Prosecution Insights
Last updated: May 29, 2026
Application No. 18/505,657

METHODS, DEVICES AND SYSTEMS FOR BEAM FAILURE RECOVERY

Final Rejection §103
Filed
Nov 09, 2023
Priority
May 11, 2021 — continuation of PCTCN2021092965 +1 more
Examiner
BEYEN, ZEWDU A
Art Unit
2461
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
ZTE CORPORATION
OA Round
2 (Final)
83%
Grant Probability
Favorable
3-4
OA Rounds
2m
Est. Remaining
98%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 83% — above average
83%
Career Allowance Rate
702 granted / 842 resolved
+25.4% vs TC avg
Moderate +15% lift
Without
With
+14.7%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 9m
Avg Prosecution
29 currently pending
Career history
877
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
0.5%
-39.5% vs TC avg
§103
88.2%
+48.2% vs TC avg
§102
8.1%
-31.9% vs TC avg
§112
1.8%
-38.2% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 842 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 . Response to Amendment Applicant’s amendment filled on 12/29/2025 has been entered. Claims 1, 5,9 are amended. Claims 3, 4, 7, 8, 11, and 12 are canceled. Claims 13-15 are added. Response to Arguments Applicant arguments filed on 12/29/2025 have been fully considered and but are moot in view of the new ground of rejection(s) 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. The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows: 1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art. 2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue. 3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art. 4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness. Claim(s) 1-2,5-6,9-10,13-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over MURUGANATHAN to (WO2022153248 A1) in view of VIVO: "Further discussion and evaluation on HST-SFN transmission schemes", from IDS Regarding claim 1, MURUGANATHAN teaches determining, by a wireless communication device, two reference signals of two transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states for beam failure detection, from reference signals of a control resource set (CORESET);( Page 35, lines 13-20 discloses the configuration of one CORESET and the activation of two TCI states via a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) for the CORESET; and …pages 13, lines 4-10 discloses the at least one beam failure detection resource set comprises a single beam failure detection resource set including a first BFD-RS being a reference signal associated with the first activated TCI state and a second BFD-RS being a reference signal associated with the second activated TCI state) and determining, by the wireless communication device according to the two reference signals, at least one measurement for comparison with a threshold(Page 10, lines 9-20 discloses WD …combines measurements to obtain the channel properties of the SFN channel... it can compute as a weighted average of the delay spread. This average is then used as input to the channel estimation algorithm for the PDCCH DM-RS. ..the measurements on the TRS gives the WD some information on whether one TRP is dominating over the other), the at least one measurement comprising a combined measurement for the two TCI states(page 10, lines 3-11 discloses.. SFN-based PDCCH transmission over two TRPs, two TCI states need to be activated for a CORESET (i.e., the two TCI states activated are from the list of TCI states configured for the CORESET). When the WD is receiving a PDCCH DM-RS with a CORESET activated with two TCI states, the WD may perform synchronization and estimation of long term channel properties using the DL RS (e.g., TRS) in both TCI states in parallel. For example, it obtains two channel delay spreads. The WD may then combine these measurements to obtain the channel properties of the SFN channel) MURUGANATHAN does not explicitly teach wherein the combined measurement is according to a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) transmission assumption for single frequency network (SFN) and comprises a combined block error rate (BLER) However, "Further discussion and evaluation on HST-SFN transmission schemes teaches wherein the combined measurement is according to a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) transmission assumption for single frequency network (SFN) and comprises a combined block error rate (BLER)( page 12, section 2.5.4, "SINR threshold of target PDCCH BLER") Therefore; it would have been obvious to one ordinarily skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to enable the system of MURUGANATHAN include wherein the combined measurement is according to a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) transmission assumption for single frequency network (SFN) and comprises a combined block error rate (BLER),as suggested by "Further discussion and evaluation on HST-SFN transmission schemes.” This modification would benefit the system reliably determine communication error. Regarding claim 5 MURUGANATHAN teaches a wireless communication device(page 35, lines 29-32, fig.13, “wireless device 22”), comprising: at least one processor (page 35, lines 29-32, fig.13, “wireless device 22” “processor 86”), configured to: determine two reference signals of two transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states for beam failure detection, from reference signals of a control resource set (CORESET); (Page 35, lines 13-20 discloses the configuration of one CORESET and the activation of two TCI states via a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) for the CORESET; and …pages 13, lines 4-10 discloses the at least one beam failure detection resource set comprises a single beam failure detection resource set including a first BFD-RS being a reference signal associated with the first activated TCI state and a second BFD-RS being a reference signal associated with the second activated TCI state) determine, according to the two reference signals, at least one measurement for comparison with a threshold, (Page 10, lines 9-20 discloses WD …combines measurements to obtain the channel properties of the SFN channel... it can compute as a weighted average of the delay spread. This average is then used as input to the channel estimation algorithm for the PDCCH DM-RS. ..the measurements on the TRS gives the WD some information on whether one TRP is dominating over the other), the at least one measurement comprising a combined measurement for the two TCI states (page 10, lines 3-11 discloses.. SFN-based PDCCH transmission over two TRPs, two TCI states need to be activated for a CORESET (i.e., the two TCI states activated are from the list of TCI states configured for the CORESET). When the WD is receiving a PDCCH DM-RS with a CORESET activated