Prosecution Insights
Last updated: July 17, 2026
Application No. 18/794,833

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PERFORMING CLUSTERING UPDATES IN CELL-FREE NETWORKS

Non-Final OA §103§112
Filed
Aug 05, 2024
Priority
Aug 10, 2023 — provisional 63/518,622
Examiner
NGUYEN, THAI
Art Unit
Tech Center
Assignee
Apple Inc.
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
85%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
10m
Est. Remaining
99%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 85% — above average
85%
Career Allowance Rate
670 granted / 787 resolved
+25.1% vs TC avg
Moderate +14% lift
Without
With
+14.1%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 9m
Avg Prosecution
21 currently pending
Career history
813
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
1.6%
-38.4% vs TC avg
§103
68.1%
+28.1% vs TC avg
§102
3.7%
-36.3% vs TC avg
§112
21.7%
-18.3% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 787 resolved cases

Office Action

§103 §112
CTNF 18/794,833 CTNF 86366 DETAILED ACTION Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA. Claim Objections 07-29-01 AIA Claim 19 is objected to because of the following informalities: claim 19 recites the claim language “identifiction” on lines 17, 18 which Examiner believes should be “identification” . Appropriate correction is required. 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. 07-34-01 Claims 1-9, 19, 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA), 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 applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. 07-34-05 AIA Claim 1 recites the limitation " the first uBS " in line 12 . There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. 07-34-05 AIA Claim 19 recites the limitation " the first uBS " in line 16 . There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. Claims 2-9 and 20 are rejected for claiming dependency from claims 1, 19 respectively. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 07-06 AIA 15-10-15 In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status. 07-20-aia AIA 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. 07-20-02-aia AIA This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention. 07-21-aia AIA Claim s 10, 11, 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhu (USPN 20130308474) in view of Viering et al (USPN 20170006509) . Regarding claim 10, Zhu discloses a method of a clustering control function (CCF) of a wireless communication system, comprising: (method performed by eNB/TP controlling CoMP resource management set [0067-0077], FIG. 3 receiving, from a user equipment (UE), measurement reports comprising first measured parameters for a connected base station (cBS) in a cluster of the wireless communication system serving the UE (receive CSI-RS reports for transmission points (TPs) for TPs within its CoMP measurement set [0025, 0046-0056, 0032], FIGs. 1, 2 keeping a first filtered measured parameter using the first measured parameters for the cBS from the measurement reports (receives and maintain measurements conducted by UE [0046, 0050, 0032, 0076] identifying that the first filtered measured parameter is below a first threshold (downlink may be maintained or activated if measured RSRP above threshold or below threshold [0077] removing the cBS from the cluster serving the UE in response to the identifying that the first filtered measured parameter is below the first threshold and the identifying that the cBS has been the cluster that is serving the UE (deactivating downlink between UE and TP causes TP to be removed from CoMP measurement set of UE [0077] Zhu does not expressly disclose identifying that the cBS has been the cluster that is serving the UE for at least a first duration Viering discloses identifying that the cBS has been the cluster that is serving the UE for at least a first duration, removing the cBS from the cluster serving the UE in response to the identifying that the first filtered measured parameter is below the first threshold (1B event removes a cell requires a time-to-trigger/condition when measurement falls below 8dB needs to be fulfilled for a time period [0035-0039] Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement “ identifying that the cBS has been the cluster that is serving the UE for at least a first duration” as taught by Viering into Zhu’s system with the motivation to prevent ping-pong effect of alternating addition and removal of same cell (Viering, paragraph [0035-0039], FIG. 7) Regarding claim 11, Zhu discloses “ wherein the first measured parameters are reference signal received power (RSRP) values for the cBS ” RSRP measurement [0032, 0035] Regarding claim 13, Zhu does not expressly disclose “ wherein the first measured parameters are reference signal received quality (RSRQ) values for the cBS ” Viering discloses measurement being RSRQ [0005] Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement “ wherein the first measured parameters are reference signal received quality (RSRQ) values for the cBS” as taught by Viering into Zhu’s system with the motivation to prevent ping-pong effect of alternating addition and removal of same cell (Viering, paragraph [0035-0039], FIG. 7) 07-21-aia AIA Claim 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhu in view of Viering as applied to claim 10 and in further view of Davydov et al (USPN 20130196699) . Regarding claim 12, combined system of Zhu and Viering does not expressly disclose “ wherein the first measured parameters are signal to noise ratio (SNR) values for the cBS ” Davydov discloses boundary metric used to determine CoMP configuration comprises SINR/SNR [0032, 0041, 0044] Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement “ wherein the first measured parameters are signal to noise ratio (SNR) values for the cBS” as taught by Davydov into combined system of Viering and Zhu with the motivation use SINR/SNR as an alternative and commonly used RRM metric to RSRP for cluster boundary decisions . 07-21-aia AIA Claim s 17, 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhu in view of Viering as applied to claim 10 and in further view of Shi (USPN 20020102977) . Regarding claim 17, combined system of Zhu and Viering does not expressly disclose “ further comprising raising the first threshold in response to determining that channel conditions for the UE are improving ” Shi discloses if link quality indicator of channel equals the maximum value corresponding to a nearly error-free channel, indicating improving conditions, the dynamic handoff threshold is set to (RBN+1)*D which increases threshold value to discourages handoff [0036-0040], FIG. 7 Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement “ further comprising raising the first threshold in response to determining that channel conditions for the UE are improving” as taught by Shi into combined system of Viering and Zhu with the motivation use dynamic thresholds for timely cluster management. Regarding claim 18, combined system of Zhu and Viering does not expressly disclose “ lowering the first threshold in response to determining that channel conditions for the UE are declining ” Shi discloses if link quality indicator of channel is below the maximum value and not greater than LQI, indicating declining conditions, the dynamic handoff threshold is lower which increases threshold value to encourage handoff [0036-0040], FIG. 7 Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement “ lowering the first threshold in response to determining that channel conditions for the UE are declining” as taught by Shi into combined system of Viering and Zhu with the motivation use dynamic thresholds for timely cluster management . Conclusion 07-96 AIA The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Yamada (USPN 20150215826) FIG. 9 Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THAI NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)270-7632. The examiner can normally be reached M-F campus 10:30-5pm, telework 6pm-8pm| Telework count days. 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, Ian N Moore can be reached at (571)272-3085. 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. /THAI NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2469 Application/Control Number: 18/794,833 Page 2 Art Unit: 2469 Application/Control Number: 18/794,833 Page 3 Art Unit: 2469 Application/Control Number: 18/794,833 Page 4 Art Unit: 2469 Application/Control Number: 18/794,833 Page 5 Art Unit: 2469 Application/Control Number: 18/794,833 Page 6 Art Unit: 2469 Application/Control Number: 18/794,833 Page 7 Art Unit: 2469
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Aug 05, 2024
Application Filed
Jun 16, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §103, §112 (current)

