Prosecution Insights
Last updated: July 17, 2026
Application No. 18/723,897

USER EQUIPMENT AND METHOD FOR SHARED PROCESSING OF UNICAST SERVICE AND MBS BROADCAST SERVICE

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Jun 25, 2024
Priority
Jan 17, 2022 — nonprovisional of PCTCN2022072396
Examiner
BUKHARI, SIBTE H
Art Unit
Tech Center
Assignee
TCL Communication Technology (Chengdu) Limited
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
79%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
1y 1m
Est. Remaining
99%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 79% — above average
79%
Career Allowance Rate
342 granted / 434 resolved
+18.8% vs TC avg
Strong +36% interview lift
Without
With
+36.2%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
3y 1m
Avg Prosecution
22 currently pending
Career history
456
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
0.7%
-39.3% vs TC avg
§103
91.8%
+51.8% vs TC avg
§102
5.7%
-34.3% vs TC avg
§112
1.0%
-39.0% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 434 resolved cases

Office Action

§103
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 This action is in response to application filed on 6/25/2024. Claims 1-17 & 30-32 have been examined and are pending with this action. Drawings The drawings were received on 6/25/2024 and these drawings are accepted. Information Disclosure Statement The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 6/25/2024 and 12/19/2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner. Oath/Declaration The Oath/Declaration filed on 6/14/2024 is accepted by the examiner. 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 of this title, 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 1-17 & 30-32 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Han (WO 2021184229 A1) in view of Zuniga (TW 201330673 A). As per claim 1, Han discloses a communication method, executable in a user equipment (Han: [Fig 14]:“ in FIG. 14 in the form of a wireless network computing device 1400 functioning as a network element of a communication network, such as a base station .”), comprising: receiving one or more report-triggering messages from one or more base stations (Han: “a UE may report ENTV broadcast related parameters to the unicast base station & In block 702, the processor may perform operations including receiving a trigger message from the gNB or an ENTV base station.”); and Han does not explicitly teaches unicast and MBS services. Zuniga however discloses upon receiving the one or more report-triggering messages, reporting information and related to shared processing of unicast service and broadcast service to one or more base stations (Han: [0121]: “he mobility management entity controlling the HO may trigger the sending of the MLD/IGMP report to join the multicast group when the HO is completed & Mobility server 912 can be located in unicast service network 910, multicast service network 915, and/or in a different domain than unicast and/or multicast networks.”); and Therefore it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Han in view of Zuniga to figure out unicast and MBS services. One would be motivated to do so because this technology aid in managing multicast traffic. (Zuniga). Claims 16 and 30 are rejected based on rationale provided for claim 1. As per claim 17, Han discloses a communication method, executable in a user equipment (Han: [Fig 14]:“ in FIG. 14 in the form of a wireless network computing device 1400 functioning as a network element of a communication network, such as a base station .”), comprising: sensing change of services or change of UE's one or more parameters (Han: “ ENTV capability reporting by a UE may include sending an ENTV capability message. The ENTV capability message may indicate one or more ENTV parameters including one or more of a supported band list for ENTV & the reported ENTV parameters may enable the gNB and the ENTV base station to provision ENTV services via broadcast and/or unicast to the UE so as to reduce interference between broadcast transmissions and unicast transmissions for ENTV services .”); and Han does not explicitly teaches unicast and MBS services. Zuniga however discloses and upon the sensing of such change, reporting information related to shared processing of unicast service and broadcast service to one or more base stations. (Zuniga: “the mobility management entity controlling the HO may trigger the sending of the MLD/IGMP report to join the multicast group when the HO is completed & Mobility server 912 can be located in unicast service network 910, multicast service network 915, and/or in a different domain than unicast and/or multicast networks.”); and Therefore it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Han in view of Zuniga to figure out unicast and MBS services. One would be motivated to do so because this technology aid in managing multicast traffic. (Zuniga). Claims 30 is rejected based on rationale provided for claim 17. As per claim 2, Han/Zuniga discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the one or more report-triggering messages are broadcast messages (Zuniga: “the mobility management entity controlling the HO may trigger the sending of the MLD/IGMP report to join the multicast group when the HO is completed & Mobility server 912 can be located in unicast service network 910, multicast service network 915, and/or in a different domain than unicast and/or multicast networks.”); and Therefore it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Han in view of Zuniga to figure out unicast and MBS services. One would be motivated to do so because this technology aid in managing multicast traffic. (Zuniga). As per claim 3, Han/Zuniga discloses the method of claim 2, wherein the broadcast messages include SIB messages, and/or MCCH messages (Zuniga: “ Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) can be used for Long Term Evolution (LTE) and/or Physical Multicast Channel (PMCH), Multicast Control Channel (MCCH) and Multicast Traffic Channel (MTCH) can be used.”); and Therefore it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Han in view of Zuniga to figure out unicast and MBS services. One would be motivated to do so because this technology aid in managing multicast traffic. (Zuniga). As per claim 4, Han/Zuniga discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the information related to shared processing of unicast service and broadcast service includes parameters related to baseband resource for receiving unicast and/or broadcast service (Han:” may report ENTV broadcast related parameters to the unicast base station.”). As per claim 5, Han/Zuniga discloses the method of claim 4, wherein the parameters related to baseband resource for receiving unicast and/or broadcast service include: frequency for receiving particular (type of) services, bandwidth that UE is able to use, and/or sub-carrier space (SCS) (Han: “ The interference between the unicast and broadcast transmissions in the same frequency band in current systems is related to the ENTV system bandwidth used for ENTV DL transmissions..”). As per claim 6, Han/Zuniga discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the information related to shared processing of unicast service and broadcast service includes one or more parameters related to supported bandwidth for receiving unicast and/or broadcast services (Han: “The interference between the unicast and broadcast transmissions in the same frequency band in current systems is related to the ENTV system bandwidth used for ENTV DL transmissions..”). As per claim 7, Han/Zuniga discloses the method of claim 6, wherein the one or more parameters related to supported bandwidth for receiving unicast and/or broadcast services include supportedbandcombination of UE (Zuniga: “ LMA 370 and MAG 380 may exchange information indicating that both support the multicast service using the messages described herein. Multicast WTRUs 340 and 350 may be added to the tunnel as they attach to mobile network 330..”); and Therefore it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Han in view of Zuniga to figure out unicast and MBS services. One would be motivated to do so because this technology aid in managing multicast traffic. (Zuniga). As per claim 8, Han/Zuniga discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the information related to shared processing of unicast service and broadcast service includes gap related information for network switching (Han: “Based on the ENTV capability message (e.g., a SR message) , the unicast base station (e.g., the gNB) may configure the measurement gap to avoid the UE missing ENTV paging. ”). As per claim 9, Han/Zuniga discloses the method of claim 8, wherein the gap related information includes gap starting time, duration of a gap, gap repetition period, and/or gap purpose (Han: “ With this reported ENTV paging cycle, a gNB may configure the measurement gap used when a UE camps on the unicast network. ”). As per claim 10, Han/Zuniga discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the information related to shared processing of unicast service and broadcast service includes an indicator of UE's willingness in leaving RRC_Connected mode (Han: “ the RRC sublayer 313 may provide functions INCLUDING broadcasting system information, paging, and establishing and releasing an RRC signaling connection between the wireless device 320 and the base station 350.”). As per claim 11, Han/Zuniga discloses the method of claim 1, wherein when unicast services and broadcast services are provided by a same base station, reporting only to the same base station (Han: “Based on the ENTV capability message (e.g., a SR message) , the unicast base station (e.g., the gNB) may configure the measurement gap to avoid the UE missing ENTV paging & Some aspects may further include receiving a trigger message from the gNB or an ENTV base station, wherein generating the ENTV capability message may include generating the ENTV capability message in response to the trigger message.”). As per claim 12, Han/Zuniga discloses the method of claim 1, wherein when unicast services and broadcast services are provided by separate base stations, reporting only to base stations that provide unicast (Han: “Based on the ENTV capability message (e.g., a SR message) , the unicast base station (e.g., the gNB) may configure the measurement gap to avoid the UE missing ENTV paging & In some implementations of ENTV, broadcast transmission for ENTV services may be provided to user equipments (UEs) by an ENTV radio access network (RAN) (ENTV RAN) including ENTV base stations, such as ENTV base stations operating according to the Long Term Evolution (LTE) protocol, and broadcasting ENTV services only on a downlink (DL) to UEs..”). As per claim 13, Han/Zuniga discloses the method of claim 1, wherein said reporting is in form of one or more RRC messages (Han: “a UE may report ENTV broadcast related parameters to the unicast base station (e.g., a gNB) & the ENTV capability message may be a radio resource control (RRC) message.”). As per claim 14, Han/Zuniga discloses the method of claim 13, wherein the one or more RRC messages include one or more MII messages, UE capability report related messages, and/or UEAssistanceInformation messages (Han: “the ENTV parameters may be include as additional information elements in an RRC message sent by the UE to a gNB. The additional information elements may enable ENTV capability reporting. ”). As per claim 15, Han/Zuniga discloses the method of claim 14, wherein the one or more UE capability report related messages include UECpabilityInformation, (Han: “the ENTV parameters may be include as additional information elements in an RRC message sent by the UE to a gNB. The additional information elements may enable ENTV capability reporting & For example, with the capability information, the gNB may determine whether ENTV broadcast and NR unicast of ENTV services are deployed in the same band. ”). As per claim 32, Han/Zuniga discloses the communication system of claim 31, wherein the one or more base stations have the capability to enable or disable the UEs to report information related to shared processing of unicast service and broadcast service. (Han: “a UE may report ENTV broadcast related parameters to the unicast base station (e.g., a gNB) & the ENTV capability message may be a radio resource control (RRC) message & In various embodiments, the reported ENTV parameters may enable the gNB and the ENTV base station to provision ENTV services via broadcast and/or unicast to the UE so as to reduce interference between broadcast transmissions and unicast transmissions for ENTV services”). Conclusion The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. This includes: Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Sibte Bukhari whose telephone number is (571) 270-7122. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 9:00 - 6:00. 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, Vivek Srivastava can be reached on (571) 272-7304. 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). 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. /SIBTE H BUKHARI/Examiner, Art Unit 2449
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Prosecution Timeline

Jun 25, 2024
Application Filed
Jun 17, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §103 (current)

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
79%
Grant Probability
99%
With Interview (+36.2%)
3y 1m (~1y 1m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 434 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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