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 01/30/2026 and 09/10/2026; the submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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.
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1-7, 9-16, and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20210321463 A1 to Wu et al., from hereon Wu in view of US-12302266-B2 to Kim et al., from hereon Kim.
Regarding claim 1 Wu teaches…a method for determining a physical random access channel transmission resource, comprising: performing, by a terminal, a target operation of a physical random access channel (PRACH) transmission resource based on a target configuration (P.130 discloses…a method for terminal device …a method for the terminal device to determine a valid PRACH transmission occasion (PRACH occasion, or RO) and associate the RO with SSB in NR ), and the target operation comprises at least one of: determining the validity of the PRACH transmission resource (P. 130 discloses…the uplink resource at least includes a random access channel transmission opportunity corresponding to the downlink resource; or the uplink resource is orthogonal in time to a cell-specific random access opportunity or valid random access opportunity configured by the first node); determining whether to transmit on the PRACH transmission resource; or determining the PRACH transmission resource (P. 137 discloses the determination of the resource…having determined the valid RO, the terminal device performs an association mapping between the valid RO and the SSB configured in the ssb-PositionsInBurst in SIB1 and/or SSB configured in the ssb-PositionsInBurst in the ServingCellConfigCommon, to determine the SSB corresponding to the RO.).but does not teach…wherein the target configuration comprises at least one of: a configuration of a duplex mode or a configuration of a flexible time division duplex (TDD) mode.
Kim teaches… wherein the target configuration comprises at least one of: a configuration of a duplex mode or a configuration of a flexible time division duplex (TDD) mode (Col 17-18, Fig. 9 discloses the configuration of the duplex mode, );
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 combination of Wu by incorporating the teachings of Kim because the method and device allow for various modes of configuration for resources which are cell-specific resource configurations in full duplex, TDD, or flexible configuration also known in the art as Time or Frequency division duplexing XDD (Kim, Abs or Col. 4, Lns. 35-50 ). The motivation is that by applying a well-known standard or protocol or machine to a system provides the system with significantly improved industrial applicability.
Regarding claim 2 Wu and Kim teach the method according to claim 1, Kim teaches…wherein the configuration of the duplex mode comprises a configuration of a cell specific duplex mode, a configuration of a UE specific full duplex mode (claim 9 ), a configuration of a cell specific full duplex mode (Col. 18, Lns. 5-20 discloses the configuration in cell-specific semi-static uplink-downlink configuration information through the system information in a symbol), or a configuration of a semi-static full duplex mode; and the determining the validity of the PRACH transmission resource comprises: determining the validity of the PRACH transmission resource in a case of contention based random access (CBRA) based on the configuration of the cell specific duplex mode; or determining the validity of the PRACH transmission resource in the case of CBRA based on at least one of the configuration of the UE specific full duplex mode or the configuration of the flexible TDD mode; or determining the validity of the PRACH transmission resource in the case of CBRA based on at least one of the configuration of the cell specific full duplex mode or the configuration of the flexible TDD mode (P.132 discloses… a base station configures, via a rach-ConfigCommon field in the system information block 1 (SIB1), cell-specific contention based random access (CBRA) and contention-free random access (CFRA) resources; except for beam failure recovery (BFR), all random access resources are indicated by the RO configured in the rach-ConfigCommon; the terminal device determines the valid RO (e.g., CBRA or CFRA) and an SSB-RO association mapping according to the actual SSB transmission format indicated in the SIB1 and the uplink-downlink resource configured in the SIB1 ); or determining the validity of the PRACH transmission resource in the case of CBRA based on at least one of the configuration of the semi-static full duplex mode or the configuration of the flexible TDD mode.
Regarding claim 3 Wu and Kim teach the method according to claim 1, Kim teaches…wherein the terminal indicates through the PRACH that the terminal supports at least one of: a capability of supporting an evolved full duplex mode or a capability of supporting an enhanced flexible TDD mode (Col. 26, Lns. 58-65 discloses an indicator where the terminal indicates through a PRACH the support for XDD al known as flexible TDD indicator).
