Prosecution Insights
Last updated: October 23, 2026
Application No. 18/858,693

USER EQUIPMENT, SCHEDULING NODE, METHOD FOR USER EQUIPMENT, AND METHOD FOR SCHEDULING NODE

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Oct 21, 2024
Priority
Apr 25, 2022 — EU 22169830.1 +1 more
Examiner
ROSE, DERRICK V
Art Unit
2462
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
Panasonic Holdings Corporation
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
84%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
8m
Est. Remaining
81%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 84% — above average
84%
Career Allowance Rate
479 granted / 570 resolved
+26.0% vs TC avg
Minimal -3% lift
Without
With
+-3.3%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 9m
Avg Prosecution
13 currently pending
Career history
589
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
3.1%
-36.9% vs TC avg
§103
75.0%
+35.0% vs TC avg
§102
10.6%
-29.4% vs TC avg
§112
2.9%
-37.1% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 570 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 . Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 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 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. Claim(s) 1-5, 10, 12-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al (US 20250119910) in view of Priyanto et al (US 20250203603). As to claim 1 and 13 Zhang discloses a communication apparatus (Zhang Fig. 16) and a method, the communication apparatus comprising: circuitry (Zhang ¶0559), which, in operation: - obtains, from control signaling, an indication indicating a configuration of transmission opportunities of a resource configuration with which the communication apparatus is configured (Zhang ¶0409- 1st sentence- the terminal receives the indication information on the first downlink SPS resource set, and the indication information is configured to indicate an SPS resource; ¶0410- last sentence- The network device can flexibly change a time range that the terminal needs to indicate based on the configuration; ¶0412-the target transmission resource includes one or more transmission opportunities, and a number of the transmission opportunities or a maximum number of the transmission opportunities is configured by the network device; ¶0413-¶0415), wherein the resource configuration is a configured grant, (CG) configuration (Fig.4, Fig.5 ¶0267-¶0270), a semi-persistent scheduling, (SPS) configuration (Zhang ¶0271), or a scheduling request (SR), configuration (Zhang ¶0433- 2nd sentence- On one hand, when there is an uplink resource demand, such as an uplink dynamic scheduling request, the network device allocates the uplink resources having no data transmission indicated by the terminal), and the control signaling is a downlink control signaling, (DCI) (Fig.4 ¶0269- ¶0270), and/or the indication is an indication of a validity time, the validity time being a time duration transmission opportunities of the resource configuration are valid after activation of the resource configuration (Zhang ¶0402-¶403; ¶0404- the indication information is configured to indicate the target transmission resource within a third time window, where a start point and a duration of the third time window are configured by the network device or predefined by a protocol.); Zhang ¶407- last sentence- the terminal receives the CG activated by DCI and obtains the information about the start point and the duration of the third time window. The network device can flexibly change a time range that the terminal needs to indicate based on the configuration). and a transceiver (1602 of Fig.16), which, in operation: - receives the control signaling, and - receives or transmits a transmission using one of the transmission opportunities of the configuration (Zhang ¶0416-1st sentence-transmitting, by the terminal, the indication information indicating the target transmission resource on the uplink transmission resource configured by the CG, the network device may obtain the actual transmission status of the resources reserved for the CG within a period of time, to avoid uplink CG resource waste.). Zhang, however, does not explicitly recite the indication indicating a change of the configuration of the transmission opportunities- in other words changing or updating a periodicity. However, in an analogous art Priyanto remedies this deficiency: Priyanto Fig.10, ¶0097- 1st and 2nd sentence- the UE 10 is thus provided with more than one periodicity and the UE 10 (and the access node 121) changes the periodicity according to a predefined order. In the shown example, the UE 10 is configured with a first periodicity of 16 ms and a second periodicity of 17 ms, wherein the adjustment parameter identifies timing for switching or alternating between these two periodicities. