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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This action is in response to communication filed on 1/13/2026.
Claims 1-2,4,6-10, 12 and 14-16 are pending.
Claims 1-2, 4, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, and 16 have been amended.
Claims 3, 5, 11 and 13 have been canceled.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's argument(s) filed on 1/13/2026 with respect to claim(s) 1-2,4,6-10, 12 and 14-16 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection.
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 1/13/2026 has been entered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 of this title, 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.
1. Claim(s) 1,2, 4, 7, 9 and 10-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tsutsui (US 20080059398 A1) in view of Nair (US 20200394225 A1).
With respect to independent claims:
Regarding claim(s) 1, a system for ingestion and transformation of data into a cloud-based service from an external network, comprising:
Tsutsui teaches a midserver comprising at least a processor, a memory, and a plurality of programming instructions stored in the memory and operating on the processor, wherein the plurality of programming instructions, when operating on the processor, cause the processor to: (Tsutsui, [0013]-[0014], [0072], Fig.1; Fig.8; the data transfer system 300 is different from the data transfer system 100 in respect that it includes a server 90 which is connected with the system through the network 98. A converter which: a) converts a plurality of units of processing of data at a time in parallel by a plurality of processors and converting program, server.)
determine a target data stream format based at least in part on the source-specific metadata associated with one or more of the data segments; (Tsutsui, [0013], [0045], an input unit which receives the request to convert the file format of data; a converter which: a) converts a plurality of units of processing of data at a time in parallel by a plurality of processors, the plurality of units of processing of data being obtained by dividing the data which is specified by the request for conversion received at the input unit, with a predetermined rule; and b) generates a segment of data sequence by reconstructing the plurality of units of processing of data upon which conversions are completed, sequentially.)
dynamically determine one or more transformation sequences for the received data stream based at least on the determined target data stream format; (Tsutsui, [0013], [0045], an input unit which receives the request to convert the file format of data; a converter which: a) converts a plurality of units of processing of data at a time in parallel by a plurality of processors, the plurality of units of processing of data being obtained by dividing the data which is specified by the request for conversion received at the input unit, with a predetermined rule; and b) generates a segment of data sequence by reconstructing the plurality of units of processing of data upon which conversions are completed, sequentially.)
break the received data stream into one or more work units, wherein the work units are based on at least one of unit size, type of transformation needed, or attributes of the data source; (Tsutsui, [0054], FIG. 5 shows the structure of the processing unit 62 in this process. The processing unit 62 includes, a plurality of sub-processing units 70 a, 70 b, . . . 70 n and a control unit 72. The control unit 72 divides a code sequence 200 into units of processing having a predetermined size and allocates each unit of processing to each of a plurality of sub-processing units 70 a, 70 b, . . . 70 n. A plurality of sub-processing units 70 a, 70 b, . . . 70 n perform conversion processing in parallel. [0064], although the method is explained in the foregoing only in relation to a audio stream, a code sequence may be divided into proper units depending on the type of data, type of coding or the like. For example, in case a code sequence 200 is video data, the code sequence may be divided in the units of GOP. The method is especially appropriate for performing conversion processing on data having strong chronological independence, such as an audio stream.)
assign one or more of the work units to a dynamically instantiated worker agent for transformation, (Tsutsui, [0064], although the method is explained in the foregoing only in relation to a audio stream, a code sequence may be divided into proper units depending on the type of data, type of coding or the like. For example, in case a code sequence 200 is video data, the code sequence may be divided in the units of GOP. The method is especially appropriate for performing conversion processing on data having strong chronological independence, such as a audio stream. With this kind of data, since the dependency among each unit of processing of data is small, the conversion is performed without structuring a new scheme for division or reconstruction.) wherein the worker agent is configured to: for each assigned work unit, apply a plurality of transformations to at least a portion of the assigned work unit based on the corresponding transformation sequence to generate a transformed work unit, (Tsutsui, [0064], although the method is explained in the foregoing only in relation to a audio stream, a code sequence may be divided into proper units depending on the type of data, type of coding or the like. For example, in case a code sequence 200 is video data, the code sequence may be divided in the units of GOP. The method is especially appropriate for performing conversion processing on data having strong chronological independence, such as a audio stream.)
