DETAILED ACTION
This office action is a response to the application filed 27 September 2024 as a 371 of PCT/EP2022/061627 filed 29 April 2022, wherein claims 1-17, 21, 26, and 28 are pending and ready for examination.
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 .
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 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.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 27 September 2024 and 10 November 2024 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claim 28 is objected to because of the following informalities: The claims with the amendments made 27 September 2024 reads “A a non-transitory…”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 11 is objected to because of the following informalities: the claim utilize an acronym SINR on line 7 prior to the acronym being defined which is later on lines 7-8. Acronyms may be used in claims but must be properly defined before they are used. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 1-17, 21, 26, and 28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the enablement requirement. The claims contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to enable one skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and/or use the invention. The current claims as filed are directed to radio channel condition modifying a BLER target while the current specification as filed is directed to passive interference cancellation. Accordingly, the specification is silent regarding any of the subject matter of the claims.
The examiner respectfully notes that this may be a mistake made during filing but such a filing mistake would need to be corrected by the applicant. For reference, the applicant can see the current specification, claims, and drawings as filed that the examiner is referring to above in the published PGPUB document US 2025/0211374 A1.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12-14, 17, 21, 26, and 28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Marsan et al. (US 2022/0069939 A1), hereafter referred Marsan in view of Elshafie et al. (US 2022/0070711 A1), hereafter referred Elshafie.
Regarding claim 1, Marsan teaches a method performed by a radio network node, the method comprising:
setting a Block Error Rate, BLER, target based on the initial radio channel condition as an initial BLER target (Marsan, [0036]-[0043]; the network device may calculate the target error rate for each transmission standalone where different BLER targets are used based on channel conditions, such as AWGN channels use higher BLER target and faster fading channels use a lower BLER target); and
adapting the BLER target according to a current radio channel condition as part of an outer loop link adaptation at a per time interval level (Marsan, [0036]-[0043]; the offset for adjusting the measured result of channel quality in the OLLA may be adjusted according to an adjusted-code-rate-oriented dynamic target error rate, where the dynamic target error rate is decided by an amount of adjustment of the code rate of transmission, where the target error rate may include a target block error rate (BLER)).
Marsan does not expressly teach receiving an initial radio channel condition from a user terminal.
However, Elshafie teaches receiving an initial radio channel condition from a user terminal (Elshafie, [0019]; based on the feedback received from the UE which can include information regarding channel conditions, the base station may appropriately adjust transmission parameters to lead to improvement in the block error rate).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to create the invention of Marsan to include the above recited limitations as taught by Elshafie in order to improve communication between the UE and base station (Elshafie, [0019]).
Regarding claim 17, Marsan teaches a radio network node, comprising a processor and a memory (Marsan, Fig. 6, [0090]-[0091]; the device includes a processor and memory that include program instructions), the memory including instructions that when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform operations, the operations comprising:
set a Block Error Rate, BLER, target based on the initial radio channel condition as an initial BLER target (Marsan, [0036]-[0043]; the network device may calculate the target error rate for each transmission standalone where different BLER targets are used based on channel conditions, such as AWGN channels use higher BLER target and faster fading channels use a lower BLER target); and
adapt the BLER target according to a current radio channel condition as part of an outer loop link adaptation at a per time interval level (Marsan, [0036]-[0043]; the offset for adjusting the measured result of channel quality in the OLLA may be adjusted according to an adjusted-code-rate-oriented dynamic target error rate, where the dynamic target error rate is decided by an amount of adjustment of the code rate of transmission, where the target error rate may include a target block error rate (BLER)).
Marsan does not expressly teach receive an initial radio channel condition from a user terminal.
However, Elshafie teaches receive an initial radio channel condition from a user terminal (Elshafie, [0019]; based on the feedback received from the UE which can include information regarding channel conditions, the base station may appropriately adjust transmission parameters to lead to improvement in the block error rate).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to create the invention of Marsan to include the above recited limitations as taught by Elshafie in order to improve communication between the UE and base station (Elshafie, [0019]).
