Prosecution Insights
Last updated: August 17, 2026
Application No. 18/916,206

BEAM INDICATION FOR 5G NEW RADIO

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Oct 15, 2024
Priority
Apr 04, 2018 — provisional 62/652,700 +4 more
Examiner
THOMAS, WILFRED
Art Unit
Tech Center
Assignee
InterDigital Inc.
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
77%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
1y 3m
Est. Remaining
99%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 77% — above average
77%
Career Allowance Rate
215 granted / 279 resolved
+17.1% vs TC avg
Strong +31% interview lift
Without
With
+30.7%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
3y 1m
Avg Prosecution
27 currently pending
Career history
320
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
2.1%
-37.9% vs TC avg
§103
73.4%
+33.4% vs TC avg
§102
13.2%
-26.8% vs TC avg
§112
6.7%
-33.3% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 279 resolved cases

Office Action

§103
DETAILED ACTION The office action is a response to an application filed on October 15, 2024, wherein claim 1 is pending and ready for examination. 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 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou et al. (Zhou hereafter) (US 20250184099 A1) in view of Yang et al. (Yang hereafter) (US 20210185641 A1). Regarding claim 1 Zhou teaches, A method for a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU), the method comprising: receiving configuration information for a plurality of downlink (DL) bandwidth parts (BWPs) and uplink (UL) BWPs (Zhou; [0260] A gNB may transmit one or more message comprising configuration parameters of one or more bandwidth parts (BWP). The one or more BWPs may have different numerologies; evaluating beam measurements (beam management report may indicate one or more beam pair quality parameters, comprising, e.g., one or more beam identifications, RSRP, PMI, CQI, and/or RI, of a subset of configured beams,) for a candidate DL BWP (wireless device may monitor a PDCCH, such as a New Radio PDCCH (NR-PDCCH), on M beam pair links simultaneously) (Zhou; [0222-0229] A wireless device may transmit one or more beam management reports to a base station. A beam management report may indicate one or more beam pair quality parameters, comprising, e.g., one or more beam identifications, RSRP, PMI, CQI, and/or RI, of a subset of configured beams, [0226] The wireless device 1901 may measure a quality of beam pair link(s) using one or more reference signals (RS). One or more SS blocks, one or more CSI-RS resources, and/or one or more demodulation reference signals (DM-RSs) of a PBCH may be used as a RS for measuring a quality of a beam pair link. Each of the one or more CSI-RS resources may be associated with a CSI-RS resource index (CRI). A quality of a beam pair link may be based on one or more of an RSRP value, reference signal received quality (RSRQ) value, and/or CSI value measured on RS resources... [0229] A wireless device may monitor a PDCCH, such as a New Radio PDCCH (NR-PDCCH), on M beam pair links simultaneously, where M>1 and the maximum value of M may depend at least on the wireless device capability. Such monitoring may increase robustness against beam pair link blocking. A base station may transmit, and the wireless device may receive, one or more messages configured to cause the wireless device to monitor NR-PDCCH on different beam pair link(s) and/or in different NR-PDCCH OFDM symbol.) (See fig. 19) ([0233]). or a candidate UL BWP of the plurality of BWPs outside the activated DL BWP or the activated UL BWP based on indication of the evaluated beam measurements, dynamically changing at least one of the activated DL BWP or the activated UL BWP to the candidate DL BWP or the candidate UL BWP (Zhou; [0261] the active DL BWP ... on which the UE may monitor one or more PDCCH, and/or receive PDSCH. The active UL BWP is the UL BWP on which the UE may transmit uplink signal. For a secondary cell (SCell) if configured, the active DL BWP may be the DL BWP on which the UE may monitor one or more PDCCH and receive PDSCH when the SCell is activated by receiving a MAC activation/deactivation CE.... When configured with an active BWP and a default BWP, a UE may switch to the default BWP if there is no activity on the active BWP. For example, a default BWP may be configured with narrow bandwidth, an active BWP may be configured with wide bandwidth. If there is no signal transmitting or receiving, the UE may switch the BWP to the default BWP, which may reduce power consumption. [0262] Switching BWP may be triggered by a DCI or a timer). { Office’s Note: Because of the alternative claim language such as “either...or”, only one of the alternative limitations has been analyzed by the examiner.} Yang fails to explicitly teach, activating a DL BWP and an UL BWP from a plurality of BWPs based on the configuration information However, in the same field of endeavor Zhou teaches, activating a DL BWP and an UL BWP (activates associated uplink BWP and downlink BWP) from a plurality of BWPs (multiple uplink BWPs) based on the configuration information (Yang; [0011] the network device simultaneously activates or deactivates associated uplink BWP and downlink BWP. [0080-0082] The correspondence may optionally be one uplink BWP to one downlink BWP, or multiple uplink BWPs to one downlink BWP, or one uplink BWP to multiple downlink BWPs); It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Zhou to include the above recited limitations as taught by Yang in order to support broadcasting the SIB1 (Yang; [0010]). Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WILFRED THOMAS whose telephone number is (571)270-0353. The examiner can normally be reached Mon -Thurs 9:00 am-4:00 pm. 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, Noel R Beharry can be reached at 571-270-5630. 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. /W. T/ Examiner, Art Unit 2416 /NOEL R BEHARRY/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2416
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Oct 15, 2024
Application Filed
Jul 27, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §103 (current)

Precedent Cases

Applications granted by this same examiner with similar technology

Patent 12696214
UPLINK TIMING AND FREQUENCY SYNCHRONIZATION
2y 10m to grant Granted Jul 28, 2026
Patent 12689913
SOFT HAND-OFF AND ROUTING DATA IN A VIRTUALIZED DISTRIBUTED ANTENNA SYSTEM
3y 5m to grant Granted Jul 21, 2026
Patent 12665651
ACTIVE BEAM MANAGEMENT, CONFIGURATION, AND CAPABILITY SIGNALING
4y 1m to grant Granted Jun 23, 2026
Patent 12641615
TERMINAL DEVICE, BASE STATION APPARATUS, AND COMMUNICATION METHOD
4y 1m to grant Granted May 26, 2026
Patent 12634040
Frequency Hopping in Multiple Transmission and Reception Points
3y 7m to grant Granted May 19, 2026
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
77%
Grant Probability
99%
With Interview (+30.7%)
3y 1m (~1y 3m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 279 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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