Prosecution Insights
Last updated: October 02, 2026
Application No. 18/859,111

COMMUNICATION DEVICE AND COMMUNICATION METHOD

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Oct 22, 2024
Priority
Apr 25, 2022 — JP 2022-071808 +1 more
Examiner
MIRZA, ADNAN M
Art Unit
Tech Center
Assignee
Panasonic Holdings Corporation
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
85%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
1y 0m
Est. Remaining
94%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 85% — above average
85%
Career Allowance Rate
858 granted / 1014 resolved
+24.6% vs TC avg
Moderate +10% lift
Without
With
+9.6%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 11m
Avg Prosecution
26 currently pending
Career history
1053
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
10.5%
-29.5% vs TC avg
§103
56.0%
+16.0% vs TC avg
§102
15.5%
-24.5% vs TC avg
§112
5.3%
-34.7% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 1014 resolved cases

Office Action

§103
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 . 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 . Priority 1. Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority based on application filed in Japan on 04/25/2022. Information Disclosure Statement 2. The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 10/22/2024 and 07/25/2025 was filed. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner. 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. Claim(s) 7-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over HORMIS (W.O. 2020/243018) and further in view of MURAKAMI et al (U.S. 2020/0266930). 7. As per claims 7, 10 and 13 HORMIS disclosed a communication apparatus that communicates with a plurality of communication partner apparatuses, the communication apparatus comprising: a receiving section that receives a first modulated signal from a first communication partner apparatus of the plurality of communication partner apparatuses [In FIG. 3, the bidirectional repeater 310 may include beam controlling or beam forming capabilities for transmitting and receiving signals at the first antenna array 320 and the second antenna array 325. In some examples, phase shifters may implement the beam forming which will be discussed in further detail herein. [0103] In FIG. 3, the bidirectional repeater 310 may receive a signal from the base station 105 via the first antenna array 320. The first antenna array 320 may include one or more antennas as depicted in FIG. 3 and may be referred to interchangeably as the first antenna array or the first set of antennas. Similarly, the second antenna array 325 may include one or more antennas as depicted in FIG. 3 and may be referred to interchangeably as the second antenna array or the second set of antennas. The received signals may be combined, phase shifted, amplified, and split at the bidirectional repeater 310 and then transmitted at the second antenna array 325. Although the received signals may be discussed as being combined, phase shifted, amplified, and split] (Paragraph. 102); and a transmitting section that transmits a second modulated signal and a third modulated signal to the first communication partner apparatus, wherein the second modulated signal [ A bidirectional repeater 140 with beamforming capabilities may be utilized to receive a signal from a base station 105 and transmit the signal to the UE 115 and/or receive a signal from a UE 115 and transmit the signal to the base station 105 at the same time. In some examples, the bidirectional repeater 140 may further include a beam control system, which may comprise a system on chip (SoC) for controlling transmit and/or receive beams to reduce signal interference caused by receiving and transmitting at approximately the same time.] (Paragraph. 0093) and However, HORMIS did not explicitly disclose the third modulated signal are spatially multiplexed in at least a part thereof. In the same field of endeavor MURAKAMI disclosed FIG. 10 shows an example of the frame configurations of modulated signal A and modulated signal B transmitted from antennas 114A and 114B of multi-antenna transmitting apparatus 100. FIG. 10 (a) shows a frame configuration of modulated signal A transmitted from antenna 114A, and FIG. 10 (b) shows a frame configuration of modulated signal B transmitted from antenna 114B. In this embodiment, transmission scheme using MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) spatial multiplexing is used as the communication method, and therefore modulated signal A and modulated signal B symbols of the same carrier and the same time are transmitted simultaneously from different antennas, and multiplexed spatially (Paragraph. 0155). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing was made to have incorporated FIG. 10 shows an example of the frame configurations of modulated signal A and modulated signal B transmitted from antennas 114A and 114B of multi-antenna transmitting apparatus 100. FIG. 10 (a) shows a frame configuration of modulated signal A transmitted from antenna 114A, and FIG. 10 (b) shows a frame configuration of modulated signal B transmitted from antenna 114B. In this embodiment, transmission scheme using MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) spatial multiplexing is used as the communication method, and therefore modulated signal A and modulated signal B symbols of the same carrier and the same time are transmitted simultaneously from different antennas, and multiplexed spatially as taught by MURAKAMI in the method and system of HORMIS to optimize the transmission speed, 8. As per claims 8,11 HORMIS-MURAKAMI disclosed wherein the second modulated signal and the third modulated signal are transmitted to the first communication partner apparatus and a second communication partner apparatus of the plurality of communication partner apparatuses (HORMIS, Paragraph.0099). 9. As per claims 9,12 HORMIS-MURAKAMI disclosed wherein the first communication partner apparatus is a first Transmission and Reception Point (TRP), and the second communication partner apparatus is a second TRP different from the first TRP (HORMIS, Paragraph. 0066). Conclusion 10. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communication from the examiner should be directed to Adnan Mirza whose telephone number is (571)-272-3885. 11. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday to Friday during normal business hours. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Faris Almatrahi can be reached on (313)-446-4821. 12. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for un published applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at (866)-217-9197 (toll-free). /ADNAN M MIRZA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3667
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Oct 22, 2024
Application Filed
Aug 11, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §103 (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
85%
Grant Probability
94%
With Interview (+9.6%)
2y 11m (~1y 0m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 1014 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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