Prosecution Insights
Last updated: October 02, 2026
Application No. 18/361,336

COMBINED PACKET TRANSFER TO A RADIO FREQUENCY MODULE

Final Rejection §102
Filed
Jul 28, 2023
Examiner
ZAND, DAVOUD AMAN
Art Unit
2445
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
Qualcomm Incorporated
OA Round
2 (Final)
85%
Grant Probability
Favorable
3-4
OA Rounds
0m
Est. Remaining
94%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 85% — above average
85%
Career Allowance Rate
417 granted / 490 resolved
+27.1% vs TC avg
Moderate +9% lift
Without
With
+9.0%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 5m
Avg Prosecution
6 currently pending
Career history
496
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
11.3%
-28.7% vs TC avg
§103
32.9%
-7.1% vs TC avg
§102
27.3%
-12.7% vs TC avg
§112
11.5%
-28.5% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 490 resolved cases

Office Action

§102
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 . 1. This Action is in response to applicant’s amendment filed on 10/22/2025. 2. Claims 1-30 are pending. Response to Arguments 3. Applicant’s arguments and amendments filed on 10/22/2025 have been carefully considered but they are not deemed fully persuasive. Applicant’s arguments include “Pignataro fails to disclose "a memory of the RF module" and "receiving a plurality of packets for transmission to the RF module for storage in the memory," as recited in claim 1” and “claim 2 is novel over Pignataro because Pignataro does not disclose or suggest that "the memory comprises a radio digital sub-system (RDSS) memory of the RF module."”. Examiner respectfully disagrees. It is evident from the mappings found in the rejection below that para [0073] shows “Computer system 500 includes one or more units of memory 506, such as a main memory, which is coupled to I/O subsystem 502 for electronically digitally storing data and instructions to be executed by processor 504. Memory 506 may include volatile memory such as various forms of random-access memory (RAM) or other dynamic storage device. Memory 506 also may be used for storing temporary variables or other intermediate information during execution of instructions to be executed by processor 504.’. The claims do not distinguish the memory of the RF module to be separate from the memory of the apparatus. The memory of the RF module can be seen as just memory allocated for use by the RF module per the claim as only one memory is present in the apparatus in the claim language. The claim also explains the operations are for storage in the memory which is seen as intended use as the packets are not stored in memory in the claim according to the claim language. An RDSS is memory is read as memory which is allocated to the RF processes therefore any system using RF signals and contains memory which stores the received packets reads on an RDSS. Therefore, the 35 USC 102 rejection of the claims is respectfully maintained below. Examiner suggests amending the claims to show the memory distinction between the RDSS and main memory of the system and amending the claims to actively store the data in the memory of the RF so the argument is based on functional language. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of pre-AIA 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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. 4. Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Pignataro et al. (USPUB 2019/0268267 A1) hereinafter Pignataro. 5. Regarding Claim 1, Pignataro disclosed an apparatus, comprising: a modem coupled to a radio frequency (RF) module through a first bus and configured to transmit data for storage in a memory of the RF module through the first bus (See Fig.5 and para [0084] “A modem or router local to computer system 500 can receive the data on the communication link and convert the data to a format that can be read by computer system 500. For instance, a receiver such as a radio frequency antenna or an infrared detector can receive the data carried in a wireless or optical signal and appropriate circuitry can provide the data to I/O subsystem 502 such as place the data on a bus. I/O subsystem 502 carries the data to memory 506, from which processor 504 retrieves and executes the instructions. The instructions received by memory 506 may optionally be stored on storage 510 either before or after execution by processor 504.”), the modem configured to perform operations comprising: receiving a plurality of packets for transmission to the RF module for storage in the memory; combining two or more of the plurality of packets to generate a first combined packet; and transmitting the first combined packet to the RF module via the first bus for storage in the memory (see para [0084] and [0019] “at a first industrial Ethernet switch node, receiving packet and frame data from a first computing device that is associated with an industrial system and coupled to the first industrial Ethernet switch node; at the first industrial Ethernet switch node, generating a first Operations, Administration, Management (OAM) header using, at least in part, the packet and frame data, wherein the first OAM header comprises a device identifier, a data type, and a variable; at the first industrial Ethernet switch node, generating a second OAM header comprising a first trace identifier for the first industrial Ethernet switch node; encapsulating the packet and frame data with the first and the second OAM header to generate encapsulated packet and frame data; sending the encapsulated packet and frame data to a second industrial Ethernet switch node that is associated with the industrial system and coupled to a second computing device that communicates using the device-level Ethernet data communication protocol that does not define a management layer; tracking one or more computing devices that process the encapsulated packet and frame data while the encapsulated packet and frame data is being sent to the second computing device by updating the second OAM header with one or more second trace identifiers corresponding to the one or more computing devices; at the second industrial Ethernet switch node, sending the encapsulated packet and frame data with the first trace identifier and the second one or more trace identifiers to the analytics server computer for storing in a database.”). Claim 10 recites a method that further includes limitations that are substantially similar to claim 1. As such, is rejected under the same rationale as above. Claim 19 recites an apparatus that further includes limitations that are substantially similar to claim 1. Pignataro disclosed an apparatus (see Fig.1). As such, is rejected under the same rationale as above. Claim 25 recites a method that further includes limitations that are substantially similar to claim 1. As such, is rejected under the same rationale as above. 