Apple Inc.

Patent Trials and Appeals Board

May 4, 2021

2021002454 (P.T.A.B. May. 4, 2021)

UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
United States Patent and Trademark Office
Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS
P.O. Box 1450
Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450
www.uspto.gov
APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE FIRST NAMED INVENTOR ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO.
16/142,008 09/26/2018 Ye Sun 1888-43100 1044
81310 7590 05/04/2021
Kowert Hood Munyon Rankin & Goetzel (Apple)
1120 S. Capital of Texas Hwy
Building 2, Suite 300
Austin, TX 78746
EXAMINER
PATEL, HARDIKKUMAR D
ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER
2473
NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE
05/04/2021 ELECTRONIC
Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding.
The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication.
Notice of the Office communication was sent electronically on above-indicated "Notification Date" to the
following e-mail address(es):
patent_docketing@intprop.com
PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07)
UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
Ex parte YE SUN, ZHANFENG JIA, and
YAKUN SUN
Appeal 2021-002454
Application 16/142,008
Technology Center 2400
Before JASON V. MORGAN, JEREMY J. CURCURI, and
MICHAEL J. ENGLE, Administrative Patent Judges.
ENGLE, Administrative Patent Judge.
DECISION ON APPEAL
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Appellant1 appeals under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) from the Examiner’s
rejection of claims 1–20, which are all of the claims pending in the
application. We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b).
We REVERSE.

1 We use the word “Appellant” to refer to “applicant” as defined in 37
C.F.R. § 1.42(a). Appellant identifies Apple Inc. as the real party in interest.
Appeal Br. 4.
Appeal 2021-002454
Application 16/142,008

2
TECHNOLOGY
The application relates to “providing feedback about a video rate
based at least in part on estimated communication performance during
wireless communication.” Spec. ¶ 1.
ILLUSTRATIVE CLAIM
Claim 1 is illustrative and reproduced below with the limitations at
issue emphasized:
1. An electronic device, comprising:
a node configured to communicatively couple to an
antenna; and
an interface circuit, communicatively coupled to the node,
configured to communicate with a recipient electronic device,
and configured to:
transmit, via the node, one or more packets or
frames associated with a data stream that are intended for
the recipient electronic device, wherein the data stream is
associated with a video encoder;
estimate a communication performance metric
associated with at least the transmission of the one or more
packets or frames; and
provide rate feedback intended for the video
encoder based at least in part on the estimated
communication performance metric and a filtered physical
layer convergence procedure protocol data unit (PPDU)
length in the one or more packets or frames.
Appeal 2021-002454
Application 16/142,008

3
REFERENCES
The Examiner relies on the following references as prior art:
Name Reference Date
Lefebvre US 2010/0287297 A1 Nov. 11, 2010
Ringland US 2018/0109998 A1 Apr. 19, 2018
Tomeba US 2019/0029041 A1 Jan. 24, 2019
Wilkinson US 8,441,955 B2 May 14, 2013
Yeh US 2011/0158347 A1 June 30, 2011
REJECTIONS
The Examiner makes the following rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 103:
Claims References Final Act.
1–3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11–15, 17–20 Lefebvre, Tomeba 3
10, 16 Lefebvre, Tomeba, Yeh 10
7 Lefebvre, Tomeba, Wilkinson 11
4 Lefebvre, Tomeba, Ringland 12
ANALYSIS
Claim 1 recites an interface circuit configured to “provide rate
feedback . . . based at least in part on . . . a filtered physical layer
convergence procedure protocol data unit (PPDU) length.” The other
independent claims (14 and 19) recite commensurate limitations.
Appellant argues that “Tomeba et al. is silent with respect to both
inclusion of a filtered PPDU length and rate feedback based at least on the
filtered PPDU length.” Appeal Br. 13.
The Examiner finds as follows:
Tomeba discloses the length indicated in the frame or packet is a
“filtered physical layer convergence procedure protocol data unit
(PPDU)” as indicated at least in Fig. 2 [PPDU] frame structure
having TXTIME includes information on the length of the PPDU
¶ [0065]. As indicated in ¶ [0083], after the frame is generated
associated with the PPDU frame structure comprising length of
the PPDU is transmitted.
Appeal 2021-002454
Application 16/142,008

4
Ans. 13.
We agree with Appellant. Tomeba does disclose PPDU length. E.g.,
Tomeba ¶ 65 (“TXTIME includes information on the length of the PPDU”).
However, the Examiner has provided no explanation how Tomeba teaches or
suggests such PPDU length is “filtered” as required by the claim. The
Specification discusses such filtering as follows:
In general the PPDU length is dynamic. Consequently, estimates
of the PPDU length may be used in the adjustment. For example,
the adjustment may include or may be based at least in part on a
long-term average or a filtered PPDU length (such as a moving
average, a low-pass filtered PPDU length, etc.).
Spec. ¶ 73. But the Examiner has not pointed to anything in Tomeba that
teaches or suggests such filtering. The cited paragraph 83 of Tomeba does
state that “[t]he physical layer frame generation unit 10003a-1 performs
error correction coding, modulation, precoding filter multiplication, and the
like on transmission frames transmitted from higher layers,” but the
Examiner makes no findings regarding whether such filtering is done on the
PPDU length or why it would have been obvious to do so.
The Examiner does not rely on any of the additional references to cure
the deficiency above.
Accordingly, we do not sustain the Examiner’s rejections of claims 1–
20.
Appeal 2021-002454
Application 16/142,008

5
OUTCOME
The following table summarizes the outcome of each rejection:
Claim(s)
Rejected
35
U.S.C. §
Reference(s)/Basis Affirmed Reversed
1–3, 5, 6, 8, 9,
11–15, 17–20
103 Lefebvre, Tomeba 1–3, 5, 6, 8, 9,
11–15, 17–20
10, 16 103 Lefebvre, Tomeba,
Yeh
10, 16
7 103 Lefebvre, Tomeba,
Wilkinson
7
4 103 Lefebvre, Tomeba,
Ringland
4
Overall
Outcome
1–20
REVERSED