Prosecution Insights
Last updated: October 02, 2026
Application No. 18/558,020

BEAM FAILURE RECOVERY IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS EMPLOYING MULTIPLE TRANSMISSION/RECEPTION POINTS

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Oct 30, 2023
Priority
May 13, 2021 — nonprovisional of PCTCN2021093609
Examiner
PHAM, BRENDA H
Art Unit
2412
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
Qualcomm Incorporated
OA Round
2 (Non-Final)
91%
Grant Probability
Favorable
2-3
OA Rounds
0m
Est. Remaining
93%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 91% — above average
91%
Career Allowance Rate
1079 granted / 1189 resolved
+32.7% vs TC avg
Minimal +2% lift
Without
With
+2.0%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 7m
Avg Prosecution
24 currently pending
Career history
1205
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
10.5%
-29.5% vs TC avg
§103
32.9%
-7.1% vs TC avg
§102
28.4%
-11.6% vs TC avg
§112
15.3%
-24.7% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 1189 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 . Allowable Subject Matter The indicated allowability of claims 1 and 10 is withdrawn in view of the newly discovered reference(s) to AGIWAL et al. (US 2021/0013949 A1). Rejections based on the newly cited reference(s) follow. 3. Claims 1, 3-10, 12-18, 37, 39 and 53-57 are pending. 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. Claim(s) 1, 3-4, 10, 12-13, 37, 39 and 53-54 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (US 2022/0271887 A1) in view of AGIWAL et al. (US 2021/0013949 A1). Regarding claims 1, 10, 37, 39, 53-54, Zhang et al. discloses a method of wireless communication (“Beam Failure Recovery for Use Equipment communication with Multiple Transmission and Reception Points”), comprising: detecting, by a user equipment (UE), a beam failure associated with at least one transmission/reception point (TRP) of a plurality of TRPs transmitting to the UE (TRP 510 and TRP 520 may both provide configuration information for beam failure detection to UE 550.”), each TRP associated with separate Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) resources for beam failure recovery (BFR) ([0093]: “multiple dedicated SRs may be configured such that each SR corresponds to one TRP (e.g., BFD/CBD set). Accordingly, the PUCCH resource for the SR should also corresponding to one TRP.”); and applying, by the UE and in response to the detecting, a BFR procedure across BFR PUCCH resources of the TRPs transmitting to the UE. ([0118]: “In step 906, the UE may then transmit a scheduling request requesting resources for indicating the beam failures associated with their respective TRPs. In other words, the UE may wish to transmit beam information to one or more TRPs or base stations as part of a beam failure recovery procedure.” In order to do so, the UE may transmit said scheduling request to a base station or TRP to request resources for a subsequent beam failure indication transmission.”); ([0125]: “after the UE receives the beam failure recovery response based on the timelines of FIG. 7-10, to UE may have additional behavioral options with regard to uplink power control for physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) transmissions. For example, the UE may apply certain common power control parameters sets (eg., alpha, closed-loop index) to the PUCCH associated with the newly identified or selected candidate beam. Alternatively, some power control parameters such as closed-loop index should be separately applied to the PUCCH associated with the newly identified or selected beam. For example, PUCCH resources associated with a first beam should be based on a first closet loop index, and PUCCH resources associated with a second beam should be based on a second closed-loop index. In other embodiments, the UE may separately apply multiple power control parameter sets (e.g., P0, alpha, closed-loop index) to the PUCCH associated with the newly identified or selected beams.”). Zhang et al. fails to teach wherein: the BFR procedure is parameterized by a single sr-ProhibitTimer, a single sr-TransMax, a single SchedulingRequestId across the PUCCH resources, and the BFR procedure uses a single SR-COUNTER variable across the BFR PUCCH resources. AGIWAL et al. in the same field of invention, teach these features. ([0028]: “SR identifier for BFR identifies the SR configuration to be sued for SCell BFR. A list of SR configurations is configured per cel group via RRC message. SR identifier (SchedulingRequestId) associated with each SR configuration is signaled by gNB. A SR configuration includes value of sr-ProhibitTimer and sr-TransMax and schedulingRequestId.”), ([0081]: “Referring to FIG. 3, if SR is triggered for SCell BFR and PUCCH resource is configured for this SR, UE sets SR counter to 0 at operation 310. If the SR counter is smaller than sr-TransMax, the UE transmits the SR in SR