Regarding claim 21, Marsan teaches a method performed in a communication system, the communication system comprising a user terminal and a radio network node, the method comprising:
setting, by the radio network node, a Block Error Rate, BLER, target based on the initial radio channel condition as an initial BLER target (Marsan, [0036]-[0043]; the network device may calculate the target error rate for each transmission standalone where different BLER targets are used based on channel conditions, such as AWGN channels use higher BLER target and faster fading channels use a lower BLER target); and
adapting, by the radio network node, the BLER target according to the current radio channel condition as part of an outer loop link adaptation at a per time interval level (Marsan, [0036]-[0043]; the offset for adjusting the measured result of channel quality in the OLLA may be adjusted according to an adjusted-code-rate-oriented dynamic target error rate, where the dynamic target error rate is decided by an amount of adjustment of the code rate of transmission, where the target error rate may include a target block error rate (BLER)).
Marsan does not expressly teach transmitting, by the user terminal, an initial radio channel condition to the radio network node; receiving, by the radio network node, the initial radio channel condition from the user terminal; and transmitting, by the user terminal, a current radio channel condition to the radio network node.
However, Elshafie teaches transmitting, by the user terminal, an initial radio channel condition to the radio network node; receiving, by the radio network node, the initial radio channel condition from the user terminal; and transmitting, by the user terminal, a current radio channel condition to the radio network node (Elshafie, [0019]; based on the feedback received from the UE which can include information regarding channel conditions, the base station may appropriately adjust transmission parameters to lead to improvement in the block error rate, where the CSI report can be periodic or asynchronous which the examiner notes that the CSI report is made multiple times (not just once) and each report contain the most recent measurements of the current channel conditions).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to create the invention of Marsan to include the above recited limitations as taught by Elshafie in order to improve communication between the UE and base station (Elshafie, [0019]).
Regarding claim 26, Marsan in view of Elshafie teaches a computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including program code to be executed by a processor of a radio network node, whereby execution of the program code causes the radio network node to perform the method according to claim 1 (See claim 1 above).
Regarding claim 28, Marsan in view of Elshafie teaches a a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including program code to be executed by a processor of a user terminal and a processor of a radio network node, the user terminal and the radio network node being included in a communication system, whereby execution of the program code causes the user terminal and the radio network node to perform the method according to claim 21 (See claim 21 above).
Regarding claim 2, Marsan in view of Elshafie teaches the method according to claim 1 above. Further, Marsan teaches wherein the BLER target is adapted whenever the current radio channel condition is updated (Marsan, [0036]-[0043]; the offset for adjusting the measured result of channel quality in the OLLA may be adjusted according to an adjusted-code-rate-oriented dynamic target error rate, where the dynamic target error rate is decided by an amount of adjustment of the code rate of transmission, where the target error rate may include a target block error rate (BLER)).
Regarding claim 3, Marsan in view of Elshafie teaches the method according to claim 1 above. Further, Marsan teaches wherein the BLER target is adapted per radio channel condition granularity or per granularity of multiple of radio channel conditions (Marsan, [0036]-[0043]; the offset for adjusting the measured result of channel quality in the OLLA may be adjusted according to an adjusted-code-rate-oriented dynamic target error rate, where the dynamic target error rate is decided by an amount of adjustment of the code rate of transmission, where the target error rate may include a target block error rate (BLER)).
Regarding claim 5, Marsan in view of Elshafie teaches the method according to claim 1 above. Further, Marsan teaches wherein adapting the BLER target comprises increasing the BLER target by a step-up value or decreasing the BLER target by a step-down value (Marsan, [0077]; Target BLER has preset values shown in the table where the difference in the values of the table are the step-up and step-down values).
Regarding claim 6, Marsan in view of Elshafie teaches the method according to claim 5 above. Further, Marsan teaches wherein the step-up value and the step-down value are each predefined or configured using a utility function (Marsan, [0077]; Target BLER has preset values shown in the table where the difference in the values of the table are the step-up and step-down values).
Regarding claim 9, Marsan in view of Elshafie further in view of Zhou teaches the method according to claim 7 above. Marsan does not expressly teach wherein the SINR value is estimated from the current radio channel condition and wherein the current radio channel condition is associated with a particular SINR value.
