Prosecution Insights
Last updated: April 19, 2026
Application No. 18/866,030

TRACKING REFERENCE SIGNALS (TRSS) FOR JOINT COMMUNICATIONS AND SENSING

Non-Final OA §102§103
Filed
Nov 14, 2024
Examiner
VLAHOS, SOPHIA
Art Unit
2633
Tech Center
2600 — Communications
Assignee
Qualcomm Incorporated
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
87%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
2y 8m
To Grant
98%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 87% — above average
87%
Career Allow Rate
706 granted / 811 resolved
+25.1% vs TC avg
Moderate +11% lift
Without
With
+10.6%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 8m
Avg Prosecution
17 currently pending
Career history
828
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
3.8%
-36.2% vs TC avg
§103
44.9%
+4.9% vs TC avg
§102
19.5%
-20.5% vs TC avg
§112
23.3%
-16.7% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 811 resolved cases

Office Action

§102 §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 . Information Disclosure Statement The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 11/14/2024 has been considered by the examiner. 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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. Claims 1, 7-13, 24-25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Nilsson et al. (WO 2023/080816 A1). With respect to claim 1, Nilsson et al. disclose: An apparatus (page 7, paragraph starting with “The radio node…”, the radio node corresponds to the claimed apparatus, also lines 1-20 of the same paragraph in particular lines 9-12, 17-19, also refer to page 4 paragraph starting with “There is disclosed…” also page 21, last sentence of the third paragraph “Radar signalling may be considered sensing signalling and vice versa in this discussion”) for wireless communications, the apparatus comprising: at least one memory (page 42, last two paragraphs, through the third paragraph of page 43, refer to the disclosed “the processing circuitry comprises….memories or memory arrangements, page 5 paragraph starting with Approaches described herein…”, page 20 paragraph starting with “Approaches described herein…”) and at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory (of the processing circuitry of the apparatus) and configured to: receive a reflection signal from a target (page 21, last sentence of the third paragraph “Radar signalling may be considered sensing signalling and vice versa in this discussion”, page 6 last paragraph “…receiving sensing signalling may comprise receiving reflections of the sensing signalling. Also refer to the sensing (based on the reflection(s)) Fig. 1(a),(b). Page 17 first paragraph refer to the description of sensing as receiving reflection(s) of transmitted signalling of a target or reflecting object, page 18, refer to the 9 lines below Table 1.) wherein the reflection signal comprises tracking reference signal (TRS) resources and radar reference signal (RS) resources (page 7, refer to at least lines 12-14 of the paragraph starting with “The radio node…”, specifically the ”Sensing signalling may be reference signaling, and/or may be communication signalling and/or signalling dedicated for sensing” (the sensing signalling is transmitted and is reflected by the target, and received by a receiver (in a mon0static scenario or a bi-static (or multi-static) scenario e.g. Fig. 1(a), (b)) as explained in the portions of Nilsson already cited). Regarding the claimed “the reflection signal comprises tracking reference signal (TRS) resources and radar reference signal (RS) resources”, refer to lines 12-14 cited above, page 19 refer to the paragraph starting with “In Joint communication and sensing…”, page 21, paragraph starting with “In many applications…”, at least lines 6-11, refer to page 33, first and third paragraphs disclosing examples of reference signalling (CSI-RS and/or phase tracking reference signalling (PT-RS) and/or DMMRS or Sounding Reference Signalling). Based on the above, the reflection signal (reflection of the transmitted sensing signalling) comprises reference signalling (PT-RS) and signalling dedicated for sensing); and determine a Doppler estimation for the target based on the reflection signal (page 19, refer to at the paragraph starting with “A common receiver…”refer to the identified Doppler values…” and related first paragraph on page 17). With respect to claim 7, Nilsson et al. disclose: wherein the TRS resources and the radar RS resources are multiplexed together within one or two slots (lines 3-7 of page 