Prosecution Insights
Last updated: August 17, 2026
Application No. 18/852,987

ENHANCED POWER CONTROL

Non-Final OA §102
Filed
Sep 30, 2024
Priority
Apr 08, 2022 — provisional 63/329,171 +1 more
Examiner
WILLIAMS, TRACY L
Art Unit
Tech Center
Assignee
InterDigital Inc.
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
80%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
1y 1m
Est. Remaining
99%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 80% — above average
80%
Career Allowance Rate
20 granted / 25 resolved
+20.0% vs TC avg
Strong +20% interview lift
Without
With
+19.5%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 12m
Avg Prosecution
22 currently pending
Career history
50
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
0.6%
-39.4% vs TC avg
§103
56.9%
+16.9% vs TC avg
§102
23.2%
-16.8% vs TC avg
§112
18.2%
-21.8% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 25 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 . Information Disclosure Statement The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 09/30/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner. Specification The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because the abstract should not include any figure or title or be embedded in international search report data. A corrected abstract of the disclosure is required and must be presented on a separate sheet, apart from any other text. See MPEP § 608.01(b). Appropriate correction is required. Claim Objections Claim 4 and Claim 9 are objected to because of the following informalities: In Claim 4 (line 4) and Claim 9 (line 4), “the first plurality” should read - - the first plurality of RSRP values” and “the second plurality” should read - - the second plurality of RSRP values” for clarity. 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. Claims 1-17 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Liu et al. (US 20190364513 A1, disclosed in IDS), hereinafter Liu. Regarding Claim 1, Liu teaches a method performed by a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) (Liu, ¶0006-0007 system and method for wireless power control by a UE/ “WTRU”; see also Claim 1; FIG. 12, ¶0188; FIG. 14, ¶0192; FIG. 16, ¶0196), the method comprising: receiving configuration information (Liu, ¶0007 receiving, by the UE, a PC (power control) configuration; see also FIG. 12 at 1205/1207), the configuration information comprising a first set of reference signal received power (RSRP) values associated with a first set of reference signals (RSs) measured at a reception point (RP) (Liu, ¶0104 [b]ased on the RS, the receiver may obtain reference signal received power (RSRP) values; ¶0115-0116, the PL is associated with a RSRP from a downlink RS; multiple power control settings may be configured; see also ¶0104; ¶0129-0130); measuring a second set of RSRP values associated with a second set of RSs (Liu, ¶0104 [b]ased on the RS, the receiver may obtain reference signal received power (RSRP) values; ¶0125-0126, Layer-3 RSRP and Layer-1 CSI-RS; see also ¶0136, some signals . . . are configured with their respective and different downlink RS for PL estimates); determining a difference between one or more of the first set of RSRP values and one or more of the second set of RSRP values (Liu, ¶0126, the offset may be based on the difference between the Layer 3 RSRP from the Layer 1 CSI-RS RSRP, or the difference between the Layer 3 PL from the Layer 1 PL calculated by the network [or] the offset may also be calculated by the UE, based on a difference between the Layer 3 RSRP from the Layer 1 CSI-RS RSRP; see also ¶0134-0137). determining a pathloss (PL) associated with open-loop (OL) power control (PC) based on the determined difference (Liu, ¶0007, ¶0023 determining, by the UE, a transmit power level in accordance with the PC configuration and a pathloss, wherein the pathloss is calculated in accordance with the DL signals in the subset of the first group, and transmitting, by the UE, a signal on a set of uplink (UL) resources at the transmit power level; ¶0129, another PL generated from another set of RS or RSRP, such as the CSI-RS for L1 . . [t]he offset is not needed since it is already accounted for in the PL estimate differences); and transmitting an uplink transmission using a power level based on the determined PL (Liu, FIG.12 FIG. 12, ¶0187 - ¶0188, the UE transmits in the uplink with the power level selected in block 1211 (block 1213); see also ¶0134-0137). Regarding Claim 2, Liu teaches claim 1. Liu further teaches determining the power level based on the determined PL (Liu, ¶0007, ¶0023 determining, by the UE, a transmit power level in accordance with the PC configuration and a pathloss; FIG. 6, ¶0144 at 610 the PL parameters for power control; FIG. 12, ¶0188, [t]he UE selects a transmit power level (block 1211); [t]he PL estimate(s) . . . are used in selecting the transmit power level [and] at 1213, transmit in the UL with the selected transmit power level). Regarding Claim 3, Liu teaches claim 1. Liu further teaches the determined PL comprises an estimated PL between the WTRU and the RP (Liu, ¶0098 [t]he serving access node/gNB/”RP” may signal a PL estimate (or uplink transmission power) to the UE; ¶0104 the PL estimate used in power control; FIG. 6, ¶0144, at 610, between the gNB/ “RP” and UE; see also Claims 23-26). Regarding Claim 4, Liu teaches claim 1. Liu further teaches the first set of RSRP values comprises a first plurality of RSRP values the second set of RSRP values comprises a second plurality of RSRP values (Liu, ¶0126, the offset may be based on the difference between the