wherein each transformation sequence is predefined by one or more pipeline instructions that represent a full set of data transformations and the order in which said data transformations are to be applied for each data segment of the received data stream; (Tsutsui, [0080], a rule to be followed when dividing data may be determined appropriately based on the type of data, in consideration of: a) the processability when dividing data or reconstructing after conversion, b) the timing of the completion of conversion processing for each unit of processing, c) or the like.)
and return each transformed work unit to the midserver; (Tsutsui, [0064], FIG.1 shows data received by data transfer system and converted and outputted by format converter. When outputting units of processing of data on which conversions have been performed in parallel, the mere outputting of the data in proper sequence forms a code sequence segment, and eventually, a code sequence of which the file format is converted. The proper sequence for units of processing of data is comprehended by managing units of processing of data, using identification information which is given when dividing a code sequence segment.)
append each transformed work unit into a single transformed data stream based on a reconstruction protocol; and (Tsutsui, [0013], a file format converter according to at least one embodiment of the present invention comprises: an input unit which receives the request to convert the file format of data; a converter which: a) converts a plurality of units of processing of data at a time in parallel by a plurality of processors, the plurality of units of processing of data being obtained by dividing the data which is specified by the request for conversion received at the input unit, with a predetermined rule; and b) generates a segment of data sequence by reconstructing the plurality of units of processing of data upon which conversions are completed, sequentially;[examiner notes: Tsutsui teaches dividing the file to units by sequence, and after converted all packets by units, then put the packets put back by sequence. A reconstruction protocol based on the original segmentation is obvious over the teaching of the original segmentation + the prior reconstruction teaching. Obviously where you break up a data stream controls how you’re going to put it back together. If you make a cut at packet 32, you’re going to add the data from packet 32+ behind the data from packets 1-31 when you put it back together.])
retransmit the received data stream over a secure connection as the single transformed data stream. (Tsutsui, [0028]- [0030], If those file formats are different, the PC 10 transfers the data to the format converter 50, and then transfers converted data to the mobile terminal 80. In case that stream signals (e.g., audio data, moving image data or the like) are to be converted in the order of arrival at the format converter 50 at a conversion rate comparable to the transfer rate, a flow of a data stream which passes through the arrow 40, the arrow 42 and the arrow 44 is formed. Eventually, the converted data is transferred to the mobile terminal 80.)
Tsutsui does not teach receive a data stream over an external network from a plurality of computing devices, wherein the data stream comprises a plurality of data segments generated by different computing devices of the plurality of computing devices, and wherein each data segment includes associated source-specific metadata comprising at least one of when each data segment was received or created, a source of each data segment, or data provenance of each data segment;
Nair however in the same field of computer networking teaches receive a data stream over an external network from a plurality of computing devices, wherein the data stream comprises a plurality of data segments generated by different computing devices of the plurality of computing devices, (Nair, [0015], FIG.1 shows a system 100 for cloud computing that supports prepackaged data ingestion from various data sources (e.g. cloud clients 105, contacts 110). A cloud application may support a customer data platform (CDP). A CDP may include one or more applications and may support functionality to ingest data from multiple sources, parse and analyze the data to define and build segments of users based on attributes, and/or activate the segments to further track and analyze customers and their associated data (e.g., communication data, spending data, etc.) to further gain insights regarding a group of customers.) and wherein each data segment includes associated source-specific metadata comprising at least one of when each data segment was received or created, a source of each data segment, or data provenance of each data segment; (Nair, [0015] A cloud application may support a customer data platform (CDP). A CDP may include one or more applications and may support functionality to ingest data from multiple sources, parse and analyze the data to define and build segments of users based on attributes, and/or activate the segments to further track and analyze customers and their associated data (e.g., communication data, spending data, etc.) to further gain insights regarding a group of customers. [0060] The data source identifier 710 may receive, at a data server, an identification of one or more data sources for data ingestion to the data server, where the data server includes a set connectors for ingesting multiple data set types from the one or more data set sources.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to modify Tsutsui by incorporating the teachings of Nair. The motivation/suggestion would have been because there is a need to support automated mapping of source data attributes to target data attributes. Further, the application may support custom mappings, automated and custom transformation functions, and data ingestion status windows (Nair, [0026]).
