Prosecution Insights
Last updated: May 04, 2026
Application No. 18/043,688

MULTICAST AND BROADCAST CONFIGURATION SIGNALING

Non-Final OA §102§103
Filed
Mar 01, 2023
Priority
Sep 02, 2020 — provisional 63/073,732 +1 more
Examiner
BLANTON, JOHN D
Art Unit
2466
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
77%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
0m
Est. Remaining
86%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 77% — above average
77%
Career Allowance Rate
786 granted / 1016 resolved
+19.4% vs TC avg
Moderate +8% lift
Without
With
+8.2%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 11m
Avg Prosecution
48 currently pending
Career history
1064
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
5.2%
-34.8% vs TC avg
§103
53.0%
+13.0% vs TC avg
§102
19.6%
-20.4% vs TC avg
§112
11.4%
-28.6% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 1016 resolved cases

Office Action

§102 §103
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 . 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. Claim(s) 49-51, 53, 54, and 68 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Qualcomm (“NR Multicast services and configuration for UEs in different RRC states”, R2-2006795, 8/28/2020). For claims 49 and 68; Qualcomm discloses: receiving, by a user equipment (UE), one or more messages (section 2.3, option 2: some of the common multicast service configuration (example: BWP/CORESET/SS configuration for PDCCH monitoring etc.) can be delivered to UEs using broadcast RRC signalling and any UE specific MRB configuration (example: L1 HARQ configuration, L2 configuration etc.) can be provided to UEs through dedicated RRC signalling) comprising: configuration parameters indicating that one or more multicast broadcast service is associated with at least one of: a first control resource set (CORESET); and a first bandwidth part (BWP); and one or more first radio network temporary identifiers (RNTIs) associated with the one or more multicast broadcast services (section 2.3, option 2: some of the common multicast service configuration (example: BWP/CORESET/SS configuration for PDCCH monitoring etc.) can be delivered to UEs using broadcast RRC signalling and any UE specific MRB configuration (example: L1 HARQ configuration, L2 configuration etc.) can be provided to UEs through dedicated RRC signalling); receiving, by the UE, downlink control information associated with the one or more first RNTIs (section 2.3: G-RNTI mapping configuration); and receiving, based on the downlink control information, one or more transport blocks associated with the one or more multicast broadcast service (section 2.3, option 1: This assumes that Multicast service(s) can only be delivered to UEs while in RRC_CONNECTED state or optionally can continue to receive multicast services without any feedback after transitioning to RRC_INACTIVE). For claim 50; Qualcomm discloses: wherein the configuration parameters comprise first configuration parameters of the first CORESET or the first BWP (section 2.3, option 2: some of the common multicast service configuration (example: BWP/CORESET/SS configuration for PDCCH monitoring etc.) can be delivered to UEs using broadcast RRC signalling and any UE specific MRB configuration (example: L1 HARQ configuration, L2 configuration etc.) can be provided to UEs through dedicated RRC signalling). For claim 51; Qualcomm discloses: wherein the one or more transport blocks comprise control information associated with the one or more multicast broadcast services (section 2.3, option 1: provide updated MRB or DRB configuration when UE goes to other cells through idle cell reselection procedure. This may require UE to resume RRC connection after Idle Cell reselection to get target cell MRB/DRB configuration). For claim 53; Qualcomm discloses: wherein the one or more messages comprise one or more radio resource control (RRC) messages (section 2.3, proposal 3, option 2: Some of the parameters are provided in unicast RRC signalling and some of the configuration parameters by means of broadcast RRC signalling). For claim 54; Qualcomm discloses: wherein the one or more messages comprise a system information block (SIB) associated with the multicast broadcast services (section 2.3, proposal 2, option 2: Some of common configuration can be delivered by using broadcast signalling (e.g. SIB, MCCH like channel) and UE specific configuration can be delivered through dedicated RRC signalling). 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. The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows: 1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art. 2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue. 3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art. 4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness. Claim(s) 52, 56, and 57 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Qualcomm in view of Huawei et al. (“Discussion on NPDCCH search space for multicast in NB-IoT”, R1-1608614, 10/14/2016) (“Huawei”). For claim 52; Qualcomm discloses the subject matter in claim 49 as described above in the office action. Qualcomm does not expressly disclose, but Huawei from similar fields of endeavor teaches: wherein the configuration parameters further include data indicative of: one or more first service identifiers associated with the one or more multicast broadcast service; and one or more first RNTIs associated with the first service identifier (figure 1: SC-MTCH1-M, G-RNTI1-M, TMGI-1-M). Thus it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement the signaling as described by Huawei in the MBS as described by Qualcomm. The motivation is to improve configuration of multiple services. For claim 56; Qualcomm discloses the subject matter in claim 49 as described above in the office action. Qualcomm does not expressly disclose, but Huawei from similar fields of endeavor teaches: wherein receiving the one or more messages is based on a service discovery process