Layer 3 RSRP from the Layer 1 CSI-RS RSRP (first and second set of RSRP values), or the difference between the Layer 3 PL from the Layer 1 PL calculated by the network [or] calculated by the UE, based on a difference between the Layer 3 RSRP from the Layer 1 CSI-RS RSRP; see also ¶0134-0137); and the first plurality [of RSRP values] differs from the second plurality [of RSRP values] (Liu ¶0104, based on the RS, the receiver may obtain reference signal received power (RSRP) values; ¶0126, a difference between the Layer 3 RSRP and the Layer 1 CSI-RS RSRP may be calculated, interpreted to correspond to the RSRP values being different; see also FIG. 6, at 610 pathloss obtained separately for Beam 1, 2, etc,; ¶0130 the other type of PUSCH uses another PL generated from another set of RS or RSRP, such as the CSI-RS for Layer 1). Regarding Claim 5, Liu teaches claim 1. Liu further teaches receiving the second set of RSs from a plurality of transmission and reception points (TRPs)(Liu, FIG. 2C, ¶0064, a plurality of TRPs 232, 233, 234 communicate with a UE 235; ¶0074, TRPs supporting initial access procedures such as such as transmitting SS directly discoverable by UE; see also ¶0112, the network configures multiple sets of downlink RSs and transmits the downlink RSs for the UE to receive). Regarding Claim 6, Liu teaches claim 1. Liu further teaches monitoring a subset of the first set of RSs associated with the received first set of RSRP values, wherein the second set of RSs comprises the subset of the first set of RSs (Liu, ¶0112, the network configures multiple sets of downlink RSs and transmits the downlink RSs for the UE to receive; ¶0104 Based on the RS, the receiver may obtain reference signal received power (RSRP) values. Then, by removing the transmission power (TxP) associated with the RS, the PL estimate may be obtained; and ¶0116 [in power control] the downlink RSs (or associated RSRP measurements) may be indexed, see also Claim 1 [indexing and subset; ¶0125-0130; ¶0134-0137). Regarding Claim 7, Liu teaches claim 6. Liu further teaches receiving an indication of the subset from at least one of downlink control information (DCI), a medium access channel control element (MAC CE), or a radio resource control (RRC) configuration (Liu, ¶0128 [w]hen a different numerology (e.g., 30 kHz at lower frequency or 240 kHz at higher frequency), different waveform (e.g., OFDM), different format (e.g., in a mini-slot, a downlink-uplink slot, etc.), different beamwidth (e.g., wider beamwidth), and so on, is used, additional offsets are applied [and] may be generally configured in RRC signaling for the different scenarios . . . [t]he additional offsets may also be signaled in, e.g., MAC or PHY when the numerology, waveform, format, etc., is signaled to be changing). Regarding Claim 8, Liu teaches claim 1. Liu further teaches at least one of the second set of RSs via a synchronization signal physical broadcast channel block (SSB), a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), a tracking RS (TRS), or a position RS (PRS) (Liu, ¶0010, the DL RSs are channel state information RSs (CSI-RSs); ¶0135, an access node, TRP, cell, carrier, or bandwidth part that a UE is connected with, transmits SS or Layer 3 CSI-RS (which may also be configurable and aperiodic to the UE) and is seen by the UE, even after the UE and the TRP have selected narrow beam for higher-rate data transmission). Regarding Claims 9-16, the claims disclose similar features of Claims 1-8 and are rejected based on the same rationales of Claims 1-8, in apparatus form (Liu, FIG. 18A, ¶0207, a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) (FIG. 18, electronic device (ED) 1810/FIG. 17, UE 1710) comprising; a transceiver (FIG. 18a, TRANSCEIVER 1802); and a processor, (Fig. 18A, PROCESSING UNIT 1800). Regarding Claims 17 and Claim 19, Liu teaches Claim 1 and Claim 9, respectively. Liu further teaches [to] determine/determining the power level based on the WTRU being within a vicinity of the RP (Liu, ¶0098, [t]he serving access node may signal a PL estimate (or uplink transmission power) to the UE and the signalled [sic.] value may be estimated by the access node based on access node density near the UE; examiner interprets access node density to be a factor in “determining the power level being within the vicinity”). Conclusion The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Gong et al. (US 20200068497 A1): Abstract; ¶0002, disclosed throughout; a system and method for beam or RS relationship specific power control for uplink transmission. ¶0068 Multiple RSRP filtering levels for L3 or layer 1 (L1) when estimating pathloss. Additionally, systems and methods are described for compensating asymmetric DL/DL PL reciprocity issues and for TRP set decoupling between transmission and reception. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TRACY L WILLIAMS whose telephone number is (571)270-7694. The examiner can normally be reached Mon - Fri 8:30-5:30. 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, Ayman Abaza can be reached at 571-270-0422. 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. /TRACY L WILLIAMS/Examiner, Art Unit 2465 /CHRISTOPHER T WYLLIE/Examiner, Art Unit 2465
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Prosecution Timeline

Sep 30, 2024
Application Filed
Jul 29, 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
80%
Grant Probability
99%
With Interview (+19.5%)
2y 12m (~1y 1m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 25 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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