20, “sensing signalling” is frequency multiplexed with UL or DL slot with communication signalling, where the “sensing signalling” includes the TRS (PT-RS) resources and the radar RS resources) With respect to claim 8, Nilsson et al. disclose: wherein the apparatus operates as a radar receiver (Rx) for radio frequency (RF) sensing (refer to at least lines 1-11 of page 17, and paragraph starting with “Sensing signal processing…”, sensing corresponds to radar, page 5,refer to the paragraph starting with “Approaches described…”, page 7, lines 12-14 of the paragraph starting with “The radio node…”, page 18, 10 lines below the table, page 19, paragraph starting with “A common receiver….”). With respect to claim 9, Nilsson et al. disclose: wherein the reflection signal is based on a signal transmitted from a network device reflecting off of the target (bi-static sensing scenario when a base station transmits the signal that is reflected by the target or object and the receiver (of the apparatus (UE or terminal) receives the reflection signal). With respect to claim 10, Nilsson et al. disclose: wherein the network device is one of a UE or a base station (base station). With respect to claim 11, Nilsson et al. disclose: wherein the network device operates as a radar transmitter (Tx) for radio frequency (RF) sensing (as explained above in the rejection of claims 1, 9-10). With respect to claim 12, Nilsson et al. disclose, wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine the Doppler estimation based on the TRS resources (refer to the sections of Nilsson et al. already cited above in the rejection of claim 1. In particular page 7, lines 1-16 of the paragraph starting with “The radio node…”, sensing signalling (comprising the TRS resources), is used to perform sensing, sensing is described in at least the first two paragraphs of page 17, page 18, lines 1-10 under Table 1 disclose “Doppler shift”, and page 19 paragraph starting with “A common receiver….” discloses Doppler estimation corresponding to velocity or speed of the target. Claim 13 is rejected based on the rationale used to reject claim 12 above. The sensing signalling of Nilsson et al. comprises the radar RS resources “signalling dedicated for sensing”. With respect to claim 24, Nilsson et al. disclose: wherein the apparatus is implemented as a user equipment (UE), and further comprising: a transceiver configured to receive the reflection signal (page 42, last two paragraphs, the radio node is a UE, monostatic scenario, the transceiver of the UE transmits the sensing signalling and receives the reflection signal via a the receiver portions of a transceiver of the UE e.g. refer to Fig. 1(a) and page 43, refer to the UE comprising “radio circuitry” comprising a transceiver operable as a transmitter and receiver. Also refer to the portions of Nilsson et al. cited to address the claimed “receive a refection signal”). Method claim 25 is rejected based on the rationale used to reject apparatus claim 1 above. 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 2-6, 26-27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nilsson et al. (WO 2023/080816 A1) in view of Yao et al. (U.S. 2024/0106509). With respect to claim 2, Nilsson et al. do not disclose: wherein the at least one processor is configured to: receive signaling from a network device, wherein the signaling indicates that the TRS resources and the radar RS resources are associated for estimating Doppler. In the same field of endeavor, Yao et al. disclose: at least one processor is configured to: receive signaling from a network device, wherein the signaling indicates that TRS resources and radar resources are associated for estimating Doppler ([0197] and ([0012], lines 1-8 of [0014], [0302]) the processor of the receive end device which receives the DCI, [0204] DCI (downlink control indication) signaling is used to indicate resource configuration including (e) QCL relationship as described in [0209] QCL relationship (or association) between a QCL source signal (sensing (radar) signal [0072]) and a communication signal (TRS tracking reference signal [0073]) the QCL relationship is one of those listed in [0209] for example refer to one of CQL-typeA, or CQL-TypeB, or CQL typeC are known or would be recognized by one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, as indicating QCL for Doppler (shift) estimation). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the processor of Nilsson et al. to receive DCI signaling from a network device (in Nilsson et al. a transmitter is a base station (for example) and a receiver is a UE (the claimed apparatus) in a bi-static scenario) as taught by Yao et al. to notify the receiver (apparatus or UE) of Nilsson et al. of a QCL relationship (association) between the radar RS resources and the TRS (PR-RS) resources (one of which is a QCL source signal per [0209] of Yao et al.) and the type of QCL (e.g. one of type A or type B or type C) to indicate that the signallings of Nillson, (the reference signalling and signalling dedicated for sensing, page 7, lines 12-14 of the paragraph starting with “The radio node…”, page 11 second paragraph at least lines 1-14) share a QCL characteristic (Doppler shift), specified by the indicated one of: QCL type A or type B or type C, the shared characteristic includes Doppler shift and this would be recognized by one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date). With respect to claim 3, modified Nilsson et al. disclose: wherein the signaling is via quasi-colocation Type C (QCL type C) signaling (the DCI indicated CQL type (type C) via a Type C signaling (signaling used to indicate Type C)). With respect to claim 4, modified Nilsson et al., Yao et al. do not disclose: wherein the TRS resources and the radar RS resources are associated for estimating Doppler based on phase continuity between the TRS resources and the radar RS resources. Nillsson discloses: resources are associated for estimating Doppler based on phase continuity between the resources (refer to Fig. 3, train of OFDM symbols used as sensing signalling, the train repeated according to a periodicity in one or more sensing frames, phase continuity (or phase coherence) due to the sensing resources occupying the same bandwidth (as shown in Fig. 3 of Nilsson, also in light of the last two sentences of [0043] of the instant application publication). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify Nilsson et al., based on Fig. 3 of Nilsson et al. to use a train of OFDM symbols (periodic and occupying the same BW as shown in Fig. 3), the OFDM symbols corresponding to the sensing signalling (TRS and radar RS) to use a known and suitable arrangement of signals to implement sensing (Nilsson et al., page 18, last 5 lines, through page 19, lines 1-10) with a reasonable expectation of success (Doppler estimation). With respect to claim 5, Nilsson et al. do not disclose: wherein the at least one processor is configured to: receive assistance data from a network device, wherein the assistance data comprises an indication that the TRS resources and the radar RS resources are associated for estimating Doppler. In the same field of endeavor, Yao et al. disclose: at least one processor is configured to: receive assistance data from a network device, wherein the assistance data indicates that TRS resources and radar resources are associated ([0197] and ([0012], lines 1-8 of [0014], [0302]) the processor of the receive end device which receives the DCI, [0204] DCI (downlink control indication) signaling corresponds to the claimed assistance data, and is used to indicate resource configuration including (e) QCL relationship as described in [0209] QCL relationship (or association) between a QCL source signal (sensing (radar) signal [0072]) and a communication signal (TRS tracking reference signal [0073]) the QCL relationship is one of those listed in [0209] for example refer to one of CQL-typeA, or CQL-TypeB, or CQL typeC). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the processor of Nilsson et al. to receive assistance data (DCI signaling) from a network device device (in Nilsson et al. a transmitter is a base station (for example) and a receiver is a UE (the claimed apparatus) in a bi-static scenario) as taught by Yao et al. to notify the receiver (apparatus or UE) of Nilsson et al. of a QCL relationship (association) between the radar RS resources and the TRS (PR-RS) resources (one of which is a QCL source signal per [0209] of Yao et al.) and the type of QCL (e.g. one of type A or type B or type C) to indicate that the signallings of Nillson, (the reference signalling and signalling dedicated for sensing, page 7, lines 12-14 of the paragraph starting with “The radio node…”, page 11 second paragraph at least lines 1-14) share a QCL characteristic (Doppler shift), specified by the indicated one of: QCL type A or type B or type C, the shared characteristic includes Doppler shift and this would be recognized by one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date). With respect to claim 6, modified Nilsson et al., Yao et al. do not disclose: wherein the TRS resources and the radar RS resources are associated for estimating Doppler based on phase continuity between the TRS resources and the radar RS resources. Nillsson discloses: resources are associated for estimating Doppler based on phase continuity between the resources (refer to Fig. 3, train of OFDM symbols used as sensing signalling, the train repeated according to a periodicity in one or more sensing frames, phase continuity (or phase coherence) due to the sensing resources occupying the same bandwidth (as shown in Fig. 3 of Nilsson, also in light of the last two sentences of [0043] of the instant application publication). