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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 4/24/2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
This office action has been changed in response to the amendment filed on 3/19/2026 and entered with the RCE on 4/24/2026.
Claims 1, 19 and 20 have been amended.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 3/19/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
In response to the Applicant’s argument that “Li has not been shown to teach or suggest that the positioning capability indication information indicates specifically the capability of calculating phase differences between two signals that are transmitted by the same base station but when the same base station is at different locations” (Pages 7-8), the Examiner respectfully disagrees.
Looking at claim 1, the active step is “receiving”. It is not clear to the Examiner how a “same first device is at a respective different location” changes the ability of the first terminal device being able to “receive” the first and second signals. This appears to be a scope of the claim or perspective of the claim issue. Claim 1 is drafted from the perspective of steps occurring at “the first terminal device”. Whether the “first device” is mobile or not does appear to change the “receiving” ability of the “first terminal device” to receive signals transmitted by the “first device”.
Looking at claim 20, the same perspective issue as disclosed above is present. The mobility of the “first device” does not change the structure of the “first terminal device” that is “receiving a first signal” and “receiving a second signal” from the “first device”. Additionally, the structure of the “first device” is directed to a device that is outside the scope of “A first terminal device”.
Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks, filed 3/19/2026, with respect to claim 19 that “the Office Action fails to cite any passages in Saini teaching or suggesting that terminal device calculating the phase difference between the first signal and the second signal that are received from the same base station but when the same first device is at a different location, respectively” have been fully considered and are persuasive. The rejection of claim 19 has been withdrawn.
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 1-17 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. (US-2020/0169831 hereinafter, Li) in view of Saini et al (US-2024/0159855 hereinafter, Saini).
Regarding claim 1, Li teaches a wireless communications method (Abstract), comprising:
transmitting, by a first terminal device (Fig. 11a-1 [UE]), capability information; (Page 1 [0011] “receiving, by the positioning server, a first message sent by the UE, where the first message includes at least one of positioning capability indication information, positioning precision indication information, and/or service type indication information of the UE”)
receiving, by the first terminal device (Fig. 11a-1 [UE]), a second signal (Fig. 11a-1 [S701a]) from the first device (Fig. 11a-1 [Base station corresponding to a first serving cell]), wherein the first device is a base station; (Fig. 11a-1 [Base station corresponding to a first serving cell])
wherein the capability information indicates whether the first terminal device supports calculation of the phase difference between the first signal and the second signal. (Page 30 [Claim 3])
Li differs from the claimed invention by not explicitly reciting wherein the first signal and the second signal are used to determine first phase information that comprises a phase difference between the first signal and the second signal, a location at which the first device transmits the first signal is a first location, a location at which the first device transmits the second signal is a second location, and the first location is different from the second location.
In an analogous art, Saini teaches a wireless communications method (Abstract), comprising:
receiving, by a first terminal device (Page 7 [0079] “receiving, by the at least one third node” and Page 3 [0020] “The at least one-third node is one of the target UE”), a first signal (Page 7 [0079] “at least one of at least one reference signal”…“from the at least one second node”) from a first device; (Page 7 [0079] “at least one second node” and Page 3 [0020] “The least one second node is one of a base station, a gNB, an eNB, a relay node, an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) node, a Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) node, a Transmission Reception Point (TRP), anchor user equipment (UE) and a repeater in a cellular network”) and
receiving, by the first terminal device a second signal from the first device (Page 7 [0079] “at least one pseudo-random code sequence on the at least one frequency resource from the at least one second node”), wherein the first signal and the second signal are used to determine first phase information that comprises a phase difference between the first signal and the second signal. (Page 4 [0048] “at least one carrier phase measurement over a plurality of frequency resources, the at least one report comprises of the at least one carrier phase difference between at least one pair of frequency resources”)
Before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to be motivated to implement the invention of Li after modifying it to incorporate the ability to measure phase difference information of a first and second signal of Saini since it enables determining the location of the first terminal device in a 5G network. (Saini Page 1 [0009-0010])
Li in view of Saini teaches a location at which the first device transmits the first signal is a first location (Saini Fig. 3 [102-1]) and a location at which another first device transmits the second signal is a second location (Saini Fig. 3 [102-3]), the first location is different from the second location (Saini Fig. 3 [102-1 is different from 102-3]) and the phase difference is measured from a received signal of at least one second node and a received signal from another at least one second node (Saini Page 8 [0096-0097]), but differs from the claimed invention by not explicitly reciting the same first device transmits the first signal and the second signal.
However, Saini additionally teaches that the second node (equivalent to the first device) can be an anchor user equipment or a V2X node, which are both mobile devices. (Saini Page 20 [Claim 2])
Before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to substitute the need to measure phase differences from signals sent from two different “at least one second nodes” located at different locations with measuring phase differences from a single “second node” located at different locations when the “second node” is mobile and the results would have been predictable. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to do this since there are locations and situations where communication with a second different “second node” is not possible but determining location through measuring phase differences is still desired in a 5G network. Utilizing the mobility of an anchor UE or a V2X node serving as a “second node” when measuring phase differences of transmitted signals eliminates the need to have two different “second nodes” while still accomplishing the need to determine an accurate location.
