Prosecution Insights
Last updated: September 17, 2026
Application No. 18/918,546

TRANSMISSION SYSTEM

Non-Final OA §102
Filed
Oct 17, 2024
Priority
Oct 20, 2023 — EU 23204865.2
Examiner
ASHLEY, HUGH MARK
Art Unit
Tech Center
Assignee
St Engineering Idirect (Europe) Cy NV
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
91%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
1y 1m
Est. Remaining
99%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 91% — above average
91%
Career Allowance Rate
53 granted / 58 resolved
+31.4% vs TC avg
Moderate +13% lift
Without
With
+12.8%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
3y 0m
Avg Prosecution
22 currently pending
Career history
73
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
12.2%
-27.8% vs TC avg
§103
36.1%
-3.9% vs TC avg
§102
45.2%
+5.2% vs TC avg
§112
3.9%
-36.1% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 58 resolved cases

Office Action

§102
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 . Claim Interpretation The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(f): (f) Element in Claim for a Combination. – An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof. The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph: An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof. The claims in this application are given their broadest reasonable interpretation using the plain meaning of the claim language in light of the specification as it would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim element (also commonly referred to as a claim limitation) is limited by the description in the specification when 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is invoked. As explained in MPEP § 2181, subsection I, claim limitations that meet the following three-prong test will be interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph: (A) the claim limitation uses the term “means” or “step” or a term used as a substitute for “means” that is a generic placeholder (also called a nonce term or a non-structural term having no specific structural meaning) for performing the claimed function; (B) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is modified by functional language, typically, but not always linked by the transition word “for” (e.g., “means for”) or another linking word or phrase, such as “configured to” or “so that”; and (C) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is not modified by sufficient structure, material, or acts for performing the claimed function. Use of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim with functional language creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. The presumption that the claim limitation is interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is rebutted when the claim limitation recites sufficient structure, material, or acts to entirely perform the recited function. Absence of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is not to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. The presumption that the claim limitation is not interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is rebutted when the claim limitation recites function without reciting sufficient structure, material or acts to entirely perform the recited function. Claim limitations in this application that use the word “means” (or “step”) are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, except as otherwise indicated in an Office action. Conversely, claim limitations in this application that do not use the word “means” (or “step”) are not being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, except as otherwise indicated in an Office action. This application includes one or more claim limitations that use the word “means” or “step” but are nonetheless not being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph because the claim limitation(s) recite(s) sufficient structure, materials, or acts to entirely perform the recited function. Such claim limitation(s) is/are: encoding means, framing means, and modulation means, in claim 1 and shaping, encapsulation and multiplexing means in claim 3. Because this/these claim limitation(s) is/are not being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, it/they is/are not being interpreted to cover only the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification as performing the claimed function, and equivalents thereof. If applicant intends to have this/these limitation(s) interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, applicant may: (1) amend the claim limitation(s) to remove the structure, materials, or acts that performs the claimed function; or (2) present a sufficient showing that the claim limitation(s) does/do not recite sufficient structure, materials, or acts to perform the claimed function. 