Prosecution Insights
Last updated: July 17, 2026
Application No. 18/825,294

BANDWIDTH PART SWITCHING USING UNICAST, MULTICAST, AND BROADCAST BANDWIDTH PARTS

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Sep 05, 2024
Priority
Oct 21, 2020 — provisional 63/094,566 +1 more
Examiner
ACOLATSE, KODZOVI
Art Unit
Tech Center
Assignee
Qualcomm Incorporated
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
84%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
8m
Est. Remaining
99%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 84% — above average
84%
Career Allowance Rate
777 granted / 929 resolved
+23.6% vs TC avg
Strong +21% interview lift
Without
With
+21.4%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 6m
Avg Prosecution
51 currently pending
Career history
985
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
0.5%
-39.5% vs TC avg
§103
85.1%
+45.1% vs TC avg
§102
12.1%
-27.9% vs TC avg
§112
0.8%
-39.2% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 929 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 . This is responsive to application 18/825,294 filed 09/05/2024 in which claims 2-21 are presented for examination. Allowable Subject Matter Claim 11 is 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. 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 2-10 and 12-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Selvanesan et al (US 2021/0212025 A1) in view of Li et al (WO 2021/231835 A1). Regarding claim 2, Selvanesan teaches a user equipment (UE) for wireless communication, comprising: one or more memories; and one or more processors, coupled to the one or more memories, configured to: receive an indication of a first bandwidth part (BWP) associated with multicast downlink communications, and an indication of a second BWP associated with broadcast downlink communications (Selvanesan: Fig. 8; [0269]-[0270], device configured with groupcast/multicast BWP and broadcast BWP). Selvanesan does not explicitly disclose selectively perform bandwidth switching based at least in part on expiration of a timer associated with one of a reception of first downlink control information associated with a unicast communication or a reception of second downlink control information associated with a multicast communication. Li teaches selectively perform bandwidth switching based at least in part on expiration of a timer associated with one of a reception of first downlink control information associated with a unicast communication or a reception of second downlink control information associated with a multicast communication (Li: Fig. 18, [0197]-[0199], UE performing BWP switch based on timer associated with DCI for groupcast/multicast PDCCH reception). It would have been obvious to a person having an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Selvanesan by selectively perform bandwidth switching based at least in part on expiration of a timer associated with one of a reception of first downlink control information associated with a unicast communication or a reception of second downlink control information associated with a multicast communication as disclosed by Li to provide a system for scheduling broadcast/groupcast communications (Li: Abstract). Regarding claim 19, Selvanesan teaches a method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE), comprising: receiving an indication of a first bandwidth part (BWP) associated with multicast downlink communications, and an indication of a second BWP associated with broadcast downlink communications (Selvanesan: Fig. 8; [0269]-[0270], device configured with groupcast/multicast BWP and broadcast BWP). Selvanesan does not explicitly disclose selectively performing bandwidth switching based at least in part on expiration of a timer associated with one of a reception of first downlink control information associated with a unicast communication or a reception of second downlink control information associated with a multicast communication occurs. Li teaches selectively performing bandwidth switching based at least in part on expiration of a timer associated with one of a reception of first downlink control information associated with a unicast communication or a reception of second downlink control information associated with a multicast communication occurs (Li: Fig. 18, [0197]-[0199], UE performing BWP switch based on timer associated with DCI for groupcast/multicast PDCCH reception). It would have been obvious to a person having an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Selvanesan by selectively performing bandwidth switching based at least in part on expiration of a timer associated with one of a reception of first downlink control information associated with a unicast communication or a reception of second downlink control information associated with a multicast communication occurs as disclosed by Li to provide a system for scheduling broadcast/groupcast communications (Li: Abstract). Regarding claim 19, Selvanesan teaches a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a set of instructions for wireless communication, the set of instructions comprising: one or more instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a user equipment (UE), cause the UE to: receive an indication of a first bandwidth part (BWP) associated with multicast downlink communications, and an indication of a second BWP associated with broadcast downlink communications (Selvanesan: Fig. 8; [0269]-[0270], device configured with groupcast/multicast BWP and broadcast BWP); and Selvanesan does not explicitly disclose selectively perform bandwidth switching based at least in part on expiration of a timer associated with one of a reception of first downlink control information associated with a unicast communication or a reception of second downlink control information associated with a multicast communication. Li teaches selectively perform bandwidth switching based at least in part on expiration of a timer associated with one of a reception of first downlink control information associated with a unicast communication or a reception