Regarding claim 4 Wu and Kim teach the method according to claim 1, Kim teaches…wherein the configuration of the duplex mode comprises a configuration of a cell specific full duplex mode or a configuration of a semi-static full duplex mode (claim 9 ), Wu teaches…and the determining the validity of the PRACH transmission resource comprises: determining the validity of the PRACH transmission resource in a case of contention free random access (CFRA) based on at least one of the configuration of the cell specific full duplex mode (P. 132…discloses…. configures, via a rach-ConfigCommon field in the system information block 1 (SIB1), cell-specific contention based random access (CBRA) and contention-free random access (CFRA) resources; except for beam failure recovery (BFR), all random access resources are indicated by the RO configured in the rach-ConfigCommon; the terminal device determines the valid RO (e.g., CBRA or CFRA) and an SSB-RO association mapping according to the actual SSB transmission format indicated in the SIB1 and the uplink-downlink resource configured in the SIB1. ) or the configuration of the flexible TDD mode; or determining the validity of the PRACH transmission resource in the case of CFRA based on at least one of the configuration of the semi-static full duplex mode or the configuration of the flexible TDD mode.
Regarding claim 5 Wu and Kim teach the method according to claim 1, Kim teaches…wherein the configuration of the duplex mode comprises at least one of a configuration of a UE specific full duplex mode or a configuration of a dynamic full duplex mode (Col. 37, LNs. 44-60 discloses the UE specific dynamic full duplex indicated by the xdd indicator through the cell-specific configuration information indicated in a higher layer signaling like MAC CE or DCI), kim teaches…and the determining whether to transmit on the PRACH transmission resource comprises: determining whether to transmit on the PRACH transmission resource in a case of CBRA based on at least one of the configuration of the UE specific full duplex mode or the configuration of the flexible TDD mode(Col 17-18, Fig. 9 discloses the configuration of the duplex mode, ); or determining whether to transmit on the PRACH transmission resource in the case of CBRA based on at least one of the configuration of the dynamic full duplex mode or the configuration of the flexible TDD mode; Wu teaches…wherein in a case that downlink control information (DCI) or media access control control element (MAC CE) indicates at least one of the configuration of the full duplex mode (P. 132…discloses…. configures, via a rach-ConfigCommon field in the system information block 1 (SIB1), cell-specific contention based random access (CBRA) and contention-free random access (CFRA) resources; except for beam failure recovery (BFR), all random access resources are indicated by the RO configured in the rach-ConfigCommon; the terminal device determines the valid RO (e.g., CBRA or CFRA) and an SSB-RO association mapping according to the actual SSB transmission format indicated in the SIB1 and the uplink-downlink resource configured in the SIB1. ) or the configuration of the flexible TDD mode, the terminal abandons sending the PRACH on a first PRACH transmission resource, or the terminal sends the PRACH on the first PRACH transmission resource, wherein the first PRACH transmission resource overlaps with a downlink subband resource, or the first PRACH transmission resource overlaps with a downlink time domain resource; wherein the terminal determines based on a network-side configuration: to abandon sending the PRACH on the first PRACH transmission resource, or to send the PRACH on the first PRACH transmission resource; or the terminal determines on its own: to abandon sending the PRACH on the first PRACH transmission resource, or to send the PRACH on the first PRACH transmission resource; or to abandon sending the PRACH on the first PRACH transmission resource in a case that the terminal has already sent the PRACH in a PRACH repetition; to send the PRACH on the first PRACH transmission resource in a case that the terminal has not sent the PRACH in the PRACH repetition.
