Prosecution Insights
Last updated: August 17, 2026
Application No. 18/907,014

COMMUNICATION NETWORK RECONFIGURATION FOR ELECTRICAL POWER EVENTS

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Oct 04, 2024
Examiner
NOORISTANY, SULAIMAN
Art Unit
2415
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
AT&T Intellectual Property I L.P.
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
78%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
1y 7m
Est. Remaining
99%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 78% — above average
78%
Career Allowance Rate
723 granted / 933 resolved
+19.5% vs TC avg
Strong +24% interview lift
Without
With
+23.9%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
3y 5m
Avg Prosecution
35 currently pending
Career history
963
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
6.5%
-33.5% vs TC avg
§103
54.7%
+14.7% vs TC avg
§102
18.3%
-21.7% vs TC avg
§112
12.6%
-27.4% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 933 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 . 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) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Light US 4891569 in view of Stanlake US 20160033583 1. A method comprising: detecting, by a processing system [[including at least one processor]] of a communication network, an electrical power event of an alternating current electrical power distribution network (Light: fig. 2, unit 104 - determines whether the majority of power factor readings performed at step 104 indicate a leading power factor or a lagging power factor); selecting, by the processing system, one or more remedial actions in the communication network in response to a severity level of the electrical power event, wherein the processing system is configured to apply different sets of one or more remedial actions for different severity levels of electrical power events (Light: fig. 2, unit 106, col. 5, lines 46-col. 6, lines 2- activate/deactivate the capacitor(s) based on the determination); and implementing, by the processing system, the one or more remedial actions to reconfigure the communication network in response to the severity level of the electrical power event (Light: fig. 2, unit 112 & 124, col. 5, lines 46-col. 6, lines 47- activate next available capacitor or drop capacitor with longest activation time). Light merely discloses the term of “processor” Stanlake teaches the term processer (Stanlake: fig. 7, unit 706 - The computer system 600 may include a processor 602 [0068]) Thus, it would have been obvious to one skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claim invention to include the above recited limitation into Light’s invention in order to changes to a frequency and/or phase of alternating current power through a portion of the electrical power distribution system, or changes in an amount of reflected or absorbed power from a piece of equipment connected to the electrical power distribution system [0034], as taught by Stanlake. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication network comprises a wireless network (Stanlake: [0075] wireless network). 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the different severity levels of electrical power events comprise defined severity levels according to one or more factors (Light: fig. 1-2, unit 106-116 - power factor; Stanlake: [0061] severity and/or priority level to assign the event). 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the electrical power event is detected in accordance with electrical power data from one or more network elements of the communication network (Light: col. 2, lines 53-60 – determine voltage signal and current signal; Stanlake: [0061-0063]). 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the electrical power data includes at least one of: a voltage measure; a frequency; a current measure; or a uniformity measure (Light: col. 2, lines 53-60 – determine voltage signal and current signal). 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the electrical power event is detected in accordance with electrical power data from the alternating current electrical power distribution network (Light: col. 1-2; the voltage detector 10 and current detector 12 are electrically connected with an alternating current electrical power distribution system 14 by conventional means; Stanlake: [0034] changes to a frequency and/or phase of alternating current power). 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the electrical power data is modulated onto an alternating current electrical power signal from the alternating current electrical power distribution network (Light: fig. 2, unit 106, col. 5, lines 46-col. 6, lines 2- activate/deactivate the capacitor(s) based on the determination; Stanlake: [0029, 0061-0063]). 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the electrical power data comprises an indicator of the severity level from among the different severity levels (Light: fig. 2, unit 106, col. 5, lines 46-col. 6, lines 2- activate/deactivate the capacitor(s) based on the determination; Stanlake: [0029, 0061-0063]). 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the electrical power event comprises a forecast electrical power event (Stanlake: [0029] future recommendations). 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the electrical power event is detected via at least one machine learning model implemented by the processing system (Stanlake: [0029, 0061] The analysis block 105 is also responsible for a machine learning aspect). 11. The method of claim 10, wherein inputs to the at least one machine learning model include electrical power data from at least one of: one or more network elements; or the alternating current electrical power distribution network, and wherein an output of the machine learning model comprises the severity level (Stanlake: [0029, 0061] feedback from operators is associated with event information to, for example, determine an appropriate priority or severity rating to assign a particular detected even). 