Claim(s) 9 is/are substantially similar to claim 1, and is thus rejected under substantially the same rationale.
With respect to dependent claims:
Regarding claim(s) 2, the system of claim 1,
Tsutsui-Nair teach wherein the determination of the target data stream format is further based at least on an intended destination or an intended use of the data segments. (Tsutsui, [0045], Figs.1-3; as the PC 10 recognizes the input of the instruction, the format acquisition unit 24 acquires the file format of the data to be transferred and the supported file format of the destination apparatus in a aforementioned method (S12, S14), and by comparing the both formats, determines whether or not a file conversion is necessary (S16). [examiner notes: the supported file format interprets to be the target data stream format.])
Regarding claim(s) 4, the system of claim 1,
Tsutsui-Nair teach wherein the one or more transformation sequences identify one or more transformations needed for each work unit of the received data stream and identifies an order in which the one or more transformations need to be performed.(Tsutsui, [0064], although the method is explained in the foregoing only in relation to a audio stream, a code sequence may be divided into proper units depending on the type of data, type of coding or the like. For example, in case a code sequence 200 is video data, the code sequence may be divided in the units of GOP. The method is especially appropriate for performing conversion processing on data having strong chronological independence, such as a audio stream.)
Regarding claim(s) 7, the system of claim 1,
Tsutsui-Nair teach wherein the worker agent is a physical agent operating on a network device separate from the midserver. (Tsutsui, [0072], Fig.8; format converter 50 operating on the data transfer system 300 separate from the server 90.)
Claim(s) 10 is/are substantially similar to claim 2, and is thus rejected under substantially the same rationale.
Claim(s) 12 is/are substantially similar to claim 4, and is thus rejected under substantially the same rationale.
Claim(s) 15 is/are substantially similar to claim 7, and is thus rejected under substantially the same rationale.
2. Claim(s) 6, 8, 14 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tsutsui in view of Nair further in view of Einarsson (US 20180048694 A1).
Regarding claim(s) 6, the system of claim 1,
Tsutsui-Nair do not teach wherein the worker agent is a virtual agent operating within the midserver.
Einarsson however in the same field of computer networking teaches wherein the worker agent is a virtual agent operating within the midserver. (Einarsson, [0016], media content systems may include a number of media content encoders to encode live media content streams. At least some of these media content encoders may be implemented at least in part in software. For instance, virtual machines may be used to allow software encoders to be enabled and disabled upon request.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to modify Tsutsui by incorporating the teachings of Einarsson. The motivation/suggestion would have been because there is a need to provide an encoder may encode the media stream according to a particular type of content format, bit rate, or other characteristic. Some media streams may be encoded in more than one format, for instance for delivery to different types of client devices (Einarsson, [0003]).
Regarding claim(s) 8, the system of claim 1,
Tsutsui-Nair-Einarsson wherein the worker agent comprise both virtual agents wherein the worker agent comprises both virtual agents (Einarsson, [0016], media content systems may include a number of media content encoders to encode live media content streams. At least some of these media content encoders may be implemented at least in part in software. For instance, virtual machines may be used to allow software encoders to be enabled and disabled upon request) and physical agents. (Tsutsui, [0072], Fig.8; format converter 50 operating on the data transfer system 300 separate from the server 90.)
The same motivation to combine as the dependent claim 6 applies here.
Claim(s) 14 is/are substantially similar to claim 6, and is thus rejected under substantially the same rationale.
Claim(s) 16 is/are substantially similar to claim 8, and is thus rejected under substantially the same rationale.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WUJI CHEN whose telephone number is (571)270-0365. The examiner can normally be reached on 9am-6pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, VIVEK SRIVASTAVA can be reached on (571) 272-7304. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/WUJI CHEN/
Examiner, Art Unit 2449
/VIVEK SRIVASTAVA/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2449
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