Prosecution Insights
Last updated: August 11, 2026
Application No. 18/084,746

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT MECHANISMS FOR STATEFUL SERVERLESS CLUSTERS IN EDGE COMPUTING

Non-Final OA §101§102§103
Filed
Dec 20, 2022
Examiner
LEE, PHILIP C
Art Unit
2454
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
Intel Corporation
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
77%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
0m
Est. Remaining
97%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 77% — above average
77%
Career Allowance Rate
241 granted / 313 resolved
+19.0% vs TC avg
Strong +20% interview lift
Without
With
+20.2%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
3y 1m
Avg Prosecution
18 currently pending
Career history
334
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
7.7%
-32.3% vs TC avg
§103
49.7%
+9.7% vs TC avg
§102
22.7%
-17.3% vs TC avg
§112
17.4%
-22.6% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 313 resolved cases

Office Action

§101 §102 §103
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 . Claims 1-25 have been examined. Allowable Subject Matter Claims 9-11 and 18-20 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. Claim Rejections – 35 USC § 101 35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows: Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title. Claims 23-25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claims do not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because the claims are directed to transitory medium. According to Applicant’s specification, “[a]s used herein, the terms ‘machine-readable medium’ and ‘computer-readable medium’ are interchangeable. As used herein, the term ‘non-transitory computer-readable medium’ is expressly defined to include any type of computer readable storage device and/or storage disk and to exclude propagating signals and to exclude transmission media.” [102] Claim 23 recites “machine-readable medium having instructions…”, thus does not exclude transitory medium/propagating signals. Under the broadest reasonable interpretation, claim 23 is directed to machine readable medium that includes transitory medium, thus the claims are directed to signal per se. 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 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. Claims 1-4, 6, 12-15, and 21-23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Guim Bernat et al, U.S. Patent Application Publication 2021/0021431 (hereinafter Guim Bernat). As per claim 1, Guim Bernat teaches the invention as claimed comprising: a processor (figs. 20-21); and memory to store instructions for managing distributed compute resources, which when executed by the processor, cause the system to (figs. 20-21): receive, from an agent operating at a first compute domain of a plurality of compute domains, a request for compute resources ([102], e.g., receive, from requesting node, a bid request); broadcast the request for compute resources to respective agents at the plurality of compute domains ([102], e.g., broadcast the bid request to other nodes); receive a plurality of offers for available compute resources from at least a portion of the plurality of compute domains ([103][98], e.g., receive offers from at least a portion of nodes); transmit, to a selected agent at a selected compute domain of the plurality of compute domains, a commit message to reserve compute resources of the selected compute domain associated with a selected offer of the plurality of offers ([98][105], e.g., transit blockchain to be signed to offering node; it is inherent that available resource is reserved once the offer is accepted); and transmit an indication of the commit message to the agent at the first compute domain, wherein the first compute domain is to use the compute resources reserved at the selected compute domain for workloads of the first compute domain ([96], e.g., transmit blockchain operation with each negotiations communication; transmit the offer (i.e., with blockchain) to requesting node , wherein the requesting node is to use the resource reserved at the offering node for workload). As per claim 2, Guim Bernat teaches the invention as claimed in claim 1 above. Guim Bernat further teach wherein the plurality of offers include a service level agreement of each of the plurality of offers ([100], e.g., offer includes willingness to perform the service at a lower cost, faster speed, improved accuracy, etc.). As per claim 3, Guim Bernat teaches the invention as claimed in claim 1 above. Guim Bernat further teach wherein the system is to record the commit message in a distributed ledger ([105][85]). As per claim 4, Guim Bernat teaches the invention as claimed in claim 3 above. Guim Bernat further teach wherein the distributed ledger includes a blockchain ([105][85]). As per claim 6, Guim Bernat teaches the invention as claimed in claim 1 above. Guim Bernat further teach wherein the selected compute domain, in response to receiving the commit message, removes the compute resources from a pool of available compute resources at the selected compute domain ([105][106][98], e.g., wherein the offering node in response to receive the blockchain must remove the resources from available resource in order to determine the availability of existing resource at the node). As per claim 12, Guim Bernat teaches the invention as claimed in claim 1 above. Guim Bernat further teach wherein the system is to select an offer from the plurality of offers based on the request for compute resources ([100], e.g., select an acceptance offer from the offers based on the bid request). As per claim 13, Guim Bernat teaches the invention as claimed in claim 1 above. Guim Bernat further teach wherein the system is to: transmit the plurality of offers to the agent operating at the first compute domain ([100], e.g., transmit offers to the requesting node); and receive the selected offer of the plurality of offers ([100], e.g., receive the accepted offer of the offers). As per claims 14 and 23, they are rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 1 above. As per claim 15, it is rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 6 above. As per claim 21, it is rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 12 above. As per claim 22, it is rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 13 above. 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 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 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Guim Bernat in view of Sciancalepore et al, U.S. Patent Application Publication 2021/0288918 (hereinafter Sciancalepore). As per claim 5, Guim Bernat teaches the invention as claimed in claim 1 above. Although Guim Bernat teaches commit message ([105][85] e.g., blockchain), however, Guim Bernat is silent in regards to smart contract. Sciancalepore teaches wherein the commit message is a part of a smart contract ([66]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Sciancalepore’s teaching with Guim Bernat’s system in order to allow automated execution of agreement on blockchain in Guim Bernat’s system. Claims 7-8, 16-17 and 24-25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Guim Bernat in view of Frank et al, U.S. Patent Application Publication 2016/0335311 (hereinafter Frank). As per claim 7, Guim Bernat teaches the invention as claimed in claim 1 above. Although Guim Bernat teaches workload of the first compute domain ([96][98][102], e.g., workload of requesting node), however, Guim Bernat is silent in regards to micro-batched workload. Frank teaches wherein a workload of the first compute domain includes a micro-batched workload ([2][3]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Frank’s teaching with Guim Bernat’s system in order to allow limit contention to shared dataset by workloads in Guim Bernat’s system [3][4]. As per claim 8, Guim Bernat and Frank teach the invention substantially as claimed in claim 7 above. Guim Bernat and Frank further teach wherein the agent at the first compute domain receives workload requests that include micro-batching parameters (Guim Bernat, [102]; Frank [18][47]). As per claims 16 and 24, they are rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 7 above. As per claims 17 and 25, they are rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 8 above. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Philip Lee whose telephone number is (571)272-3967. The examiner can normally be reached on 6a-3p M-F. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Glenton Burgess can be reached on 571-272-3949. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair- direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /PHILIP C LEE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2454
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Dec 20, 2022
Application Filed
Feb 28, 2023
Response after Non-Final Action
May 07, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §101, §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
77%
Grant Probability
97%
With Interview (+20.2%)
3y 1m (~0m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 313 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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