DETAILED ACTION
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 6/11/2026 has been entered.
Claim Objections
Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 1, line 6 states "parameter a terminal". Suggest changing to maintain clarity. Appropriate correction is required.
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 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.
Claims 1, 8, 9, 11-13, and 15-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Lee et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2024/0407046)
Referring to Claim 1, Lee et al. disclose a wireless communication method (pars 294 and 330-336, transmission/reception operations), comprising: determining, by a first communication device, first information based on second information (pars 294 and 330-336, UE configuration, information); wherein the first information is related to at least one of a time window for sending a first signal (pars 330-336, window for transmission), the second information is related to a discontinuous reception (DRX) parameter a terminal device (pars 330-336, DRX information, e.g. cycle), and the first signal is configured for positioning of the terminal device (pars 294 and 330-336, positioning), wherein the time window for sending the first signal is determined based on a first offset to a start time of a DRX active period (pars 330-336, offset).
Referring to Claim 8 as applied to Claim 1 above, Lee et al. disclose the wireless communication method, wherein when the first information is determined based on the second information, the wireless communication method further comprises: sending, by the first communication device, the first information to a second communication device (pars 294 and 330-336, UE configuration, information).
Referring to Claim 9 as applied to Claim 8 above, Lee et al. disclose the wireless communication method, wherein the first information is carried in a configuration reference message of the first signal or auxiliary information of the first signal (pars 294 and 330-336, UE configuration, information).
Referring to Claim 11 as applied to Claim 1 above, Lee et al. disclose the wireless communication method, wherein the first information comprises one or more of following information: a candidate time window for sending the first signal; a candidate time window for measuring the first signal; a start time of the time window; or a duration of the time window (pars 294 and 330-336, window).
Referring to Claim 12 as applied to Claim 11 above, Lee et al. disclose the wireless communication method, wherein the first offset is related to one or more of a DRX active period, a preconfigured processing window (PPW) parameter or a paging cycle (pars 330-336, offset, DRX).
Referring to Claim 13 as applied to Claim 12 above, Lee et al. disclose the wireless communication method, wherein when the time window is within the PPW, the first offset is a first value, or when the time window is outside the PPW, the first offset is a second value (pars 330-336, window, offset).
Referring to Claim 15 as applied to Claim 12 above, Lee et al. disclose the wireless communication method, wherein a DRX activation time is a first time instance, and the start time precedes the first time instance by the first offset (pars 330-336, window, offset).
Referring to Claim 16 as applied to Claim 12 above, Lee et al. disclose the wireless communication method, wherein the first offset is preset or determined by the first communication device (pars 294 and 330-336, offset given; UE).
Referring to Claim 17 as applied to Claim 12 above, Lee et al. disclose the wireless communication method, wherein the first offset is greater than or equal to the duration of the time window (pars 396-398 and 409-416, offset).
Referring to Claim 18 as applied to Claim 17 above, Lee et al. disclose the wireless communication method, wherein the first offset is less than or equal to a first duration threshold, wherein the first duration threshold is greater than the duration of the time window (pars 396-398 and 409-416, offset).
Referring to Claim 19 as applied to Claim 1 above, Lee et al. disclose the wireless communication method, wherein the first signal includes at least one of a positioning reference signal (PRS) and a sounding reference signal (SRS) (pars 330-336, SRS).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 2-7, 10, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2024/0407046) in view of Agiwal et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2024/0196367)
Referring to Claim 2 as applied to Claim 1 above, Lee et al. discloses the wireless communication method, further comprising: receiving, by the first communication device, indication information from a second communication device, wherein the indication information includes at least one of first indication information or second indication information (pars 330-336, configuration, information); wherein the first indication information indicates the first information when the second information is determined based on the first information, or the first indication information indicates the second information when the first information is determined based on the second information (pars 330-336, configuration, information).
However, Lee et al. do not disclose second indication information indicates a radio resource control (RRC) state of the terminal device.
In the same field of endeavor, Agiwal et al. discloses second indication information indicates a radio resource control (RRC) state of the terminal device (par 696, indicate RRC state).
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 incorporate second indication information indicates a radio resource control (RRC) state of the terminal device, as taught by Agiwal et al., in the method of Lee et al., for the purpose of receiving paging information (Agiwal et al., Abstract).
Referring to Claim 3 as applied to Claim 2 above, Lee et al. as modified discloses the wireless communication method, further comprising: sending, by the first communication device, at least one of a first request or a second request; wherein the first request comprises a request for acquisition of the first indication information, and the second request comprises a request for acquisition of the second indication information (Lee et al., par 16, request).
Referring to Claim 4 as applied to Claim 2 above, Lee et al. as modified discloses the wireless communication method, wherein the indication information is carried in one or more of following signaling: a location positioning protocol (LPP) signaling, or a new radio positioning protocol a (NRPPa) signaling (Lee et al., par 231, LPP; par 244, NRPPa).
Referring to Claim 5 as applied to Claim 2 above, Lee et al. as modified discloses the wireless communication method, wherein receiving, by the first communication device, the indication information from the second communication device comprises: receiving, by the first communication device, the indication information from the second communication device in response to an access network device or the first communication device receiving a positioning request from the terminal device; or receiving, by the first communication device, the indication information from the second communication device in response to completion of selection of a positioning server (Lee et al., pars 16 and 330-336, request).
