Prosecution Insights
Last updated: May 29, 2026
Application No. 18/859,275

METHODS, DEVICES, AND COMPUTER READABLE MEDIUM FOR COMMUNICATION

Non-Final OA §112
Filed
Oct 23, 2024
Priority
Apr 28, 2022 — nonprovisional of PCTCN2022090054
Examiner
VLAHOS, SOPHIA
Art Unit
2633
Tech Center
2600 — Communications
Assignee
NEC Corporation
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
87%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
11m
Est. Remaining
98%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 87% — above average
87%
Career Allowance Rate
711 granted / 816 resolved
+25.1% vs TC avg
Moderate +10% lift
Without
With
+10.5%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 6m
Avg Prosecution
17 currently pending
Career history
831
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
1.0%
-39.0% vs TC avg
§103
71.0%
+31.0% vs TC avg
§102
6.2%
-33.8% vs TC avg
§112
18.2%
-21.8% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 816 resolved cases

Office Action

§112
37DETAILED 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 statements (IDSs) submitted on 10/23/2024, 7/31/2025 and 11/13/2025 have been considered by the examiner. Specification 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, requires the specification to be written in “full, clear, concise, and exact terms.” The specification is replete with terms which are not clear, concise and exact. The specification should be revised carefully in order to comply with 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112. Examples of some unclear, inexact or verbose terms used in the specification are: Refer to the 10/23/2024 Specification. [0058] discloses “…the fifth value may be a first parameter of antenna port configuration multiplies a second parameter of antenna port configuration multiplies the number of the second plurality of antenna port groups”. Emphasis added; it is not clear what is meant by the “multiplies”. The described operation (product? multiplication?) between the first parameter and the second parameter and the number of the second plurality of antenna port groups is unclear. [0060] discloses “may be the first parameter of antenna port configuration multiples the second parameter of antenna port configuration multiplies 2”. It is not clear what is meant by the “multiples” and “multiplies 2”. [0061] discloses “may be based on the number of the plurality of antenna ports in one antenna port group multiplies the number of the second plurality of antenna port groups”. It is not clear what is meant by the “multiplies”. The following paragraphs have been identified as including terms (multiplies, multiples) which must be corrected. [0063] discloses “may be the number of the first plurality of antenna port groups multiplies the number of the plurality of antenna ports in one antenna port group”, [0065] discloses “may be the number of the first plurality of antenna port groups multiplies the number of the plurality of antenna ports in one antenna port group”, [0072”] discloses “wherein the fifth value may be the first parameter of antenna port configuration multiplies the second parameter of antenna port configuration”, [0089] discloses “the tenth value may be a first parameter of antenna port configuration multiplies a second parameter of antenna port configuration multiplies the number of the second plurality of antenna port groups”, [0094] discloses “in one antenna port group may be the first parameter of antenna port configuration multiples the second parameter of antenna port configuration multiplies 2”, [0095] discloses “the number of the plurality of antenna ports in one antenna port group multiplies the number of the second plurality of antenna port groups”, [0097] disclose “the number of the first plurality of antenna port groups multiplies the number of the plurality of antenna ports in one antenna port group”, [0099] discloses “the number of the first plurality of antenna port groups multiplies the number of the plurality of antenna ports in one antenna port group”, [00109] discloses “may equal to the number of the first plurality of antenna port groups multiplies the number of the plurality of antenna ports in one antenna port group”, [00171] discloses “may be the number of the plurality of antenna ports in one antenna port group multiplies the number of the second plurality of antenna port group”, [00180] discloses “2 multiplies the number of the first plurality of first vectors; 2 multiplies the number of the second plurality of antenna port groups and multiplies the number of the second plurality of second vectors; and 2 multiples the number of the plurality of second vectors”, [00222] discloses “the number of the first plurality of antenna port groups multiplies the number of antenna ports in one antenna port group”. The instant application specification is objected to under 37 CFR 1.75(d)(1) for failure to provide clear support for the term “a strongest coefficient corresponding to one layer” of claims 31, 34 and 37. The specification discloses “amplitude coefficients” and “phase coefficients” but does not provide clear support for the term “a strongest coefficient corresponding to one layer”. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112 The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b): (b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph: The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention. Claims 31, 34, 37 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. Claim 31 recites: “the information further comprises a sixth indicator of a strongest coefficient corresponding to one layer”. It is unclear what Applicant intends to claim with the term “a strongest coefficient corresponding to one layer”. It is unclear if the “a strongest coefficient” corresponds to a coefficient having a value that is largest among other coefficients (among amplitude coefficients or among phase coefficients) or as a coefficient having a value that is lowest among other coefficients (among amplitude coefficients or among phase coefficients), or does it correspond to a coefficient that is strongest according to some other metric. Claims 34 and 37 each recite “the information further comprises a sixth indicator of a strongest coefficient corresponding to one layer” rejected using the reasoning used to reject claim 31 above. Allowable Subject Matter Claims 29-30, 32-33, 35-36 are allowed. Independent claim 29 recites allowable subject matter in lines 8-10 of the claim and in combination with the other limitations of claim 29. At least [00342] of the instant application specification provide support for the claimed limitations of lines 8-10 (also refer to related [00117]-[00118]). Independent claims 32 and 35 recite corresponding allowable subject matter. Conclusion The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. WO 2023/285079 entire document is relevant and refer to at least pages 16-17, description of step 401B through step 402B and Fig. 4A, 4B. Kwak et al. (U.S. 11,323,902) entire document is relevant, and refer to at least Fig. 20-21 Großmann et al. (U.S. 2021/0143885) refer to at least [0037] “report to the transmitter the CSI feedback including either one or more of the CQI, and/or the PMI and/or the RI, wherein the PMI and RI are used to indicate the Doppler-delay-beam three-stage composite precoder matrix for the configured antenna ports”, and section Methods [0214]-[0221], and Fig. 4. [0231] “The UE may be configured with a CSI-RS resource configuration via a higher layer (such as RRC) containing information about the number of assigned CSI-RS ports used for the transmission to the UE. The number of CSI-RS ports, M, is equal to PN1N2 (where P=1 for co-polarized array antennas, and P=2 for dual-polarized array antennas at the base station), and where N1 and N2 are the number of antenna ports of the first and second spatial dimensions of the gNB array, respectively”, Contact Information Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SOPHIA VLAHOS whose telephone number is (571)272-5507. The examiner can normally be reached M 8:00-4:00, TWRF 8:00-2:00. 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, SAM K AHN can be reached at 571-272-3044. 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. SOPHIA VLAHOS Examiner Art Unit 2633 /SOPHIA VLAHOS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2633 3/12/2026
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Oct 23, 2024
Application Filed
Mar 18, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §112 (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
87%
Grant Probability
98%
With Interview (+10.5%)
2y 6m (~11m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 816 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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