Prosecution Insights
Last updated: October 02, 2026
Application No. 18/427,785

METHOD AND DEVICE IN NODES USED FOR WIRELESS COMMUNICATION

Final Rejection §102§103
Filed
Jan 30, 2024
Priority
Feb 03, 2023 — CN 202310088959.4
Examiner
RIVAS, RAUL
Art Unit
2471
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
Apogee Networks LLC
OA Round
2 (Final)
84%
Grant Probability
Favorable
3-4
OA Rounds
0m
Est. Remaining
93%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 84% — above average
84%
Career Allowance Rate
405 granted / 484 resolved
+25.7% vs TC avg
Moderate +9% lift
Without
With
+9.2%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 8m
Avg Prosecution
33 currently pending
Career history
532
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
2.8%
-37.2% vs TC avg
§103
65.3%
+25.3% vs TC avg
§102
21.5%
-18.5% vs TC avg
§112
3.9%
-36.1% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 484 resolved cases

Office Action

§102 §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 . This action is in response to the communication filed on 01/30/2024. The Claims 2-5 7-10 12-15 17-20 have been canceled by the applicant. The Claims 21-36 have been newly added by the applicant. Claim Rejections – 35 USC § 102 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, 16, 21-23, 25-27, 29-31 and 33-35 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Huang et al. (U.S. Pub. 20240008034). Regarding claim 1 Huang disclose, a user equipment (UE), comprising: a transceiver para. 23, Fig. “access terminal 116”, receive by link 120 and transmit by link 118; and a processor para. 34, Fig. 2 “processor 270”, operatively coupled to the transceiver, wherein the transceiver and the processor are configured to: receive physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) transmission comprising first downlink control information (DCI) para. 51, 85 “a UE monitors PDCCH for detection of DCI format… a transmission of a first PUSCH of larger priority index scheduled by a DCI format in a PDCCH reception” , the first DCI indicating first resources for a first physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission, at least one signaling para. 51, “a UE indicates a capability to monitor, in an active DL BWP, PDCCH for detection of DCI format that includes a priority indicator field, the DCI format can schedule PUSCH transmissions of any priority”; and receive a second PDCCH transmission comprising second DCI, the second DCI indicating second resources for a second PUSCH transmission para. 115, 319, “the UE may expect to receive multiple PDCCHs scheduling fully/partially/non-overlapped PDSCHs in time and frequency domain… a UE receives a first DCI scheduling a first PUSCH and a second DCI scheduling a second PUSCH”, receive a third PDCCH transmission comprising third DCI, the third DCI comprising information indicating a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource for reporting hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgement (HARQ- ACK) information para. 115, 485, “HARQ-ACK information reporting is associated with a CORESET through a reception of a PDCCH with a DCI format triggering the reporting of the HARQ-ACK information by the UE… A third signal, comprising a first DCI signal and/or a first RRC signal, indicates that the first PUCCH is associated with the first joint/UL TCI state (e.g., the third signal may indicate that the first joint/UL TCI state is applied to the first PUCCH). The UE may receive the third signal”, and based on the PUCCH resource overlapping the first resources and the second resources para. 101, “a UE would transmit multiple overlapping PUCCHs in a slot or overlapping PUCCH(s) and PUSCH(s) in a slot and, when applicable as described in clauses 9.2.5.1 and 9.2.5.2, the UE is configured to multiplex different UCI types in one PUCCH, and at least one of the multiple overlapping PUCCHs or PUSCHs is in response to a DCI format detection by the UE", transmit uplink control information (UCI) comprising the HARQ-ACK information in a determined one of the first PUSCH transmission or the second PUSCH transmission para. 197, “when a UE is scheduled or configured to transmit two concurrent uplink transmissions/channels (with same starting symbol) on a first serving cell, the first concept may be that the UE may determine (e.g., select) the first serving cell for multiplexing UCI… In some examples, UCI may comprise HARQ information associated with a first TRP (i.e., CORESETPoolIndex=0) for one serving cell and/or HARQ information associated with a second TRP (i.e., CORESETPoolIndex=1) for same serving cell or a neighboring cell with additionalPCI or additional PCI index. In some examples, no matter the UCI comprising which TRP's or both TRP's HARQ information, the UE multiplex UCI on both two concurrent uplink transmissions/channels (with same starting symbol)”, wherein, when neither the first PUSCH transmission nor the second PUSCH transmission carries an aperiodic channel state information (CSI) report para. 508, “In one embodiment, the UE determines whether the first UCI is (i) a first type of UCI comprising periodic CSI (e.g., periodic CSI report) and/or HARQ (e.g., HARQ information, such as HARQ feedback information) or (ii) a second type of UCI comprising aperiodic CSI (e.g., aperiodic CSI report) and/or semi-persistent CSI (e.g., semi-persistent CSI report). The UE determines the selection function based on whether the first UCI is the first type or the second type of UCI. The UE selects the first PUSCH for multiplexing the first UCI according to the selection function”, the determined one of the first PUSCH transmission or the second PUSCH transmission is a PUSCH corresponds to a coresetPoolIndex having a value equal to a value of a coresetPoolIndex corresponding to the PUCCH resource para. 248. “In some examples, UCI on PUCCH1 may be associated with one or more UCIs associated with a first CORESETPoolIndex or a first (TRP) index…” where para. 508, “the first PUSCH for multiplexing the first UCI is selected according to a selection function”, and wherein, when one of the first PUSCH transmission or the second PUSCH transmission carries an aperiodic CSI report, para. 508, “In one embodiment, the UE determines whether the first UCI is (i) a first type of UCI comprising periodic CSI (e.g., periodic CSI report) and/or HARQ (e.g., HARQ information, such as HARQ feedback information) or (ii) a second type of UCI comprising aperiodic CSI (e.g., aperiodic CSI report) and/or semi-persistent CSI (e.g., semi-persistent CSI report). The UE determines the selection function based on whether the first UCI is the first type or the second