Prosecution Insights
Last updated: April 19, 2026
Application No. 18/945,070

COMMUNICATION METHOD, COMMUNICATION DEVICE, COMPUTER READABLE STORAGE MEDIUM, AND CHIP

Non-Final OA §102§103
Filed
Nov 12, 2024
Examiner
TIEU, JANICE N
Art Unit
2633
Tech Center
2600 — Communications
Assignee
Guangdong OPPO Mobile Telecommunications Corp., Ltd.
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
90%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
2y 2m
To Grant
99%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 90% — above average
90%
Career Allow Rate
481 granted / 535 resolved
+27.9% vs TC avg
Moderate +11% lift
Without
With
+11.1%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Fast prosecutor
2y 2m
Avg Prosecution
23 currently pending
Career history
558
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
5.5%
-34.5% vs TC avg
§103
52.4%
+12.4% vs TC avg
§102
17.3%
-22.7% vs TC avg
§112
12.7%
-27.3% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 535 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 filed on 11/12/2024 has been considered and placed of record in the file. Oath/Declaration The Oath or Declaration is being considered by examiner and complies with PTO requirements. 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) 1-2, 9-10, 12-15, 18 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Sahara US 2009/0316812. Consider claim 1, Sahara discloses A communication device (see FIG. 1), wherein the communications device is a first communications device (see FIG. 1 and ¶ [0030], OFDM communication device 10), and the communications device comprises: a transmitter (see FIG. 1, combination of RF/IF/BB unit 11, GI addition unit 30, GI length instruction acquisition unit 28, IFFT unit 29, encoding/modulation unit 27, physical layer frame generation unit 26, and transmission data acquisition unit 25), configured to send a first signal to a second communications device (see FIG. 1 and ¶ [0030] and [0059], wherein the RF/IF/BB unit 11 wireless transmits the signal to the communication partner i.e. a second communication device), wherein the first signal comprises a symbol sequence corresponding to an original bit sequence (see FIG. 3 and ¶ [0033-0034], the data section includes original bit sequence) and a symbol sequence corresponding to a first bit sequence (see FIG. 3 and ¶ [0033-0034], wherein the guard interval (GI) includes first bit sequence), and the symbol sequence corresponding to the first bit sequence is located in front of the symbol sequence corresponding to the original bit sequence (see FIG. 3, wherein the guard interval is located in front of the data section). Consider claim 14, Sahara discloses A communication device (see FIG. 1), wherein the communications device is a second communications device (see FIG. 1 and ¶ [0030], OFDM communication device 10), and the communications device comprises: a receiver (see FIG. 1, combination of RF/IF/BB unit 11, GI removal unit 12, FFT unit 13, correlation calculation unit 14, demodulation/decoding unit 16, and received data acquisition unit 17), configured to receive a first signal sent by a first communications device (see FIG. 1 and ¶ [0030], wherein the FR/IF/BB unit 11 receive a radio signal transmitted from the communication partner i.e. a first communication device), wherein the first signal comprises a symbol sequence corresponding to an original bit sequence (see FIG. 3 and ¶ [0033-0034], the data section includes original bit sequence) and a symbol sequence corresponding to a first bit sequence (see FIG. 3 and ¶ [0033-0034], wherein the guard interval (GI) includes first bit sequence), and the symbol sequence corresponding to the first bit sequence is located in front of the symbol sequence corresponding to the original bit sequence (see FIG. 3, wherein the guard interval is located in front of the data section). Claim 20 is rejected on the same ground as for claim 14 because of similar scope. Consider claims 2 and 15, Sahara discloses wherein the first signal is a signal generated by modulating a second bit sequence (see FIG. 1, and ¶ [0055], wherein encoding/modulation unit 27 generate output signal by modulating the output signal of physical layer frame generation unit 26), and the second bit sequence is determined based on the first bit sequence and the original bit sequence (see FIG. 1 and 3, ¶ [0053-0054], wherein the physical layer frame generation unit add a physical layer header i.e. first bit sequence, to the bit sequence i.e. the original bit sequence). Consider claims 9 and 18, Sahara discloses wherein the first bit sequence is further used to perform one or more of the following operations: performing synchronization processing (see ¶ [0034]). Consider claim 10, Sahara discloses wherein the first bit sequence is a preamble (see FIG. 3 and ¶ [0053-0054]). Consider claim 12, Sahara discloses wherein the first bit sequence is determined based on one of the following information: indication information from the second communications device (see FIG. 1, ¶ [0037] and [0051-0052], wherein the guard interval i.e. first bit sequence, is determined based on the indication information received from the partner communication device). Consider claim 13, the limitations of claim 13 are not given patentable weight because “preset rule” recited in claim 12 was not given patentable weight. 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) 3-4, 11, and 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sahara US 2009/0316812 in view of Si et al. US 2018/0123849. Consider claim 3, Sahara discloses wherein the second bit sequence is a bit sequence generated by performing data encoding on a third bit sequence (see FIG. 1 and ¶ [0055], wherein the modulated bit sequence i.e. second bit sequence, is generated by performing data encoding on the transmission data output from physical layer frame generation unit 26), and the third bit sequence is determined based on the first bit sequence and the original bit sequence (see FIG. 1 and 3, wherein the output of the encoding/modulation unit 27 i.e. third bit sequence, is determined based on the physical layer header i.e. first bit sequence, and the data section i.e. original bit sequence); wherein the third bit sequence comprises the original bit sequence and the first bit sequence, and the first bit sequence is located in front of the original bit sequence (see FIG. 3). However Sahara does not explicitly disclose baseband data encoding. Si