Prosecution Insights
Last updated: April 19, 2026
Application No. 18/618,768

DIRECTIONAL COLLISION HANDLING FOR NON-CELL-DEFINING SYNCHRONIZATION SIGNAL BLOCK

Non-Final OA §102
Filed
Mar 27, 2024
Examiner
CHO, HONG SOL
Art Unit
2467
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
Qualcomm Incorporated
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
88%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
2y 7m
To Grant
95%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 88% — above average
88%
Career Allow Rate
959 granted / 1092 resolved
+29.8% vs TC avg
Moderate +7% lift
Without
With
+6.9%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 7m
Avg Prosecution
10 currently pending
Career history
1102
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
5.9%
-34.1% vs TC avg
§103
47.3%
+7.3% vs TC avg
§102
22.3%
-17.7% vs TC avg
§112
10.0%
-30.0% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 1092 resolved cases

Office Action

§102
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 . DETAILED ACTION 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. (a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. Claims 1, 12 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 meeting #111 R1-2212086, Remaining issues on procedures of RedCap UE (hereinafter referred to “R1”). Re claims 1, 12 and 20, R1 discloses receiving/transmitting a first configuration for operating in a time division duplexing (TDD) band having one or more downlink (DL) slots or DL symbols and one or more uplink (UL) slots or UL symbols (Sect. 3: "[---] 3. TDD Slot Format and RO validation associated with NCD-SSB dd-UL-DL- ConfigurationCommon and tdd-UL-DL-ConfigurationDedicated."). and receiving/transmitting a second configuration for reception of a non- cell-defining (NCD) synchronization signal and physical broadcast channel block (SSB) (NCD-SSB) and directional collision handling associated with the NCD-SSB (Sect. 3: "[...] For operation on a single carrier in unpaired spectrum, if a RedCap UE operates on an active DL BWP configured with NCD-SSB and on an active UL BWP configured with PRACH resources: - the valid PRACH occasion(s) will not overlap with SSB symbols of NCD-SSB and CD- SSB"). Allowable Subject Matter Claims 2-11 and 13-19 are 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 Hong Cho whose telephone number is 571-272-3087. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Fri during 8 am to 4 pm. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Hassan Phillips can be reached on 571-272-3940. 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). /HONG S CHO/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2467
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Mar 27, 2024
Application Filed
Mar 03, 2026
Non-Final Rejection — §102 (current)

Precedent Cases

Applications granted by this same examiner with similar technology

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2y 5m to grant Granted Apr 14, 2026
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2y 5m to grant Granted Apr 07, 2026
Patent 12593270
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2y 5m to grant Granted Mar 31, 2026
Patent 12587957
METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CELLULAR PREFERENCE
2y 5m to grant Granted Mar 24, 2026
Patent 12574837
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2y 5m to grant Granted Mar 10, 2026
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
95%
With Interview (+6.9%)
2y 7m
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 1092 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow rate.

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