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify Nilsson et al., based on Fig. 3 of Nilsson et al. to use a train of OFDM symbols (periodic and occupying the same BW as shown in Fig. 3), the OFDM symbols corresponding to the sensing signalling (TRS and radar RS) to use a known and suitable arrangement of signals to implement sensing (Nilsson et al., page 18, last 5 lines, through page 19, lines 1-10) with a reasonable expectation of success (Doppler estimation). Method claims 26-27 are rejected based on the analysis and reasoning presented above in the rejection of claims 2, 4 8. Claims 14, 16, 18-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nilsson et al. (WO 2023/080816 A1) in view of Stirling-Gallacher et al. (WO 2021/089133)(reference cited in the 11/14/2024 IDS). With respect to claim 14, Nilsson et al. do not disclose: wherein the at least one processor is configured to: generate a Doppler measurement report comprising the Doppler estimation. In the same field of endeavor, Stirling-Gallacher et al. disclose: generate a Doppler measurement report comprising Doppler estimation (page 2 (of description), lines 12-24 “Doppler shift estimation…”, “a feedback format, a feedback destination…”,page 3, lines 24-26, page 13, lines 21-23, page 17, lines 31-34, page 18, lines 5-8, a network device (e.g. UE, page 19, lines 9-17) generates the Doppler measurement report). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the processor of the apparatus (UE) of Nilsson et al. to generate a Doppler measurement report comprising the Doppler estimation, as taught by Stirling-Gallacher et al. to provide a measurement result to a Data Fusion Node (DFN) (Stirling-Gallacher, page 4, lines 15-19, page 11, lines 24-31, “…The velocity vector estimation result may be provided by a DFN” and velocity is estimated based on an estimated Doppler shift, page 12, lines 6-8) to implement target velocity estimation at a DFN, (target velocity is used in applications such as traffic monitoring and crash avoidance, Nilsson, page 16 , at least lines 1-10 and page 17 second paragraph “Sensing signal processing…to estimate…velocity of the object…”). With respect to claim 16, modified Nilsson et al. disclose: wherein the at least one processor is configured to: output the Doppler measurement report for transmission to a network device or a first network entity (Stirling-Gallacher et al., page 18, line 8, feedback destination is for e.g. DFN, page 11, lines 24-31, DFN is for example a Base Station (BS) (or a UE) which corresponds to the claimed network device). With respect to claim 18, modified Nilsson et al. disclose: wherein the network device is one of a base station (refer above to the rejection of claim 16, DFN is for example a BS) or a UE (DFN is for example a UE). Claim 19 is rejected based on the rationale used to reject claim 16 above (claim 19 further limits the optional limitation “first network entity”). Claims 20-21 are also rejected based on the rationale used to reject claim 16 above. Claims 20 and 21 are directed to functions of the optional (in claim 16) limitation “first network entity”. 9. Claim 15 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nilsson et al. (WO 2023/080816 A1) in view of Stirling-Gallacher et al. (WO 2021/089133) and further in view of Ghanbarinejad et al. (U.S. 2023/0362857). With respect to claim 15, modified Nilsson et al., Stirling-Gallacher et al. do not disclose: wherein the Doppler measurement report comprises an identification of the TRS resources and an identification of the radar RS resources. Implementing doppler measurement reporting, Ghanbarinejad et al., disclose: wherein the Doppler measurement report comprises an identification of resources ([0251] refer to at least Table 2 refer to SSBRI, CRI and doppler shift, optionally [0224] Doppler shift may be associated with an SS/PBCH block and may be indicated by an index to the SS/PBCH block and refer to measurements of Doppler shift (by a UE) based on SS/PBCH (reference signal resources), refer to the approximate second half of [0242]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the apparatus (UE) of Nilsson et al. to apply the measurement reporting taught by Ghanbarinejad et al., and include an identification (indices) of the TRS resources (associated with the measured Doppler shift(s)) and an identification (indices) of the radar RS resources (associated with the measured Doppler shift(s) to implement reporting comprising known and suitable measurement parameters (Ghanbarinejad et al., [0224], Table 2 of [0251], [0242]). 