Office Action Predictor
Last updated: April 15, 2026
Application No. 18/366,919

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ALLOCATING SOUNDING REFERENCE SIGNAL RESOURCE IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

Final Rejection §102
Filed
Aug 08, 2023
Examiner
LO, DIANE LEE
Art Unit
2466
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
Samsung Electronics Co., LTD.
OA Round
2 (Final)
90%
Grant Probability
Favorable
3-4
OA Rounds
2y 1m
To Grant
92%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 90% — above average
90%
Career Allow Rate
842 granted / 941 resolved
+31.5% vs TC avg
Minimal +3% lift
Without
With
+2.8%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Fast prosecutor
2y 1m
Avg Prosecution
25 currently pending
Career history
966
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
3.7%
-36.3% vs TC avg
§103
50.4%
+10.4% vs TC avg
§102
32.8%
-7.2% vs TC avg
§112
3.0%
-37.0% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 941 resolved cases

Office Action

§102
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 . DETAILED ACTION This is response to Application 18/366,919 filed on 08/08/2023 in which claims 1-20 are presented for examination. Allowable Subject Matter Claims 2-5, 7-10, 12-15, and 17-20 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. 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)(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. Claims 1, 6, 11 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Lu et al. (US 2015/0038135 A1). 1. Regarding claim 1, Lu teaches a method performed by a base station (BS) in a wireless network, the method comprising: transmitting, to a user equipment (UE), configuration information of a resource allocation to at least one port of the UE (Paragraphs [0041], [0046] received by UE from base station); and receiving, from the UE, a sounding reference signal (SRS) based on the configuration information of the resource allocation, wherein the resource allocation includes at least one of a cyclic shift (CS) allocation or a comb shift allocation, and wherein the resource allocation is based on values from one or more sub-sets of a set of allowable CS values or allowable comb shift values (Paragraphs [0041] and [0046] SRS related configuration, Cyclic Shift and Comb index; any of a set of CSs, set of CIs). 2. Regarding claim 6, Lu teaches a method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless network, the method comprising: receiving, from a base station (BS), configuration information of a resource allocation to at least one port of the UE (Paragraphs [0041], [0046] received by UE from base station); and transmitting, to the BS, a sounding reference signal (SRS) based on the configuration information of the resource allocation, wherein the resource allocation includes at least one of a cyclic shift (CS) allocation or a comb shift allocation, and wherein the resource allocation is based on values from one or more sub-sets of a set of allowable CS values or allowable comb shift values (Paragraphs [0041] and [0046] SRS related configuration, Cyclic Shift and Comb index; any of a set of CSs, set of CIs). 3. Regarding claim 11, Lu teaches a base station (BS) in a wireless communication system (Figure 9 Base Station), the BS comprising: a transceiver; and a processor coupled with the transceiver and configured to: transmit, to a user equipment (UE), configuration information of a resource allocation to at least one port of the UE (Paragraphs [0041], [0046] received by UE from base station), and receive, from the UE, a sounding reference signal (SRS) based on the configuration information of the resource allocation, 15 wherein the resource allocation includes at least one of a cyclic shift (CS) allocation or a comb shift allocation, and wherein the resource allocation is based on values from one or more sub-sets of a set of allowable CS values or allowable comb shift values (Paragraphs [0041] and [0046] SRS related configuration, Cyclic Shift and Comb index; any of a set of CSs, set of CIs). 4. Regarding claim 16, Lu teaches a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the UE comprising: a transceiver; and a processor coupled with the transceiver and configured to: receive, from a base station (BS), configuration information of a resource allocation to at least one port of the UE (Paragraphs [0041], [0046] received by UE from base station), and transmit, to the BS, a sounding reference signal (SRS) based on the configuration information of the resource allocation, wherein the resource allocation includes at least one of a cyclic shift (CS) allocation or a comb shift allocation, and wherein the resource allocation is based on values from one or more subsets of a set of allowable CS values or allowable comb shift values (Paragraphs [0041] and [0046] SRS related configuration, Cyclic Shift and Comb index; any of a set of CSs, set of CIs). Conclusion The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure: Gorokhov et al. (US 2011/0098054 A1) Paragraph [0075] Joseph et al. (US 2020/0014507 A1) Paragraph [0091] Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DIANE LEE LO whose telephone number is (571)270-1952. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8 am - 5 pm. 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, Faruk Hamza can be reached at (571)272-7969. 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. /DIANE L LO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2466
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Prosecution Timeline

Aug 08, 2023
Application Filed
Aug 20, 2025
Non-Final Rejection — §102
Nov 21, 2025
Response Filed
Dec 18, 2025
Final Rejection — §102
Mar 20, 2026
Request for Continued Examination
Apr 09, 2026
Response after Non-Final Action

Precedent Cases

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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
90%
Grant Probability
92%
With Interview (+2.8%)
2y 1m
Median Time to Grant
Moderate
PTA Risk
Based on 941 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow rate.

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