Prosecution Insights
Last updated: April 19, 2026
Application No. 18/294,146

METHOD PERFORMED BY USER EQUIPMENT AND USER EQUIPMENT

Non-Final OA §102§112
Filed
Jan 31, 2024
Examiner
BEYEN, ZEWDU A
Art Unit
2461
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
83%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
2y 11m
To Grant
98%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 83% — above average
83%
Career Allow Rate
697 granted / 836 resolved
+25.4% vs TC avg
Moderate +14% lift
Without
With
+14.5%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 11m
Avg Prosecution
39 currently pending
Career history
875
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
4.4%
-35.6% vs TC avg
§103
59.0%
+19.0% vs TC avg
§102
20.1%
-19.9% vs TC avg
§112
10.4%
-29.6% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 836 resolved cases

Office Action

§102 §112
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 . Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112 The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b): (b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph: The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention. Claims 11-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. Claims 11,14 recite “cancel all BFRs triggered for the BFD-RS set of the SCell” however, claims 11,14 only recite “trigger a beam failure recovery (BFR) for a beam failure detection (BFD)-reference signal (RS) set of a serving cell” not “trigger a BFD-RS set of the SCell.” Therefore, the claims are not clear. Claims 12-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph for depending on rejected base claims 11,14. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status. 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) 11-14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Sengupta to (US20200383167) Regarding claims 11,14 , Sengupta teaches Equipment (UE), comprising: a processor; a memory, wherein instructions stored in the memory are executable to( [0143] A UE 902 reception may be established by and via the antenna panels 926, RFFE 924, RF circuitry 922, receive circuitry 920, digital baseband circuitry 916, and protocol processing circuitry 914. In some embodiments, the antenna panels 926 may receive a transmission from the AN 904 by receive-beamforming signals received by a plurality of antennas/antenna elements of the one or more antenna panels 926) trigger a beam failure recovery (BFR) for a beam failure detection (BFD)-reference signal (RS) set of a serving cell; ([0060] discloses the UE 102 declares a beam failure instance/event and triggers a BFR procedure, which involves the UE 102 transmitting a BFR request (BFRQ) to a serving AN 108 and identifying new beams on which it can continue Tx/Rx . [0042] For beam failure detection (BFD), the AN 108 (e.g., gNB 116) configures the UE 102 with BFD reference signals and the UE 102 declares a beam failure when a number of beam failure instance indications from the PHY layer reaches a configured threshold before a configured timer expires) and in a case where a medium access control (MAC) PDU is transmitted and the MAC PDU includes a BFR MAC control element (CE) or a truncated BFR MAC CE which contains beam failure recovery information of a BFD-RS set of a secondary cell (SCell), cancel all BFRs triggered for the BFD-RS set of the SCell([0134] discloses the MAC entity triggers the SR for SCell BFR for each SCell for which BFR has been triggered and not cancelled. The MAC entity may trigger the SR for SCell BFR as previously described with respect to FIGS. 1-7. All BFRs triggered prior to MAC PDU assembly for SCell BFR may be cancelled when a MAC PDU is transmitted and that PDU includes a BFR MAC CE or truncated BFR MAC CE). Regarding claim 12, Sengupta teaches wherein the instructions are further executable to: if a beam failure recovery procedure determines that at least one BFR for a BFD-RS set has been triggered and not cancelled for an SCell for which evaluation of candidate beams has been completed and if an available uplink shared channel (UL-SCH) resource cannot accommodate the BFR MAC CE plus a subheader of the BFR MAC CE,([0134] discloses if UL-SCH resources are available for a new transmission and if the UL-SCH resources can accommodate the truncated BFR MAC CE 802, 803 plus its subheader as a result of LCP, the MAC entity instructs the Multiplexing and Assembly procedure to generate the truncated BFR MAC CE 802 or 803. Otherwise, the MAC entity triggers the SR for SCell BFR for each SCell for which BFR has been triggered and not cancelled) trigger a scheduling request (SR) for beam failure recovery of the BFD-RS set([0135] Discloses an SR used for requesting UL-SCH resources for new transmission. The MAC entity may be configured with zero or more SR configurations). Regarding claim 13, Sengupta teaches wherein the instructions are further executable to: if a special cell (SpCell) is configured with two BFD-RS sets and if a BFR is triggered for both of the two BFD-RS sets of the SpCell and a beam failure recovery procedure is not successfully completed for one of the two BFD-RS sets, initiate a random access procedure([0079] FIG. 4 illustrates another example BFR procedure 400 with PCell triggered PDCCH order-like RACH, according to various embodiments. In this embodiment, the BFR process for SCell follows the BFR procedure step 1 for indicating a beam failure event over an SR-like PUCCH over the PCell when the PCell has active link. In some embodiments, the PCell can trigger a PDCCH order-like dynamic RACH configuration over a PCell DCI). Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ZEWDU A BEYEN whose telephone number is (571)270-7157. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00-6:00. 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, Huy D Vu can be reached at 571-272-3155. 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. /ZEWDU A BEYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2461
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Jan 31, 2024
Application Filed
Jan 28, 2026
Non-Final Rejection — §102, §112 (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
83%
Grant Probability
98%
With Interview (+14.5%)
2y 11m
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 836 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow rate.

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