Prosecution Insights
Last updated: April 19, 2026
Application No. 18/682,335

RANDOM ACCESS PROCESS CONTROL METHODS AND RELATED DEVICE

Non-Final OA §112
Filed
Feb 08, 2024
Examiner
CHO, HONG SOL
Art Unit
2467
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
ZTE CORPORATION
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

§112
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 § 112 The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b): (B) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention. The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, second paragraph: The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention. Claim 30 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention. Re claim 30, the original specification fails to provide clear support for what a computer program product has been positively disclosed as. Allowable Subject Matter Claims 1-8, 10, 12-14, 18, 21, 23 and 26-29 are allowable. The following is an examiner's statement for reasons for allowance. Claim 1 is allowable over the prior art of record since the cited references taken individually or in combination fail to particularly teach or fairly suggest transmitting a plurality of uplink signals repeatedly after receiving a random access response message, relaying first and second uplink signals in different preset modes. determining a type of the terminal based on a reception situation of the uplink signals in response to receiving the plurality of uplink signals transmitted by the terminal repeatedly according to the random access response message. Claim 14 is allowable over the prior art of record since the cited references taken individually or in combination fail to particularly teach or fairly suggest relaying the plurality of uplink signals to the network device according to the second configuration information in response to receiving a plurality of uplink signals transmitted by the terminal repeatedly according to a random access response message, wherein uplink signals are relayed in different preset modes, and determining a type of the terminal according to a reception situation of the uplink signals. Claim 21 is allowable over the prior art of record since the cited references taken individually or in combination fail to particularly teach or fairly suggest transmitting a plurality of uplink signals repeatedly to network device according to first configuration information issued by a network device in response to receiving a random access response message from the network device, determining a type of the terminal based on a reception situation of the uplink signals; or, transmitting a plurality of uplink signals repeatedly to the signal conditioning apparatus according to the first configuration information, wherein the plurality of uplink signals are relayed by the signal conditioning apparatus to the network device to determine the type of the terminal according to a reception situation of the uplink signals, and the first uplink signal and the second uplink signal are relayed by the signal conditioning apparatus in different preset modes. 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

Feb 08, 2024
Application Filed
Jan 20, 2026
Non-Final Rejection — §112 (current)

Precedent Cases

Applications granted by this same examiner with similar technology

Patent 12604269
TRANSMITTING AND RECEIVING LOW POWER SIGNALS
2y 5m to grant Granted Apr 14, 2026
Patent 12598545
COMMUNICATION METHOD AND COMMUNICATION DEVICE
2y 5m to grant Granted Apr 07, 2026
Patent 12593270
SELECTION ASSISTANCE INFORMATION FOR A NETWORK SLICE
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
Cell Selection with Coverage Recovery for Reduced Capability User Equipment
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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