10. Claim 17 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nilsson et al. (WO 2023/080816 A1) in view of Stirling-Gallacher et al. (WO 2021/089133) and further in view of Liu et al. (U.S. 2023/0396346). With respect to claim 17, modified Nilsson et al. disclose: wherein the at least one processor is configured to output the Doppler measurement report for transmission to the network device via a (a (feedback) transmission from the apparatus (UE) to the network device). Modified Nilsson et al., Stirling-Gallacher et al. do not disclose: a physical (PHY) layer. Implementing reporting of Doppler shifts, by a UE, Liu et al. disclose: a physical (PHY) layer (refer to at least [0006] estimated Doppler shifts are transmitted (or feeback) Fig. 1 refer to steps 1 and 2 via a PUSCH or a PUCCH resource (the PUSCH or PUCCH resource corresponds to the claimed PHY layer and recognized by one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention)). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to transmit (or feedback) the Doppler measurement report (of Nilsson et al.) to the network device via a physical (PHY) layer (via a PUSCH or PUCCH (physical layer) resource) disclosed by Liu et al. as known and suitable for transmitting (or feeding back) estimates of Doppler shifts to a network device (Liu et al., at least [0006], Fig. 1 steps 1-2). 11. Claim 22 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nilsson et al. (WO 2023/080816 A1) in view of Jiang et al. (U.S. 2024/0310473). With respect to claim 22, Nilsson et al. do not disclose: wherein the at least one processor is configured to: receive assistance data from a network device, wherein the assistance data comprises a power offset between the TRS resources and the radar RS resources. In the same field of endeavor, Jiang et al. disclose: at least one processor is configured to: receive assistance data from a network device, wherein the assistance data comprises a power offset between (different types of sensing) resources (refer to at least [0091]-[0092], also [0088] disclosing different types of sensing signals, also [0148]-[0150] the processor of the UE ([0019], at least lines 1-5 of [0292], receives assistance data (first or second signaling) from a network device). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the apparatus (UE) of Nilsson et al. to receive assistance data from a network device, the assistance data comprises a power offset (power difference between sensing signals of different types) as taught by Jiang et al, between the TRS resources and the radar RS resources (different types of sensing signals) to allow the apparatus of UE to know the power difference between the TRS resources and the radar RS resources (useful information to the UE of Nilsson et al., when performing the peak identification to obtain Doppler values, as described in page 19 paragraph starting with “A common receiver processing…”). 12. Claim 23 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nilsson et al. (WO 2023/080816 A1) in view of Ali et al. (U.S. 2024/0012095). With respect to claim 23, Nilsson et al. do not disclose: wherein the radar RS resources are positioning reference signal (PRS) resources. In the same field of endeavor, Ali et al. disclose: radar RS resources are positioning reference signal (PRS) resources ([0067] discloses “resources” used to perform radar sensing, refer to the disclosed “Positioning Reference Signal (PRS) or (and/or) the adapted radar sensing PRS disclosed as signals used to perform radar sensing, also [0041]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use Positioning Reference Signal (PRS) or adapted radar sensing PRS resources as the signalling dedicated for sensing (resources) of Nilsson et al. because as taught by Ali et al. Positioning Reference Signal (PRS) and/or adapted radar sensing PRS resources are known and suitable choices for signals (signalling) used to implement radar sensing (Ali et al., at least [0067]). 