Office Action Predictor
Last updated: April 17, 2026
Application No. 18/439,370

COMMUNICATION PROCESSING METHOD AND COMMUNICATION PROCESSING APPARATUS

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Feb 12, 2024
Examiner
SALAD, ABDULLAHI ELMI
Art Unit
2466
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
huawei technologies Co. Ltd.
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
85%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
3y 2m
To Grant
94%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 85% — above average
85%
Career Allow Rate
820 granted / 967 resolved
+26.8% vs TC avg
Moderate +9% lift
Without
With
+9.4%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
3y 2m
Avg Prosecution
26 currently pending
Career history
993
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
9.1%
-30.9% vs TC avg
§103
48.5%
+8.5% vs TC avg
§102
20.4%
-19.6% vs TC avg
§112
4.0%
-36.0% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 967 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 . This office action is in response to the communication date 2/12/24 Original claims 1-19 are pending. Claims 4-9, 13-14 and 18-19 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 § 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. 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. Claims 1-3, 10-12 and 15-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US TIIROLA et al. U.S. Patent Application No. 2021/0392643 [hereinafter TIIROLA] in view of Haghighat et al. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0064231 [hereinafter Haghighat] As per claim 1,10 and 15 TIIROLA discloses a communication processing method, wherein the method comprises: determining, by an access network device, configuration information of a sounding reference signal (SRS ) of a terminal device(see fig.7, par.0058-0065, where UE110 is preconfigured SRS)(see par. 0128); determining, by the access network device, configuration information of a tracking reference signal (TRS ) for the terminal device( see figs.6-77, par.0103, 01808). TRIILA does not explicitly disclose wherein the configuration information of the TRS is used to configure one or more first TRS resources and each of the one or more TRS resource exists between two adjacent SRS resources SRS resources configured based on the configuration information of the SRS. Haghighat discloses wherein the configuration information of the TRS is used to configure one or more first TRS resources (see par. 0177) and each of the one or more TRS resource exists between two adjacent SRS resources SRS resources configured based on the configuration information of the SRS(see par. 0177, where A WTRU terminal 102 may be configured to perform an SRS transmission using a default SRI where the default SRI may be associated with a default TRS configuration. Based on an SRS transmission of a WTRU, a gNB may determine the required TRS configuration and may indicate the preferred TRS mode by an SRI. A WTRU may determine the new TRS configuration by the received SRI). Therefore it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art prior to effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teachings of Haghighat into the system of TRIILA, thus Based on an SRS transmission of a WTRU, a gNB may determine the required TRS configuration and may indicate the preferred TRS mode by an SRI. A WTRU may determine the new TRS configuration by the received SRI. As per claim 2, , 11 and 16 Haghighat discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein a TRS resource exists before an initial SRS resource configured based on the configuration information of the SRS(see par. 0177). As per claim 3,12 and 17 discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises: sending, by the access network device, the configuration information of the SRS and the configuration information of the TRS to the terminal device(see par. 0204) Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ABDULLAHI ELMI SALAD whose telephone number is (571)272-4009. The examiner can normally be reached 9:30AM-6: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. /ABDULLAHI E SALAD/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2466
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Prosecution Timeline

Feb 12, 2024
Application Filed
Jan 27, 2026
Non-Final Rejection — §103
Apr 01, 2026
Response Filed

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Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
85%
Grant Probability
94%
With Interview (+9.4%)
3y 2m
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 967 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow rate.

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