Prosecution Insights
Last updated: July 17, 2026
Application No. 18/281,803

RESOURCE DETERMINATION FOR TB OVER MULTIPLE SLOTS

Final Rejection §103
Filed
Sep 13, 2023
Priority
Mar 25, 2021 — CN PCT/CN2021/082996 +1 more
Examiner
KO, SITHU
Art Unit
2414
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
OA Round
2 (Final)
86%
Grant Probability
Favorable
3-4
OA Rounds
0m
Est. Remaining
99%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 86% — above average
86%
Career Allowance Rate
539 granted / 623 resolved
+28.5% vs TC avg
Strong +16% interview lift
Without
With
+15.6%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 5m
Avg Prosecution
30 currently pending
Career history
659
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
0.4%
-39.6% vs TC avg
§103
96.6%
+56.6% vs TC avg
§102
1.2%
-38.8% vs TC avg
§112
0.5%
-39.5% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 623 resolved cases

Office Action

§103
DETAILED ACTION Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . Claims Status 2. The response filed on April 30, 2026 has been entered and made of record. 3. Claims 1-16, 29-30, 33, 35-38 and 58 are pending. 4. Claims 1, 6, 7, 33, 38 and 58 have been amended. 5. Claims 17-28, 31-32, 34, 39-57 and 59 were cancelled. 6. Claims 2-5, 8-16, 29-30 and 35-37 are withdrawn from consideration. 7. Claims 1, 6-7, 33, 38 and 58 are currently pending for examination. Response to Arguments 8. The applicant's arguments filed on April 30, 2026 regarding claims 1, 6-7, 33, 38 and 58 have been fully considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection. The rejection has been revised and set forth below according to the claims. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 9. 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 of this title, 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. 10. Claims 1, 33, 38 and 58 are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yi et al. (US 2022/0303988 A1), hereinafter “Yi” in view of KARAKI et al. (US 2020/0359409 A1), hereinafter “Karaki”. Regarding claim 1, Yi discloses a method performed by a wireless communication device, WCD (Figs. 8, 16, method for transmitting or receiving an uplink channel in a wireless communication system), the method comprising: receiving, from a base station, information (Figs. 8, 16, step 801, step 1601-1602, paragraphs [0081], [0097], [0130], [0216]-[0217], PUSCH transmission and TB processing over multi-slot (TBoMS) configuration information through higher layer signaling or L1 signaling) that configures one or more parameters (Figs. 8, 16, step 801, step 1601-1602, paragraphs [0081], [0097], [0130], [0216]-[0217], Table 6), for an uplink configured grant (Figs. 8, 16, step 801, step 1601-1602, paragraphs [0081], [0097], [0130], [0216]-[0217], Configured grant Types PUSCH transmission); determining physical uplink shared channel, PUSCH (Figs. 8, 16, step 802-807, step 1603-1605, paragraphs [0101], [0105], [0107], [0130], [0216], UE may distinguish PUSCH to be actually transmitted based on the multi-slot information for TBoMS and the time domain resource allocation type in the configured time domain PUSCH resources), resources for transmission of a multiple slot transport block, TB (Figs. 8, 16, step 802-807, step 1603-1605, paragraphs [0101], [0105], [0130], [0216], multi-slot information), using the uplink configured grant, based on the one or more parameters (Figs. 8, 18, step 802-807, step 1603-1605, paragraphs [0101], [0105], [0130], [0216], Configured grant Types PUSCH transmission); and transmitting the multiple slot TB on the determined PUSCH resources (Figs. 8, 16, step 808, step 1606, paragraphs [0109], [00110], [0130], [0217], actual PUSCH through the configured multi-slot resource). While Yi implicitly refers to “transmitting a number, K, of repetitions of the multiple slot TB on the determined PUSCH resources, wherein a duration of all the repetitions of the multiple slot TB is less than a time duration that corresponds to a periodicity of the uplink configured grant” (Figs. 8, 16, step 808, step 1606, paragraphs [0109], [00110], [0130], [0217]), Karaki from the same or similar field of endeavor explicitly discloses transmitting a number, K, of repetitions of the multiple slot TB on the determined PUSCH resources, wherein a duration of all the repetitions of the multiple slot TB is less than a time duration that corresponds to a periodicity of the uplink configured grant (Fig. 17, paragraphs [0173], [0174], illustrates an example of UL CG with repetition of a TB, when CG periodicity>repK slots, where repK=2 (slots), UL CG period=4*14 symbols (i.e., 4 slots), bitmap spans 8 UL CG period(s) i.e. 2 < 4). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to provide “transmitting a number, K, of repetitions of the multiple slot TB on the determined PUSCH resources, wherein a duration of all the repetitions of the multiple slot TB is less than a time duration that corresponds to a periodicity of the uplink configured grant” as taught by Karaki, in the system of Yi, so that it would provide service for multiple use cases such as enhanced mobile broadband, ultra-reliable and low latency communication, and machine type communication configured to high data rate with moderate latency and moderate coverage (Karaki, paragraph [0003]). Regarding claim 33, the claim is rejected based on the same reasoning as presented in the rejection of claim 1. Regarding claim 38, Yi discloses a method performed by a network node (Figs. 8, 16, method for transmitting or receiving an uplink channel in a wireless communication system), the method comprising: sending, to a wireless communication device, WCD (Figs. 8, 16, step 801, step 1601-1602, paragraphs [0081], [0097], [0130], [0216]-[0217], PUSCH transmission and TB processing over multi-slot (TBoMS) configuration information through higher layer signaling or L1 signaling), information that configures one or more parameters for an uplink configured grant (Figs. 8, 16, step 801, step 1601-1602, paragraphs [0081], [0097], [0130], [0216]-[0217], Configured