Prosecution Insights
Last updated: August 01, 2026
Application No. 18/040,915

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR UPLINK CHANNEL ACCESS

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Feb 07, 2023
Priority
Aug 07, 2020 — nonprovisional of PCTCN2020107803
Examiner
PEREZ GUTIERREZ, RAFAEL
Art Unit
2642
Tech Center
2600 — Communications
Assignee
Lenovo (United States) Inc.
OA Round
3 (Non-Final)
20%
Grant Probability
At Risk
3-4
OA Rounds
6m
Est. Remaining
28%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants only 20% of cases
20%
Career Allowance Rate
36 granted / 184 resolved
-42.4% vs TC avg
Moderate +8% lift
Without
With
+8.0%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
3y 12m
Avg Prosecution
23 currently pending
Career history
248
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
1.0%
-39.0% vs TC avg
§103
85.8%
+45.8% vs TC avg
§102
11.1%
-28.9% vs TC avg
§112
0.7%
-39.3% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 184 resolved cases

Office Action

§103
DETAILED ACTION Response to Amendment Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 33, 46 and 52 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument. 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 33-39, 42-43 and 45-52 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over (US Pub. 2020/0329436) in view of Raqstegardoost (US Pub. 2020/0314913). Regarding claims 33 and 52, Liu discloses User equipment (UE), comprising: at least one memory; and at least on processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause (par.008, 010) the UE to: Determine a first energy detection threshold for performing a channel access procedure (par.054 “estimate respective transmit power for one or more messages of the RA procedure”, par.058 “a target value of transmit power”); and performing the channel access procedure based on the first energy detection threshold (008-009). Raqstegardoost discloses determine a first energy detection threshold associated with channel access (par.0421 “the wireless device may select the random access……on received signal strength….RSRP being below the threshold”).Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system of Liu with the above teaching of Ragstegardoost in order to provide 2-step random access and 4-step random accessed based on received signal strength. Regarding claim 34, the modified Liu discloses determine a first transmit power for an uplink transmission, wherein the first energy detection threshold is determined based on the first transmit power (Liu, par.068 “preambleInitialReceivedTargetPower”, “powerRampingStep”, “preambleInitialReceivedTargetPowerUrllc”). Regarding claim 35, the modified Liu discloses the first transmit power is determined based on a first set of uplink power control parameters (Liu, par.068 “preambleInitialReceivedTargetPower”). Regarding claims 36 and 43, the modified Liu discloses the first set of uplink power control parameters is selected from a plurality of sets of uplink power control parameters based on a traffic type of the uplink transmission (Liu, par.058, par.068 “URLCC”, “eMBB”). Regarding claim 37, the modified Liu discloses the plurality of sets of uplink power control parameters is configured by a radio resource control (RRC) message (consideration is optional) or is predefined (Liu, par.071 “these parameters may also be predefined at the terminal device”). Regarding claim 38, the modified Liu discloses each of the plurality of sets of uplink power control parameters is associated with a corresponding transmit power, and the first transmit power is the highest one among the corresponding transmit powers of the plurality of sets of uplink power control parameters (Liu, par.068-069 “preambleTransMaxUrllc is larger than preambleTransMax”). Regarding claim 39, the modified Liu discloses transmit the uplink transmission using the first transmit power in response to the channel access procedure being successful (Liu, par.073 “a high probability that the gNB successfully”, par.082). Regarding claim 42, the modified Liu discloses each of the plurality of sets of uplink power control parameters is associated with a corresponding transmit power, and the first transmit power is the lowest one among the corresponding transmit powers of the plurality of sets of uplink power control parameters (Liu, par.069, par.072 “preambleInitialReceivedTargetPower”). Regarding claims 45 and 51, the modified Liu discloses perform the channel access procedure based on the first energy detection threshold by performing the channel access procedure using an energy detection threshold less than or equal to the first energy detection threshold (Raqstegardoost, (par.0421 “the wireless device may select the random access……on received signal strength….RSRP being below the threshold”). Regarding claim 46, Liu discloses a base station (BS) for wireless communication, comprising: at least one memory; and at least on processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured cause the base station (par.013, 015), to: determining an energy detection threshold for performing a channel access procedure, wherein the energy detection threshold is determined from a plurality of energy detection thresholds based on a traffic type of a downlink transmission; and performing the channel access procedure based on the determined energy detection threshold (par.058, par.068 “URLCC”, “eMBB”, “preambleInitialReceivedTargetPower”, “powerRampingStep”, “preambleInitialReceivedTargetPowerUrllc”). Raqstegardoost discloses determine a first energy detection threshold associated with channel access (par.0421 “the wireless device may select the random access……on received signal strength….RSRP being below the threshold”).Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system of Liu with the above teaching of Ragstegardoost in order to provide 2-step random access and 4-step random accessed based on received signal strength. Regarding claim 47, the modified Liu discloses the plurality of energy detection thresholds is predefined (Liu, par.057). Regarding claim 48, the modified Liu discloses the plurality of energy detection thresholds is determined based on a plurality of offsets with respect to a default energy detection threshold (Liu, par.043, 075). Regarding claim 49, the modified Liu discloses the plurality of offsets is predefined (Liu, par.075). Regarding claim 50, the modified Liu discloses the traffic type of the downlink transmission comprises enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) or Ultra-Reliable and Low Latency Communications (URLLC) (Liu, par.073-075). 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 44 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu (US Pub. 2020/0329436) in view of Rastegardoost further in view of Yoshimura (US Pub. 2022/0264618). Regarding claim 44, the modified Liu fails to teach receiving downlink control information (DCI) indicating the first energy detection threshold. Yoshimura receive downlink control information (DCI) indicating the first energy detection threshold (par.0445). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system of Liu with the above teaching of Yoshimura in order to provide transmitting uplink transmission power based on power control value by the DCI. Allowable Subject Matter Claims 40-41 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. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Examiner Tu Nguyen whose telephone number is (571)272-7883. The examiner can normally be reached on 8AM-5PM Eastern Time. 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. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor Rafael Perez-Gutierrez can be reached on 571-272-791515. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300 or mailed to: Commissioner for Patents P.O. Box 1450 Alexandria, VA 22313-1450 Hand-delivered responses should be brought to Customer Service Window Randolph Building 401 Delany Street Alexandria, VA 22314 Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /TU X NGUYEN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2642
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Feb 07, 2023
Application Filed
Aug 27, 2025
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §103
Nov 28, 2025
Response Filed
Dec 10, 2025
Final Rejection mailed — §103
Feb 10, 2026
Response after Non-Final Action
Mar 06, 2026
Request for Continued Examination
Mar 10, 2026
Response after Non-Final Action
Apr 27, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §103 (current)

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Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

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Prosecution Projections

3-4
Expected OA Rounds
20%
Grant Probability
28%
With Interview (+8.0%)
3y 12m (~6m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
High
PTA Risk
Based on 184 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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