Regarding claim 6 Wu and Kim teach the method according to claim 1, Wu teaches…wherein in a case that the PRACH transmission resource comprises a shared physical random access channel transmission occasion (RO) and an additionally configured RO, the determining the validity of the PRACH transmission resource comprises: determining that the additionally configured RO is invalid in at least one of the following cases: the RO overlaps with a downlink time domain resource determined by the configuration of the flexible TDD mode; a gap between the RO and a downlink time domain resource determined by the configuration of the flexible TDD mode is smaller than or equal to a first preset value; the RO overlaps with a downlink subband determined by the configuration of the duplex mode; or the RO overlaps with a guardband determined by the configuration of the duplex mode; or, wherein in a case that the PRACH transmission resource comprises a shared RO and an additionally configured RO (P. 191-192), the determining the PRACH transmission resource comprises: determining the shared RO and the additionally configured RO that are semi-statically configured by higher-layer signaling, wherein the shared RO and the additionally configured RO are configured in at least one of the following resources: an uplink subband or a flexible subband (P.193 ).
Regarding claim 7 Wu and Kim teach the method according to claim 1, Wu teaches…wherein in a case that the PRACH transmission resource comprises a shared RO and an additionally configured RO, the shared RO is configured to transmit first N PRACHs in a PRACH repetition and the additionally configured RO is configured to transmit remaining PRACHs in the PRACH repetition, the determining whether to transmit on the PRACH transmission resource comprises: abandoning, by the additionally configured RO, PRACH transmission in at least one of the following cases: the RO overlaps with a downlink subband; the RO overlaps with a guardband; or the RO overlaps with a downlink time domain resource; wherein the method further comprises: determining, by the terminal, whether the RO that abandons the PRACH transmission is mapped to the shared RO according to a configuration mode of at least one of the downlink subband, the guardband or the downlink time domain resource; or determining whether the RO that abandons the PRACH transmission is mapped to the shared RO according to an access mode of the PRACH (P. 192-193)
Regarding claim 9 Wu and Kim teach the method according to claim 1, Kim teaches…wherein the PRACH transmission resource comprises a PRACH repetition resource; and/or the configuration of the flexible TDD mode comprises a configuration of an enhanced flexible TDD mode; and/or the configuration of the duplex mode comprises a configuration of an evolved duplex mode (Fig. 22-23, Col. 38, Lns. 44-55).
Regarding claim 10 Wu teaches…a method for determining a physical random access channel transmission resource, comprising (P.130 and 186 discloses.. determine a valid PRACH transmission occasion (PRACH occasion, or RO) and associate the RO with SSB in NR ): performing, by a network-side device, a target operation of a physical random access channel (PRACH) transmission resource based on a target configuration (P. 153… configures at least one downlink resources for one or more second nodes and/or configures at least one uplink resources, such that the configuration condition for uplink resources of a backhaul link may be restricted, to ensure that the uplink resource for the backhaul link configured by the first node includes a complete RO-SSB mapping period required by the second node), or the target operation comprises at least one of: receiving a PRACH on a valid first PRACH transmission resource, wherein the validity of the first PRACH transmission resource is determined based on the target configuration; or receiving a PRACH on a second PRACH transmission resource, wherein the second PRACH transmission resource is a PRACH resource determined to have PRACH transmission thereon based on the target configuration(P. 137 discloses the determination of the resource…having determined the valid RO, the terminal device performs an association mapping between the valid RO and the SSB configured in the ssb-PositionsInBurst in SIB1 and/or SSB configured in the ssb-PositionsInBurst in the ServingCellConfigCommon, to determine the SSB corresponding to the RO.) but does not teach…wherein the target configuration comprises at least one of: a configuration of a duplex mode and a configuration of a flexible time division duplex TDD mode;
Kim teaches… wherein the target configuration comprises at least one of: a configuration of a duplex mode and a configuration of a flexible time division duplex TDD mode mode (Col 17-18, Fig. 9 discloses the configuration of the duplex mode, );
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 combination of Wu by incorporating the teachings of Kim because the method and device allow for various modes of configuration for resources which are cell-specific resource configurations in full duplex, TDD, or flexible configuration also known in the art as Time or Frequency division duplexing XDD (Kim, Abs or Col. 4, Lns. 35-50 ). The motivation is that by applying a well-known standard or protocol or machine to a system provides the system with significantly improved industrial applicability.