teaches baseband data encoding (see FIG. 2 and ¶ [0064], wherein the TX processing circuitry 215 encodes, the outgoing baseband data to generate processed baseband). Si further discloses providing a synchronization signal design in an advanced wireless communication system (see ¶ [0004]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify the invention of Sahara, and to include baseband data encoding, as taught by Si for the purpose of providing a synchronization signal design in an advanced wireless communication system. Consider claim 4, Sahara discloses wherein the second bit sequence comprises a sixth bit sequence and a seventh bit sequence (see FIG. 3), the sixth bit sequence is a bit sequence obtained by performing baseband data encoding on the original bit sequence (see FIG. 1 and 3, ¶ [0055]), the seventh bit sequence is a bit sequence added in front of the sixth bit sequence, and the seventh bit sequence is determined based on the first bit sequence (see FIG. 3). Consider claims 11 and 19, Si discloses wherein the first signal is generated through on-off keying (OOK) modulation (see ¶ [0217]). Claim(s) 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sahara US 2009/0316812 in view of Si et al. US 2018/0123849 as applied to claim 4 above, and further in view of Hua et al. US 2024/0340210. Consider claim 5, Sahara in view of Si discloses every claimed limitation in claim 4. Sahara further discloses wherein the seventh bit sequence is the first bit sequence (see FIG. 3). However Sahara in view of Si does not explicitly disclose wherein a baseband data encoding scheme corresponding to the first bit sequence is different from a baseband data encoding scheme corresponding to the original bit sequence. Hua teaches wherein a baseband data encoding scheme corresponding to the first bit sequence is different from a baseband data encoding scheme corresponding to the original bit sequence (see FIG. 2 and ¶ [0051], wherein the header of the OFDM signal is using π/2 BPSK modulation and coding scheme and the data information is using 16-QAM modulation and coding scheme). Hua further discloses achieving a modulation scheme with which relatively high spectral efficiency, a relatively low peak-to-average power ratio, and phase noise compensation (see ¶ [0002]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify the invention of Sahara in view of Si, and to include wherein a baseband data encoding scheme corresponding to the first bit sequence is different from a baseband data encoding scheme corresponding to the original bit sequence, as taught by Hua for the purpose of achieving a modulation scheme with which relatively high spectral efficiency, a relatively low peak-to-average power ratio, and phase noise compensation. Claim(s) 6-7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sahara US 2009/0316812 as applied to claims 1 and 14 above, and further in view of Hua et al. US 2024/0340210. Consider claim 6, Sahara discloses every claimed limitation in claim 1. Sahara further discloses wherein the symbol sequence corresponding to the original bit sequence is a first symbol sequence, the symbol sequence corresponding to the first bit sequence is a second symbol sequence (see FIG. 3 and ¶ [0033-0034]). However Sahara does not explicitly disclose the first symbol sequence and the second symbol sequence are generated based on different modulation processes. Hua teaches the first symbol sequence and the second symbol sequence are generated based on different modulation processes (see FIG. 2 and ¶ [0051], wherein the header of the OFDM signal is using π/2 BPSK modulation and coding scheme and the data information is using 16-QAM modulation and coding scheme). Hua further discloses achieving a modulation scheme with which relatively high spectral efficiency, a relatively low peak-to-average power ratio, and phase noise compensation (see ¶ [0002]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify the invention of Sahara, and to include the first symbol sequence and the second symbol sequence are generated based on different modulation processes, as taught by Hua for the purpose of achieving a modulation scheme with which relatively high spectral efficiency, a relatively low peak-to-average power ratio, and phase noise compensation. Consider claim 7, Hua discloses wherein a modulation scheme corresponding to the first symbol sequence is different from a modulation scheme corresponding to the second symbol sequence (see ¶ [0051]); wherein the first symbol sequence comprises a first symbol (see FIG. 2), the second symbol sequence comprises a second symbol (see FIG. 2), and a time length of the first symbol is different from a time length of the second symbol (see FIG. 2). Claim 16 is rejected on the same ground as for claim 6 because of similar scope. Claim(s) 8 and 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sahara US 2009/0316812 as applied to claims 1 and 14 above, and further in view of Huang et al. US 2024/0259240. Consider claim 8, Sahara discloses every claimed limitation in claim 1. However Sahara does not explicitly disclose wherein the first signal is a signal used for backscatter communication. Huang teaches wherein the first signal is a signal used for backscatter communication (see ¶ [0039]). Huang further discloses modulation information bits method (see ¶ [0002]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify the invention of Sahara, and to include wherein the first signal is a signal used for backscatter communication, as taught by Huang for the purpose of modulation information bits method. Claim 17 is rejected on the same ground as for claim 8 because of similar scope. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JANICE N TIEU whose telephone number is (571)270-1888. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9:00-5:30. 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 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. /JANICE N TIEU/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2633
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Prosecution Timeline

Nov 12, 2024
Application Filed
Feb 04, 2026
Non-Final Rejection — §102, §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
90%
Grant Probability
99%
With Interview (+11.1%)
2y 2m
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 535 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow rate.

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