Prosecution Insights
Last updated: October 01, 2026
Application No. 18/815,958

APPLICATION OF ALLOCATING WIRELESS LINKS OF ACCESS POINT MULTI-LINK DEVICE FOR WIRELESS STATIONS

Non-Final OA §102
Filed
Aug 27, 2024
Priority
Feb 21, 2024 — provisional 63/555,923
Examiner
TRAN, PHUC H
Art Unit
Tech Center
Assignee
MediaTek Inc.
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
92%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
8m
Est. Remaining
94%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 92% — above average
92%
Career Allowance Rate
973 granted / 1061 resolved
+31.7% vs TC avg
Minimal +2% lift
Without
With
+2.5%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 9m
Avg Prosecution
29 currently pending
Career history
1086
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
5.0%
-35.0% vs TC avg
§103
38.8%
-1.2% vs TC avg
§102
24.6%
-15.4% vs TC avg
§112
18.0%
-22.0% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 1061 resolved cases

Office Action

§102
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 § 102 The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action: A person shall be entitled to a patent unless – (a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. Claim(s) 1-4,6-11,13-14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Kucharewski et al. (Pub. No. 20250287444). - With respect to claims 1, 8, Kucharewski teaches a method for allocating one or more wireless links of an access point (AP) multi-link device (MLD), comprising: establishing, by the AP MLD, one or more connections with one or more stations correspondingly via the one or more wireless links (e.g. Fig. 11 shows links support for STAs); receiving, by the AP MLD, a signal strength indication of each of the one or more stations on each of the one or more wireless links; obtaining, by the AP MLD, a weight on each of the one or more wireless links according to the signal strength indication, a packet error rate, a channel idle ratio and a channel usage status (e.g. Fig. 10, 11 step 1402 in Fig. 14, show the AP MLD obtain information of links and par. 118 discloses packet error rate; and RSSI in par. 70); allocating, by the AP MLD, each of the one or more wireless links for each of the one or more stations, based on the weight of each of the one or more wireless links (e.g. step 1204 in Fig. 13 discloses “provision either a single communication link or multiple communication links of the AP MLD for communications between the first STA and the AP MLD based on at least one of a latency, a level of interference, or a traffic load associated with each of the first communication link and the one or more second communication links of the AP MLD”; and claim 1); and notifying, by the AP MLD, each of the one or more stations respectively with an allocated wireless link from the one or more wireless links via an initial control frame (e.g. claim 1 discloses “generate a first frame indicating whether the single communication link or the multiple communication links of the AP MLD are provisioned to the first STA for communications with the AP MLD”). - With respect to claims 2, 9, Kucharewski teaches wherein establishing the one or more connections with one or more stations comprises identifying the one or more stations including a legacy station or a non-access point (non-AP) multi-link device (MLD) (see par. 69 discloses “The AP 102 assigns an association identifier (AID) to the STA 104 at the culmination of the association operations, which the AP 102 uses to track the STA 104”). - With respect to claims 3, 10, Kucharewski teaches wherein upon determining that the one or more stations including the legacy station, an individual wireless link of the one or more wireless links is allocated, by the AP MLD, for the legacy station, wherein the individual wireless link is not connected by other stations (see par. 6 show stations connect to each links and par. 93). - With respect to claims 4, 11, Kucharewski teaches wherein upon determining that the one or more stations including the non-AP MLD (e.g. Fig. 6 shows stations in non-AP MLD), one or two wireless links of the one or more wireless links are allocated, by the AP MLD, for the non-AP MLD including 3 channels (e.g. Fig. 6 show 3 links), to enable a power saving mode of the non-AP MLD (e.g. par. 95 discloses power save mode). - With respect to claims 6-7, 13-14, Kucharewski teaches wherein upon determining that the packet error rate on one of the one or more links increases, the weight on each of the one or more wireless links is updated and each of the one or more wireless links is reallocated for each of the one or more stations according to a updated weight of each of the one or more wireless links (e.g. Fig. 10A shows the remap TAID when link metric update). of the one or more wireless links. Allowable Subject Matter Claims 5 and 12 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. See PTO-892. . Examiner's Note: Examiner has cited particular paragraphs or columns and line numbers in the references applied to the claims above for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings of the art and are applied to specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested from the applicant in preparing responses, to fully consider the references in entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the Examiner.Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PHUC H TRAN whose telephone number is (571)272-3172. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8-5 Flex. 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, Sujoy K. Kundu can be reached at 571-272-8586. 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. /PHUC H TRAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2471
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Aug 27, 2024
Application Filed
Aug 10, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §102 (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
92%
Grant Probability
94%
With Interview (+2.5%)
2y 9m (~8m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 1061 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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