6. Regarding Claims 2, 11, 20 and 26, Pignataro disclosed the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the memory comprises a radio digital sub-system (RDSS) memory of the RF module (see para [0073] “Computer system 500 includes one or more units of memory 506, such as a main memory, which is coupled to I/O subsystem 502 for electronically digitally storing data and instructions to be executed by processor 504. Memory 506 may include volatile memory such as various forms of random-access memory (RAM) or other dynamic storage device. Memory 506 also may be used for storing temporary variables or other intermediate information during execution of instructions to be executed by processor 504.’). 7. Regarding Claims 3, 12, 21 and 27, Pignataro disclosed the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality of packets comprise configuration information for configuring the RF module (see para [0028] “Each internetwork computing device 200 may be configured with receiving instructions 205 that, when executed, cause the internetwork computing device 200, such as switch 140, 145, to receive packet and frame data. Switch 140, 145 may also be configured with header generating instructions 210 that, when executed, cause the switch 140, 145 to generate OAM headers, as further described herein. Once the OAM headers have been generated, the switch 140, 145 may execute encapsulating instructions 215, which encapsulates the packet and frame data with the OAM headers. The encapsulated packet and frame data may subsequently be stored in a database 220 associated with the switch 140, 145. The switch 140, 145 may then execute topology and sending instructions 225 to send the encapsulated packet and frame data to server 110”). 8. Regarding Claims 9 and 18, Pignataro disclosed the apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of the two or more of the plurality of packets comprises one or more data units, and wherein to combine two or more of the plurality of packets to generate a first combined packet, the modem is further configured to perform operations comprising: including a respective destination address information unit associated with each of the respective one or more data units of each of the two or more of the plurality of packets in the first combined packet (see para [0019], [0084] and [0032] “the device identification information 302 may include, for example, a Source Media Access Control (SMAC) address and a Destination Media Access Control (DMAC) address. In the example of FIG. 3, the SMAC address is represented by A while the DMAC address is represented by B. The SMAC may correspond to endpoint device 150 while the DMAC address may correspond to endpoint device 155”). Allowable Subject Matter 9. Claims 4-8, 13-17, 22-24 and 28-30 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. Conclusion Relevant Prior Art Not Relied Upon The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to Applicant's disclosure. The additional cited art, including but not limited to the excerpts below, further establishes the state of the art at the time of Applicant’s invention and shows the following was known: Some aspects provide for establishing a radio connection for the wireless communication, determining a configuration for whether to segment one or more packets for the wireless communication using the established radio connection, and communicating the one or more packets based on the determined configuration. Some aspects provide for assembling a first frame comprising one or more packets, transmitting the first frame, determining whether a portion of one or more packets was truncated during the assembling of the first frame, and transmitting a second frame comprising at least the truncated portion of the one or more packets of the first frame. Some aspects provide for receiving a first frame comprising one or more packets, determining that a portion of one or more packets is truncated, and determining whether to ignore as padding at least the truncated portion of the one or more packets of the first frame. (Yu et al. ‘871) Wireless communications systems and methods related to buffer/memory management for multi-connectivity in a wireless communication network are provided. A wireless communication device transmits a first portion of a plurality of data packets using a first radio access technology (RAT). The wireless communication device transmits a second portion of the plurality of data packets using a second RAT different from the first RAT. The wireless communication device stores at least some of the plurality of data packets in a memory pending an acknowledgement (ACK) indication associated with at least a first data packet of the plurality of data packets. The wireless communication device determines a transmission configuration for at least the first data packet and a second data packet based on whether a threshold occupancy of the memory is satisfied. Other aspects and features are also claimed and described. (Kanamarlapudi et al. ‘747) THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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 DAVOUD ZAND whose telephone number is (571)272-2697, Fax (571) 273-2697. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Fri 9:30-5:30pm. 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, Oscar Louie can be reached on (571) 270-1684. 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. /DAVOUD A ZAND/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2445
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Jul 28, 2023
Application Filed
Aug 12, 2025
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §102
Oct 22, 2025
Response Filed
Sep 09, 2026
Final Rejection mailed — §102 (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

3-4
Expected OA Rounds
85%
Grant Probability
94%
With Interview (+9.0%)
2y 5m (~0m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Moderate
PTA Risk
Based on 490 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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