Prosecution Insights
Last updated: October 02, 2026
Application No. 18/703,872

TERMINAL AND COMMUNICATION METHOD

Final Rejection §103
Filed
Apr 23, 2024
Priority
Oct 28, 2021 — nonprovisional of PCTJP2021039925
Examiner
SHAHEED, KHALID W
Art Unit
2643
Tech Center
2600 — Communications
Assignee
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation
OA Round
2 (Final)
83%
Grant Probability
Favorable
3-4
OA Rounds
2m
Est. Remaining
98%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 83% — above average
83%
Career Allowance Rate
725 granted / 872 resolved
+21.1% vs TC avg
Moderate +15% lift
Without
With
+14.9%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 7m
Avg Prosecution
26 currently pending
Career history
906
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
6.7%
-33.3% vs TC avg
§103
53.6%
+13.6% vs TC avg
§102
27.8%
-12.2% vs TC avg
§112
9.2%
-30.8% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 872 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 . Response to Arguments Applicant’s arguments and amendments with respect to claim(s) 6/26/2026 have been considered but are moot in view of new grounds of rejection. 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) 1-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yin et al. (US 2012/0127869 A1) in view of Yerramalli et al. (S 2019/0182826 A1). Regarding claim 1, Yin discloses a terminal comprising: a transmitter configured to transmit a plurality of types of uplink control information (see uplink/downlink [0001]) to a base station (see transmission structure, [0005]); and a processor (see processor [0011]) configured to control the uplink control information to be transmitted via an uplink shared channel (uplink shared channel [0045]) that is periodically scheduled (see [0045], “physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) is scheduled) ”) as a resource that can be used for any one of the plurality of types of uplink control information (see types of uplink [0070]); Yin does not explicitly disclose however Yerramalli discloses wherein, when uplink data occurs and a transmission of the uplink shared channel is not sufficient for a transmission of the uplink data (see [0031], discloses uplink shared channel have insufficient resources as related to UCI), the processor is configured to use the uplink shared channel for a transmission of a scheduling request (then discloses scheduling request using uplink shared channel); It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to combine the teachings of Yin with that of Yerramalli. Doing so would conform to well-known techniques in the field of invention. Regarding claim 2, Yin discloses the terminal as claimed in claim 1, wherein the plurality of types of uplink control information include at least one of HARQ response information corresponding to data received from the base station (see HARQ-ACK, [0051]), or a buffer status report, or channel status information (see channel status information, [0051]). Regarding claim 3, Yin discloses the terminal as claimed in claim 1, wherein in a case where transmission of a plurality of types of uplink control information occurs, the control unit controls all of the plurality of types of uplink control information to be transmitted when there is a sufficient amount of resources (see [0051], “minimum amount of resource”) for transmitting all of the types of uplink control information (see [0070], “different types of uplink control information (UCI)”), and, otherwise, controls some of the plurality of types of uplink control information to be selected to be transmitted (see [0070], “different types of uplink control information (UCI) 228 may be provided by the eNode B 202 or by predefined rules”). Regarding claim 4, Yin discloses the terminal as claimed in claim 3, wherein in a case where transmission of a plurality of types of uplink control information occurs, the control unit controls some of the plurality of types of uplink control information to be selected to be transmitted according to a predefined priority order (see [0070], “ The priority of different types of uplink control information (UCI) 228 may be provided by the eNode B 202 or by predefined rules”) when there is an insufficient amount of resources for transmitting all of the plurality of types of uplink control information (see minimum [0051]). Regarding claim 5, Yin discloses a communication method performed by a terminal, the communication method comprising: transmitting a plurality of types of uplink control information to a base station (see transmission fig. 2); and controlling the uplink control information to be transmitted via an uplink shared channel that is periodically scheduled as a resource (physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) is scheduled, see [0045]) that can be used for any one of the plurality of types of uplink control information (see [0070], see “types of uplink”); and Yin does not explicitly disclose however Yerramalli discloses when uplink data occurs and a transmission of the uplink shared channel is not sufficient for a transmission of the uplink data (see [0031], discloses uplink shared channel have insufficient resources as related to UCI), the processor is configured to use the uplink shared channel for a transmission of a scheduling request (then discloses scheduling request using uplink shared channel); It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to combine the teachings of Yin with that of Yerramalli. Doing so would conform to well-known techniques in the field of invention. Regarding claim 6, Yin discloses the terminal as claimed in claim 2, wherein in a case where transmission of a plurality of types of uplink control information occurs, the processor controls all of the plurality of types of uplink control information to be transmitted when there is a sufficient amount of resources for transmitting all of the types of uplink control information (see [0051], “The minimum amount of resource’), and, otherwise, controls some of the plurality of types of uplink control information to be selected to be transmitted (see [0078], “channel selection or physical uplink control channel”). Conclusion Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a). A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to K. WILFORD SHAHEED whose telephone number is (469) 295-9175. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 9 am-6pm; CST; ALT Friday. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. The examiner’s Supervisor, Jinsong Hu, can be reached at (571)272-3965, where attempts to reach the examiner are unsuccessful. 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. /KHALID W SHAHEED/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2643
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Apr 23, 2024
Application Filed
Mar 26, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §103
Jun 26, 2026
Response Filed
Aug 25, 2026
Final Rejection mailed — §103 (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

3-4
Expected OA Rounds
83%
Grant Probability
98%
With Interview (+14.9%)
2y 7m (~2m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Moderate
PTA Risk
Based on 872 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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