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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. Claim(s) 1-3, 6-11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by De Bie et. al. (US 20210297148 A1) hereafter De Bie. Regarding Claim 1: De Bie discloses: A transmission system arranged for generating a signal to be transmitted via one or more physical carriers to a plurality of earth station receivers of a satellite communication system, said transmission system ([Abstract] An earth station transmitter device is arranged for generating a set of data to be transmitted to an earth station receiver device of a satellite communication system.) comprising: encoding means arranged to convert per physical carrier a single stream of baseband frames each associated to a modulation and coding,([Abstract] The earth station transmitter device comprises: encoding and modulation means for mapping a plurality of baseband frames; ) modcod, into a single stream of XFEC frames according to the DVB-S2X standard; framing means arranged to convert per physical carrier said single stream of XFEC frames to a single stream of IQ symbols according to the DVB-S2X standard, said single stream of IQ symbols comprising one or more superframes according to the DVB-S2X standard, each superframe comprising at least a superframe preamble;([¶0008] These baseband frames are then buffered in storage means in the modulator (e.g. in the case of time slicing, to guarantee a minimum time between frames with a same slice number), for example on a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC or chip). Subsequently each frame is encoded by the modulator to a forward error corrected (FEC) frame (called coding), mapped to a frame of symbols (called modulation), referred to as an XFEC frame. The physical layer framing process inserts known symbols (a header and potentially PLFRAME related pilot symbols) to XFEC frames or inserts dummy frames if no XFEC frames are available at the moment that the baseband shaping and quadrature modulation asks for symbols. The frames at the output of the physical layer framing process are referred to as PLFRAMEs. The PLFRAMEs are then pulse shaped to a baseband waveform by the baseband shaping and converted to an RF signal via the quadrature modulation. Hence, each baseband frame is associated to a modulation and coding (also referred to as modcod). In DVB-S2 and DVB-S2X, the number of coded bits of “normal” frames equals 64800 bits. Thus, the number of bits in a baseband frame, before encoding, depends on the encoding rate, e.g. 2/3. Also, the number of symbols in an encoded mapped baseband frame depends on the number of bits mapped to a single symbol (e.g., 2 bits for QPSK, 3 bits for 8-PSK, 4 bits for 16-APSK constellations, etc.).) modulation means arranged to convert per physical carrier said single stream of IQ symbols at a physical carrier symbol rate into IQ samples to generate said signal to be transmitted;([¶0036] encoding and modulation means for mapping a plurality of baseband frames, each associated with a modulation and coding type, to a plurality of frames of encoded and modulated symbols, ) wherein said transmission system further comprises a superframe placer arranged to attach to said single stream of baseband frames or said single stream of XFEC frames metadata indicating to said framing means when a superframe preamble needs to be inserted in said stream of IQ symbols being composed in said framing means. ([¶0038] converter means for converting a super-frame preamble, said super-frame preamble comprising a start of super-frame and a super-frame format indicator, and that plurality of physical layer frames into a plurality of capacity units, each capacity unit having a length of 90 symbols, [¶0039] super-frame generator means arranged to prepend a first subset of capacity units corresponding to said super-frame preamble to a second subset of consecutive capacity units of said plurality corresponding to said plurality of physical layer frames, and to insert a pilot field of 36 super-frame pilot symbols type A in between each pair of consecutive blocks of 16 capacity units of said first and second subsets, thereby obtaining a pilot segment, and arranged to generate a super-frame by collecting a number of said pilot segment, said number being smaller than 415.) Regarding Claim 2: De Bie discloses the limitations of parent claims. De Bie discloses: wherein at least one of said physical carriers comprises one or more substreams of baseband frames, the transmission system comprising means for shaping and encapsulation arranged for outputting said one or more substreams of baseband frames, each baseband frame in said one or more substreams being associated to a modcod, each of said substreams comprising data traffic to a different subset of earth station receivers. ([¶0005] A satellite communication system is considered wherein in the forward link a satnet controller (e.g. running on a processor on a blade server or running on an FPGA or ASIC) multiplexes data (also referred to as traffic) to a group of terminals in a frame which is then sent to the modulator (e.g. over an Ethernet cable in the case the satnet controller runs on a processor on a blade server, or over physical lanes on an FPGA in the case the controller runs on the FPGA). Such a frame is for example a baseband frame. The two essential components of the satnet processor are referred to as a shaper and an encapsulator. The average speed or rate at which said frame is sent to the modulator, depends on the average rate at which data for this satnet is transmitted over the air (typically equal to a symbol rate of a transmitted carrier or a fraction of that in the case of time slicing, see DVB-S2 Annex M). [¶0007] Data for multiple satellite networks can be transmitted over the air from a single modulator in a serial way (e.g. via time slicing in a single large physical carrier, see DVB-S2 Annex M), in a parallel way (e.g. by transmitting multiple carriers over orthogonal frequencies, whereby those multiple carriers can be present in a single beam or contour illumination), or as a combination of both. Hence, the satnet processor or multiple satnet processors send one or more data streams, belonging to multiple satellite networks, in