Prosecution Insights
Last updated: April 25, 2026
Application No. 18/412,122

TECHNIQUES FOR TRANSMITTING A SKIPPING INDICATION FOR CONFIGURED GRANTS

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Jan 12, 2024
Priority
Feb 15, 2023 — provisional 63/485,180
Examiner
SHAHEED, KHALID W
Art Unit
2643
Tech Center
2600 — Communications
Assignee
Qualcomm Incorporated
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
83%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
6m
Est. Remaining
98%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 83% — above average
83%
Career Allowance Rate
697 granted / 843 resolved
+20.7% vs TC avg
Strong +15% interview lift
Without
With
+15.2%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 9m
Avg Prosecution
39 currently pending
Career history
882
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
5.9%
-34.1% vs TC avg
§103
48.4%
+8.4% vs TC avg
§102
28.2%
-11.8% vs TC avg
§112
8.8%
-31.2% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 843 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 . 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. Claim(s) 1-3, 6-9, 13, 16-20, 21-23, 26-29 & 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Agiwal et logal. (US 2020/0296759 A1) in view of Huang et al. (US 2021/0360685 A1). Regarding claims 1, 21, 29 & 30, Agiwal discloses a user equipment (UE) for wireless communications, network entity, method for wireless communications at a user equipment and method for wireless communications at a network entity comprising: one or more processors (see processors [0033]/[0034]); and one or more memories (see memory [0175]/[0182]) coupled (see coupled in fig. 13) with the one or more processors and individually or collectively operable to cause the UE to: receive a first control message indicating a configured grant associated with a plurality of first resource occasions (see [0027], “receiving uplink (UL) grant configuration information via RRC reconfiguration message”) of an uplink shared channel (see PUSCH [0050]); select one or more resources (see [0008] “selecting a SSB among a plurality of SSBs included in U grant information”, illustrated by fig. 5, S520, below, “select an SSB/CSI-RS” ) of an uplink channel; PNG media_image1.png 664 594 media_image1.png Greyscale Agiwal does not best disclose however Haung best discloses via which the UE is to transmit a skipping indication associated with the configured grant (see table 2, between [0103 and [0104]]); and transmit, via the one or more resources, the skipping indication for the configured grant (see “indicative of executing and/or enabling UL transmission skipping”, [0156]), the skipping indication signaling that the UE is to skip uplink transmitting (see indicative of UL skipping [0157]) via at least a portion of the plurality of first resource occasions (see UL resources [0184]); Table:2 PNG media_image2.png 149 269 media_image2.png Greyscale It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to combine the the teachings of Agiwal in view of Haung. Doing so would conform to well-known conventions in the art of various mobile technologies ([0005], Agiwal). Regarding claims 2 & 22, Agiwal in view of Haung disclose the UE of claim 1 and network entity of 21, Agiwal does not explicitly disclose however Haung discloses wherein the skipping indication occurs prior to the plurality of first resource occasions in a time domain (see time domain, [0113]) ; It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to combine the teachings of Agiwal in view of Haung. Doing so would conform to well-known conventions in the art of various mobile technologies ([0005], Agiwal). Regarding claims 3 & 23, Agiwal in view of Haung disclose the UE of claim 2 and network entity of claim 22, wherein, to transmit the skipping indication for the configured grant, the one or more processors are individually or collectively operable to cause the UE to: transmit, via the skipping indication, an indication of the at least portion of the plurality of first resource occasions for which the UE is to skip uplink transmitting (see example of resources, see [0153], “ when skipUplinkTxDynamic is configured for dynamic UL grant (addressed to a Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI), for example) and/or skipUplinkTxSPS is configured for configured UL grant (addressed to a Semi-Persistent Scheduling C-RNTI, for example). UL skipping (e.g., skipUplinkTxDynamic and/or skipUplinkTxSPS) is configured by the RRC.”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to combine the the teachings of Agiwal in view of Haung. Doing so would conform to well-known conventions in the art of various mobile technologies ([0005], Agiwal). Regarding claims 6 & 26, Agiwal in view of Haung disclose the UE of claim 2 and network entity of claim 22, wherein, to transmit the skipping indication for the configured grant, the one or more processors are individually or collectively operable to cause the UE to: transmit, via the skipping indication, an indication of a first resource occasion of the plurality of first resource occasions (see fig. 5, RRC message from BS to UE for skip indication for various SSB / CSI-RS resources), wherein the skipping indication signals that the UE is to skip uplink transmitting for the plurality of first resource occasions (see fig. 5, skip indication configuration is for receiving UE to skip uplink) based at least in part on indicating the first resource occasion of the plurality of first resource occasions (any of CSI-RS, SSB resources, fig. 5). Regarding claims 7 & 27, Agiwal in view of Haung disclose the UE of claim 2 and network entity of claim 22, wherein the plurality of first resource occasions are further associated with a plurality of configured grants including at least the configured grant, and wherein the skipping indication is applicable to the at least portion of the plurality of first resource occasions across the plurality of configured grants (see selected SSB/CSI-RS, fig. 5, therefore at least a portion of first resources). Regarding claims 8 & 28, Agiwal in view of Haung disclose the UE of claim 2 and network entity of claim 22, wherein the plurality of first resource occasions is associated with a plurality of cells, and the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to cause the UE to: transmit the skipping indication to the first cell of the plurality of cells (see tranmissions, configured for cell group; table 2, immediately before [0104]). Regarding claim 9, Agiwal in view of Haung disclose the method of claim 2, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to cause the UE to: skip uplink transmitting via the at least portion of the plurality of first resource occasions based at least in part on transmitting the skipping indication (see [0156], see UL skipping and