Prosecution Insights
Last updated: August 17, 2026
Application No. 18/861,839

ENABLING RETRANSMISSION OF INITIAL TRANSMISSION OF THE CG-SDT

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Oct 30, 2024
Priority
May 25, 2022 — nonprovisional of PCTCN2022095081
Examiner
GOODWIN, SCHQUITA D
Art Unit
Tech Center
Assignee
Nokia Corporation
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
67%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
1y 8m
Est. Remaining
82%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 67% — above average
67%
Career Allowance Rate
220 granted / 330 resolved
+6.7% vs TC avg
Strong +15% interview lift
Without
With
+15.1%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
3y 6m
Avg Prosecution
30 currently pending
Career history
355
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
11.1%
-28.9% vs TC avg
§103
52.3%
+12.3% vs TC avg
§102
9.0%
-31.0% vs TC avg
§112
25.4%
-14.6% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 330 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 . 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. DETAILED ACTION This communication is in response to Application No. 18/861,839 filed on 30 October 2024. This application claims 371 priority to PCT/CN2022/095081 filed on 25 May 2022. Claims 1-22 are presented for examination. 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. Claims 1-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US PGPUB 2022/0124790 A1 to Wu and in view of US PGPUB 2022/0210860 A1 to Chin et al. Regarding Claim 1, Wu discloses a first device (0047 provides for terminal device), comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code; wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the first device (FIG. 9 and 0172 provides for terminal device 900) to: select a first configured uplink grant for retransmission of an initial transmission of Configured Grant Small Data Transmission, CG-SDT (0047 and 0059 provides for terminal selecting CG configured for retransmission); and perform the retransmission to a second device based on the first configured uplink grant (0059 and 0080 provides for performing the retransmission CG 2 which is different from the CG 1 to network device). Wu doesn’t explicitly disclose a first transport block size, TBS, associated with the first configured uplink grant being comparable to a second TBS associated with a second configured uplink grant for the initial transmission of CG-SDT. Chin, in a similar field of endeavor, discloses select a first configured uplink grant for retransmission of an initial transmission of Configured Grant Small Data Transmission, CG-SDT, a first transport block size, TBS, associated with the first configured uplink grant (0339-0340 provides for cg-SDT timer for retransmission of a TB) being comparable to a second TBS associated with a second configured uplink grant for the initial transmission of CG-SDT (0143-0151, 0249-0250, and 0279 provides for a threshold_CG for a TBS of the CG resource for UL data). One of ordinary skill in the art before the effectively filed date of the claimed invention would have recognized the ability to utilize the teachings of Chin for subsequent data transmissions. The CG-SDT retransmission configuration of Chin, when implemented with the retransmission indication of the Wu system, will allow one of ordinary skill in the art to implement a CG threshold in order to prioritize resources in the same serving cell. Therefore, the examiner concludes it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the application to utilize the CG-SDT retransmission configuration of Chin with the retransmission indication of the Wu system for the desirable purpose of prioritize resources in a network. Regarding Claim 2, the Wu/Chin system discloses the first device of claim 1, wherein the first TBS is equal to the second TBS (Chin, 0250 provides for the specific size threshold (e.g., Threshold_CG) may be the TBS of the CG resource). Same motivation as claim 1. Regarding Claim 3, the Wu/Chin system discloses the first device of claim 1, wherein the first TBS is greater than the second TBS (Wu, 0063 provides for the second TBS is greater than or equal to the first TBS). Regarding Claim 4, the Wu/Chin system discloses the first device of claim 1, wherein the first configured uplink grant and the second configured uplink grant are associated with a single configured grant configuration (Chin, 0217 provides for uplink grant field is 27 bits). Same motivation as claim 1. Regarding Claim 5, the Wu/Chin system discloses the first device of claim 1, wherein the first configured uplink grant is associated with a first configured grant configuration, and the second configured uplink grant is associated with a second configured grant configuration that is different from the first configured grant configuration (Chin, 0071 provides for uplink grant type 1 and uplink grant type 2). Same motivation as claim 1. Regarding Claim 6, the Wu/Chin system discloses the first device of claim 3, wherein the first device is further caused to: rebuild a first Medium Access Control Packet Data Unit, MAC PDU, for the initial transmission of the CG-SDT by adding padding to the first MAC PDU based on the first TBS (Chin, 0262 and 0331 provides for MAC PDU and padding); and generate a second MAC PDU for the retransmission based on the rebuilt first MAC PDU (Chin, 0262 provides for the UE may transmit padding bits and/or padding BSR on the CG resource). Same motivation