phase information, and corresponds to the claimed phase association data); and transmit assistance data comprising the phase association data across a radio access network (Fig. 6, refer to at least 607 transmitted to the third communication apparatus (LMF or location management device [0266] and [0257] or access network device (e.g. a base station [0261]) [0267]-[0268], [0349]-[0350], [0366], [0388]-Table 3, [0397], [0398]. The information in 607 corresponds to the claimed assistance data, it assists in the determination of the positioning of the first communication apparatus by the third communication apparatus (Fig. 6, step 608) refer to the improvement of positioning accuracy described in at least [0366], also [0006]).
Li et al. does not expressly disclose: a non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium storing instructions (instead discloses a machine-readable storage (module) storing instructions, as pointed out above), the on-transitory, machine-readable storage medium.
Li et al. (different portions of the reference) discloses: a non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium storing instructions ([0645] e.g. memory referred to as a storage medium, [0660]-[0661], [0666], storage medium (memory) is for example a ROM memory, and [00666] discloses other examples of storage media); the on-transitory, machine-readable storage medium ([0645], [0661], [0666] a processor is coupled to the non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention implement the storage module of Li et al. as a
a non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium (e.g. as a ROM), as a matter of selecting one of known and suitable implementations for a memory (also referred to as a storage medium, storage device, or the like [0645]) with a reasonable expectation of success (of storing the instructions of the storage module and making them accessible to the processor of the apparatus of [0617]-[0621]).
With respect to claim 2, modified Li et al. disclose: wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the instructions to determine that the first phase value is equivalent to the second phase value (refer to at least the second half of [0366] case when the first communication device (terminal) determines that the first phase value is equivalent (no phase jump or phase loss or phase jitter occurs [0350]-[0352] and refer to at least [0389]-Table 3, and [0397] the second phase is equivalent to the first phase due to the receive first and second beams being in the same direction)).
With respect to claim 10, modified Li et al. disclose: wherein the first beam and the second beam are line of site (LOS) beams with respect to a geographical area (for example refer to [0389] the receive beams are considered to be the same direction. These first and second beams are implicitly LOS beams with respect to a geographical area (e.g. a hypothetical geographical area from which a device would be placed)).
With respect to claim 13, modified Li et al. disclose: wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the instructions to generate the assistance data to include drift data characterizing a drift between the first beam and the second beam (e.g. Fig. 9C in the case of beam switching and different first and second beam labels (last sentence of [0397]) indicated in the first information, corresponds to the claimed drift data indicating a drift (change) between the first and second beam being greater than the threshold).
Claims 3-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. (U.S. 2025/0097893) in view of Wang et al. (WO 2023/193518).
With respect to claim 3, modified Li et al. does not disclose: wherein the at least
one processor is further configured to execute the instructions to determine that the first phase value is disposed within a range of the second phase value.
Implementing phase jump determination, Wang et al. disclose: a first phase value is disposed within a range of a second phase value (translation page 10, approximate middle refer to the description of step 301 φ(l)- φ(l+L-1), and the description of step 302 and the paragraph below it and step 303, determination of the presence of a phase jump or not based on the difference between the first phase and the second phase. No phase jump is determined when the first phase value is disposed within a range of the second phase value (the absolute value of the difference between the first and second phase values is less than the preset threshold)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Li et al. based on the teachings of Wang regarding determination of the presence of a phase jump (or not presence of a phase jump) to determine that the first phase value is disposed within a range of the second phase value (by determining the absolute value of the phase difference between the first phase value and the second phase value is less than a preset threshold, as taught by Wang et al.) to determine an additional (to the first information of Li et al.,) metric which indicates whether a phase jump occurs or not ([0350]-[0351] of Li et al.).
With respect to claim 4, modified Li et al. disclose: wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the instructions to determine that the first phase value is disposed within the range of the second phase value when a difference between the first phase value and the second phase value is less than a threshold (refer to the rejection of claim 3 above).
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. (U.S. 2025/0097893) in view of Maltsev et al. (U.S. 2016/0087336).
With respect to claim 5, Li et al. disclose: wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the instructions to: receive a first phase measurement for a first positioning reference signal transmitted using a beam (step 602 is in response to transmission of a PRS at step 601 and Fig. 9C discloses at least a beam used to transmit the first PRS [0363]); receive a second phase measurement for a second positioning reference signal transmitted (step 605 is in response to transmission of a second PRS at step 604 and refer to Fig. 9C and [0363]) using a beam (transmit beam of the base station of Fig. 9C); determine the first phase value based on the first phase measurement (step 602); and determine the second phase value based on the second phase measurement (ste9 605).
Li et al. do not disclose: using the first beam; using the second beam.
Implementing directional wireless communication, Maltsev et al. disclose: using a first beam; using a second beam (lines 10-12 of [0060], receive beams (first beam and second beam) are steered in the same direction as the transmit beams (the transmit beams have beam correspondence with the receive beams or with the first and second beam)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the second communication apparatus (e.g. base station of Fig. 9C) to transmit the first PRS using the first beam (transmit beam in the same direction as the first beam) and second PRS using the second beam (transmit beam in the same direction as the second beam) to implement beam reciprocity between the transmitting base station (second communication device) and the receiving user equipment (terminal) to attempt to improve the communication between them.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. Claims 14-15, 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Li et al. (U.S. 2025/0097893).
With respect to claims 14-15 refer to the rejection of the corresponding limitations
of claims 1-2 above.
With respect to claim 20 refer to the rejection of the corresponding limitations of claim 1 and refer to at least the second half of [0666].
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
11. 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.
12. Claim 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. (U.S. 2025/0097893) in view of Wang et al. (WO 2023/193518).
With respect to claim 16, claim 16 is rejected based on the reasoning used to reject claim 4 above.
13. Claim 17 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. (U.S. 2025/0097893) in view of Maltsev et al. (U.S. 2016/0087336).
With respect to claim 17, claim 17 is rejected based on the reasoning used to reject claim 5 above.
Allowable Subject Matter
14. Claims 6-9, 11-12, 18-19 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.
Contact Information
15. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SOPHIA VLAHOS whose telephone number is (571)272-5507. The examiner can normally be reached M 8:00-4:00, TWRF 8:00-2:00.
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SOPHIA VLAHOS
Examiner
Art Unit 2633
/SOPHIA VLAHOS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2633 07/06/2026
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