indictive [0156]); Regarding claim 13, Agiwal in view of Haung disclose the method of claim 2, Agiwal does not specifically disclose however Haung discloses in view wherein the one or more resources occur after the plurality of first resource occasions in a time domain (see time-domain, [0113], Huang); It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to combine the the teachings of Agiwal in view of Haung. Doing so would conform to well-known conventions in the art of various mobile technologies ([0005], Agiwal). Regarding claim 16, Agiwal in view of Haung disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to cause the UE to: receive a second control message (see RRC message fig. 5, anticipated that more than one RRC message can be sent and received) indicating a plurality of resource occasions of the uplink channel (see potential selection of multiple SSB or CSI-RS resources, fig. 5), including at least the one or more resources. PNG media_image1.png 664 594 media_image1.png Greyscale Regarding claim 17, Agiwal in view of Haung disclose the method of claim 1, Huang best discloses wherein one or more third resource occasions associated with the uplink control channel at least partially overlap with one or more first resource occasions of the at least portion of the plurality of first resource occasions, and the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to cause the UE to: transmit uplink control information via the one or more third resource occasions (see transmit to Base station 915 fig. 9); It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to combine the the teachings of Agiwal in view of Haung. Doing so would conform to well-known conventions in the art of various mobile technologies ([0005], Agiwal). Regarding claim 18, Agiwal in view of Haung disclose the method of claim 1, Huang best discloses wherein one or more third resource occasions associated with the uplink control channel at least partially overlap with one or more first resource occasions of the at least portion of the plurality of first resource occasions, and the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to cause the UE to: multiplex uplink control information with a transport block (see uplink multiplexing [0044]); and transmit the multiplexed uplink control (see [0047], “transmit from the “Multiplexing”) information via the one or more first resource occasions of the at least portion of the plurality of first resource occasions (see “multiplexing” [0044]); It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to combine the the teachings of Agiwal in view of Haung. Doing so would conform to well-known conventions in the art of various mobile technologies ([0005], Agiwal). Regarding claim 19, Agiwal in view of Haung disclose the method of claim 1, wherein one or more third resource occasions associated with the uplink control channel at least partially overlap with one or more first resource occasions of the at least portion of the plurality of first resource occasions, and the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to cause the UE to: receive a third control message (see RRC, fig. 5 or fig. 10, directly below) indicating whether the UE may transmit uplink control information via the one or more third resource occasions (see reources in fig. 5, SSB, CSI-RS received from base station in RRC) or may transmit the uplink control information via the one or more first resource occasions (UE determines UL based on configuration from base station for transmission, S1030 fig. 10). PNG media_image3.png 499 472 media_image3.png Greyscale Regarding claim 20, Agiwal in view of Haung disclose the method of claim 1, wherein a first subset of the at least portion of the plurality of first resource occasions is associated with a first frequency and a second subset of the at least portion of the plurality of first resource occasions is associated with a second frequency (see FR1 and FR2 frequency bands [0067]). Claim(s) 10 & 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Agiwal et al. (US 2020/0296759 A1) in view of Huang et al. (US 2021/0360685 A1). Regarding claim 10, Agiwal in view of Huang discloses the UE of claim 2, wherein the one or more processors are individually or collectively further operable to cause the UE to: receive a fourth control message (RRC control message is disclosed in fig. 5, inter alia, it is anticipated that there could be any number of them including four) Agiwal and Huang does not specifically disclose however Wu discloses indicating one or more logical channels over which the UE may refrain from skipping uplink transmitting (see [0097] regarding skip of uplink, “refraining” regarding logical channel); It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to combine the the teachings of Wu in view of Agiwal and Haung. Doing so would conform to well-known conventions in the art of various mobile technologies. Regarding claim 12, Agiwal in view of Huang discloses the UE of claim 10, wherein each of the one or more logical channels is associated with a signal radio bearer or a delay sensitive quality of service flow (see “Quality of Service (QoS) flow”, [0047]); It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to combine the the teachings of Wu in view of Agiwal and Haung. Doing so would conform to well-known conventions in the art of various mobile technologies. Allowable Subject Matter Claims 4-5, 11, 14-15 & 24-25 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 The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Kunt et al. (US 2019/0166519 A1) – discloses key teachings regarding configured grant and skipping of UL transmissions. Loehr et al. (US 2020/0053793 A1) - discloses key teachings regarding configured grant and skipping of UL transmissions. Hosseini et al. (US 2020/0100226 A1) - discloses key teachings regarding configured grant and skipping of UL transmissions. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to K. WILFORD SHAHEED whose telephone number is (469) 295-9175. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 9 am-6pm; CST; ALT Friday. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. The examiner’s Supervisor, Jinsong Hu, can be reached at (571)272-3965, where attempts to reach the examiner are unsuccessful. 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. /KHALID W SHAHEED/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2643
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Prosecution Timeline

Jan 12, 2024
Application Filed
Apr 03, 2026
Non-Final Rejection — §103 (current)

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
83%
Grant Probability
98%
With Interview (+15.2%)
2y 9m (~6m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 843 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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