grant Types PUSCH transmission); and receiving a multiple slot transport block, TB, from the WCD on physical uplink shared channel, PUSCH, resources in accordance with the uplink configured grant (Figs. 8, 16, step 808, step 1606, paragraphs [0109], [00110], [0130], [0217], actual PUSCH through the configured multi-slot resource). While Yi implicitly refers to “receiving a number, K, of repetitions of a multiple slot transport block, TB, from the WCD on physical uplink shared channel, PUSCH, resources in accordance with the uplink configured grant, wherein a duration of all the repetitions of the multiple slot TB is less than a time duration that corresponds to a periodicity of the uplink configured grant” (Figs. 8, 16, step 808, step 1606, paragraphs [0109], [00110], [0130], [0217]), Karaki from the same or similar field of endeavor explicitly discloses receiving a number, K, of repetitions of a multiple slot transport block, TB, from the WCD on physical uplink shared channel, PUSCH, resources in accordance with the uplink configured grant, wherein a duration of all the repetitions of the multiple slot TB is less than a time duration that corresponds to a periodicity of the uplink configured grant (Figs. 14-16, 17, paragraphs [0173], [0174], illustrates an example of UL CG with repetition of a TB, when CG periodicity>repK slots, where repK=2 (slots), UL CG period=4*14 symbols (i.e., 4 slots), bitmap spans 8 UL CG period(s) i.e. 2 < 4). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to provide “receiving a number, K, of repetitions of a multiple slot transport block, TB, from the WCD on physical uplink shared channel, PUSCH, resources in accordance with the uplink configured grant, wherein a duration of all the repetitions of the multiple slot TB is less than a time duration that corresponds to a periodicity of the uplink configured grant” as taught by Karaki, in the system of Yi, so that it would provide service for multiple use cases such as enhanced mobile broadband, ultra-reliable and low latency communication, and machine type communication configured to high data rate with moderate latency and moderate coverage (Karaki, paragraph [0003]). Regarding claim 58, the claim is rejected based on the same reasoning as presented in the rejection of claim 38. 11. Claims 6 and 7 are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yi et al. (US 2022/0303988 A1), hereinafter “Yi” in view of KARAKI et al. (US 2020/0359409 A1), hereinafter “Karaki” in view of Ly et al. (US 2022/0303983 A1), hereinafter “Ly”. Regarding claim 6, Yi in view of Karaki disclose the method according to claim 1. While Yi in view of Karaki implicitly refer to “a redundancy version, RV, granularity for the multiple slot TB is all slots of a repetition of the multiple slot TB” (Figs. 8, 16), Ly from the same or similar field of endeavor explicitly discloses a redundancy version, RV, granularity for the multiple slot TB is all slots of a repetition of the multiple slot TB (Fig. 4, paragraph [0059], reference numbers 425 and 430, a respective RV may be used for each repetition of a multi-slot transmission). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to provide “a redundancy version, RV, granularity for the multiple slot TB is all slots of a repetition of the multiple slot TB” as taught by Ly in the combined system of Yi and Karaki, so that it would provide communication of a transport block over multiple slots relates to wireless communication as the demand for mobile broadband access continues to increase (Ly, paragraph [0001]). Regarding claim 7, Yi in view of Karaki disclose the method according to claim 1. While Yi in view of Karaki implicitly refer to “a redundancy version, RV, granularity for the multiple slot TB is: (a) a subset of all slots of a repetition of the multiple slot T or (b) a single slot of a repetition of the multiple slot TB”, Ly from the same or similar field of endeavor explicitly discloses a redundancy version, RV, granularity for the multiple slot TB is: (a) a subset of all slots of a repetition of the multiple slot T or (b) a single slot of a repetition of the multiple slot TB (Fig. 4, paragraphs [0059], in the RV cycling shown by reference number 435, an RV may be used only over symbols within a single slot; in the RV cycling shown by reference number 440, an RV may be used only over a consecutive set of symbols). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to provide “transmitting the multiple slot TB comprises transmitting a number, K, of repetitions of the multiple slot TB, and a redundancy version, RV, granularity for the multiple slot TB is: (a) a subset of all slots of a repetition of the multiple slot T or (b) a single slot of a repetition of the multiple slot TB” as taught by Ly in the combined system of Yi and Karaki, so that it would provide communication of a transport block over multiple slots relates to wireless communication as the demand for mobile broadband access continues to increase (Ly, paragraph [0001]). Conclusion 12. Applicant's amendment necessitated the new grounds 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 SITHU KO whose telephone number is 571-272-8647. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 8:30am-5:00pmEST. 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, Edan Orgad can be reached at 571-272-7884. 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. /SITHU KO/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2414
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Prosecution Timeline

Sep 13, 2023
Application Filed
Jan 30, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §103
Apr 30, 2026
Response Filed
Jun 22, 2026
Final Rejection mailed — §103 (current)

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Prosecution Projections

3-4
Expected OA Rounds
86%
Grant Probability
99%
With Interview (+15.6%)
2y 5m (~0m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Moderate
PTA Risk
Based on 623 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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