Prosecution Insights
Last updated: August 17, 2026
Application No. 18/850,949

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TRANSMITTING AND RECEIVING SIGNAL IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Sep 25, 2024
Priority
Apr 27, 2022 — RE 10-2022-0052012 +2 more
Examiner
WANG, YAOTANG
Art Unit
Tech Center
Assignee
LG Electronics Inc.
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
80%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
9m
Est. Remaining
96%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 80% — above average
80%
Career Allowance Rate
384 granted / 482 resolved
+19.7% vs TC avg
Strong +16% interview lift
Without
With
+16.3%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 8m
Avg Prosecution
28 currently pending
Career history
504
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
5.4%
-34.6% vs TC avg
§103
71.0%
+31.0% vs TC avg
§102
11.5%
-28.5% vs TC avg
§112
5.9%
-34.1% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 482 resolved cases

Office Action

§103
DETAILED ACTION The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . The instant First Office Action on the merits is in response to claims filed on 9/25/2024. Claims 16-28 are pending. Claims 16, 25 and 28 are the base independent claims. Information Disclosure Statement The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted was filed before the mailing of a first Office action on the merits. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97(b). Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner. Priority Applicant’s claim for the benefit of a prior-filed application under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, or 365(c) is acknowledged. Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copies of papers required under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d) have been filed. 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. 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. Claims 16-28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over YI et al (US 2024/0057108) in view of 3GPP TSG RAN WG1#107bis-e (R1-2200080, e-Meeting, January 17th – 25th, 2022; hereinafter 3GPP). Regarding claim 16, YI discloses a method of receiving a signal by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the method comprising: receiving, through a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), downlink control information (DCI) including at least one frequency domain resource allocation (FDRA) information and at least one modulation and coding scheme (MCS) information (fig. 19 & par 182, par 195, par 239, par 241, par 250; see frequency domain resource assignment and modulation and coding scheme in DCI received via a PDCCH); and transmitting a hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) codebook based on the DCI (par 207; UE may transmit the UCI (HARQACK, CSI and/or SR) using a PUCCH resource indicated by the PUCCH resource indicator in the DCI), wherein the DCI supports multi-cell scheduling based on a plurality of cells configured in the UE (fig. 21, fig. 30 & par 252; e.g. a multi-cell DCI, M-DCI). The reference does not disclose: a PDSCH scheduling condition. However, 3GPP discloses: wherein, based on that FDRA information of at least one cell is set to a specific value, the UE: does not perform physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) reception on the at least one cell (page 12; e.g. If the FDRA field is not valid, i.e. all “1s” or all “0s” as per Rel-16, then PDSCH is not scheduled, hence obviously not perform PDSCH reception), and determines an index of the HARQ-ACK codebook based on first MCS information for a first cell among the at least one cell (page 3; e.g. If the DCI format does not include the Type3-subcodebook-index field, the pdsch-HARQ-ACK-enhType3Index value is provided by the value of MCS field in the DCI format; also see page 7). In view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of communication protocol configured for the electronic system of 3GPP with the electronic system of YI. One is motivated as such to enhance HARQ-ACK (3GPP, page 1). Regarding claim 17, YI discloses: wherein the HARQ-ACK codebook is a type-3 HARQ-ACK codebook related to at least a part of the plurality of cells (par 287; e.g. The configuration parameter may indicate/comprise the HARQ feedback mode/type/mechanism as a Type-3 HARQ-ACK codebook determination that is an advanced dynamic HARQ-ACK codebook generation type/mode/mechanism). Regarding claim 18, YI discloses: wherein the index of the HARQ-ACK codebook is related to at least one of cell information or HARQ process ID information for a type-3 HARQ-ACK codebook (par 258; e.g. The configuration parameters may comprise/indicate a HARQ process ID offset or a list of HARQ process IDs of the first cell and the second cell). Regarding claim 19, 3GPP discloses: wherein specific value refers to (i) all 0s of FDRA information bits of the at least one cell for resource allocation type0, and (ii) all 1s of FDRA information bits of the at least one cell for resource allocation type1 (page 12; e.g. If the FDRA field is not valid, i.e. all “1s” or all “0s” as per Rel-16, then PDSCH is not scheduled and obviously for type0 and type1). Regarding claim 20, YI discloses: receiving the PDSCH based on the DCI on each of one or more scheduled cells other than the at least one cell among the plurality of cells (par 232, for downlink scheduling, a DCI format 1_0 may schedule a resource for a PDSCH in one cell; also par 257, the base station transmits a first PDSCH (a fist box via the cell I) comprising