Prosecution Insights
Last updated: April 19, 2026
Application No. 18/838,071

ANTENNA SYSTEM FOR INDUSTRIAL ENVIRONMENT

Non-Final OA §102§103
Filed
Aug 13, 2024
Examiner
LEE, SEUNG H
Art Unit
2876
Tech Center
2800 — Semiconductors & Electrical Systems
Assignee
Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson (Publ)
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
87%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
2y 2m
To Grant
98%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 87% — above average
87%
Career Allow Rate
1030 granted / 1179 resolved
+19.4% vs TC avg
Moderate +11% lift
Without
With
+11.0%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 2m
Avg Prosecution
35 currently pending
Career history
1214
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
2.1%
-37.9% vs TC avg
§103
33.0%
-7.0% vs TC avg
§102
36.1%
-3.9% vs TC avg
§112
13.3%
-26.7% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 1179 resolved cases

Office Action

§102 §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 . Claim Objections Claims 8, 9, and 11 are objected to because of the following informalities: Line 6 of claim 8, line 11 of claim 9, and line 11 of claim 11: Please clarify what “it” is referring to in next communication. Appropriate correction is required. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 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. 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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Hershey et al. (US 2018/0063674, cited by the applicant). Re claim 1: Hershey teaches an antenna system (10) for operating in an industrial environment comprising a plurality of industrial devices, each industrial device being connected to a user equipment (UE) (2, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32)0), the antenna system comprising an antenna (12); and a support for supporting the antenna in an elevated position in relation to ground and facing towards the ground (figs. 1 and 2), wherein the antenna being adapted for generating beams towards the ground for communicating with the UE (paragraphs 0018, 0019) (see figs. 1-4; paragraphs 0017-0027). 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. Claim(s) 2 and 5-7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hershey in view of Tran et al. (US 10694399, cited by the applicant). The teachings of Hershey have been discussed above. Although, Hershey teaches the antenna system having supports, he fairly suggests that the support is drone, air ballon, or floating tool. However, Tran teaches a cellular antenna system comprising a tower (106) having an antenna mount (113), drones or air ballon, or floating tool (fig. 2K) and a beamformer (150) receiving a baseband symbol (s) serving as a baseband processing component being in communication with the antenna (154) using one of the anchored wires or an optical fiber, of the support or external to the support (fig. 2G) (see figs. 2F, 2G, and 2K; col. 40, lines 41-37; col. 44, lines 45-63; col. 58, lines 21-32). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to incorporate the teachings of Tran to the teachings of Hershey in order to provide improved communication by elevating antennas avoiding obstacles between the antenna and user devices. Also, such modification would improve communication capabilities by steering the beam patterns toward user device using the beamforming device. Claim(s) 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hershey as modified by Crockett et al. (US 2024/0014549). The teachings of Hershey have been discussed above. Although, Hershey teaches the antenna system having supports, he fairly suggests that the support comprising a motion sensor. However, Crockett teaches a positioning device (100) comprising a motion sensor (112) detecting motion of the antenna (102) (see figs. 1 and 2; paragraphs 0017-0027). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to incorporate the teachings of Crockett to the teachings of Hershey in order to calculate the composite motion of the antenna. Claim(s) 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hershey as modified by Tran as applied to claim 2 above, and further in view of Tong et al. (US 2023/0420839). The teachings of Hershey/Tran have been discussed above. Although, Hershey/Tran teaches the antenna system having the baseband (BB) processing component, they fairly suggest that the support comprising an antenna rail. However, Tong teaches an antenna assembly (20) also serving as a support comprising an antenna rail (22), an antenna (21) being slidable along the antenna rail for shifting the antenna from a first location (fig. 7) to a second location (fig. 8) within the premise (see figs. 3-8; paragraphs 0064-0071). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to incorporate the teachings of Tong to the teachings of Hershey/Tran in order to expand antenna coverage by shifting the antenna. Allowable Subject Matter Claims 9-14 are allowed. Claim 8 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. The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: None of prior art teaches the antenna system further comprises a processor arranged to communicate with at least one motion sensor equipped with the antenna pole and to determine whether there is a motion of the antenna; and while it is determined that there is a motion of the antenna, receive an indication for moving the beams generated by the antenna as set forth in the claims. Conclusion The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Park et al. (US 2022/0344798) teaches an antenna device and Hall (US 10050449) teaches wireless rail antenna. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SEUNG H LEE whose telephone number is (571)272-2401. The examiner can normally be reached 7-4:00PM. 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, Steven Paik can be reached at 571-272-2404. 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. /SEUNG H LEE/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2876
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Aug 13, 2024
Application Filed
Aug 13, 2024
Response after Non-Final Action
Nov 18, 2025
Non-Final Rejection — §102, §103
Feb 20, 2026
Response Filed
Feb 20, 2026
Response after Non-Final Action

Precedent Cases

Applications granted by this same examiner with similar technology

Patent 12592483
SHIELD CAN HAVING ANTENNA FUNCTION AND ELECTRONIC MODULE COMPRISING SAME
2y 5m to grant Granted Mar 31, 2026
Patent 12586906
ANTENNA PACKAGE USING BALL ATTACH ARRAY TO CONNECT ANTENNA AND BASE SUBSTRATES
2y 5m to grant Granted Mar 24, 2026
Patent 12580610
RECONFIGURABLE INTELLIGENT SURFACE (RIS) ANTENNA AND RIS ANTENNA UNIT
2y 5m to grant Granted Mar 17, 2026
Patent 12573744
WIDEBAND ANTENNAS IN GLASS THROUGH DIRECT VIA FEEDING AND GLASS STACKING
2y 5m to grant Granted Mar 10, 2026
Patent 12573743
MILLIMETER WAVE (MMW) INTEGRATED HINGE
2y 5m to grant Granted Mar 10, 2026
Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

AI Strategy Recommendation

Get an AI-powered prosecution strategy using examiner precedents, rejection analysis, and claim mapping.
Powered by AI — typically takes 5-10 seconds

Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
87%
Grant Probability
98%
With Interview (+11.0%)
2y 2m
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 1179 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow 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