13. Claims 28-29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yao et al. (U.S. 2024/0106509) in view of Nilsson et al. (WO 2023/080816). With respect to claim 28, Yao et al. disclose: An apparatus for wireless communications (e.g. Fig. 1, the Receive end device, and Fig. 3 where a UE (apparatus) serves as the receive end device, last two sentences of [0050], lines 1-4 of [0051], also [0193]) the apparatus (UE) comprising: at least one memory ([0302] “When the communication device 500 is a receive end device…” and Fig. 11, refer to memory 502); and at least one processor (Fig. 11, processor 501) coupled to the at least one memory and configured to: receive a reflection signal from a target (Fig. 3, UE receives a reflection (echo) signal (a reflected version of the signal transmitted by BS 30), approximate middle of related paragraph [0049], also approximate second half of [0119] echo (reflection) of the first signal is received and processed by the UE), wherein the reflection signal comprises single sideband (SSB) resources ([0070] refer to the first signal which includes a communication signal and a sensing signal (for example) [0071]-[0073], the received echo comprises sensing signal (or radar signal resources and the communication signal comprises single side band (SSB) resources also refer to [0083], approximate second half of [0119] and Fig. 6, [0195] where the communication signal (SSB) resources are time and frequency multiplexed with the sensing signal (radar reference) resources within a TTI) and radar reference signal (RS) (the as explained above) resources; and determine a Doppler estimation for the target based on the reflection signa ([0076]-[0081], case when the first signal (whose echo is received by the UE) includes the sensing signal, the target measurement quantity (measured and fed back by the receive end device (UE)) includes at least one of Doppler spread, Doppler frequency shift). Yao et al. do not disclose: sidelink (SL), SL. In the same field of endeavor, Nilsson et al. disclose: sidelink (SL), SL (at least page 19, paragraph starting with “In joint communication and sensing…the transmission and reception points may be UEs,…the communication can be UE to UE (sidelink)…sidelink reference signals). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the UE of Yao et al. based on the teachings of Nilsson et al. regarding sidelink (UE to UE communication) to receive the reflection signal transmitted from another UE (instead of the disclosed base station) to implement the measurement (and/or feedback) of the Doppler estimate to the transmitting UE, in a UE to UE (sidelink) communication, disclosed by Nilsson et al. to be one of suitable types of communications (downlink (BS to UE), uplink (UE to BS), sidelink (UE to UE) or BS to BS) in which joint communication and sensing are used (Nilsson et al., page 19, paragraph starting with “In joint communication and sensing…”. (The SSB resources and radar reference signal (RS) resources of modified Yao et al. are sidelink (SL) SSB resources and SL radar reference signal (RS) resources, as they are originally transmitted by a UE and reflected by an object/target and received by the receive end device (UE) of Yao et al). With respect to claim 29, modified Yao et al. disclose: wherein the SL SSB resources and the radar RS resources are multiplexed together within one or two slots (refer to Fig. 5, multiplexed within on TTI (corresponds to the claimed slot) or refer to Fig. 8, multiplexed within two slots (TTIs) as shown). Allowable Subject Matter 14. Claim 30 is 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 15. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Akkarakaran et al. (U.S. 2020/0053703) refer to at least [0073] explaining QCL and how QCL can be used at a receiver. Ye et al. (U.S. 2024/0072874) refer to at least [0051]-[0056] listing QCL types in NR (5G). Behravan et al. (WO 2023/080814 A1) entire document is relevant. Contact Information 16. 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 1/20/2026
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Prosecution Timeline

Nov 14, 2024
Application Filed
Jan 21, 2026
Non-Final Rejection — §102, §103 (current)

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
87%
Grant Probability
98%
With Interview (+10.6%)
2y 8m
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 811 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow rate.

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