the first TB via the first cell (cell 1) and a second PDSCH (a second box via cell 2) comprising the second TB via the second cell (cell 2), thus it understood if PDSCH is scheduled for a cell, then the corresponding PDSCH is received). Regarding claim 21, 3GPP discloses: wherein, based on transmission of a type-3 HARQ-ACK codebook is requested to the UE through the DCI, index information related the type-3 HARQ-ACK codebook is determined through the first MCS information for the first cell (page 3; e.g. If the DCI format does not include the Type3-subcodebook-index field, the pdsch-HARQ-ACK-enhType3Index value is provided by the value of MCS field in the DCI format; also see page 7). Regarding claim 22, 3GPP discloses: wherein transmission of a type-3 HARQ- ACK codebook is requested to the UE through the DCI, and type-3 HARQ-ACK codebook indication information is not included in the DCI (page 3; e.g. If the DCI format does not include the Type3-subcodebook-index field, the pdsch-HARQ-ACK-enhType3Index value is provided by the value of MCS field in the DCI format; also see page 7). Regarding claim 23, YI discloses: wherein the first cell is a cell having a lowest serving cell index among the at least one cell (par 323; e.g. the first cell is a cell, of N serving cells schedulable by a M-DCI, with a lowest cell index among the N serving cells). Regarding claim 24, YI discloses: wherein the DCI includes each FDRA information and each MCS information for each of co-scheduled cells (par 238, par 241, par 252-253; the base station may transmit one or more radio resource control (RRC) messages indicating/comprising configuration parameters for a multi-carrier/multi-cell scheduling. The configuration parameters may comprise/indicate a plurality of serving cells scheduled by a DCI… the scheduling cell may be different from any cell of the plurality of serving cells). Regarding claim 25, YI discloses a device for wireless communication, the device comprising: a memory configured to store instructions; and a processor configured to perform operations by executing the instructions, wherein the operations of the processor comprise (par 214; memory 1524 and processing system 1518): receiving, through a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), downlink control information (DCI) including at least one frequency domain resource allocation (FDRA) information and at least one modulation and coding scheme (MCS) information (fig. 19 & par 182, par 195, par 239, par 241, par 250; see frequency domain resource assignment and modulation and coding scheme in DCI received via a PDCCH); and transmitting a hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) codebook based on the DCI (par 207; UE may transmit the UCI (HARQACK, CSI and/or SR) using a PUCCH resource indicated by the PUCCH resource indicator in the DCI), wherein the DCI supports multi-cell scheduling based on a plurality of cells configured for the device (fig. 21, fig. 30 & par 252; e.g. a multi-cell DCI, M-DCI). The reference does not disclose: a PDSCH scheduling condition. However, 3GPP discloses: wherein, based on that FDRA information of at least one cell is set to a specific value, the device: does not perform physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) reception on the at least one cell (page 12; e.g. If the FDRA field is not valid, i.e. all “1s” or all “0s” as per Rel-16, then PDSCH is not scheduled, hence obviously not perform PDSCH reception), and determines an index of the HARQ-ACK codebook based on first MCS information for a first cell among the at least one cell (page 3; e.g. If the DCI format does not include the Type3-subcodebook-index field, the pdsch-HARQ-ACK-enhType3Index value is provided by the value of MCS field in the DCI format; also see page 7). In view of the above, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of communication protocol configured for the electronic system of 3GPP with the electronic system of YI. One is motivated as such to enhance HARQ-ACK (3GPP, page 1). Regarding claim 26, YI discloses: a transceiver configured to transmit or receive wireless signals under control of the processor, wherein the device is a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system (fig. 15 & par 210; TX/RX processing system) Regarding claim 27, YI discloses: wherein the device is an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) or digital signal processing device configured to control a user equipment (UE) (par 215; ASIC). Regarding claim 28, YI in view of 3GPP discloses the subject matter performed by a UE, and also discloses the method of a base station similarly based on the rejection of claim 1. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YAOTANG WANG whose telephone number is (571)272-4023. The examiner can normally be reached 10:00-18:00 ET (M, W, TH & alternate F). 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, HADI ARMOUCHE can be reached at 571-270-3618. 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. /YAOTANG WANG/SCE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2409
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Prosecution Timeline

Sep 25, 2024
Application Filed
Jul 27, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §103 (current)

Precedent Cases

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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
80%
Grant Probability
96%
With Interview (+16.3%)
2y 8m (~9m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 482 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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