Regarding claim 11 Wu and Kim teach the method according to claim 10, Kim teaches…wherein the configuration of the duplex mode comprises a configuration of a cell specific duplex mode, a configuration of a UE specific full duplex mode (claim 9), a configuration of a cell specific full duplex mode, or a configuration of a semi-static full duplex mode; in a case of contention based random access (CBRA), the validity of the first PRACH transmission resource is determined based on the configuration of the cell specific duplex mode(Col. 18, Lns. 5-20 discloses the configuration in cell-specific semi-static uplink-downlink configuration information through the system information in a symbol),; or the validity of the first PRACH transmission resource is determined based on at least one of the configuration of the UE specific full duplex mode or the configuration of the flexible TDD mode; or the validity of the first PRACH transmission resource is determined based on at least one of the configuration of the cell specific full duplex mode or the configuration of the flexible TDD mode(P.132 discloses… a base station configures, via a rach-ConfigCommon field in the system information block 1 (SIB1), cell-specific contention based random access (CBRA) and contention-free random access (CFRA) resources; except for beam failure recovery (BFR), all random access resources are indicated by the RO configured in the rach-ConfigCommon; the terminal device determines the valid RO (e.g., CBRA or CFRA) and an SSB-RO association mapping according to the actual SSB transmission format indicated in the SIB1 and the uplink-downlink resource configured in the SIB1 ); or the validity of the first PRACH transmission resource is determined based on at least one of the configuration of the semi-static full duplex mode or the configuration of the flexible TDD mode.
Regarding claim 12 Wu and Kim teach the method according to claim 10, Kim teaches…wherein the network-side device receives capability information of a terminal, the capability information is indicated through the PRACH, and the capability information comprises at least one of: a capability of supporting an evolved full duplex mode or a capability of supporting an enhanced flexible TDD mode(Col. 26, Lns. 58-65 discloses an indicator where the terminal indicates through a PRACH the support for XDD al known as flexible TDD indicator).
Regarding claim 13 Wu and Kim teach the method according to claim 10, Kim teaches…wherein the configuration of the duplex mode comprises a configuration of a cell specific full duplex mode or a configuration of a semi-static full duplex mode (claim 9); and in a case of contention based random access (CBRA), the validity of the first PRACH transmission resource is determined based on at least one of the configuration of the cell specific full duplex mode or the configuration of the flexible TDD mode(P. 132…discloses…. configures, via a rach-ConfigCommon field in the system information block 1 (SIB1), cell-specific contention based random access (CBRA) and contention-free random access (CFRA) resources; except for beam failure recovery (BFR), all random access resources are indicated by the RO configured in the rach-ConfigCommon; the terminal device determines the valid RO (e.g., CBRA or CFRA) and an SSB-RO association mapping according to the actual SSB transmission format indicated in the SIB1 and the uplink-downlink resource configured in the SIB1. ); or the validity of the first PRACH transmission resource is determined based on at least one of the configuration of the semi-static full duplex mode or the configuration of the flexible TDD mode.