However, Elshafie teaches wherein the SINR value is estimated from the current radio channel condition and wherein the current radio channel condition is associated with a particular SINR value (Elshafie, [0037]-[0038]; the CSI report may include SNR quality of the channel where the UE can determine the CSI by calculating accumulated capacity based on SINR of the received downlink signal and report the feedback to the base station).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to create the invention of Marsan to include the above recited limitations as taught by Elshafie in order to improve communication between the UE and base station (Elshafie, [0019]).
Regarding claim 10, Marsan in view of Elshafie teaches the method according to claim 1 above. While Marsan teaches wherein setting the initial BLER target comprises using a table, the table assigning the MCS index to a specific BLER target (Marsan, [0077]; Target BLER has preset values shown in the table where the difference in the values of the table are the step-up and step-down values and there is mapping between MCS index and the target BLER value), Marsan does not expressly teach wherein the initial radio channel condition is associated with the MCS index.
However, Elshafie teaches wherein the initial radio channel condition is associated with the MCS index (Elshafie, [0037]; the base station can determine the MCS to apply based on the CSI feedback).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to create the invention of Marsan to include the above recited limitations as taught by Elshafie in order to improve communication between the UE and base station (Elshafie, [0019]).
Regarding claim 12, Marsan in view of Elshafie teaches the method according to claim 11 above. Further, Marsan teaches wherein the offset is a function of the previous offset, the ACK or NACK, and the BLER target (Marsan, [0050]-[0053]; the current offset may be determined based on the target error rate and a previous offset associated with previous transmission and the determination of the offset may be based on a HARQ result for the previous transmission).
Regarding claim 13, Marsan in view of Elshafie teaches the method according to claim 1 above. Marsan does not expressly teach wherein the initial radio channel condition is received from the user terminal when establishing a connection between the radio network node and the user terminal.
However, Elshafie teaches wherein the initial radio channel condition is received from the user terminal when establishing a connection between the radio network node and the user terminal (Elshafie, [0019]-0020]; based on the feedback received from the UE which can include information regarding channel conditions, the base station may appropriately adjust transmission parameters to lead to improvement in the block error rate, where the CSI report include CSI and can be measured from demodulation reference signals).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to create the invention of Marsan to include the above recited limitations as taught by Elshafie in order to improve communication between the UE and base station (Elshafie, [0019]).
Regarding claim 14, Marsan in view of Elshafie teaches the method according to claim 13 above. Marsan does not expressly teach wherein User Equipment, UE, Assistance Information in a Radio Resource Control, RRC, message, Channel State Information, CSI, or Sounding Reference Signals, SRS, is received from the user terminal to set the initial BLER target, the UE Assistance Information, the CSI, and the SRS each indicating the initial radio channel condition.
However, Elshafie teaches wherein User Equipment, UE, Assistance Information in a Radio Resource Control, RRC, message, Channel State Information, CSI, or Sounding Reference Signals, SRS, is received from the user terminal to set the initial BLER target, the UE Assistance Information, the CSI, and the SRS each indicating the initial radio channel condition (Elshafie, [0019]-0020]; based on the feedback received from the UE which can include information regarding channel conditions, the base station may appropriately adjust transmission parameters to lead to improvement in the block error rate, where the CSI report include CSI and can be measured from demodulation reference signals when the UE and base station connect).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to create the invention of Marsan to include the above recited limitations as taught by Elshafie in order to improve communication between the UE and base station (Elshafie, [0019]).
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Marsan in view of Elshafie as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Elshafie et al. (US 2023/0180278 A1), hereafter referred Elshafie2.
Regarding claim 4, Marsan in view of Elshafie teaches the method according to claim 1 above. While Marsan teaches wherein the BLER target is adapted whenever the current radio channel condition is updated (Marsan, [0036]-[0043]; the offset for adjusting the measured result of channel quality in the OLLA may be adjusted according to an adjusted-code-rate-oriented dynamic target error rate, where the dynamic target error rate is decided by an amount of adjustment of the code rate of transmission, where the target error rate may include a target block error rate (BLER)), Marsan in view of Elshafie does not expressly teach wherein the current radio channel condition is updated per Time Division Duplex, TDD, slot or per multiple TDD slots.
However, Elshafie2 teaches wherein the current radio channel condition is updated per Time Division Duplex, TDD, slot or per multiple TDD slots (Elshafie2, [0046]; in a TDD scheme, the occasion for transmitting feedback and/or CSI may coincide with the TDD slot structure).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to create the invention of Marsan in view of Elshafie to include the above recited limitations as taught by Elshafie2 in order to modify channel state information (Elshafie2, [0019]).
