Prosecution Insights
Last updated: April 19, 2026
Application No. 18/505,426

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MOBILITY MANAGEMENT OF TERMINAL CONNECTED TO INTEGRATED ACCESS BACKHAUL IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

Non-Final OA §102
Filed
Nov 09, 2023
Examiner
GHULAMALI, QUTBUDDIN
Art Unit
2632
Tech Center
2600 — Communications
Assignee
ELECTRONICS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH INSTITUTE
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
85%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
2y 8m
To Grant
99%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 85% — above average
85%
Career Allow Rate
911 granted / 1071 resolved
+23.1% vs TC avg
Strong +19% interview lift
Without
With
+19.3%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 8m
Avg Prosecution
21 currently pending
Career history
1092
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
6.8%
-33.2% vs TC avg
§103
40.5%
+0.5% vs TC avg
§102
27.7%
-12.3% vs TC avg
§112
19.5%
-20.5% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 1071 resolved cases

Office Action

§102
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 . Election/Restrictions Applicant’s election of Species I, claims 1, 8, (claims 1-12) in the reply filed on 01/21/2026, is acknowledged. The non-elected Species II, claim 13 (claims 13-19), have been cancelled from further consideration. Applicant is required to show cancellation of the non-elected claims in reply to this office action. Priority Certified copy of priority document KR 10-2022-0149935 dated November 10, 2022, electronically retrieved, is acknowledged which papers have been placed of record in the file. Information Disclosure Statement The information disclosure statements (IDSs) submitted on 11/09/2023, is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 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. 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. Claim(s) 1-4, 7, 8-10, is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Park et al (hereinafter Park) (US 2021/0195674). Regarding claim 1, Park discloses a method (device)of a terminal, comprising: requesting access to a mobile integrated access backhaul (IAB) based on cell search ( A mobile terminal ( MT) of IAB-node may sustain NAS connectivity to a core network node e.g. AMF, SMF, and/or the like core node, e.g., for authentication of an IAB-node. An IAB node may follow the same initial access procedure as an UE (e.g. wireless device), comprising cell search, system information (SI) acquisition, and/or random access, to initially set up a connection to a parent IAB-node and/or a IAB-donor) (paras. 0197, 0204); receiving a tracking area (TA) update procedure stop request message from an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) of a core network (an IAB-node may support mechanisms for detecting/recovering from backhaul link failure. At Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection establishment/re-establishment/handover, one serving cell may provide the NAS (non-access stratum) mobility information, e.g. Tracking Area Identifier (TAI)) (paras. 0059, 0206, 0293); and deactivating a TA update procedure based on the TA update procedure stop request message (in response to receiving the backhaul link blockage information, the wireless device may clear (e.g. suspend, release) configured uplink grant type 2 of a cell of the second network node. In an example, in response to receiving the backhaul link blockage information, the wireless device may stop (e.g. suspend) a bandwidth part inactivity timer of one or more bandwidth part of a cell of the second network node (e.g. considering the cell is suspended and/or transitioned to dormant/deactivated state)) (paras. 0275, 0276). Park further discloses at least one processor 321A, and at least one set of program code instructions 323A stored in non-transitory memory 322A and executable by the at least one processor 321A (paras. 0058, 0071). Regarding claim 2, Park discloses receiving a TA update procedure resumption message from the mobile IAB; and activating the TA update procedure (in response to receiving the backhaul link blockage information, the wireless device may start (e.g. restart, resume) a bandwidth part inactivity timer of a cell of the second network node (e.g. considering receiving the backhaul link blockage information as receiving downlink indication via the cell)) (para. 0275). Regarding claims 3, 9, Park discloses receiving a measurement stop indication message from an IAB donor control unit (CU) to which the mobile IAB is connected (a wireless device measurement configuration/reporting; detection of and/or recovery from radio link failure; or NAS message transfer to/from a core network entity (e.g. AMF, Mobility Management Entity (MME)) from/to the wireless device) (para. 0062); and in response to receiving the measurement stop indication message, deactivating a measurement procedure for measuring a strength of a signal received from a cell to which the terminal is connected and measuring a strength of a signal received from an adjacent cell (A wireless device may measure quality of a beam pair link using one or more RSs. One or more SS blocks, or one or more CSI-RS resources, associated with a CSI-RS resource index (CRI), or one or more DM-RSs of PBCH, may be used as RS for measuring quality of a beam pair link. Quality of a beam pair link may be defined as a reference signal received power (RSRP) value, or a reference signal received quality (RSRQ) value, and/or a CSI value measured on RS resources) (paras. 0108, 0165). Regarding claims 4, 10, Park discloses receiving a measurement control message indicating to resume measurement from the mobile IAB; and in response to that measurement is indicated to be resumed, activating the measurement procedure (a wireless device in an RRC inactive state may select a cell to camp on based on at least a on measurement results for one or more cells, a cell where a wireless device may monitor an RNA paging message and/or a core network paging message from a base station. In an example, a wireless device in an RRC inactive state may select a cell to perform a random access procedure to resume an RRC connection and/or to transmit one or more packets to a base station (e.g. to a network). In an example, if a cell selected belongs to a different RNA from an RNA for a wireless device in an RRC inactive state, the wireless device may initiate a random access procedure to perform an RNA update procedure) (para. 0165). Regarding claim 7, Park discloses in response to receiving a paging signal from the mobile IAB, performing a call setup procedure through the mobile IAB (a wireless device in an RRC inactive state, and/or the base stations receiving the message from the anchor base station may broadcast and/or multicast another message (e.g. paging message) to wireless devices in their coverage area, cell coverage area, and/or beam coverage area associated with the RNA) (paras. 0163, 0165). Allowable Subject Matter Claims 5-6, 11-12, 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 Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to QUTBUDDIN GHULAMALI whose telephone number is (571) 272-3014. The examiner can normally be reached on 7:30am to 4:00pm. 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, Chieh Fan can be reached on 571 272 3042. 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). 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. /QUTBUDDIN GHULAMALI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2632.
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Nov 09, 2023
Application Filed
Feb 21, 2026
Non-Final Rejection — §102 (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

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
85%
Grant Probability
99%
With Interview (+19.3%)
2y 8m
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 1071 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow rate.

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