Regarding claim 14 Wu and Kim teach the method according to claim 10, Kim teaches…wherein the configuration of the duplex mode comprises at least one of a configuration of a UE specific full duplex mode or a configuration of a dynamic full duplex mode(Col. 37, LNs. 44-60 discloses the UE specific dynamic full duplex indicated by the xdd indicator through the cell-specific configuration information indicated in a higher layer signaling like MAC CE or DCI),; the second PRACH transmission resource is determined to have PRACH transmission thereon based on at least one of the configuration of the UE specific full duplex mode or the configuration of the flexible TDD mode(Col 17-18, Fig. 9 discloses the configuration of the duplex mode, ); or the second PRACH transmission resource is determined to have PRACH transmission thereon based on at least one of the configuration of the UE specific full duplex mode or the configuration of the flexible TDD mode; or the second PRACH transmission resource is determined to have PRACH transmission thereon based on at least one of the configuration of the dynamic full duplex mode (P. 132…discloses…. configures, via a rach-ConfigCommon field in the system information block 1 (SIB1), cell-specific contention based random access (CBRA) and contention-free random access (CFRA) resources; except for beam failure recovery (BFR), all random access resources are indicated by the RO configured in the rach-ConfigCommon; the terminal device determines the valid RO (e.g., CBRA or CFRA) and an SSB-RO association mapping according to the actual SSB transmission format indicated in the SIB1 and the uplink-downlink resource configured in the SIB1. )or the configuration of the flexible TDD mode; wherein in a case that downlink control information (DCI) or media access control control element (MAC CE) indicates at least one of the configuration of the full duplex mode or the configuration of the flexible TDD mode, it is determined that the second PRACH transmission resource has PRACH transmission thereon, wherein the second PRACH transmission resource overlaps with a downlink subband resource, or the second PRACH transmission resource overlaps with a downlink time domain resource; wherein the network-side device sends a first configuration to the terminal, and the first configuration is used for configuring: whether the terminal sends the PRACH on the second PRACH transmission resource; or it is determined that the terminal sends the PRACH on the second PRACH transmission resource in a case that the terminal has not sent the PRACH in a PRACH repetition.
Regarding claim 15 Wu and Kim teach the method according to claim 10, Wu teaches… wherein in a case that the first PRACH transmission resource comprises a shared physical random access channel transmission occasion (RO) and an additionally configured RO, the additionally configured RO is determined to be invalid in at least one of the following cases: the RO overlaps with a downlink time domain resource determined by the configuration of the flexible TDD mode; a gap between the RO and a downlink time domain resource determined by the configuration of the flexible TDD mode is smaller than or equal to a first preset value; the RO overlaps with a downlink subband determined by the configuration of the duplex mode; or the RO overlaps with a guardband determined by the configuration of the duplex mode; or, wherein in a case that the first PRACH transmission resource comprises a shared RO and an additionally configured RO, the shared RO and the additionally configured RO are semi-statically configured by higher-layer signaling in at least one of the following resources: an uplink subband or a flexible subband; wherein the method further comprises: determining, by the network-side device, whether the RO that abandons the PRACH transmission is mapped to the shared RO according to a configuration mode of at least one of the downlink subband, the guardband or the downlink time domain resource; or determining, by the network-side device, whether the RO that abandons the PRACH transmission is mapped to the shared RO according to an access mode of the PRACH (P. 192-193).
Regarding claim 16 Wu teaches…a method for determining a physical random access channel transmission resource, comprising: sending, by a network-side device, configuration information to a terminal (P.130 discloses…a method for terminal device …a method for the terminal device to determine a valid PRACH transmission occasion (PRACH occasion, or RO) and associate the RO with SSB in NR ), wherein the configuration information is used for configuring at least one of: a plurality of start sub time domain resource indexes, wherein the plurality of start sub time domain resource indexes are used for determining: a PRACH transmission resource in a time domain resource for a configuration of a flexible TDD mode(Fig. 2-4, discloses a TDD frame where the frame configured by the donor cell and the random access resource); or one start sub time domain resource index and a plurality of numbers of ROs for PRACH repetition P. 137 discloses the determination of the resource…having determined the valid RO, the terminal device performs an association mapping between the valid RO and the SSB configured in the ssb-PositionsInBurst in SIB1 and/or SSB configured in the ssb-PositionsInBurst in the ServingCellConfigCommon, to determine the SSB corresponding to the RO.).but does not teach, wherein the one start sub time domain resource index and the plurality of numbers of ROs for PRACH repetition are used for determining: the PRACH transmission resource in the time domain resource for the configuration of the flexible TDD mode.