resource, starts sr-ProhibitTimer, and increments the SR counter at operation 330. If the SR is not pending when sr-ProhibitTimer expires at operation 340, the UE determines whether the SR counter is smaller than sr-TransMax at operation 320. If the SR counter is not smaller than sr-TransMax at counter reaches sr-TransMax, the UE initiates random access procedure on the SpCell at operation 350.”) It would have been obvious to those having ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to configure parameters, such as, sr-ProhibitTimer, sr-TransMax and SchedulingRequestId, such as teaching in AGIWAL et al. in Zhang et al. Regarding claims 3 and 12, AGIWAL et al. further teaches wherein applying the BFR procedure comprises transmitting a BFR scheduling request (SR) on the BFR PUCCH resources determined by the UE. ([0081]: “Referring to FIG. 3, if SR is triggered for SCell BFR and PUCCH resource is configured for this SR, UE sets SR counter to 0 at operation 310. If the SR counter is smaller than sr-TransMax, the UE transmits the SR in SR resource, starts sr-ProhibitTimer, and increments the SR counter at operation 330. If the SR is not pending when sr-ProhibitTimer expires, the procedure ends. If the SR is still pending when sr-ProhibitTimer expires at operation 340, the UE determines whether the SR counter is smaller than sr-TransMax at operation 320. If the SR counter is not smaller than sr-TransMax, i.e., the SR counter reaches sr-TransMax, the UE initiates random access procedure on the SpCell at operation 350.”). Regarding claims 4 and 13, although Zhang et al. in view of AGIWAL et al. do not teach transmit a BFR scheduling request (SR) on the BFR PUCCH resources of a non-failed TRP, it would have been obvious to those having ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to transmit a BFR scheduling request (SR) on the BFR PUCCH resources of a non-failed TRP. Claim 55 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (US 2022/0271887 A1) in view of AGIWAL et al. (US 2021/0013949 A1), further in view of Tseng et al. (US 2010/0184445 A1). Regarding claim 55, Zhang et al. in view of AGIWAL et al. fails to teach wherein the single maximum number of SR transmission is during a time. Tseng et al. in the same field of invention, teaches ([0031]: “the said SR parameter can be a parameter dsr-TransMax, a parameter sr-PUCCH-ResourceIndex, or a parameter sr-ConfigIndex. The dsr-TransMax is utilized for indicating a maximum of transmission times of the SR. It would have been obvious to those having ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize a single maximum number of SR transmission during a time (e.g., dsr-TransMax), such as in Tseng et al. Claim(s) 5-7 and 14-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (US 2022/0271887 A1) in view of AGIWAL et al. (US 2021/0013949 A1) further in view of Zhou et al. (US 2019/0306875 A1). Regarding claims 5-7, 14-16, Zhang et al. in view of AGIWAL et al. fails to teach choosing the BFR PUCCH resources for transmitting a BFR SR in accordance with the received BFR procedure configuration; and transmitting the BFR SR on the chosen BFR PUCCH resources. Zhou et al. in the same field of invention, teaches this feature. Zhou et al. teaches ([0396]: “The wireless device may indicate a failure of the BFR to a higher layer (e.g., RRC layer). By implementing the embodiments, the wireless device may improve latency of the BFR procedure. A wireless device may choose an uplink resource, which is available earlier in time (e.g., a PUCCH resource or a PRACH resource) to transmit a BFR signal.”). It would have been obvious to those having ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to select uplink resource. Allowable Subject Matter Claims 8-9, 17-18 and 56-57 are allowed over prior art made of record. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRENDA H PHAM whose telephone number is (571)272-3135. The examiner can normally be reached 571-272-3135. 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 at 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 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. BRENDA H. PHAM Primary Examiner Art Unit 2412 /BRENDA H PHAM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2412
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Prosecution Timeline

Oct 30, 2023
Application Filed
Nov 20, 2025
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §103
Feb 20, 2026
Response Filed
Jul 06, 2026
Request for Continued Examination
Jul 11, 2026
Response after Non-Final Action
Sep 02, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §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

2-3
Expected OA Rounds
91%
Grant Probability
93%
With Interview (+2.0%)
2y 7m (~0m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Moderate
PTA Risk
Based on 1189 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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