Prosecution Insights
Last updated: April 19, 2026
Application No. 18/411,272

DISTRIBUTED UNIT, CENTRAL UNIT, AND METHOD THEREFOR

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Jan 12, 2024
Examiner
NOORISTANY, SULAIMAN
Art Unit
2415
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
NEC Corporation
OA Round
4 (Non-Final)
77%
Grant Probability
Favorable
4-5
OA Rounds
3y 6m
To Grant
99%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 77% — above average
77%
Career Allow Rate
703 granted / 911 resolved
+19.2% vs TC avg
Strong +24% interview lift
Without
With
+24.4%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
3y 6m
Avg Prosecution
33 currently pending
Career history
944
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
6.1%
-33.9% vs TC avg
§103
51.5%
+11.5% vs TC avg
§102
19.8%
-20.2% vs TC avg
§112
14.0%
-26.0% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 911 resolved cases

Office Action

§103
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 § 103 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 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 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. Claim(s) 1-3, 17, 21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Byun US 20180338277 in view of Park US 20190215726 A method of a first unit of a base station, the method comprising: receiving, from a second unit of the base station, a message including information related to System Information (SI) (Byun: fig. 12-16 [0185] s1601 - a CU may provide a DU with grouped system information to be broadcast, which is provided by the CU, using an F1 setup procedure); and transmitting, to the second unit in response to the message, a list indicating at least one User Equipment (UE) that needs to receive the SI via dedicated signaling (Byun: fig. 12-16 [0185-0191] step 1604 - the CU receives, from the DU, a request for grouped system information corresponding to on-demand system information from a UE) Park further teaches wireless device identifier/gNB-CU UE FIAP ID (Park: [0214, 0219, 0228-0229] - (e.g., gNB-CU UE F1AP ID)). Thus, it would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claim invention to include the above recited limitation into Byun’s invention in order to include a wireless device identifier of the wireless device (e.g., gNB-CU UE F1AP ID) into the request or message, as taught by the Park. 2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: receiving, from the second unit, an updated SI included in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message (Byun: fig. 11-16 - when the CU determines to update the information related to the SIB, the CU may transmit the updated information related to the SIB to the DU); and transmitting the updated SI included in the RRC to a UE which is one of the at least one UE in the list, wherein the RRC message is included in a transfer message (Byun: fig. 12-16 - the DU of the BS may provide the requested system information to the UE on the basis of the received message. The system information may be provided to the UE through broadcast signaling or dedicated signaling). 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the list includes a gNB-CU UE FIAP ID (Park: [0214, 0219, 0228-0229] - (e.g., gNB-CU UE F1AP ID)). Thus, it would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claim invention to include the above recited limitation into Byun’s invention in order to include a wireless device identifier of the wireless device (e.g., gNB-CU UE F1AP ID) into the request or message, as taught by the Park. 17. The method according to claim 1, wherein the message includes the SI to be broadcast (Byun: [0185] fig. 11-16). 21. The method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one UE, indicated by the list, is unable to receive the SI from broadcast (Byun: [0137, 0142-0143] fig. 11-16). Regarding claims 5-7, 9-11, 13-15, 18-20, 22-24 the independent claim and each dependent claim are related to the same limitation set for hereinabove in claims 1-3, 17, 21 where the difference used is a “base station” with a processor and a memory (Byun: referring to FIG. 12 the station includes a processor, a memory [0185]) and the wordings of the claims were interchanged within the claim itself or some of the claims were presented as a combination of two or more previously presented limitations. This change does not affect the limitation of the above treated claims. Adding these phrases to the claims arid interchanging the wording did not introduce new limitations to these claims. Therefore, these claims were rejected for similar reasons as stated above. Response to Amendment Applicant's arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-3, 5-7, 9-11, 13-15, 17-24 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection. Remarks: The examiner stresses that the claims are too broad and require detail or specialization of the steps as recited in the claims. Alone and as claimed, the limitations are too open. Examiner has cited particular portions of the references as applied to each claim limitation for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings of the art and are applied to the specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested from the applicant in preparing responses, to fully consider the references in entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the Examiner. In addition, an interview could expedite the prosecution. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Sulaiman Nooristany whose telephone number is 571-270-1929. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday thru Friday: 8:30am to 5:00pm (EST). If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jeff Rutkowski can be reached on 571-270-1215. 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. 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. /SULAIMAN NOORISTANY/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2415
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Jan 12, 2024
Application Filed
Jul 23, 2024
Non-Final Rejection — §103
Oct 28, 2024
Response Filed
Mar 05, 2025
Response after Non-Final Action
Mar 19, 2025
Request for Continued Examination
Mar 28, 2025
Response after Non-Final Action
Mar 31, 2025
Non-Final Rejection — §103
Aug 04, 2025
Response Filed
Aug 15, 2025
Examiner Interview (Telephonic)
Aug 19, 2025
Final Rejection — §103
Nov 21, 2025
Response after Non-Final Action
Nov 25, 2025
Examiner Interview (Telephonic)
Dec 22, 2025
Request for Continued Examination
Jan 09, 2026
Response after Non-Final Action
Jan 13, 2026
Non-Final Rejection — §103 (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

4-5
Expected OA Rounds
77%
Grant Probability
99%
With Interview (+24.4%)
3y 6m
Median Time to Grant
High
PTA Risk
Based on 911 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow rate.

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