Kim teaches… wherein the one start sub time domain resource index and the plurality of numbers of ROs for PRACH repetition are used for determining: the PRACH transmission resource in the time domain resource for the configuration of the flexible TDD mode(Col 17-18, Fig. 9 discloses the configuration of the duplex mode, );
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 combination of Wu by incorporating the teachings of Kim because the method and device allow for various modes of configuration for resources which are cell-specific resource configurations in full duplex, TDD, or flexible configuration also known in the art as Time or Frequency division duplexing XDD (Kim, Abs or Col. 4, Lns. 35-50 ). The motivation is that by applying a well-known standard or protocol or machine to a system provides the system with significantly improved industrial applicability.
Regarding claim 18 Wu teaches…a terminal, comprising a processor and a memory, wherein the memory stores programs or instructions runnable on the processor, and the programs or instructions, when executed by the processor, implement the steps of the method for determining a physical random access channel transmission resource according to claim 1 (See rejection of claim 1 above).
Regarding claim 19 Wu teaches…a network-side device, comprising a processor and a memory, wherein the memory stores programs or instructions runnable on the processor, and the programs or instructions, when executed by the processor, implement the steps of the method for determining a physical random access channel transmission resource according to claim 10 (See rejection of claim 10 above).
Regarding claim 20 Wu teaches…a network-side device, comprising a processor and a memory, wherein the memory stores programs or instructions runnable on the processor, and the programs or instructions, when executed by the processor, implement the steps of the method for determining a physical random access channel transmission resource according to claim 16 (See rejection of claim 16 above).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 8 and 17 are 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: the main reason for objections of the claims under discussion is the inclusion of “determining the PRACH transmission resource based on a plurality of start sub time domain resource indexes for a flexible TDD time domain resource of the configuration of the flexible TDD mode; or determining the PRACH transmission resource based on one start sub time domain resource index and a number of ROs for PRACH repetition for the flexible TDD time domain resource of the configuration of the flexible TDD mode; wherein the flexible TDD time domain resource is a flexible TDD slot, and the start sub time domain resource index is a start symbol index, wherein each start sub time domain resource index is used for determining at least one RO; wherein in a case of determining the PRACH transmission resource based on one start sub time domain resource index and a plurality of numbers of ROs for PRACH repetition, the start sub time domain resource index and a first number of ROs for PRACH repetition are used for determining a first RO, and a second number of ROs for PRACH repetition and a first available symbol after the first RO are used for determining a second RO” and “the flexible TDD time domain resource is a flexible TDD slot, and the start sub time domain resource index is a start symbol index, wherein each start sub time domain resource index is used for determining at least one RO; wherein in a case that one start sub time domain resource index and a plurality of numbers of ROs for PRACH repetition are configured, the start sub time domain resource index and a first number of ROs for PRACH repetition are used for determining a first RO, and a second number of ROs for PRACH repetition and a first available symbol after the first RO are used for determining a second RO.” as the prior art of record in stand-alone form nor in combination read into the disclosed claims as supported by the specification. Furthermore, the nearest prior art such as… US-20210360660-A1 to Cozzo, US-20230171813-A1 to Zheng, and US-12075488-B2 to Agiwal, and US-20210282136-A1 to Lopez disclose determining PRACH but are silent on determining the PRACH based on start sub time domain resources indexes for flexible TDD mode
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See PTO form PTO-892: US-20210360660-A1 to Cozzo, US-20230171813-A1 to Zheng, and US-12075488-B2 to Agiwal.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LOUIS SAMARA whose telephone number is (408)918-7582. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 6-3 PT.
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, Ayaz Sheikh can be reached at 571-272-3795. 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.
/L.S./Examiner, Art Unit 2476
/AYAZ R SHEIKH/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2476
Prosecution Insights