Prosecution Insights
Last updated: April 19, 2026
Application No. 18/106,130

ANTENNA-DIRECTIVITY ADJUSTMENT SYSTEM, ANTENNA-DIRECTIVITY ADJUSTMENT DEVICE, AND ANTENNA-DIRECTIVITY ADJUSTMENT METHOD

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Feb 06, 2023
Examiner
NGUYEN, LAM S
Art Unit
2853
Tech Center
2800 — Semiconductors & Electrical Systems
Assignee
NEC Corporation
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
79%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
2y 9m
To Grant
79%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 79% — above average
79%
Career Allow Rate
1093 granted / 1391 resolved
+10.6% vs TC avg
Minimal +1% lift
Without
With
+0.7%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 9m
Avg Prosecution
61 currently pending
Career history
1452
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
2.5%
-37.5% vs TC avg
§103
45.9%
+5.9% vs TC avg
§102
33.7%
-6.3% vs TC avg
§112
8.1%
-31.9% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 1391 resolved cases

Office Action

§103
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 . In response to the restriction requirement, Applicant elected claims 1-2 for further examination. As a result, claims 3-5 are withdrawn from further prosecution. 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(s) 1-2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nakayama (US 2020/0395996) in view of Rebenshtok et al. (WO 2019/215718). Nakayama discloses an antenna-directivity adjustment system comprising a radio communication device equipped with an antenna (FIG. 1, element 2: Antenna), an antenna-directivity adjustment device (paragraph [0003]: Means for adjusting the direction of an antenna), and a notification device (Abstract: The outdoor apparatus 4 displays received power and the calculated propagation-path information), wherein the antenna-directivity adjustment device comprises a measurement information acquisition module configured to acquire angle information relating to a horizontal angle, a vertical angle, and a rotation angle of the antenna as well as received-signal levels of the antenna for receiving vertical polarization and horizontal polarization (FIG. 5: The received power detections 24-25 detect the received-signal levels of the vertically polarized waves and the horizontally polarized waves (paragraph [0046])), a first information generator configured to generate first information representing the received-signal level for each angle (FIG. 5: The received power detections 24-25 detect the received-signal levels of the vertically polarized waves for the vertical angle and the horizontally polarized waves for the horizontal angle (paragraph [0046]), a third information generator configured to calculate a cross-polarization discrimination (FIG. 5, elements 38-39: Cross-polarization discrimination calculation), and wherein the notification device is configured to generate notification information visually expressing the generated information (FIG. 3: The apparatus 4 displays the first information RSL, the third information XPD). Nakayama however is silent on measuring an interference level between the vertical polarization and the horizontal polarization with the antenna to generate second information representing the interference level for each angle, and wherein the third information generator configured to calculate a cross-polarization discrimination based on the first information and the second information so as to generate third information representing the cross-polarization discrimination for each angle. Rebenshtok et al. teaches that the polarization discrimination in a wireless communication system is measured by a cross-polarization discrimination (XPD) (the third information), which is defined as the ratio of the received power of the co-polarization wave (the first information) to the received the cross-polarization wave (paragraph [0035]), wherein the cross-polarization wave is the interference between the orthogonal polarizations such as vertical horizontal (the second information). Therefore, it would have been obvious for one having ordinary skill in the art at the time invention was made to modify Nakayama’s communication system to also obtain the interference level between the vertical and horizontal polarizations for further calculating the cross-polarization discrimination as taught by Rebenshtok et al. (paragraph [0035]). CONTACT INFORMATION Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LAM S NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-2151. 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, DOUGLAS RODRIGUEZ, can be reached on 571-431-0716. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. 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. /LAM S NGUYEN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2853
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Feb 06, 2023
Application Filed
Sep 17, 2025
Non-Final Rejection — §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

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
79%
Grant Probability
79%
With Interview (+0.7%)
2y 9m
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 1391 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow rate.

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