Claims 7 and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Marsan in view of Elshafie as applied to claim 5 above, and further in view of Zhou et al. (US 2023/0122052 A1), hereafter referred Zhou.
Regarding claim 7, Marsan in view of Elshafie teaches the method according to claim 5 above. While Marsan teaches wherein the BLER target is increased by the step-up value and decreased by the step-down value based on the MCS index (Marsan, [0077]; Target BLER has preset values shown in the table where the difference in the values of the table are the step-up and step-down values and there is mapping between MCS index and the target BLER value), Marsan does not expressly teach further comprising estimating a Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio, SINR, value from the current radio channel condition.
However, Elshafie teaches further comprising estimating a Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio, SINR, value from the current radio channel condition (Elshafie, [0037]-[0038]; the CSI report may include SNR quality of the channel where the UE can determine the CSI by calculating accumulated capacity based on SINR of the received downlink signal and report the feedback to the base station).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to create the invention of Marsan to include the above recited limitations as taught by Elshafie in order to improve communication between the UE and base station (Elshafie, [0019]).
Marsan in view of Elshafie does not expressly teach further comprising:
defining a SINR threshold;
wherein the MCS index have different values if the SINR value is higher than the defined SINR threshold or not.
However, Zhou teaches further comprising:
defining a SINR threshold (Zhou, [0287]-[0295]; the base station transmits a broadcast signaling that includes the parameter MSG-A SINR threshold and hence defines the SINR threshold according to this broadcast signal);
wherein the MCS index have different values if the SINR value is higher than the defined SINR threshold or not (Zhou, [0291]-[0295]; when the SINR of the terminal is greater than or equal to the SINR threshold, the MCS index can be used according to the Table 11).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to create the invention of Marsan in view of Elshafie to include the above recited limitations as taught by Zhou in order to provide a 2-step RACH procedure that support transmission of different data blocks (Zhou, [0106]).
Regarding claim 8, Marsan in view of Elshafie teaches the method according to claim 5 above. While Marsan teaches wherein the BLER target is increased by the step-up value and decreased by the step-down value based on the MCS index difference (Marsan, [0077]; Target BLER has preset values shown in the table where the difference in the values of the table are the step-up and step-down values and there is mapping between MCS index and the target BLER value) and calculating a difference between the current SINR value and the previous SINR value (Marsan, [0031]; calculate an SNR offset according to the equation which looks at the offset of the current transmission and the previous transmission and they are affected by a step size as in equation 1), Marsan does not expressly teach further comprising estimating a current Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio, SINR, value from the current radio channel condition; and estimating a previous SINR value from a previous radio channel condition.
However, Elshafie teaches further comprising estimating a current Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio, SINR, value from the current radio channel condition; and estimating a previous SINR value from a previous radio channel condition (Elshafie, [0037]-[0038]; the CSI report may include SNR quality of the channel where the UE can determine the CSI by calculating accumulated capacity based on SINR of the received downlink signal and report the feedback to the base station, where there may be multiple CSI reports over time).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to create the invention of Marsan to include the above recited limitations as taught by Elshafie in order to improve communication between the UE and base station (Elshafie, [0019]).
Marsan in view of Elshafie does not expressly teach further comprising:
defining a SINR threshold according to the calculated difference;
wherein the MCS index have different values if the SINR value is higher than the defined SINR threshold or not.
However, Zhou teaches further comprising:
defining a SINR threshold according to the calculated difference (Zhou, [0287]-[0295]; the base station transmits a broadcast signaling that includes the parameter MSG-A SINR threshold and hence defines the SINR threshold according to this broadcast signal);
wherein the MCS index have different values if the SINR value is higher than the defined SINR threshold or not (Zhou, [0291]-[0295]; when the SINR of the terminal is greater than or equal to the SINR threshold, the MCS index can be used according to the Table 11).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to create the invention of Marsan in view of Elshafie to include the above recited limitations as taught by Zhou in order to provide a 2-step RACH procedure that support transmission of different data blocks (Zhou, [0106]).
