Office Action Predictor
Last updated: April 15, 2026
Application No. 18/288,794

POWER CONTROL PARAMETER IN UNIFIED TCI

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Oct 27, 2023
Examiner
ALAM, FAYYAZ
Art Unit
2646
Tech Center
2600 — Communications
Assignee
Qualcomm Incorporated
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
83%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
2y 6m
To Grant
95%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 83% — above average
83%
Career Allow Rate
837 granted / 1006 resolved
+21.2% vs TC avg
Moderate +12% lift
Without
With
+12.1%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 6m
Avg Prosecution
17 currently pending
Career history
1023
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
4.8%
-35.2% vs TC avg
§103
51.7%
+11.7% vs TC avg
§102
12.0%
-28.0% vs TC avg
§112
13.7%
-26.3% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 1006 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 . Information Disclosure Statement The information disclosure statement submitted has been considered by the Examiner and made of record in the application file. 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. Claims 1, 14, 16 and 29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang USPN 2022/0376880 in view of Matsumura USPN 12389395. Consider claim 1, Zhang discloses an apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE), comprising: a memory; and at least one processor coupled to the memory, the at least one processor and the memory being configured to: at least one of a first component (read as TCI state) of the at least one power control parameter associated with a first transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state or Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) states, for example, the one more universal TCI states as described above, are indicated for the uplink communication beams. These uplink power control parameters are used to determine transmit power of the different uplink control channels, such as the PUCCH to provide an example, uplink data channels, such as the PUSCH to provide an example, (PUCCH, PUSCH), and/or signals, such as the SRS…one or more of the uplink power control parameters, for example, pathloss, P0, and or alpha to provide some examples, can be configured in the one or more universal TCI states…”; Examiner Note: emphasis added for the requirement of “at least one of” and “or” recitations); and apply, to one of the plurality of uplink channels, an uplink transmission power setting associated with at least one of the first component of the at least one power control parameter or However, Zhang does not explicitly disclose transmit, to a base station, an indication of a UE capability associated with at least one power control parameter. In the related field of endeavor, Matsumura disclose transmit, to a base station, an indication of a UE capability associated with at least one power control parameter (see claim 5: “…terminal according to claim 1, wherein the processor performs reporting of capability information, and the capability information indicates that the terminal supports the multiple TCI states for the DMRS port for the reception of the PDSCH…). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at time before the effective filing date of the claimed subject matter to improve the TCI based uplink power control of Zhang with the TCI based UE capability signaling of Matsumura in order to arrive at the instant recitation to provide a more robust wireless communication system. Examiner Note: See detailed rejection analysis of independent claim 1 for any of the remaining independent claim rejections. Consider claim 16, Zhang discloses an apparatus for wireless communication at a base station, comprising: a memory; and at least one processor coupled to the memory, the at least one processor and the memory being configured to: However, Zhang does not explicitly disclose transmit/receive, to/from a base station, an indication of a UE capability associated with at least one power control parameter. In the related field of endeavor, Matsumura disclose transmit, to a base station, an indication of a UE capability associated with at least one power control parameter (see claim 5: “…terminal according to claim 1, wherein the processor performs reporting of capability information, and the capability information indicates that the terminal supports the multiple TCI states for the DMRS port for the reception of the PDSCH…). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at time before the effective filing date of the claimed subject matter to improve the TCI based uplink power control of Zhang with the TCI based UE capability signaling of Matsumura in order to arrive at the instant recitation to provide a more robust wireless communication system. Consider claim 29, Zhang discloses a method of wireless communication at a base station, comprising: However, Zhang does not explicitly disclose transmit, to a base station, an indication of a UE capability associated with at least one power control parameter. In the related field of endeavor, Matsumura disclose transmit, to a base station, an indication of a UE capability associated with at least one power control parameter (see claim 5: “…terminal according to claim 1, wherein the processor performs reporting of capability information, and the capability information indicates that the terminal supports the multiple TCI states for the DMRS port for the reception of the PDSCH…). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at time before the effective filing date of the claimed subject matter to improve the TCI based uplink power control of Zhang with the TCI based UE capability signaling of Matsumura in order to arrive at the instant recitation to provide a more robust wireless communication system. Allowable Subject Matter Claims 2-13, 15, 17-28, and 30 are 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. The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: See respective claim recitation. Conclusion Any response to this Office Action should be faxed to (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 Dulany Street Alexandria, VA 22314 Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the Examiner should be directed to Fayyaz Alam whose telephone number is (571) 270-1102. The Examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday from 9:30am to 7:00pm. If attempts to reach the Examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the Examiner’s supervisor, Oneal Mistry can be reached on (313) 446-4912. 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) or 703-305-3028. Any inquiry of a general nature or relating to the status of this application or proceeding should be directed to the receptionist/customer service whose telephone number is (571) 272-2600. Fayyaz Alam January 7, 2025 /FAYYAZ ALAM/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2674
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Prosecution Timeline

Oct 27, 2023
Application Filed
Jan 07, 2026
Non-Final Rejection — §103
Apr 02, 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
83%
Grant Probability
95%
With Interview (+12.1%)
2y 6m
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 1006 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow rate.

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