type of UCI. The UE selects the first PUSCH for multiplexing the first UCI according to the selection function”, the determined one of the first PUSCH transmission or the second PUSCH transmission is the one of the first PUSCH transmission or the second PUSCH transmission that carries the aperiodic CSI report para. 301. “the UE may transmit aperiodic (AP) CSI report on both two concurrent uplink transmissions/channels…” where para. 508, “the first PUSCH for multiplexing the first UCI is selected according to a selection function”. Claim 6 recites an apparatus corresponding to the apparatus of claim 1 and thus is rejected under the same reason set forth in the rejection of claim 1. Claim 11 recites a method corresponding to the apparatus of claim 1 and thus is rejected under the same reason set forth in the rejection of claim 1. Claim 16 recites a method corresponding to the apparatus of claim 6 and thus is rejected under the same reason set forth in the rejection of claim 6. Regarding claim 21 Huang disclose, wherein the first PUSCH transmission corresponds to a first coresetPoolIndex value, the second PUSCHtransmission corresponds to a second coresetPoolIndex value, and the first coresetPoolIndex value is different from the second coresetPoolIndex value para. 103, “is provided coresetPoolIndex with a value of 0 for first CORESETs on active DL BWPs of serving cells, and is provided coresetPoolIndex with a value of 1 for second CORESETs”. Regarding claim 22 Huang disclose, wherein, based on transmitting the UCI comprising the HARQ-ACK information in the determined one of the first PUSCH transmission or the second PUSCH transmission, the UE does not transmit a PUCCH transmission on the PUCCH resource para. 60-61, “the UE does not expect a PUCCH transmission with UCI of first and second priority indexes to overlap with a PUCCH transmission with HARQ-ACK information of the first priority index, or with a PUCCH transmission or with a PUSCH transmission of the second priority index when the second priority index is larger than the first priority index [0061] the UE does not expect a PUCCH transmission with HARQ-ACK information of larger priority index to overlap with more than one PUCCH transmissions with HARQ-ACK information of smaller priority index”. Regarding claim 23 Huang disclose, wherein a coresetPoolIndex corresponding to the first PUSCH transmission is a coresetPoolIndex for a control resource set (CORESET) associated with the first PDCCH transmission para. 104-105, “is provided coresetPoolIndex with a value of 1 for second CORESETs on active DL BWPs of the serving cells, and [0105] is provided ackNackFeedbackMode=separate does not expect a PUCCH or a PUSCH transmission triggered by a detection of a DCI format in a PDCCH received in a CORESET from the first CORESETs”, and wherein a coresetPoolIndex corresponding to the second PUSCH transmission is a coresetPoolIndex for a CORESET associated with the second PDCCH transmission para. 104-105, “is provided coresetPoolIndex with a value of 1 for second CORESETs on active DL BWPs of the serving cells, and is provided ackNackFeedbackMode=separate does not expect a PUCCH or a PUSCH transmission triggered by a detection of a DCI format in a PDCCH received in a CORESET from the second CORESETs”. Regarding claims 25-27, 29-31 and 33-35 the limitations of claims 25-27, 29-31 and 33-35, respectively, are rejected in the same manner as analyzed above with respect to claims 21-23, respectively. 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 of this title, 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) 24, 28, 32 and 36 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Huang et al. (U.S. Pub. 20240008034) in view of Zhu et al. (U.S. Pub. 20230379125). Regarding claim 24 Huang does not specifically disclose, wherein the coresetPoolIndex corresponding to the PUCCH resource is a coresetPoolIndex for a CORESET associated with the third PDCCH transmission. However, Zhu teach, wherein the coresetPoolIndex corresponding to the PUCCH resource is a coresetPoolIndex for a CORESET associated with the third PDCCH transmission, para. 111, “which could be used for the latest PDCCH carrying the common TCI state/beam indication (a third PDCCH) associated with the same CORESETPOOLIndex (value) as that associated with the first PDCCH”. Huang and Zhu are analogous because they pertain to the field of wireless communication and, more specifically, to transmission parameters. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Zhu in the system of Huang so the system can accurately determine the time window to transmit. The motivation for doing so would have been to ensure the UE uses the coresetPoolIndex mapping to determine the precise spatial domain needed for transmission. Regarding claims 28, 32 and 36 the limitations of claims 28, 32 and 36 are rejected in the same manner as analyzed above with respect to claim 24. Conclusion The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: Guo et al. (U.S. Pub. 20250176029) which disclose(s) performing multiple parallel random access procedures. Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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 extension fee 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 date of this final action. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RAUL RIVAS whose telephone number is (571)270–5590. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday – Friday, from 8:30am to 5:00pm. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Sujoy K. Kundu, can be reached on (571) 272 - 8586. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571–272–8300. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from Patent Center. Status information for published applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Patent Center to authorized users only. Should you have questions about access to the USPTO patent electronic filing 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. /R.R/ Examiner, Art Unit 2471 /SUJOY K KUNDU/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2471
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Prosecution Timeline

Jan 30, 2024
Application Filed
Apr 08, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §102, §103
Jul 06, 2026
Response Filed
Sep 23, 2026
Final Rejection mailed — §102, §103 (current)

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
84%
Grant Probability
93%
With Interview (+9.2%)
2y 8m (~0m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Moderate
PTA Risk
Based on 484 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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