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the teachings of Zhang with that of Priyanto for the purpose of providing improved solutions for scheduling periodic data communication, where communication occasions reoccur based on a predetermined periodicity (Priyanto ¶0006). As to claim 2 the combined teachings of Zhang and Priyanto disclose the communication apparatus according to claim 1,wherein the communication apparatus is configured with one or more configuration groups, each configuration group comprising a plurality of resource configurations, each resource configuration being a CG configuration (Zhang ¶0350- for CG resources, one CG corresponds to one or more CG transmission opportunities, and one CG transmission opportunity corresponds to one or more resource block groups. Zhang Fig. 9, ¶0474-2nd sentence- the base station configures a first CG group and a second CG group. The first CG group includes three CGs. The first CG group is configured to transmit an XR UL video traffic, and the second CG group is configured to transmit an XR UL pose traffic., a SPS configuration or a SR configuration, the resource configuration being part of a configuration group of the configuration groups (Zhang Fig. 10 ¶477-1st sentence); and the circuitry, in operation, changes, by applying the indicated change, also to configurations of transmission opportunities of other resource configurations of the configuration group, the other resource configurations being resource configurations in the configuration group other than the resource configuration (Zhang ¶0422- if the target transmission resource is a resource having a data transmission, the network device receives the indication information on the uplink transmission resource configured by the CG, and the network device determines that the target transmission resource has the transmission based on the indication information, to reallocate transmission resources other than the target transmission resource. Zhang ¶0483). As to claim 3 the combined teachings of Zhang and Priyanto disclose the communication apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the transceiver, in operation, receives a configuration group control signaling; and the circuitry, in operation, obtains, from the configuration group control signaling, an indication indicating which resource configurations are in the configuration group of the resource configuration (Zhang ¶0329- The CG group identity is configured by the network device through signaling, such as RRC signaling, DCI activation signaling, etc. The first uplink CG resource set and the second uplink CG resource set in the embodiment of the present application may both be subsets of one CG group; Zhang ¶0330- The terminal may determine the CG belonging to the same CG group based on the CG group identity. As to claim 4 the combined teachings of Zhang and Priyanto disclose communication apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the indication indicating which resource configurations are in the configuration group of the resource configuration indicates that changes to the configuration of transmission opportunities of one of the resource configurations of the configuration group are to be applied to transmission opportunities of the other resource configurations of the configuration group Zhang ¶0422- if the target transmission resource is a resource having a data transmission, the network device receives the indication information on the uplink transmission resource configured by the CG, and the network device determines that the target transmission resource has the transmission based on the indication information, to reallocate transmission resources other than the target transmission resource. Zhang ¶0483). As to claim 5 the combined teachings of Zhang and Priyanto disclose the communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control signaling is a DCI, and the indication indicating the change is an indication of: - a value of a parameter of the configuration, - a time offset to be applied to the resources of the configuration, - a frequency offset to be applied to the resources of the configuration (Zhang ¶0268- ¶0269) - a change of a periodicity of the resources of the configuration:(Priyanto Fig.10, ¶0097- 1st and 2nd sentence); and the circuitry, in operation, in the changing of the configuration of the transmission opportunities, changes the transmission opportunities by changing the resources of the configuration by: - applying the time offset to the resources of the configuration (Priyanto ¶0105- the example of FIG. 13, the UE 10 is configured for use with a traffic data rate of fps=60. The UE 10 is configured with a plurality of configurations having a common periodicity, with a time offset between the communication occasions for said plurality of configurations), - updating the periodicity of the resources of the configuration (Priyanto ¶0097- 1st and 2nd sentence). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine the teachings of Zhang with that of Priyanto for the purpose of providing improved solutions for scheduling periodic data communication (Priyanto ¶0006). As to claim 10 the combined teachings of Zhang and Priyanto disclose the communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control signaling is a DCI or a radio resource control, (RRC) (Zhang ¶0270- 2nd sentence- and after the base station transmits downlink control information (DCI) activation signaling, the terminal performs the periodic uplink CG transmission Zhang ¶0329,¶0374) ; signaling; the indication indicating the change is the indication of the validity time(Zhang ¶0402-¶403; ¶0404- the indication information is configured to indicate the target transmission resource within a third time window, where a start point and a duration of the third time window are configured by the network device or predefined by a protocol.); the transceiver, in operation, receives an activation control signaling (Zhang ¶0269- 2nd sentence-The RRC configures parameters such as a periodicity, an offset or other parameters, and PDCCH activation signaling notifies a configured grant type 2 to activate and indicates scheduling information simultaneously. ; and the circuitry, in operation: - obtains, from the activation control signaling an indication to activate the resource configuration (Zhang ¶0269- 3rd sentence- The terminal may only perform the uplink CG transmission by using a corresponding PUSCH resources only after receiving the activation signaling transmitted from the base station ; and - activates transmission opportunities of the resource configuration that are within a time interval with a length corresponding to the validity time (Zhang ¶0344- the part or all of the CG transmission opportunities used for the PUSCH transmission having the data include all of the CG transmission opportunities, in the first uplink CG resource set, used for a PUSCH transmission having data within a first time window, where a start point and a duration of the first time window are configured by the network device or predefined by a protocol.). As to claim 12 the combined teachings of Zhang and Priyanto disclose the communication apparatus according to claim 10 wherein, the control signaling is the RRC signaling; and the circuitry, in operation, obtains, from the RRC signaling, an indication indicating resources of the resource configuration, thereby configuring communication apparatus with the resource configuration (Zhang ¶0268- ¶0269). As to claim 14 Zhang discloses a scheduling device (Zhang Fig.17), comprising: circuitry (Zhang ¶603), which, in operation: - determines a configuration of transmission opportunities of a resource configuration (Zhang ¶0409- 1st sentence- the terminal receives the indication information on the first downlink SPS resource set, and the indication information is configured to indicate an SPS resource; ¶0410- last sentence- The network device can flexibly change a time range that the terminal needs to indicate based on the configuration; ¶0412-the target transmission resource includes one or more transmission opportunities, and a number of the transmission opportunities or a maximum number of the transmission opportunities is configured by the network device; ¶0413-¶0415); and - generates a control signaling including an indication indicating the change (Fig.4 ¶0269- ¶0270), wherein the resource configuration is a configured grant, (CG) configuration (Fig.4, Fig.5 ¶0267-¶0270), a semi-persistent scheduling, (SPS) configuration (Zhang ¶0271) or a scheduling request, (SR), configuration (Zhang ¶0433- 2nd sentence- On one hand, when there is an uplink resource demand, such as an uplink dynamic scheduling request, the network device allocates the uplink resources having no data transmission indicated by the terminal) , and the control signaling is a downlink control signaling, (DCI) (Fig.4 ¶0269- ¶0270), and/or the indication is an indication of a validity time, the validity time being a time duration transmission opportunities of the resource configuration are valid after activation of the resource configuration (Zhang ¶0402-¶403; ¶0404- the indication information is configured to indicate the target transmission resource within a third time window, where a start point and a duration of the third time window are configured by the network device or predefined by a protocol. .); Zhang ¶407- last sentence- the terminal receives the CG activated by DCI and obtains the information about the start point and the duration of the third time window. The network device can flexibly change a time range that the terminal needs to indicate based on the configuration); and a transceiver (1702 of Fig. 17), which, in operation: - transmits the control signaling, and - receives or transmits a transmission using one of the transmission opportunities of the changed configuration (Zhang ¶0416-1st sentence). Zhang, however, does not explicitly recite determining a change of a configuration of the transmission opportunities - in other words changing or updating a periodicity. However, in an analogous art Priyanto remedies this deficiency: Priyanto Fig.10, ¶0097- 1st and 2nd sentence- the UE 10 is thus provided with more than one periodicity and the UE 10 (and the access node 121) changes the periodicity according to a predefined order. In the shown example, the UE 10 is configured with a first periodicity of 16 ms and a second periodicity of 17 ms, wherein the adjustment parameter identifies timing for switching or alternating between these two periodicities. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the teachings of Zhang with that of Priyanto for the purpose of providing improved solutions for scheduling periodic data communication, where communication occasions reoccur based on a predetermined periodicity (Priyanto ¶0006). Allowable Subject Matter Claims 6-9, and 11 are 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. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DERRICK V ROSE whose telephone number is (571)270-7460. The examiner can normally be reached 9am- 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, YEMANE MESFIN can be reached at 571-272-3927. 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. /DERRICK V ROSE/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462
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Prosecution Timeline

Oct 21, 2024
Application Filed
Sep 29, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §103 (current)

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
84%
Grant Probability
81%
With Interview (-3.3%)
2y 9m (~8m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 570 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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