Precedent Cases

Applications granted by this same examiner with similar technology

Patent 12683660
METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONFIGURING MEASUREMENT AND REPORTING SETTINGS
3y 0m to grant Granted Jul 14, 2026
Patent 12677266
METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR EVENT-BASED UPLINK TRANSMIT BEAM SWITCH
3y 1m to grant Granted Jul 07, 2026
Patent 12676645
MANAGING CONFLICTING CONFIGURATIONS FOR CONFIGURING A REFLECTIVE SURFACE
2y 8m to grant Granted Jul 07, 2026
Patent 12666407
DECOUPLED MINI-SLOT SIDELINK CONTROL INFORMATION (SCI) FOR SCHEDULING AND RESOURCE RESERVATION
2y 5m to grant Granted Jun 23, 2026
Patent 12659758
INDICATING BEAM MAINTENANCE REFERENCE SIGNAL RESOURCES
2y 9m to grant Granted Jun 16, 2026
Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

Strategy Recommendation AI-generated — please review before filing

Get a prosecution strategy drawn from examiner precedents, rejection analysis, and claim mapping.
Typically takes 5-10 seconds — AI-generated, attorney review required before filing

Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
85%
Grant Probability
99%
With Interview (+14.1%)
2y 9m (~10m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 787 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

Sign in with your work email

Enter your email to receive a magic link. No password needed.

Personal email addresses (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) are not accepted.

Free tier: 3 strategy analyses per month