a serial or parallel way to the modulator. [¶0008] These baseband frames are then buffered in storage means in the modulator (e.g. in the case of time slicing, to guarantee a minimum time between frames with a same slice number), for example on a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC or chip). Subsequently each frame is encoded by the modulator to a forward error corrected (FEC) frame (called coding), mapped to a frame of symbols (called modulation), referred to as an XFEC frame. The physical layer framing process inserts known symbols (a header and potentially PLFRAME related pilot symbols) to XFEC frames or inserts dummy frames if no XFEC frames are available at the moment that the baseband shaping and quadrature modulation asks for symbols. The frames at the output of the physical layer framing process are referred to as PLFRAMEs. The PLFRAMEs are then pulse shaped to a baseband waveform by the baseband shaping and converted to an RF signal via the quadrature modulation. Hence, each baseband frame is associated to a modulation and coding (also referred to as modcod). In DVB-S2 and DVB-S2X, the number of coded bits of “normal” frames equals 64800 bits. Thus, the number of bits in a baseband frame, before encoding, depends on the encoding rate, e.g. 2/3. Also, the number of symbols in an encoded mapped baseband frame depends on the number of bits mapped to a single symbol (e.g., 2 bits for QPSK, 3 bits for 8-PSK, 4 bits for 16-APSK constellations, etc.).) Regarding Claim 3: De Bie discloses the limitations of parent claims. De Bie discloses: wherein at least one of said physical carriers comprises more than one substreams of baseband frames, the transmission system comprising more than one means for shaping and encapsulation, each substream of baseband frames being generated by one of said means for shaping and encapsulation and multiplexing means to multiplex said more than one substreams of baseband frames to said single stream of baseband frames that is fed to said encoding means or said superframe placer. ([¶0005] A satellite communication system is considered wherein in the forward link a satnet controller (e.g. running on a processor on a blade server or running on an FPGA or ASIC) multiplexes data (also referred to as traffic) to a group of terminals in a frame which is then sent to the modulator (e.g. over an Ethernet cable in the case the satnet controller runs on a processor on a blade server, or over physical lanes on an FPGA in the case the controller runs on the FPGA). Such a frame is for example a baseband frame. The two essential components of the satnet processor are referred to as a shaper and an encapsulator. The average speed or rate at which said frame is sent to the modulator, depends on the average rate at which data for this satnet is transmitted over the air (typically equal to a symbol rate of a transmitted carrier or a fraction of that in the case of time slicing, see DVB-S2 Annex M). [¶0007] Data for multiple satellite networks can be transmitted over the air from a single modulator in a serial way (e.g. via time slicing in a single large physical carrier, see DVB-S2 Annex M), in a parallel way (e.g. by transmitting multiple carriers over orthogonal frequencies, whereby those multiple carriers can be present in a single beam or contour illumination), or as a combination of both. Hence, the satnet processor or multiple satnet processors send one or more data streams, belonging to multiple satellite networks, in a serial or parallel way to the modulator. [¶0008] These baseband frames are then buffered in storage means in the modulator (e.g. in the case of time slicing, to guarantee a minimum time between frames with a same slice number), for example on a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC or chip). Subsequently each frame is encoded by the modulator to a forward error corrected (FEC) frame (called coding), mapped to a frame of symbols (called modulation), referred to as an XFEC frame. The physical layer framing process inserts known symbols (a header and potentially PLFRAME related pilot symbols) to XFEC frames or inserts dummy frames if no XFEC frames are available at the moment that the baseband shaping and quadrature modulation asks for symbols. The frames at the output of the physical layer framing process are referred to as PLFRAMEs. The PLFRAMEs are then pulse shaped to a baseband waveform by the baseband shaping and converted to an RF signal via the quadrature modulation. Hence, each baseband frame is associated to a modulation and coding (also referred to as modcod). In DVB-S2 and DVB-S2X, the number of coded bits of “normal” frames equals 64800 bits. Thus, the number of bits in a baseband frame, before encoding, depends on the encoding rate, e.g. 2/3. Also, the number of symbols in an encoded mapped baseband frame depends on the number of bits mapped to a single symbol (e.g., 2 bits for QPSK, 3 bits for 8-PSK, 4 bits for 16-APSK constellations, etc.).) Regarding Claim 6: De Bie discloses the limitations of parent claims. De Bie discloses: wherein said modcods are arranged in at least two groups, each group having an associated protection level indication. ([¶0024] Format 4 in the DVB-S2X standard supports four different physical layer header protection levels which enable the support of scenarios for very low SNR applications but also high efficiency signalling for the high SNR and high throughput case. The protection level can change on a per super-frame basis. For example, for a terminal experiencing a very low SNR