Prosecution Insights
Last updated: April 19, 2026
Application No. 18/570,946

UE BASED PDCCH MONITORING ADAPTATION DURING SDT

Non-Final OA §102
Filed
Dec 15, 2023
Examiner
RIVAS, RAUL
Art Unit
2471
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
Nokia Technologies Oy
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
83%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
2y 10m
To Grant
93%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 83% — above average
83%
Career Allow Rate
391 granted / 471 resolved
+25.0% vs TC avg
Moderate +10% lift
Without
With
+10.0%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 10m
Avg Prosecution
44 currently pending
Career history
515
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
3.1%
-36.9% vs TC avg
§103
64.1%
+24.1% vs TC avg
§102
20.3%
-19.7% vs TC avg
§112
4.4%
-35.6% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 471 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 . This action is in response to the application filed on 12/15/2023. The Claims 1-53 have been canceled by the applicant. The Claims 54-73 have been newly added by the applicant. Claim Rejections – 35 USC § 102 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. Claims 54-73 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Pelletier et al. (U.S. Pub. 20120281566). Regarding claim 65 Pelletier teaches, an apparatus comprising: at least one processor para. 37, “a processor 118”; and at least one memory para. 37, “memory 106” storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to: transmit, to a user equipment, a configuration for physical downlink control channel monitoring para. 180, “may perform an uplink transmissions on a PUSCH resource in the special subframe according to PDCCH control signaling,”; receive, from the user equipment, a data transmission para. 55, “A WTRU is granted radio resources by the eNB for a transmission on a PUSCH, indicated in a grant received on the PDCCH or on configured resources”; select a physical downlink control channel monitoring pattern based, at least on the configuration and at least one of: information of the data transmission, or a physical random access channel preamble received from the user equipment; and perform a transmission to the user equipment based on the selected physical downlink control channel monitoring pattern para. 56, “a WTRU determines whether or not it needs to act on control signaling in a given sub-frame by monitoring the PDCCH for specific downlink control information (DCI) messages… using different combinations of physical resources (i.e., control channel elements (CCEs)) based on aggregation levels (ALs). Each AL corresponds to either 1, 2, 4, or 8 CCEs”. Regarding claim 66 Pelletier teaches, wherein the transmission comprises one of: an acknowledgement of the data transmission para. 68, “WTRU may be configured with dedicated uplink resources for SPS, as well as with an uplink PUCCH resource for HARQ acknowledgement (ACK) for a corresponding DL SPS configuration”, a scheduling grant for a subsequent transmission, or a radio resource control release message. Regarding claim 67 Pelletier teaches, wherein the configuration for physical downlink control channel monitoring comprises an indication of at least one of: one or more small data transmission specific search spaces, one or more small data transmission specific search space groups, or one or more small data transmission specific physical downlink control channel monitoring skipping configurations para. 57, “The PDCCH is separated in two distinct regions. The set of CCE locations in which a WTRU may find DCIs it needs to act on is referred to as a search space”, wherein the indication is associated with at least one trigger, wherein selecting the physical downlink control channel monitoring pattern is based on the at least one trigger. Regarding claim 68 Pelletier teaches, wherein the at least one trigger comprises at least one of: whether the data transmission includes a buffer status report or a buffer status report index, a content of the data transmission, the physical random access channel preamble received from the user equipment para. 67, “The WTRU then receives a random access response (RAR). The RAR contains a grant for an uplink transmission and a timing advance command (TAC). For the CBRA, for contention resolution, the WTRU determines whether or not it successfully completed the RACH procedure based on either C-RNTI on a PDCCH or WTRU contention resolution identity on a DL-SCH.”, reference signal received power information included with the data transmission, reference signal received quality information included with the data transmission, a power headroom report included with the data transmission, one or more random access resources used for the data transmission, a physical downlink control channel monitoring pattern indicated with the user equipment to the apparatus, whether the apparatus previously served the user equipment, an amount of pending data for small data transmission, a type of the pending data for small data transmission, a size of a buffer of the data transmission, a size of a buffer of at least one predetermined logical channel group of the data transmission, or a signaling radio bearer or data radio bearer associated with the pending data for data transmission. Regarding claim 69 Pelletier teaches, wherein the at least one predetermined logical channel group comprises at least one of: at least one logical channel group with a priority above a threshold level, at least one logical channel group having at least one predetermined priority, at least one logical channel allowed for small data transmission para. 116, “This may be applied to the buffer status for a subset of the configured logical channel groups (LCGs) and/or logical channels (LCHs) and some data, (e.g., data for one or more LCH(s) that correspond to a specific QoS/service) may be excluded”, or at least one network configured logical channel group. Regarding claim 70 Pelletier teaches, wherein the configuration for physical downlink control channel monitoring is transmitted via one of: a system information block, dedicated radio resource control signaling para. 164, “he WTRU may use an L3 (e.g., RRC) configured occasion that may differ from the WTRU-specific paging occasion. For example, the WTRU may monitor a PDCCH for its C-RNTI on a scheduling occasion. One scheduling frame may correspond to one radio frame, which may contain one or more scheduling occasions.”, or a radio resource release message. Regarding claim 71 Pelletier teaches, wherein the selected physical downlink control channel monitoring pattern includes a back-off timer para. 164, “, until the relevant timer(s) expires such that the WTRU may disable reception of control signaling at least until the next wake-up occasion”. Regarding claim 72 Pelletier teaches, wherein the data transmission comprises at least one of: an initial transmission in a small data transfer procedure, or a subsequent transmission in the small data transfer procedure para. 164, “on a condition that the WTRU successfully decodes a DCI, it may extend the PDCCH monitoring activity for a number of subsequent subframes, (e.g., based on a timer which may be restarted upon successful decoding of control signaling and/or using an L2 DRX if configured)”. Regarding claim 73 Pelletier teaches, wherein the performing of the transmission comprises: transmitting the transmission with a time and/or frequency resource selected based on the selected physical downlink control channel monitoring pattern para. 159, “the WTRU may transmit an SRS in subframes for which it monitors control signaling. Alternatively, the WTRU may transmit an SRS in a special subframe”. Claim 54 recites an apparatus corresponding to the method of claim 65 and thus is rejected under the same reason set forth in the rejection of claim 65. Regarding claims 55-61 the limitations of claims 55-61, respectively, are rejected in the same manner as analyzed above with respect to claims 66-72, respectively. Regarding claim 62 the limitations of claim 62 are rejected in the same manner as analyzed above with respect to claim 65. Regarding claims 63-64 the limitations of claims 63-64, respectively, are rejected in the same manner as analyzed above with respect to claims 55-56, respectively. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RAUL RIVAS whose telephone number is (571)270–5590. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday – Friday, from 8:30am to 5:00pm. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner' s supervisor, Sujoy K. Kundu, can be reached on (571) 272 - 8586. 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. /RR/ Examiner, Art Unit 2471 /MOHAMMAD S ADHAMI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2471
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Dec 15, 2023
Application Filed
Dec 15, 2023
Response after Non-Final Action
Jan 10, 2026
Non-Final Rejection — §102 (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
83%
Grant Probability
93%
With Interview (+10.0%)
2y 10m
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 471 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow rate.

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