Referring to Claim 6 as applied to Claim 2 above, Lee et al. as modified discloses the wireless communication method, wherein before determining, by the first communication device, the first information based on the second information, the wireless communication method further comprises: determining by the first communication device, second information (Lee et al., pars 330-336, configuration, information).
However, Lee et al. do not disclose determining information based on RRC state and identifier of terminal device.
In the same field of endeavor, Agiwal et al. discloses determining information based on RRC state and identifier of terminal device (pars 693-700, RRC state, UE_ID).
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 incorporate determining information based on RRC state and identifier of terminal device, as taught by Agiwal et al., in the method of Lee et al. and Agiwal et al., for the purpose of performing paging monitoring (Agiwal et al., Abstract and par 693).
Referring to Claim 7 as applied to Claim 6 above, Lee et al. as modified discloses the wireless communication method, wherein determining, by the first communication device, the second information based on information (Lee et al., pars 330-336, configuration, information).
However, Lee et al. do not disclose determining information based on RRC state and identifier of terminal device comprises: determining, by the first communication device, a time region corresponding to paging detection based on the identifier of the terminal device; and determining, by the first communication device, the second information based on the time region.
In the same field of endeavor, Agiwal et al. discloses determining information based on RRC state and identifier of terminal device comprises: determining, by the first communication device, a time region corresponding to paging detection based on the identifier of the terminal device; and determining, by the first communication device, the second information based on the time region (pars 693-700, RRC state, UE_ID, paging/PTW).
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 incorporate determining information based on RRC state and identifier of terminal device comprises: determining, by the first communication device, a time region corresponding to paging detection based on the identifier of the terminal device; and determining, by the first communication device, the second information based on the time region, as taught by Agiwal et al., in the method of Lee et al. and Agiwal et al., for the purpose of performing paging monitoring (Agiwal et al., Abstract and par 693).
Referring to Claim 10 as applied to Claim 2 above, Lee et al. as modified discloses the wireless communication method, wherein the first communication device comprises a positioning server, and the second communication device comprises at least one of the terminal devices, an access network device corresponding to a neighboring cell of the terminal device, or an access network device corresponding to a serving cell of the terminal device (Lee et al., pars 294 and 330-336, server, base station/TRP; UE).
Referring to Claim 20, Lee et al. as modified discloses a wireless communication method, comprising: sending, by a second communication device, indication information to a first communication device (pars 294 and 330-336, server, base station/TRP; UE configuration, information), the indication information including at least one of first indication information or second indication information (pars 294 and 330-336, UE configuration, information); wherein when the first indication information indicates first information, the first information is configured to determine second information, wherein the first information is related to a time window for sending a first signal (pars 330-336, window for transmission), the second information is related to a discontinuous reception (DRX) parameter of a terminal device (pars 330-336, DRX information, e.g. cycle), wherein the time window for sending the first signal is determined based on a first offset to a start time of a DRX active period (pars 330-336, offset), the first signal is configured for positioning of the terminal device (pars 294 and 330-336, positioning).
However, Lee et al. do not disclose second indication information indicates a radio resource control (RRC) state of the terminal device, and when first information is determined based on the second information, the RRC state and an identifier of the terminal device are configured to determine the second information.
In the same field of endeavor, Agiwal et al. discloses second indication information indicates a radio resource control (RRC) state of the terminal device, and when first information is determined based on the second information, the RRC state and an identifier of the terminal device are configured to determine the second information (pars 693-700, RRC state, UE_ID, other information such as paging/PTW).
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 incorporate the second indication information indicates a radio resource control (RRC) state of the terminal device, and when the first information is determined based on the second information, the RRC state and an identifier of the terminal device are configured to determine the second information, as taught by Agiwal et al., in the method of Lee et al., for the purpose of performing paging monitoring (Agiwal et al., Abstract and par 693).
Claim 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2024/0407046) in view of Zhang et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2024/0179679)
Referring to Claim 14 as applied to Claim 12 above, Lee et al. disclose the wireless communication method, wherein a system frame number corresponding to the time window satisfies: (SFN + PF_offset) mod T = (T div N)x(UEID mod N), wherein SFN represents the system frame number, T represents a cycle length of a DRX cycle of the terminal device, UE_ID represents an identifier of the terminal device, N represents a number of paging frames (PF) in the DRX cycle, and PF_offset represents a frame offset of the PF (par 409).
However, Koskinen et al. do not explicitly disclose adding Pos_offset representing a first offset.
In the same field of endeavor, Zhang et al. discloses adding Pos_offset representing a first offset (par 130).
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 incorporate adding Pos_offset representing a first offset, as taught by Zhang et al., in the method of Lee et al., for the purpose of implementing a DRX mechanism (Zhang, Abstract).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments with respect to claims 1-20 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection necessitated by amendment. Please see cited reference above.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SUHAIL KHAN whose telephone number is (571)270-7187. The examiner can normally be reached on M-TH 8:30am-6:30pm. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Rafael Perez-Gutierrez can be reached on 5712727915. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, Applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
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/Suhail Khan/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2642
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