Prosecution Insights
Last updated: July 17, 2026
Application No. 18/675,282

Wake-Up Signal for Discontinuous Reception Operations

Non-Final OA §102
Filed
May 28, 2024
Priority
Oct 14, 2020 — nonprovisional of PCTCN2020120856 +1 more
Examiner
WASHINGTON, ERIKA ALISE
Art Unit
2644
Tech Center
2600 — Communications
Assignee
Apple Inc.
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
89%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
0m
Est. Remaining
93%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 89% — above average
89%
Career Allowance Rate
906 granted / 1017 resolved
+27.1% vs TC avg
Minimal +4% lift
Without
With
+4.3%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 2m
Avg Prosecution
23 currently pending
Career history
1029
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
1.6%
-38.4% vs TC avg
§103
33.9%
-6.1% vs TC avg
§102
31.6%
-8.4% vs TC avg
§112
5.9%
-34.1% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 1017 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 . 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)(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. Claim(s) 27-29, 34-36, and 41 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Bao et al., CN 113038634 (hereinafter Bao). Regarding claims 27 and 34, Bao discloses an apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to: monitor a wake up signal (WUS) occasion during a Discontinuous Reception (DRX) cycle of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) Idle mode or RRC Inactive mode to determine whether a WUS is received during the WUS occasion; when the WUS is received, determine whether the WUS identifies a specific user equipment (UE); when the WUS is received and identifies the specific UE, monitor an OnDuration of the DRX cycle corresponding to the WUS; and decode paging Downlink Control Information (DCI) received during the OnDuration [reproduced from translation: “In the existing communication system, in order to further improve the power-saving performance of the terminal device, a wake-up signal based on PDCCH (Wake Up Signal (WUS) is introduced, wherein The WUS may also be referred to as a downlink control information (DCI with CRC) by a PS-RNTI with a cyclic redundancy check scrambled by a temporary identifier of the power-saving wireless network (abbreviated as DCP). WUS function is to inform the terminal device in the DRX duration (onDuration) period, whether it is necessary to monitor the PDCCH, so that the terminal device can according to the WUS indication, determining whether the next DRX period starts the onDuration timer; and whether to perform PDCCH monitoring.”; and “The WUS is a Downlink Control Information (DCI), for short as DCP (DCI with CRC) by PS-RNTI; wherein the power-saving wireless network temporary identifier (i.e., PS-RNTI) is an RNTI dedicated for power-saving characteristic allocated to the terminal device by the network, and the DCI scrambled by the PS-RNTI carries the wakeup/sleep indication of the network to the terminal device. “] Regarding claims 28 and 35, Bao discloses wherein the WUS corresponds to more than one OnDuration [reproduced from translation: “wherein the terminal device is configured with a WUS or at least two WUS, the one WUS comprises at least two indication bits, the at least two indication bits respectively to different DRX groups in the at least two DRX groups; each indication bit respectively the at least two indication bits is used for indicating whether to start the onDuration timer of the next DRX period of the DRX group corresponding to each indication bit”]. Regarding claims 29 and 36, Bao discloses wherein the WUS is encoded as a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) error detection code that is scrambled by a Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI) [reproduced from translation: “The WUS is a Downlink Control Information (DCI), for short as DCP (DCI with CRC) by PS-RNTI; wherein the power-saving wireless network temporary identifier (i.e., PS-RNTI) is an RNTI dedicated for power-saving characteristic allocated to the terminal device by the network, and the DCI scrambled by the PS-RNTI carries the wakeup/sleep indication of the network to the terminal device. “]. Regarding claim 41, Bao discloses an apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to: determine whether a user equipment (UE) is to wake up for an OnDuration of a Discontinuous Reception (DRX) cycle; when the UE is to wake up, generate, for transmission to the UE, a wake up signal (WUS) during a (WUS) occasion corresponding to the OnDuration; and encode the WUS as a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) error detection code that is scrambled by a Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI) [reproduced from translation: “In the existing communication system, in order to further improve the power-saving performance of the terminal device, a wake-up signal based on PDCCH (Wake Up Signal (WUS) is introduced, wherein The WUS may also be referred to as a downlink control information (DCI with CRC) by a PS-RNTI with a cyclic redundancy check scrambled by a temporary identifier of the power-saving wireless network (abbreviated as DCP). WUS function is to inform the terminal device in the DRX duration (onDuration) period, whether it is necessary to monitor the PDCCH, so that the terminal device can according to the WUS indication, determining whether the next DRX period starts the onDuration timer; and whether to perform PDCCH monitoring.”]. Claim(s) 27 and 34 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Loehr et al., US Patent Application Publication Number 2021/0084586 (hereinafter Loehr). Regarding claims 27 and 34, Loehr discloses an apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to: monitor a wake up signal (WUS) occasion during a Discontinuous Reception (DRX) cycle of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) Idle mode or RRC Inactive mode to determine whether a WUS is received during the WUS occasion [paragraphs 0047, 0050]; when the WUS is received, determine whether the WUS identifies a specific user equipment (UE) [paragraph 0060]; when the WUS is received and identifies the specific UE, monitor an OnDuration of the DRX cycle corresponding to the WUS [paragraph 0060]; and decode paging Downlink Control Information (DCI) received during the OnDuration [paragraph 0060]. Claim(s) 27, 34, and 41 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Jiang et al., EP 3920599 (hereinafter Jiang). Regarding claims 27 and 34, Jiang discloses an apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to: monitor a wake up signal (WUS) occasion during a Discontinuous Reception (DRX) cycle of a Radio Resource Control (RRC) Idle mode or RRC Inactive mode to determine whether a WUS is received during the WUS occasion; when the WUS is received, determine whether the WUS identifies a specific user equipment (UE); when the WUS is received and identifies the specific UE, monitor an OnDuration of the DRX cycle corresponding to the WUS; and decode paging Downlink Control Information (DCI) received during the OnDuration [paragraph 0036]. Regarding claim 41, Jiang discloses an apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to: determine whether a user equipment (UE) is to wake up for an OnDuration of a Discontinuous Reception (DRX) cycle; when the UE is to wake up, generate, for transmission to the UE, a wake up signal (WUS) during a (WUS) occasion corresponding to the OnDuration; and encode the WUS as a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) error detection code that is scrambled by a Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI) [paragraph 0036]. Allowable Subject Matter Claims 30-33, 37-40, 42-44 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 The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Tsai et al., US Patent Application Publication Number 2025/0330910, disclose a method of physical downlink control channel monitoring and related device. Karjalainen et al., WO 2020/141014, disclose improving operation of beam-based wireless communication network. Wu et al., CN 111432460, disclose a physical downlink control channel monitoring method, terminal device and storage medium. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ERIKA WASHINGTON whose telephone number is (571)272-7841. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Thursday. 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, Kathy Wang-Hurst can be reached at 571-270-5371. 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. /EAW/ June 17, 2026 /ERIKA A WASHINGTON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2644
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

May 28, 2024
Application Filed
Jun 23, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §102 (current)

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
89%
Grant Probability
93%
With Interview (+4.3%)
2y 2m (~0m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 1017 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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