Prosecution Insights
Last updated: October 02, 2026
Application No. 18/044,150

TERMINAL AND COMMUNICATION METHOD

Final Rejection §103
Filed
Mar 06, 2023
Priority
Oct 12, 2020 — nonprovisional of PCTJP2020038549
Examiner
ZHANG, ZHENSHENG
Art Unit
2474
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation
OA Round
4 (Final)
76%
Grant Probability
Favorable
5-6
OA Rounds
0m
Est. Remaining
87%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 76% — above average
76%
Career Allowance Rate
311 granted / 407 resolved
+18.4% vs TC avg
Moderate +11% lift
Without
With
+10.7%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 8m
Avg Prosecution
34 currently pending
Career history
431
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
2.2%
-37.8% vs TC avg
§103
76.6%
+36.6% vs TC avg
§102
7.4%
-32.6% vs TC avg
§112
10.3%
-29.7% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 407 resolved cases

Office Action

§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 . Response to Arguments Applicant’s arguments regarding the 103 rejection have been considered and they are moot because they do not apply to the new references used in the office action. 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 9, 11-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nguyen (US 20210105817) in view of Wason (US 20050259617) further in view of Kim (US 20230209476). Regarding claim 9, Nguyen discloses a first terminal comprising: a receiving unit (fig. 3) configured to receive first reservation information for reserving a first resource from a second terminal and receive second reservation information for reserving a second resource from a third terminal (fig. 8, 802, the receiving device receives a first resource reservation from a first transmitting device, 804, the receiving device receives a second resource reservation from a second transmitting device); a controlling unit (fig. 3) configured to, in a case where a destination related to the first reservation information is not the first terminal and a destination related to the second reservation is the first terminal, identify a terminal that is to be a transmission destination of information related to a collision between the first resource and the second resource based on a first priority related to the first reservation information and a second priority related to the second reservation information (fig. 8, 806, [0106], the receiving UE may identify a collision between first resources reserved by the first transmitting device and second resources reserved by the second transmitting device. The receiving device may determine a respective priority associated with each of the first and second resource reservations (or each of the first and second transmitting devices), and the receiving device may determine to send the collision indication to the first transmitting device or the second transmitting device based, at least in part, on which respective priority is relatively higher between the first resource reservation from the first transmitting device and the second resource reservation from the second transmitting device. Note, Nguyen discloses identifying the potential collision after receiving the two reservation information, includes the case where a destination related to the first reservation information is not the first terminal and a destination related to the second reservation is the first terminal (which is only an addressing details)); and a transmitting unit configured to transmit the information related to the collision to the identified terminal (fig. 8, 808, 810, the receiving device may transmit the collision indication to the determined one of the first transmitting device or the second transmitting device), wherein the controlling unit detects the collision in a case where a value of an RSRP (Reference signal received power) of the second terminal is greater than a predetermined value that is based on the first priority and the second priority ([0079][0102], determine that a collision between reserved resources will occur , determine a collision if a difference between the measurements for the signals from the two transmitting devices is within a threshold level and/or within a range, such a preconfigured threshold level and/or preconfigured range. The measurements may include, for example, reference signal receive power (RSRP)). The first and second resource reservation information taught by Nguyen cover a broad range of destination nodes, it is possible that the destination related to the first reservation is not the first terminal, and the destination related to the second reservation is the first terminal. To support this feature, Wason discloses a controlling unit configured to, in a case where a destination related to the first reservation information is not the first terminal and a destination related to the second reservation is the first terminal, identify a terminal that cause the collision (Wason, fig. 14, [0192], the destination device D2 recognizes the reservation processing of the slot n through the data slot reservation indicator received from the destination device D1, and also recognizes that the priority is higher than its own reservation and thus a reservation cannot be continued (cause of collision). The destination device D2 cancels the reservation by sending a data slot negative acknowledge information element to the source device S2 (S1417). Here, the destination of the first reservation is D1, while, the destination of the second reservation is D2; two separate D2D communication, S1-D1, and S2-D2, steps S1413, s1415, D2, which can be considered as the first terminal, can receive both indicators and send feedback to S2 after identifying S2 is the terminal which causing the collision, s1417). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to combine the teachings of exchanging reservation information as given by Nguyen with the teachings of detecting collision given by Wason. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve the system capacity by spatial reuse of channel time (Wason, abstract). Nguyen does not explicitly disclose the threshold is based on the first priority and the second priority. Kim discloses detects the collision in a case where a value of an RSRP (Reference signal received power) of the second terminal is greater than a predetermined value that is based on the first priority and the second priority (Kim, [0148], the L1 SL RSRP measurement value for the specific resource exceeds an SL RSRP threshold; UE 2 may not select specific resource or detect a collision as taught by Nguyen; the SL RSRP threshold may be determined based on the priority of the SL transmission indicated by the SCI received by UE 2 from UE 1 and the priority of the SL transmission on the resource selected by UE 2). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to combine the teachings of exchanging reservation information as given by Nguyen with the teachings of detecting collision given by Kim. The motivation for doing so would have been to efficiently detect potential collision. Claims 13-15 are rejected similarly with claim 9 noting that Nguyen and Kim disclose a controlling unit configured to control reselection of a resource used for communication between terminals based on the information related to the collision (Kim, [0146]-[-150]). Regarding claim 11, Nguyen and Kim disclose the first terminal as claimed in claim 9, wherein the controlling unit detects the collision in a case where a difference between an RSRP (Reference signal received power) of the second terminal and an RSRP (Reference signal received power) of the third terminal is greater than a predetermined value (Nguyen, [0079][0102], determine that a collision between reserved resources will occur , determine a collision if a difference between the measurements for the signals from the two transmitting devices is within a threshold level and/or within a range, such a preconfigured threshold level and/or preconfigured range. The measurements may include, for example, reference signal receive power (RSRP)). Regarding claim 12, Nguyen and Kim disclose the first terminal as claimed in claim 9, wherein the transmitting unit transmits the information related to the collision via a PSFCH (Physical Sidelink Feedback Channel) (Nguyen, [0094][0097], may send the indication as feedback on a feedback channel, such as a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH)). Conclusion Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a). A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ZHENSHENG ZHANG whose telephone number is (571)270-1985. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 8:00am-6:00pm. 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, Michael Thier can be reached at 571-272-2832. 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. /ZHENSHENG ZHANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2474
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Show 4 earlier events
Sep 16, 2025
Response Filed
Oct 22, 2025
Final Rejection mailed — §103
Jan 22, 2026
Response after Non-Final Action
Feb 18, 2026
Request for Continued Examination
Mar 01, 2026
Response after Non-Final Action
Apr 08, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §103
Jul 08, 2026
Response Filed
Aug 13, 2026
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

5-6
Expected OA Rounds
76%
Grant Probability
87%
With Interview (+10.7%)
2y 8m (~0m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
High
PTA Risk
Based on 407 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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