link, the PL header in the PLFRAMES can be spread five times, corresponding to the highest protection level, resulting in a PL header spanning 10 slots of 90 symbols. As the protection level can only be specified on a per super-frame basis, all PLFRAMES in the super-frame need to send a PL header spanning 10 slots in the case of the highest protection level. The protection levels are: [0025] Level 0: Standard protection (size 2 slots) using BPSK modulation and overall code rate 1/10 [0026] Level 1: Robust protection (size 4 slots) using BPSK modulation and spreading 2 leading to an overall code rate 1/20 [0027] Level 2: Very robust protection (size 10 slots) using BPSK modulation and spreading 5 leading to an overall code rate 1/50 [0028] Level 3: High efficiency mode (size 1 slot) using QPSK modulation and overall code rate 1/8.75 due to puncturing [¶0029] In some use cases, there is an interest to shorten the DVB-S2X super-frames. For example, when transmitting a forward carrier to serve multiple terminals in a satnet, in which at least one terminal requires, as it experiences harsh link conditions, very low SNR modcods (such terminal is referred to as a very low SNR terminal) and at least one other terminal has better link conditions. Hence, using the DVB-S2X standard, an entire super-frame with the highest protection level is needed to send data to at least said very low SNR terminal, even if only few bits are requested from this terminal, and even if all other terminals experience an excellent link with the capability to demodulate very efficient modcods. The drawback is that all PL frames will have a 10 slot spanning PL header, which results in too large a overhead for the other terminals with better link conditions. Shortening the super-frame to a shortened super-frame in order to only address the very low SNR terminals in said shortened super-frame would avoid this too large overhead for the other terminals, which can be serviced through a new super-frame with a lower protection level. However, it is not specified in the prior art how this shortening should be done.) Regarding Claim 7: De Bie discloses the limitations of parent claims. De Bie discloses: wherein said metadata comprises said protection level indication for said at least two groups. ([¶0024] Format 4 in the DVB-S2X standard supports four different physical layer header protection levels which enable the support of scenarios for very low SNR applications but also high efficiency signalling for the high SNR and high throughput case. The protection level can change on a per super-frame basis. For example, for a terminal experiencing a very low SNR link, the PL header in the PLFRAMES can be spread five times, corresponding to the highest protection level, resulting in a PL header spanning 10 slots of 90 symbols. As the protection level can only be specified on a per super-frame basis, all PLFRAMES in the super-frame need to send a PL header spanning 10 slots in the case of the highest protection level. The protection levels are: [¶0025] Level 0: Standard protection (size 2 slots) using BPSK modulation and overall code rate 1/10 [¶0026] Level 1: Robust protection (size 4 slots) using BPSK modulation and spreading 2 leading to an overall code rate 1/20 [¶0027] Level 2: Very robust protection (size 10 slots) using BPSK modulation and spreading 5 leading to an overall code rate 1/50 [¶0028] Level 3: High efficiency mode (size 1 slot) using QPSK modulation and overall code rate 1/8.75 due to puncturing) Regarding Claim 8: De Bie discloses the limitations of parent claims. De Bie discloses: wherein said means for encapsulation is arranged to output burst signals wherein baseband frames in each of said bursts are ordered in terms of robustness. ([¶0024] Format 4 in the DVB-S2X standard supports four different physical layer header protection levels which enable the support of scenarios for very low SNR applications but also high efficiency signalling for the high SNR and high throughput case. The protection level can change on a per super-frame basis. For example, for a terminal experiencing a very low SNR link, the PL header in the PLFRAMES can be spread five times, corresponding to the highest protection level, resulting in a PL header spanning 10 slots of 90 symbols. As the protection level can only be specified on a per super-frame basis, all PLFRAMES in the super-frame need to send a PL header spanning 10 slots in the case of the highest protection level. The protection levels are: [¶0025] Level 0: Standard protection (size 2 slots) using BPSK modulation and overall code rate 1/10 [¶0026] Level 1: Robust protection (size 4 slots) using BPSK modulation and spreading 2 leading to an overall code rate 1/20 [¶0027] Level 2: Very robust protection (size 10 slots) using BPSK modulation and spreading 5 leading to an overall code rate 1/50 [¶0028] Level 3: High efficiency mode (size 1 slot) using QPSK modulation and overall code rate 1/8.75 due to puncturing) Regarding Claim 9: De Bie discloses the limitations of parent claims. De Bie discloses: wherein said framing means is arranged to insert a new superframe preamble when a superframe comprising an XFEC frame with a modcod from one of said groups ends and a subsequent superframe comprises an XFEC frame with a modcod from another group and a protection level indication associated to said other group of modcods is detected in said metadata. ([¶0008] These baseband frames are then buffered in storage means in the modulator (e.g. in the case of time slicing, to guarantee a minimum