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Marsan in view of Elshafie as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Kalyanasundaram et al. (US 2023/0254074 A1), hereafter referred Kalyanasundaram.
Regarding claim 11, Marsan in view of Elshafie teaches the method according to claim 1 above. Further, Marsan teaches further comprising
receiving Acknowledgment, ACK, or Non-Acknowledgment, NACK, from the user terminal (Marsan, [0050]-[0053]; the HARQ result for the previous transmission may be received at the network device from the terminal device, where the HARQ result could be a determined ACK or a NACK);
calculating an offset using the outer loop link adaptation, wherein inputs to the outer loop link adaptation are the received ACK or NACK, a previous offset, and the BLER target (Marsan, [0050]-[0053]; the current offset may be determined based on the target error rate and a previous offset associated with previous transmission and the determination of the offset may be based on a HARQ result for the previous transmission); and
calculating a corrected SINR value based on the offset and an estimated Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio, SINR, value (Marsan, [0031]; the network device adjusts an SNR offset which is used to correct the UL channel quality measurement result where the corrected SINR value is calculated by equation 2).
the estimated SINR value being obtained from radio channel condition received from the user terminal (Elshafie, [0037]-[0038]; the CSI report may include SNR quality of the channel where the UE can determine the CSI by calculating accumulated capacity based on SINR of the received downlink signal and report the feedback to the base station).
Marsan in view of Elshafie does not expressly teach inputting the corrected SINR value to an inner loop link adaptation, the inner loop link adaptation determining a Modulation Coding Scheme, MCS, and/or Resource Blocks, RBs, based on the corrected SINR value; and
outputting the MCS and/or the RBs to the user terminal.
However, Kalyanasundaram teaches inputting the corrected SINR value to an inner loop link adaptation, the inner loop link adaptation determining a Modulation Coding Scheme, MCS, or Resource Blocks, RBs, based on the corrected SINR value; and outputting the MCS or the RBs to the user terminal (Kalyanasundaram, [0053]-[0054]; if the inner-loop SINR does not match with the estimated SINR, the difference between the inner-loop SINR and the estimated SINR may be computed as delta-SINR, where the inner-loop SINR corrected by the average delta-SINR may be used for MCS selection).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to create the invention of Marsan in view of Elshafie to include the above recited limitations as taught by Kalyanasundaram in order to adjust transmission parameters based on current radio channel conditions (Kalyanasundaram, [0002]).
Claims 15 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Marsan in view of Elshafie as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Islam et al. (US 2021/0314959 A1), hereafter referred Islam.
Regarding claim 15, Marsan in view of Elshafie teaches the method according to claim 1 above. Marsan in view of Elshafie does not expressly teach wherein the initial and current radio channel conditions each indicate a position of the user terminal, expected mobility of the user terminal, expected radio quality conditions, a level of exposure to interference with respect to the user terminal, or traffic profiles.
However, Islam teaches wherein the initial and current radio channel conditions each indicate a position of the user terminal, expected mobility of the user terminal, expected radio quality conditions, a level of exposure to interference with respect to the user terminal, or traffic profiles (Islam, [0110]; a channel condition, such as a low-mobility condition or a not-at-cell-edge condition may then be determined from the measurements and detected characteristics).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to create the invention of Marsan in view of Elshafie to include the above recited limitations as taught by Islam in order to allow UEs to operate efficiently while experience low mobility states or cell edge effects (Islam, [0005]).
Regarding claim 16, Marsan in view of Elshafie teaches the method according to claim 1 above. Marsan in view of Elshafie does not expressly teach wherein the initial and current radio channel conditions each indicate Radio Resource Management, RRM, cell measurements.
However, Islam teaches wherein the initial and current radio channel conditions each indicate Radio Resource Management, RRM, cell measurements (Islam, [0112]; determining channel condition and performing relaxation on cell radio resource management (RRM) measurement).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to create the invention of Marsan in view of Elshafie to include the above recited limitations as taught by Islam in order to allow UEs to operate efficiently while experience low mobility states or cell edge effects (Islam, [0005]).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See PTO-892.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RODRICK MAK whose telephone number is (571)270-0284. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 9:30 am - 5:30 pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Noel Beharry can be reached at 571-270-5630. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/R.M./Examiner, Art Unit 2416
/NOEL R BEHARRY/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2416