of second downlink control information associated with a multicast communication (Li: Fig. 18, [0197]-[0199], UE performing BWP switch based on timer associated with DCI for groupcast/multicast PDCCH reception). It would have been obvious to a person having an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Selvanesan by selectively perform bandwidth switching based at least in part on expiration of a timer associated with one of a reception of first downlink control information associated with a unicast communication or a reception of second downlink control information associated with a multicast communication as disclosed by Li to provide a system for scheduling broadcast/groupcast communications (Li: Abstract). Regarding claims 3 and 20, Selvanesan in view of Li teaches wherein the indication of the first BWP is included in configuration information identifying an initial BWP (Li: [0197], groupcast BWP being the initial BWP). Regarding claim 4, Selvanesan in view of Li teaches wherein the first BWP is included within a unicast bandwidth part, and wherein the first BWP is associated with a same BWP identifier as that of the unicast bandwidth part (Li: Fig. 17B, [0102], broadcast BWP within unicast BWP; hence broadcast BWP is associated with unicast BWP). Regarding claim 5, Selvanesan in view of Li teaches wherein the indication of the second BWP is included in the configuration information (Li: [0197], broadcast/groupcast BWP being the initial BWP). Regarding claim 6, Selvanesan in view of Li teaches wherein the initial BWP is the second BWP (Li: [0197], broadcast/groupcast BWP being the initial BWP). Regarding claim 7, Selvanesan in view of Li teaches wherein the indication of the second BWP is provided by an indication of a configured BWP different from at least one of a type0 control resource set (CORESET0) or an initial BWP indicated in system information (Selvanesan: Figs. 11, 17A-2, [0303]). Regarding claim 8, Selvanesan in view of Li teaches wherein the indication of the second BWP is included in a system information block (Selvanesan: Fig. 8, [0278]). Regarding claim 9, Selvanesan in view of Li teaches wherein the second BWP is different than at least one of a type 0 control resource set (CORESET0) or an initial BWP configured in the system information block (Selvanesan: Figs. 11, 17A-2, [0303]). Regarding claim 10, Selvanesan in view of Li teaches wherein the second BWP has a same size as a type 0 control resource set (CORESET0) or an initial BWP configured in the system information block (Selvanesan: Figs. 11, 17A-2, [0303]). Regarding claim 12, Selvanesan in view of Li teaches wherein the one or more processors, to selectively perform bandwidth switching, are further configured to: switch to the first BWP (Li: Fig. 18, [0197]-[0199], UE performing BWP switch based on timer associated with DCI for groupcast/multicast PDCCH reception). Regarding claim 13, Selvanesan in view of Li teaches wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: switch to the second BWP to receive one or more broadcast downlink communications (Li: Fig. 18, [0197]-[0199], UE performing BWP switch based on timer associated with DCI for groupcast/multicast PDCCH reception). Regarding claim 14, Selvanesan in view of Li teaches wherein the one or more processors, to selectively perform bandwidth switching, are configured to: set or reset the timer based at least in part on the second downlink control information, wherein the second downlink control information is associated with a group radio network temporary identifier (Li: Fig. 18, [0197]-[0199], UE performing BWP switch based on timer associated with DCI for groupcast/multicast PDCCH reception). Regarding claim 15, Selvanesan in view of Li teaches wherein the one or more processors, to selectively perform bandwidth switching, are configured to: set or reset the timer based at least in part on the first downlink control information, wherein the first downlink control information is associated with a UE-specific radio network temporary identifier (Li: Fig. 18, [0197]-[0199], [0205] UE performing BWP switch based on timer associated with DCI for groupcast/multicast PDCCH reception). Regarding claim 16, Selvanesan in view of Li teaches wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: receive, in the first BWP, the multicast communication based on the second downlink control information (Li: Fig. 18, [0197]-[0199], UE performing BWP switch based on timer associated with DCI for groupcast/multicast PDCCH reception). Regarding claim 17, Selvanesan in view of Li teaches wherein the second BWP is included within the first BWP, and wherein the one or more processors are configured to: receive at least one of the multicast communication in the first BWP or a broadcast downlink communication in the second BWP (Li: Fig. 17B, [0102], broadcast BWP within unicast BWP; hence broadcast BWP is associated with unicast BWP). Regarding claim 18, Selvanesan in view of Li teaches wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: receive, in a unicast BWP, the first downlink control information (Li: Fig. 18, [0197]-[0199], UE performing BWP switch based on timer associated with DCI for groupcast/multicast PDCCH reception). Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KODZOVI ACOLATSE whose telephone number is (571)270-1999. The examiner can normally be reached Monday to Friday 10 am to 6pm. 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, Avellino Joseph can be reached at (571) 272-3905. 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. /KODZOVI ACOLATSE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478
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Prosecution Timeline

Sep 05, 2024
Application Filed
Jun 22, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §103 (current)

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
84%
Grant Probability
99%
With Interview (+21.4%)
2y 6m (~8m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 929 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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