Prosecution Insights
Last updated: May 29, 2026
Application No. 18/722,125

DETERMINISTIC RADIO NETWORKS CONFIGURED FOR TIME-SENSITIVE NETWORKING (TSN) COMMUNICATION

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Jun 20, 2024
Priority
Dec 20, 2021 — provisional 63/291,500 +2 more
Examiner
KASSA, ZEWDU A
Art Unit
2635
Tech Center
2600 — Communications
Assignee
Dolby Intellectual Property Licensing LLC
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
89%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
5m
Est. Remaining
94%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 89% — above average
89%
Career Allowance Rate
720 granted / 813 resolved
+26.6% vs TC avg
Moderate +5% lift
Without
With
+5.2%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 4m
Avg Prosecution
10 currently pending
Career history
827
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
1.6%
-38.4% vs TC avg
§103
88.9%
+48.9% vs TC avg
§102
4.4%
-35.6% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 813 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 . 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. Claims 1-3, 14, 17-19, 30 and 33-38 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Meng (US 2023/0135270) in view of Szabo (US 2023/0345521) and Kwon (US 2012/0082116). 2. As per claim 1, Meng teaches an apparatus for wireless communication with at least one device, comprising: at least one processor capable of communicating deterministic traffic (Meng, ¶0002-0005 “… TSN … processor”); While Meng doesn’t explicitly mention, Szabo configured to: obtain configuration values based on estimated quality of each of a plurality of subchannels between the apparatus and the at least one device (Szabo, ¶0066 “channel quality”); adjust the configuration values such that variance in quality of the plurality of subchannels is minimized (Szabo, ¶0071); and transmit data to the at least one device receiver node via the plurality of subchannels in accordance with the adjusted configuration values (Szabo, ¶0066. Furthermore, it is well-known in the art to obtain estimated quality of plurality of subchannels and to adjust configuration such as according to subchannel condition, priority and/or type of service for a successful communication system according to required service – see Kwon US 2012/0082116 for example ¶0064- 0065). Therefore, taking the combined teaching of Meng, Szabo and Kwon as a whole, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention for the benefit of adjusting configuration such as according to subchannel condition, priority and/or type of service for a successful communication system according to required service. 3. Claim 17 is similarly analyzed as claim 1 for obviousness reason discussed above. 4. As per claim 2, Meng in view of Szabo and Kwon teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one device is configured to: estimate quality of each of the plurality of subchannels by determining a signal strength perceived by each of the plurality of subchannels (Know, ¶0064); and transmit, to the apparatus, the configuration values based on the signal strength perceived by each of the plurality of subchannels (Szabo, ¶0066). 5. Claim 18 is similarly analyzed as claim 2 for obviousness reason discussed above. 6. As per claim 3, Meng in view of Szabo and Kwon teaches the apparatus of claim 2, wherein the at least one device is configured to determine the signal strength perceived by each of the plurality of subchannels based on a pilot signal received from the apparatus via the plurality of subchannels (Kwon, ¶0019 “reference signal”). 7. Claim 19 is similarly analyzed as claim 3 for obviousness reason discussed above. 8. As per claim 14, Meng in view of Szabo and Kwon teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein adjusting the configuration values comprises at least one of adjusting a frequency or a time slot used to transmit the data to the at least one device; or adjusting adjust a modulation and coding scheme from among a plurality of modulation and coding schemes used to transmit the data to the at least one device (Kwon, ¶0045). 9. Claim 30 is similarly analyzed as claim 14 for obviousness reason discussed above. 10. As per claim 33, Meng in view of Szabo and Kwon teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the variance is computed based on a linear average of signal strengths perceived by the plurality of subchannels (Kwon, ¶0045). 11. Claim 35 is similarly analyzed as claim 33 for obviousness reason discussed above. 12. As per claim 34, Meng in view of Szabo and Kwon teaches the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one device is configured to transmit, to the apparatus, the configuration values via a report of channel state information (CSI) (Kwon, ¶0045); and the report of CSI is sent to the apparatus in response to a known training sequence periodically transmitted by the apparatus (Kwon, ¶0007). 13. Claim 36 is similarly analyzed as claim 34 for obviousness reason discussed above. 14. As per claim 36, Meng in view of Szabo and Kwon teaches the method of claim 17, wherein the at least one device is configured to transmit, to the apparatus, the configuration values via a report of channel state information (CSI); and the report of CSI is sent to the apparatus in response to a known training sequence periodically transmitted by the apparatus. 15. As per claim 37, Meng teaches a device, comprising: at least one processor capable of communicating deterministic traffic (Meng, ¶0002-0005 “… TSN … processor”). While Meng doesn’t explicitly mention, Szabo configured to: estimate quality of each of a plurality of subchannels between the device and an apparatus (Szabo, ¶0066 “channel quality”); transmit, to the apparatus, configuration values based on the estimated quality of each of the plurality of subchannels, wherein the configuration values are adjusted by the apparatus (Szabo, ¶0071); and receive data from the apparatus via the plurality of subchannels in accordance with the adjusted configuration values (Szabo, ¶0066. Furthermore, it is well-known in the art to obtain estimated quality of plurality of subchannels and to adjust configuration such as according to subchannel condition, priority and/or type of service for a successful communication system according to required service – see Kwon US 2012/0082116 for example ¶0064- 0065). Therefore, taking the combined teaching of Meng, Szabo and Kwon as a whole, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention for the benefit of adjusting configuration such as according to subchannel condition, priority and/or type of service for a successful communication system according to required service. 16. Claim 38 is similarly analyzed as claim 37 for obviousness reason discussed above. Allowable Subject Matter 17. Claims 4-7, 10, 20-23 and 26 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 ZEWDU A KASSA whose telephone number is (571)270-5253. The examiner can normally be reached 9-5:30. 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, David Payne can be reached at 5712723024. 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. ZEWDU A. KASSA Examiner Art Unit 2637 /ZEWDU A KASSA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2635
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Prosecution Timeline

Jun 20, 2024
Application Filed
Jan 28, 2026
Non-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

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
89%
Grant Probability
94%
With Interview (+5.2%)
2y 4m (~5m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 813 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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