Prosecution Insights
Last updated: October 24, 2026
Application No. 18/774,486

DATA TRANSMISSION METHOD AND APPARATUS, ELECTRONIC DEVICE, AND STORAGE MEDIUM

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Jul 16, 2024
Priority
Sep 19, 2022 — CN 202211139880.1 +1 more
Examiner
SUN, YULIN
Art Unit
2485
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
Tencent Technology (Shenzhen) Company Limited
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
81%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
10m
Est. Remaining
96%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 81% — above average
81%
Career Allowance Rate
280 granted / 345 resolved
+23.2% vs TC avg
Moderate +14% lift
Without
With
+14.3%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
3y 1m
Avg Prosecution
8 currently pending
Career history
357
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
10.2%
-29.8% vs TC avg
§103
57.5%
+17.5% vs TC avg
§102
18.8%
-21.2% vs TC avg
§112
5.5%
-34.5% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 345 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 . Election/Restrictions Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I, Claims 1-8, 13-20 in the reply filed on 07/02/2026 is acknowledged. Claims 9-12 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected Group II, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 07/02/2026. Priority Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55. 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. The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows: 1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art. 2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue. 3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art. 4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness. Claims 1, 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Horiuchi (US 2017/0034475 A1) in view of Ma (US 2023/0396571 A1). Regarding Claim 1, Horiuchi discloses a data transmission method (e.g. Paragraph [0003]) comprising: receiving, with a first server, a request message from a second server (e.g. Paragraph [0160]), the request message configured to request an audio data stream or a video data stream (e.g. Paragraph [0160]), and the request message comprising identifier information of a terminal device (e.g. Paragraph [0160]); configuring, with the first server, a code rate for transmission of the audio data stream (e.g. Fig. 12 and Paragraph [0170], sound quality parameter) or a code rate for transmission of the video data stream (e.g. Fig. 12 and Paragraph [0168]) according to the request message and a bandwidth detection result (e.g. Paragraph [0169]); and transmitting, with the first server, the audio data stream to the terminal device according to the code rate (e.g. Paragraph [0275], data quality is according to the code rate), or transmitting the video data stream to the terminal device according to the code rate (e.g. Paragraph [0169, 0275], data quality is according to the code rate). Although Horiuchi discloses transmitting audio/video data stream; it fails to explicitly disclose to transmit the audio/video data stream according to a data transmission protocol of the audio/video data stream. However, Ma teaches to transmit the audio/video data stream according to a data transmission protocol of the audio/video data stream (e.g. Paragraph [0273, 0343]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at time of the invention to incorporate the data transmission protocol as taught as Ma in the method of Horiuchi in order to handle heavy traffic consumption and excessive interaction processes. Regarding Claim 13, Horiuchi further discloses an apparatus (e.g. Fig. 1) comprising a memory storing a plurality of instructions; (e.g. Paragraph [0063]) and a processor configured to execute the plurality of instructions (e.g. Fig. 1 Relay apparatus 30), and upon execution of the plurality of instructions, is configured to perform the method of Claim 1. Claims 7, 8, 19, 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Horiuchi (US 2017/0034475 A1) in view of Ma (US 2023/0396571 A1) and Torres (US 2015/0312838 A1). Regarding Claims 7, 19, Horiuchi in view of Ma fails to explicitly disclose the audio data stream comprises a time identifier, and the video data stream comprises a time identifier. However, Torres further teaches the audio data stream comprises a time identifier, and the video data stream comprises a time identifier (e.g. Table 00008 and Paragraph [0119]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at time of the invention to incorporate the data stream with time identifier as taught as Torres in the method of Horiuchi in view of Ma in order to be beneficial for call tracking, billing and debugging. Regarding Claims 8, 20, Torres further teaches detecting, with the first server, a downlink bandwidth of the first server and the terminal device to obtain the bandwidth detection result (e.g. Fig. 3B and Paragraph [0051]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at time of the invention to incorporate the downlink bandwidth as taught as Torres in the method of Horiuchi in view of Ma in order to be beneficial for optimal performance. Allowable Subject Matter Claims 2-6, 14-18 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. Zhou (US 2022/0060532 A1), disclose a method of transmitting resources; Kaushik (US 2013/0297813 A1), disclose session-level access management. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YULIN SUN whose telephone number is (571)270-1043. The examiner can normally be reached 10AM - 6PM. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jay Patel can be reached at 571-272-2988. 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. /YULIN SUN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2485
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Jul 16, 2024
Application Filed
Sep 29, 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
81%
Grant Probability
96%
With Interview (+14.3%)
3y 1m (~10m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 345 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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