as claim 1. Regarding Claim 7, the Wu/Chin system discloses the first device of claim 3, wherein a second medium access control packet data unit, MAC PDU, for the retransmission comprises more data than a first MAC PDU for the initial CG-SDT (Chin, 0262 and 0331 provides for MAC PDU and padding). Same motivation as claim 1. Regarding Claim 8, the Wu/Chin system discloses the first device of claim 1, wherein at least one first Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request, HARQ, process associated with the first configured uplink grant is the same as at least one second HARQ process associated with the second configured uplink grant (Chin, 0317-0318 and 0340-0347 provides for HARQ configuration corresponds to CG configuration bit). Same motivation as claim 1. Regarding Claim 9, the Wu/Chin system discloses the first device of claim 1, wherein the first device comprises a terminal device (Chin, FIG. 2 provides for UE), and the second device comprises a network device (Chin, FIG. 2 provides for NW). Same motivation as claim 1. Regarding Claim 10, Wu discloses a second device (FIG. 10, the network device 1000), comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code; wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the second device (FIG. 10 and 0181) to: transmit, to a first device, a first configured grant configuration (0047 and 0059 provides for network device transmitting CG configured for retransmission). Wu doesn’t explicitly disclose transmit, to a first device, a second configured grant configuration for configured grant small data transmission, CG-SDT, at least one first information associated with the first configured grant configuration being comparable to at least one second information associated with the second configured grant configuration; and receive the CG-SDT from the first device based on at least one of the first and second configured grant configurations. Chin, in a similar field of endeavor, discloses transmit, to a first device, a first configured grant configuration and a second configured grant configuration for configured grant small data transmission, CG-SDT, at least one first information associated with the first configured grant configuration (0339-0340 provides for cg-SDT timer for retransmission of a TB) being comparable to at least one second information associated with the second configured grant configuration (0143-0151, 0249-0250, and 0279 provides for a threshold_CG for a TBS of the CG resource for UL data); and receive the CG-SDT from the first device based on at least one of the first and second configured grant configurations (FIG. 2 and 0339-0340 provides for cg-SDT timer for retransmission of a TB). Same motivation as claim 1. Regarding Claim 11, the Wu/Chin system discloses the second device of claim 10, wherein each of at least one first information and the at least one second information comprises at least one of the following: a Synchronization Signal Block, SSB, a transport block size, TBS (Chin, 0339-0340 provides for TB), or a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request, HARQ, process. Same motivation as claim 1. Regarding Claim 12, similar rejection where the first device of claim 9 teaches the second device of claim 12. Regarding Claim 13, similar rejection where the first device of claim 1 teaches the method of claim 13. Regarding Claim 14, similar rejection where the first device of claim 2 teaches the method of claim 14. Regarding Claim 15, similar rejection where the first device of claim 3 teaches the method of claim 15. Regarding Claim 16, similar rejection where the first device of claim 4 teaches the method of claim 16. Regarding Claim 17, similar rejection where the first device of claim 5 teaches the method of claim 17. Regarding Claim 18, similar rejection where the first device of claim 6 teaches the method of claim 18. Regarding Claim 19, similar rejection where the first device of claim 7 teaches the method of claim 19. Regarding Claim 20, similar rejection where the first device of claim 8 teaches the method of claim 20. Regarding Claim 21, similar rejection where the first device of claim 9 teaches the method of claim 21. Regarding Claim 22, similar rejection where the second device of claim 10 teaches the method of claim 22. Conclusion The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US PGPUB 2022/0304100 A1 to Tsai et al discloses small data transmission procedure for a new radio network. US Patent 12,690,060 B2 to Kim et al discloses mapping potential HARQ retransmissions of a transport block. US Patent 11,582,790 B2 to Tsai et al discloses autonomous retransmissions of type 1 or type 2 with cg-retransmission timer. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SCHQUITA GOODWIN whose telephone number is (571)272-5477. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9am - 5pm EST. 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, Tonia Dollinger can be reached on (571) 272-4170. 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. /SCHQUITA D GOODWIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2459
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Prosecution Timeline

Oct 30, 2024
Application Filed
Aug 04, 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
67%
Grant Probability
82%
With Interview (+15.1%)
3y 6m (~1y 8m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 330 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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