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the at least one machine learning model is trained in accordance with a training data set comprising historical sets of electrical power data of the one or more network elements, wherein the historical sets of electrical power data are associated with respective labels indicating respective severity levels of electrical power events (Stanlake: [0029, 0061] For example, as is explained in greater detail below, if an operator provides feedback on false-positive events, the system can factor this information into future recommendations and learn for which events to alert operators, which events to add to a low-priority maintenance log, and which events can be safely ignored…e.g., Tags may include, for example, “non-issue,” “low priority issue,” and “high-priority issue.”). 13. The method of claim 1, wherein the electrical power event comprises at least one of: a loss of electrical power event; or an excess demand electrical power event (Light: fig. 2, unit 104 - determines whether the majority of power factor readings performed at step 104 indicate a leading power factor or a lagging power factor). 14. The method of claim 1, wherein when the severity level comprises a first severity level, the one or more remedial actions include at least one of: reducing data processing tasks that are designated as non-critical task at one or more network elements of the communication network; or reducing processor speed at the one or more of the network elements (Light: col. 3, lines 2-7 - selectively actuate or deactuate the electrical switches to respectively increase or decrease the capacitive load on the power distribution system; Stanlake: [0011, 0061-0067] reduces the amount of data operators). 15. The method of claim 14, wherein when the severity level comprises a second severity level that is more severe than the first severity level (Stanlake: [0063] a low or a medium priority), the one or more remedial actions include at least one of: reducing a network capacity of the communication network for non-essential data traffic; or imposing endpoint device connection limits for one or more access points of the communication network (Light: col. 3, lines 2-7 - selectively actuate or deactuate the electrical switches to respectively increase or decrease the capacitive load on the power distribution system; Stanlake: [0011, 0061-0067] reduces the amount of data operators). 16. The method of claim 15, wherein when the severity level comprises a third severity level that is more severe than the second severity level (Stanlake: [0063] a high or a medium priority), the one or more remedial actions include at least one of: shutting down one or more network elements that are designated as non-critical network elements; blocking data traffic for non-emergency services; configuring one or more of the network elements to maintain a low-power hibernation mode; or configuring an operations, administration, and management system of the communication network to operate in a standby mode (Light: col. 3, lines 2-7 - selectively actuate or deactuate the electrical switches to respectively increase or decrease the capacitive load on the power distribution system; Stanlake: [0011, 0061-0067] reduces the amount of data operators). 17. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more remedial actions include: transmitting instructions to one or more endpoint devices to reduce data traffic for the one or more endpoint devices across the communication network (Stanlake: [0062-0063] assign a lower severity or priority to a PQ event which affects a certain type or class of system on the electrical distribution system, where the operator would assign a higher severity or priority to the same PQ event if it occurred on a portion of the electrical distribution system affecting a more sensitive type or class of equipment). 18. The method of claim 17, wherein the one or more endpoint devices comprise endpoint devices that are not associated with subscriptions for continuity of network service during electrical power events (Stanlake: [0013, 0029, 0059] provide its determination of the source of the PQ event to an operator). Regarding claims 19-20, the independent claim and each dependent claim are related to the same limitation set for hereinabove in claims 1-18, where the difference used is a “NTCRM & apparatus” with a processor and a memory and the wordings of the claims were interchanged within the claim itself or some of the claims were presented as a combination of two or more previously presented limitations. This change does not affect the limitation of the above treated claims. Adding these phrases to the claims arid interchanging the wording did not introduce new limitations to these claims. Therefore, these claims were rejected for similar reasons as stated above. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Sulaiman Nooristany whose telephone number is (571) 270-1929. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F from 9 to 5. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Jeffrey Rutkowski, can be reached on (571) 270-1215. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. 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 unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). /SULAIMAN NOORISTANY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2415
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Prosecution Timeline

Oct 04, 2024
Application Filed
Jul 16, 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
78%
Grant Probability
99%
With Interview (+23.9%)
3y 5m (~1y 7m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 933 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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