Prosecution Insights
Last updated: August 18, 2026
Application No. 18/177,540

MODIFYING OUTPUT CODE IN SOURCE CODE TO OUTPUT COMPRESSED OUTPUT STATEMENTS

Non-Final OA §102§103
Filed
Mar 02, 2023
Examiner
KENDALL, CHUCK O
Art Unit
2192
Tech Center
2100 — Computer Architecture & Software
Assignee
International Business Machines Corporation
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
87%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
0m
Est. Remaining
95%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 87% — above average
87%
Career Allowance Rate
805 granted / 927 resolved
+31.8% vs TC avg
Moderate +8% lift
Without
With
+7.8%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 11m
Avg Prosecution
23 currently pending
Career history
948
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
12.9%
-27.1% vs TC avg
§103
22.2%
-17.8% vs TC avg
§102
50.4%
+10.4% vs TC avg
§112
1.3%
-38.7% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 927 resolved cases

Office Action

§102 §103
CTNF 18/177,540 CTNF 75190 Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA. This is in response to Application filed 03/02/23. Claims 1 – 20 have been examined and are pending. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 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: 07-08-aia AIA (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. 07-15 AIA Claim s 1, 10, and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102( a)(1 ) as being anticipated by Iwanir et al. US 20170351512 A1 . Regarding claims 1, 10 and 16, Iwanir anticipates A computer program product for processing source code to reduce size of output statements, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therein that is executable to perform operations, the operations comprising: indicating in a codebook replacement codes associated with strings in output code in source code, wherein the output code is to generate output statements [0034, discloses, “… Program code 106 (i.e. codebook replacement codes ) includes a plurality of queries 110. Queries 110 includes multiple queries, which may include one or more separate query operators and/or one or more query expressions ( strings /series of query operators). Query optimizer 104 is configured to analyze and generate a replacement set of queries for queries 110, thereby outputting refactored program code 108 that includes replacement queries 112 …” i.e. generate output statements ]; ]” As noted prior art shows the program code 106 which Examiner interprets to be the codebook, which includes a plurality of strings or query operators used to analyze and generate replacement set of queries/strings thereby outputting refactored program code which is interpreted as the generated output statements. replacing the strings of the output code with the replacement codes associated with the strings to produce modified source code [ 0034 , see replacement and refactored program include with replacement queries], wherein multiple instances of a same string in the output code are replaced by an associated same replacement code in the codebook [0034, program code 108 is program code that is logically equivalent (performs the same function (s)) as original program code 106 , but is rewritten with replacement queries ]; and compiling the modified source code, having the replacement codes replacing the strings, to produce an executable application, wherein the executable application during runtime produces compressed output statements comprising the replacement codes that replaced the associated strings [0042, shows compiling the code replacement which also includes the strings] . Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 07-20-aia AIA 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. 07-21-aia AIA Claim (s) 2, 7, 11 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Iwanir et al. US 20170351512 A1 as applied in claim 1, In view of Ruff et al. US 20160020782 A1 . Regarding claims 2, 11 and 17, Iwanir discloses all the claimed limitations as applied in claim 1 above. Iwanir doesn’t expressly disclose wherein providing a decoder and receiving the compressed output statements produced by the executable application during the runtime as well as outputting uncompressed output statements comprising the strings replacing the identified replacement codes in the compressed output statements. Ruff discloses in a similar configuration and analogous art implementing certain actions to includes steps like such as authenticating, compressing, copying, decoding, decompressing, decrypting code during compiling and prior to and after execution [0097]. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before filing the invention to combine Iwanir and Ruff, because it would enable forwarding, invoking, moving, reading, storing data more efficiently as disclosed by Ruff above. Regarding claim 7, the computer program product of claim 1, wherein the output code in the source code is to produce logging information on a system in which the executable application runs [Ruff, 0097. For logging see authenticating] . Allowable Subject Matter 12-151-08 AIA 07-43 12-51-08 Claim s 3 – 6, 8, 12 – 15, 19 and 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. Correspondence Information Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Chuck Kendall whose telephone number is 571-272-3698. The examiner can normally be reached on 10:00 am - 6:30pm. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Hyung Sough can be reached on 571-272-6799. 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). /CHUCK O KENDALL/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2192 Application/Control Number: 18/177,540 Page 2 Art Unit: 2192 Application/Control Number: 18/177,540 Page 3 Art Unit: 2192 Application/Control Number: 18/177,540 Page 4 Art Unit: 2192 Application/Control Number: 18/177,540 Page 5 Art Unit: 2192 Application/Control Number: 18/177,540 Page 6 Art Unit: 2192
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Mar 02, 2023
Application Filed
Nov 09, 2023
Response after Non-Final Action
May 08, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §102, §103
Jul 31, 2026
Interview Requested
Aug 06, 2026
Examiner Interview Summary
Aug 06, 2026
Applicant Interview (Telephonic)

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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
87%
Grant Probability
95%
With Interview (+7.8%)
2y 11m (~0m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 927 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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