time between frames with a same slice number), for example on a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC or chip). Subsequently each frame is encoded by the modulator to a forward error corrected (FEC) frame (called coding), mapped to a frame of symbols (called modulation), referred to as an XFEC frame. The physical layer framing process inserts known symbols (a header and potentially PLFRAME related pilot symbols) to XFEC frames [¶0024] Format 4 in the DVB-S2X standard supports four different physical layer header protection levels which enable the support of scenarios for very low SNR applications but also high efficiency signalling for the high SNR and high throughput case. The protection level can change on a per super-frame basis. For example, for a terminal experiencing a very low SNR link, the PL header in the PLFRAMES can be spread five times, corresponding to the highest protection level, resulting in a PL header spanning 10 slots of 90 symbols. As the protection level can only be specified on a per super-frame basis, all PLFRAMES in the super-frame need to send a PL header spanning 10 slots in the case of the highest protection level. The protection levels are: [¶0025] Level 0: Standard protection (size 2 slots) using BPSK modulation and overall code rate 1/10 [¶0026] Level 1: Robust protection (size 4 slots) using BPSK modulation and spreading 2 leading to an overall code rate 1/20 [¶0027] Level 2: Very robust protection (size 10 slots) using BPSK modulation and spreading 5 leading to an overall code rate 1/50 [¶0028] Level 3: High efficiency mode (size 1 slot) using QPSK modulation and overall code rate 1/8.75 due to puncturing) Regarding Claim 10: De Bie discloses the limitations of parent claims. De Bie discloses: wherein said framing means is arranged to insert a shortened dummy type B frame before inserting a new superframe preamble in order to adhere to a superframe length being a multiple of a predefined number. ([¶0008] These baseband frames are then buffered in storage means in the modulator (e.g. in the case of time slicing, to guarantee a minimum time between frames with a same slice number), for example on a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC or chip). Subsequently each frame is encoded by the modulator to a forward error corrected (FEC) frame (called coding), mapped to a frame of symbols (called modulation), referred to as an XFEC frame. The physical layer framing process inserts known symbols (a header and potentially PLFRAME related pilot symbols) to XFEC frames or inserts dummy frames if no XFEC frames are available at the moment that the baseband shaping and quadrature modulation asks for symbols. The frames at the output of the physical layer framing process are referred to as PLFRAMEs. The PLFRAMEs are then pulse shaped to a baseband waveform by the baseband shaping and converted to an RF signal via the quadrature modulation. Hence, each baseband frame is associated to a modulation and coding (also referred to as modcod). In DVB-S2 and DVB-S2X, the number of coded bits of “normal” frames equals 64800 bits. Thus, the number of bits in a baseband frame, before encoding, depends on the encoding rate, e.g. 2/3. Also, the number of symbols in an encoded mapped baseband frame depends on the number of bits mapped to a single symbol (e.g., 2 bits for QPSK, 3 bits for 8-PSK, 4 bits for 16-APSK constellations, etc.). [¶0097] If beam hopping is active, the last CUs of the super-frame at the end of an illumination are filled up with dummy frames of type B, until the end of illumination is reached. The illumination is allowed to stop after the PLH of the dummy frame type B. If several dummy frames of type B are sent, the illumination is allowed to stop after the PLH of the first dummy frame type B. [¶0098] If beam hopping is active, the receiver device checks at each CU whether there is a PL header of a type B dummy frame. If so, the end of the super-frame is assumed after the PL header of the first dummy frame type B and the length of the super-frame is then known.) Regarding Claim 11: De Bie discloses the limitations of parent claims. De Bie discloses: wherein said inserting of dummy type B frames to adhere to a superframe length being a multiple of said predefined number is done only for superframes with a protection level different from 2. ([¶0098] If beam hopping is active, the receiver device checks at each CU whether there is a PL header of a type B dummy frame. If so, the end of the super-frame is assumed after the PL header of the first dummy frame type B and the length of the super-frame is then known.) Allowable Subject Matter Claims 4-5 and 12-18 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 Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HUGH MARK ASHLEY whose telephone number is (571)272-0199. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8-430. 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, Asad Nawaz can be reached at (571) 272-3988. 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. /HUGH MARK ASHLEY/Examiner, Art Unit 2463 /ASAD M NAWAZ/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2463
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Prosecution Timeline

Oct 17, 2024
Application Filed
Sep 02, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §102 (current)

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
91%
Grant Probability
99%
With Interview (+12.8%)
3y 0m (~1y 1m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
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