Prosecution Insights
Last updated: April 19, 2026
Application No. 18/500,833

COMMUNICATION APPARATUS, BASE STATION, AND METHOD

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Nov 02, 2023
Examiner
JAVAID, JAMAL
Art Unit
2412
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
88%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
2y 8m
To Grant
94%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 88% — above average
88%
Career Allow Rate
846 granted / 957 resolved
+30.4% vs TC avg
Moderate +6% lift
Without
With
+5.9%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 8m
Avg Prosecution
55 currently pending
Career history
1012
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
7.2%
-32.8% vs TC avg
§103
57.8%
+17.8% vs TC avg
§102
13.5%
-26.5% vs TC avg
§112
13.6%
-26.4% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 957 resolved cases

Office Action

§103
DETAILED ACTION Status of Case 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 claims filed on 11/2/2023. Claims 1-9 are pending. Information Disclosure Statement The information disclosure statements (IDS) filed on 11/2/2023 and 12/31/2024 have been considered by Examiner. 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. Claims 1, 4, 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lin (USPAN 2021/0243741) in view of Lai (USPAN 2022/0330215). Consider claims 1 and 7, Lin discloses a communication apparatus (see figure 3, wherein disclosed is said apparatus), and a corresponding method (see figure 12, reproduced below for convenience, wherein disclosed is said method) comprising: a controller (see processor 340 in figure 3) to perform physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring during active time in discontinuous reception (DRX) operation (see paragraph 129: PDCCH monitoring during active DRX); and a communicator (see RF transceiver 310 in figure 3) configured to receive, from a base station, a message including information configuring a skipping duration for which the PDCCH monitoring is skipped (see paragraphs 132-133: skipping duration), wherein the communicator is configured to receive on the PDCCH, from the base station, downlink control information (DCI) including an information field related to the PDCCH monitoring (see paragraph 132: the UE detects a DCI format with a wake-up indication filed in a PDCCH monitoring occasion; see paragraph 133: when there is a value of “00” of the wake-up indication field of the DCI, the UE skips PDCCH monitoring for the associated DCI format for the number of next DRX ON durations, at step 1204 of figure 12), and the controller is configured to control, based on a value set in the information field, skipping of the PDCCH monitoring for the skipping duration (see paragraph 133: when there is a value of “00” of the wake-up indication field of the DCI, the UE skips PDCCH monitoring for the associated DCI format for the number of next DRX ON durations and see step 1204 of figure 12). PNG media_image1.png 616 486 media_image1.png Greyscale Although Lin discloses receiving a message including information configuring a skipping duration for which PDCCH monitoring is skipped (see above), Lin does not specifically disclose receiving a radio resource control (RRC) message including said message. Lai discloses receiving a radio resource control (RRC) message including information configuring a skipping duration for which PDCCH monitoring is skipped (see paragraph 180: PDCCH skipping duration may be configured by an RRC message). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Lin and combine it with the noted teachings of Lai. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method for determining a skipping duration to skip PDCCH monitoring, as well as a method of search space monitoring (see paragraph 2 of Lai). Consider claim 4, Lin disclose a base station (see figure 2, wherein disclosed is said base station) comprising: a controller (see controller 225 in figure 2) configured to control physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring of a communication apparatus during active time in discontinuous reception (DRX) (see paragraph 129: PDCCH monitoring during active DRX); and a communicator (see element 210 in figure 2) configured to transmit, to the communication apparatus, a message including information configuring a skipping duration for which the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring is skipped (see paragraphs 132-133: skipping duration), the communication is configured to transmit on the PDCCH, to the communication apparatus, downlink control information (DCI) including an information field related to the PDCCH monitoring (see paragraph 132: the UE detects a DCI format with a wake-up indication filed in a PDCCH monitoring occasion; see paragraph 133: when there is a value of “00” of the wake-up indication field of the DCI, the UE skips PDCCH monitoring for the associated DCI format for the number of next DRX ON durations, at step 1204 of figure 12); and the controller is configured to control, based on a value set in the information field, skipping of the PDCCH monitoring for the skipping duration (see paragraph 133: when there is a value of “00” of the wake-up indication field of the DCI, the UE skips PDCCH monitoring for the associated DCI format for the number of next DRX ON durations and see step 1204 of figure 12). PNG media_image1.png 616 486 media_image1.png Greyscale Although Lin discloses receiving a message including information configuring a skipping duration for which PDCCH monitoring is skipped (see above), Lin does not specifically disclose receiving a radio resource control (RRC) message including said message. Lai discloses receiving a radio resource control (RRC) message including information configuring a skipping duration for which PDCCH monitoring is skipped (see paragraph 180: PDCCH skipping duration may be configured by an RRC message). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Lin and combine it with the noted teachings of Lai. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method for determining a skipping duration to skip PDCCH monitoring, as well as a method of search space monitoring (see paragraph 2 of Lai). Claims 2-3, 5-6, and 8-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lin (USPAN 2021/0243741) in view of Lai (USPAN 2022/0330215) and Aiba (USPAN 2015/0181539). Consider claims 2, 5, and 8, Lin in view of Lai do not specifically disclose that the DCI is used for scheduling of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) or a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH). Aiba discloses that a DCI is used for scheduling of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) or a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) (see paragraph 232: PDSCH that is schedule by the DCI). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Lin and combine it with the noted teachings of Aiba. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method for efficient transmission power control in a wireless communication system (see paragraph 10 of Aiba). Consider claims 3, 6, and 9, Lin in view of Lai do not specifically disclose that a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled by a configured scheduling radio network temporary identifier (CS-RNTI) is attached to the DCI. Aiba discloses that a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) scrambled by a configured scheduling radio network temporary identifier (CS-RNTI) is attached to the DCI (see paragraph 107: the terminal apparatus attempts to decode the DCI format to which the CRC parity bits scrambled by the RNTI are attached). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Lin and combine it with the noted teachings of Aiba. The motivation to combine these references is to provide a method for efficient transmission power control in a wireless communication system (see paragraph 10 of Aiba). Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jamal Javaid whose telephone number is 571-270-5137 and email address is Jamal.Javaid@uspto.gov. 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, Charles Jiang, can be reached on 571-270-7191. 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. 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). /JAMAL JAVAID/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2412 JAMAL JAVAID Primary Examiner Art Unit 2412
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Nov 02, 2023
Application Filed
Jan 30, 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

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
88%
Grant Probability
94%
With Interview (+5.9%)
2y 8m
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 957 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow rate.

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