with two TCI states, the WD may perform synchronization and estimation of long term channel properties using the DL RS (e.g., TRS) in both TCI states in parallel. For example, it obtains two channel delay spreads. The WD may then combine these measurements to obtain the channel properties of the SFN channel) MURUGANATHAN does not explicitly teach wherein the combined measurement is according to a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) transmission assumption for single frequency network (SFN) and comprises a combined block error rate (BLER) However, "Further discussion and evaluation on HST-SFN transmission schemes teaches wherein the combined measurement is according to a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) transmission assumption for single frequency network (SFN) and comprises a combined block error rate (BLER)( page 12, section 2.5.4, "SINR threshold of target PDCCH BLER") Therefore; it would have been obvious to one ordinarily skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to enable the system of MURUGANATHAN include wherein the combined measurement is according to a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) transmission assumption for single frequency network (SFN) and comprises a combined block error rate (BLER),as suggested by "Further discussion and evaluation on HST-SFN transmission schemes.” This modification would benefit the system reliably determine communication error. Regarding claim 9 MURUGANATHAN teaches a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions(page 51, lines 24-25, page 52, line 6, “computer readable memory” ), which when executed by one or more processors can cause the one or more processors to(page 52, lines 3-5, page 35, lines 29-32, fig.13, “wireless device 22” “processor 86”):determine two reference signals of two transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states for beam failure detection, from reference signals of a control resource set (CORESET); (Page 35, lines 13-20 discloses the configuration of one CORESET and the activation of two TCI states via a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) for the CORESET; and …pages 13, lines 4-10 discloses the at least one beam failure detection resource set comprises a single beam failure detection resource set including a first BFD-RS being a reference signal associated with the first activated TCI state and a second BFD-RS being a reference signal associated with the second activated TCI state) determine, according to the two reference signals, at least one measurement for comparison with a threshold, (Page 10, lines 9-20 discloses WD …combines measurements to obtain the channel properties of the SFN channel... it can compute as a weighted average of the delay spread. This average is then used as input to the channel estimation algorithm for the PDCCH DM-RS. ..the measurements on the TRS gives the WD some information on whether one TRP is dominating over the other), the at least one measurement comprising a combined measurement for the two TCI states (page 10, lines 3-11 discloses.. SFN-based PDCCH transmission over two TRPs, two TCI states need to be activated for a CORESET (i.e., the two TCI states activated are from the list of TCI states configured for the CORESET). When the WD is receiving a PDCCH DM-RS with a CORESET activated with two TCI states, the WD may perform synchronization and estimation of long term channel properties using the DL RS (e.g., TRS) in both TCI states in parallel. For example, it obtains two channel delay spreads. The WD may then combine these measurements to obtain the channel properties of the SFN channel) MURUGANATHAN does not explicitly teach wherein the combined measurement is according to a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) transmission assumption for single frequency network (SFN) and comprises a combined block error rate (BLER) However, "Further discussion and evaluation on HST-SFN transmission schemes teaches wherein the combined measurement is according to a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) transmission assumption for single frequency network (SFN) and comprises a combined block error rate (BLER)( page 12, section 2.5.4, "SINR threshold of target PDCCH BLER") Therefore; it would have been obvious to one ordinarily skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to enable the system of MURUGANATHAN include wherein the combined measurement is according to a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) transmission assumption for single frequency network (SFN) and comprises a combined block error rate (BLER),as suggested by "Further discussion and evaluation on HST-SFN transmission schemes.” This modification would benefit the system reliably determine communication error. Regarding claims 2,6,10 MURUGANATHAN teaches wherein the CORESET is activated with the two TCI states ( Page 35, lines 13-20 discloses the configuration of one CORESET and the activation of two TCI states via a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) for the CORESET). Regarding claims 13-15 MURUGANATHAN teaches wherein the threshold corresponds to a level at which a downlink radio link cannot be reliably received(Page 10, lines 9-20 discloses WD …combines measurements to obtain the channel properties of the SFN channel... it can compute as a weighted average of the delay spread. This average is then used as input to the channel estimation algorithm for the PDCCH DM-RS). Conclusion 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 nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) 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 mailing date of this final action. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ZEWDU A BEYEN whose telephone number is (571)270-7157. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00-6:00. 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, Huy D Vu can be reached at 571-272-3155. 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. /ZEWDU A BEYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2461
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Prosecution Timeline

Nov 09, 2023
Application Filed
Nov 14, 2025
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §103
Dec 29, 2025
Response Filed
Jan 27, 2026
Final Rejection mailed — §103
Mar 25, 2026
Request for Continued Examination
Apr 14, 2026
Response after Non-Final Action

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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
83%
Grant Probability
98%
With Interview (+14.7%)
2y 9m (~2m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Moderate
PTA Risk
Based on 842 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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