Regarding claim 2, Li in view of Saini teaches receiving, by the first terminal device (Li Fig. 11a-1 [UE]), first information (Li Fig. 6 [605] and Page 2 [0015] “where the first instruction information is used to instruct to send, in broadcast mode, the positioning assistance data to the UEs that need to be positioned in the first serving cell”), wherein the first information comprises one or more of the following:
configuration information of the first signal and the second signal; (Saini Page 11 [0130] “The assistance information may comprise at least one of the at least one frequency resource to be used for the measurement, at least one measurement to be used, at least one granularity of performing the at least one measurement, at least one method supported to resolve integer-ambiguity, and at least one scheduling information and configuration information of at least one reference signal to be used for the measurement” and Li Page 4 [0040])
information indicating whether the first terminal device needs to calculate the phase difference between the first signal and the second signal;
information indicating whether signals sent by the first device support phase estimation for difference calculation; or
information indicating whether the first signal and the second signal support phase estimation for difference calculation.
Regarding claim 3, Li in view of Saini teaches wherein the first information comprises information indicating one or more of the following:
a sending moment of the first signal; (Saini Page 11 [0133] “the time at which a reference signal is transmitted by the target UE 104”)
a receiving moment of the first signal;
a sending moment of the second signal; or
a receiving moment of the second signal.
Regarding claim 4, Li in view of Saini teaches wherein the sending moment or the receiving moment is represented by one or more of the following:
absolute time; (Saini Pages 14-15 [0156]) or
a first time unit.
Regarding claim 5, the limitations of claim 5 are not applicable to the Markush grouping selection of claim 4.
Regarding claim 6, Li in view of Saini teaches transmitting, by the first terminal device (Li Fig. 11a-1 [UE]), the first phase information to a second device. (Fig. 11a-1 [S1104a] and Page 23 [0386] “The positioning server receives the rough location sent by the UE”)
Regarding claim 7, Li in view of Saini teaches wherein the second device comprises one or more of the following:
a positioning solving unit;
a positioning server; (Li Fig. 11a [Positioning Server] and Page 23 [0386] “The positioning server receives the rough location sent by the UE”)
a second terminal device serving as a central node; or
a first base station, wherein the first base station comprises at least one of a serving base station or a neighboring base station of the first terminal device.
Regarding claim 8, the limitations of claim 8 are not applicable to the Markush grouping selection of claim 7.
Regarding claim 9, the limitations of claim 9 are not applicable to the Markush grouping selection of claim 7.
Regarding claim 10, the limitations of claim 10 are not applicable to the Markush grouping selection of claim 7.
Regarding claim 11, the limitations of claim 11 are not applicable to the Markush grouping selection of claim 7.
Regarding claim 12, Li in view of Saini teaches wherein the first phase information is used to calculate a location of the first terminal device. (Li Claim 3 and Saini Claim 1, Page 10 [0126])
Regarding claim 13, Li in view of Saini teaches wherein the first phase information is used to calculate the first location and the second location. (Saini Claim 1 and Pages 9-10 [0122] “The target UE 104 may be either stationary or mobile and may be dispersed throughout the wireless communication network 200/300”)
Regarding claim 14, Li in view of Saini teaches wherein the first location and the second location are obtained by calculation based on information about the first device, wherein the information about the first device comprises one or more of the following:
a running track of the first device;
ephemeris information of the first device;
a moment at which the first device sends the first signal; or
a moment at which the first device sends the second signal. (Saini Page 11 [0133] “the time at which a reference signal is transmitted by the target UE 104”)
Regarding claim 15, Li in view of Saini teaches transmitting, by the first terminal device, third information to a second device, wherein the third information indicates one or more of the following: a relationship between the first phase information and the first signal; or a relationship between the first phase information and the second signal. (Saini Page 12 [0143] “pseudo-random code sequence” and The target UE 104 may calculate the phase difference of the received signal with respect to the reference signal generated locally. The phase measurement of the code and phase measurement of the carrier may be combined to get the accurate distance estimate. The phase difference of the code may be helpful in finding the integer ambiguity.”)
Regarding claim 16, Li in view of Saini teaches wherein a transmission interval between the first signal and the second signal is greater than a threshold, and the threshold is related to one or more of the following:
a transmission delay between the first terminal device and the first device; (Saini Pages 11-12 [0135] “staggered”) or
a processing delay of the first terminal device.
Regarding claim 17, Li in view of Saini teaches wherein the first signal comprises a first positioning reference signal (PRS), or the second signal comprises a second PRS. (Saini Page 15 [0157] “The target UE 104 may receive at least one Positioning Reference Signal (PRS) from the TRP 102.”)
Regarding claim 20, the limitations of claim 20 are rejected as being the same reasons set forth above in claim 1. Note: processor/memory are inherent components of a Location Management Server, an eNB and a UE. See Li Figs. 18-27 for structure found in a Location Management Server, eNB and UE.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 19 is allowed.
Claim 18 is 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The Examiner was unable to find the combination of claims 1 and 18 in the prior art.
With respect to claim 19, the Examiner is convinced by the Applicant’s argument that “the Office Action fails to cite any passages in Saini teaching or suggesting that terminal device calculating the phase difference between the first signal and the second signal that are received from the same base station but when the same first device is at a different location, respectively” as found in the Applicant’s response. While the Examiner can find base stations that are mobile (see for example US-2024/0214941 to Reeves, Para [0009]); the Examiner was unable to find “the first signal and the second signal are received from the same first device when the same first device is at a respective different location, and first signal and the second signal are used to determine first phase information that comprises a phase difference between the first signal and the second signal”.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MATTHEW C SAMS whose telephone number is (571)272-8099. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30-5 EST.
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/Matthew C Sams/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2646
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