identifying one or more of the multicast broadcast service (section 2-3, figure 2: The configuration parameters for each SC-MTCH transmission such as the group RNTI of SC-MTCH and the DRX pattern of the SC-MTCH, is transmitted as the IE SC-MTCH-Info in the SC-MCCH. SC-MCCH broadcasts a list of the configurations of SC-MTCHs of all multicast sessions). Thus it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement the signaling as described by Huawei in the MBS as described by Qualcomm. The motivation is to improve configuration of multiple services. For claim 57; Qualcomm discloses the subject matter in claim 56 as described above in the office action. Qualcomm does not expressly disclose, but Huawei from similar fields of endeavor teaches: receiving, during the service discovery process, one or more service identifiers of the one or more multicast broadcast service (figure 1: SC-MTCH1-M, G-RNTI1-M, TMGI-1-M). Thus it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement the signaling as described by Huawei in the MBS as described by Qualcomm. The motivation is to improve configuration of multiple services. Claim(s) 55 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Qualcomm in view of Kim et al. (US 2023/0239660) (“Kim”). For claim 55; Qualcomm discloses the subject matter in claim 49 as described above in the office action. Qualcomm does not expressly disclose, but Kim from similar fields of endeavor teaches: wherein receiving the one or more messages is based on a random access procedure for reception of on-demand system information (paragraph 262-263: when the configuration information for the MBS service in the camp-on cell is not broadcast in the system information, the terminal may transmit a message or an indicator requesting to broadcast system information for an MBS service in a cell that camps on, to a base station, a cell, or a network… the terminal that has received or checked MBS service-related information as the system information in the above, or the terminal that has identified that the MBS service of interest is broadcast in the current cell through the system information, or the terminal that wants to request an MBS service of interest to the network may perform a random access procedure and transmit the first RRC message to the network). Thus it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement the signaling as described by Kim in the MBS as described by Qualcomm. The motivation is to improve configuration of multiple services. Claim(s) 58 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Qualcomm in view of Samsung et al. (“On Basic functions for broadcast/multicast for RRC_IDLE/RRC_INACTIVE UEs”, R1-2006175, 8/8/2020) (“Samsung”). For claim 58; Qualcomm discloses the subject matter in claim 49 as described above in the office action. Qualcomm does not expressly disclose, but Samsung from similar fields of endeavor teaches: wherein the receiving the one or more messages is via a default BWP (section 2-3: In order to support multicast, that initial BWP can be utilized). Thus it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement the signaling as described by Samsung in the MBS as described by Qualcomm. The motivation is to improve configuration of multiple services. Claim(s) 59 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Qualcomm in view of Samsung as applied to claim 58 above, and further in view of Takeda et al. (US 2021/0045017) (“Takeda”). For claim 59; Qualcomm discloses the subject matter in claim 58 as described above in the office action. Qualcomm does not expressly disclose, but Samsung from similar fields of endeavor teaches: wherein the receiving the one or more messages includes receiving the one or more messages via a default BWP (section 2-3: After a UE detects SSB/PBCH, it monitors CORESET#0 and receives SIB. Then, the UE can be aware of initial BWP). Thus it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement the signaling as described by Samsung in the MBS as described by Qualcomm. The motivation is to improve configuration of multiple services. Qualcomm does not expressly disclose, but Takeda from similar fields of endeavor teaches: a primary cell (paragraph 92: the UE 115-a may receive one or more of the SIB or the MCCH in a default downlink BWP of a primary cell). Thus it would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to implement the signaling as described by Takeda in the MBS as described by Qualcomm. The motivation is to improve configuration of multiple services. Conclusion The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Park et al. (US 2022/0322169); Park discloses the MBS interest service list comprises at least one of: an MBS frequency; an MBS session identifier; a group-radio network temporary identifier (G-RNTI) of an MBS service or a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) service; a destination layer-2 identifier for the MBS service or the V2X service; an MBS service priority; or a V2X service priority. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOHN D BLANTON whose telephone number is (571)270-3933. The examiner can normally be reached 7am-6pm EST, Mon-Thu. 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, Faruk Hamza can be reached at 571-272-7969. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /JOHN D BLANTON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2466
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Mar 01, 2023
Application Filed
Jul 15, 2025
Non-Final Rejection — §102, §103
Oct 16, 2025
Response Filed
Oct 16, 2025
Response after Non-Final Action
Mar 13, 2026
Response after Non-Final Action
Mar 13, 2026
Response Filed

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

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
77%
Grant Probability
86%
With Interview (+8.2%)
2y 11m (~0m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 1016 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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