DETAILED ACTION
This office action is a response to a communication made on 04/17/2026.
Claims 1-3, 11-13 and 16-18 are currently amended.
Claims 1-20 are pending for this application.
Request for Continued Examination (RCE) 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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 04/17/2026 has been entered.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 04/17/2026 was filed before the mailing date of the non-final action on 06/08/2026. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP § 2146 et seq. for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
The filing of a terminal disclaimer by itself is not a complete reply to a nonstatutory double patenting (NSDP) rejection. A complete reply requires that the terminal disclaimer be accompanied by a reply requesting reconsideration of the prior Office action. Even where the NSDP rejection is provisional the reply must be complete. See MPEP § 804, subsection I.B.1. For a reply to a non-final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.111(a). For a reply to final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.113(c). A request for reconsideration while not provided for in 37 CFR 1.113(c) may be filed after final for consideration. See MPEP §§ 706.07(e) and 714.13.
The USPTO Internet website contains terminal disclaimer forms which may be used. Please visit www.uspto.gov/patent/patents-forms. The actual filing date of the application in which the form is filed determines what form (e.g., PTO/SB/25, PTO/SB/26, PTO/AIA /25, or PTO/AIA /26) should be used. A web-based eTerminal Disclaimer may be filled out completely online using web-screens. An eTerminal Disclaimer that meets all requirements is auto-processed and approved immediately upon submission. For more information about eTerminal Disclaimers, refer to www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/applying-online/eterminal-disclaimer.
Claims 1-3, 5-10, and 11-20 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-3, 6-8, 12, 14 and 16-17 of U.S. Patent No. US 11637770B2 in view of Ang et al. (US 2022/0103487), hereinafter “Ang”, and further in view of Pizzo et al. (US 2004/0267824), hereinafter “Pizzo”.
Instant application # 18295430
US Patent # US 11637770B2
1, 11, and 16, A system, a method and a non-transitory computer readable medium, comprising:
1, 8, and 14, A system, a method and a non-transitory computer readable medium, comprising:
a substrate network hosting a virtual network;
a set of servers connected with a substrate network hosting a virtual network, the set of servers hosting a network interface service, the network interface service storing configuration information about a configuration of the virtual network and version information about the configuration information;
a set of servers connected with a substrate network and hosting a network interface service;
a network virtualization device hosting a virtual network interface card, connected with the substrate network; and
a network virtualization device hosting a virtual network interface card, connected with the substrate network, and
wherein the virtual network interface card is configured to: store in the network virtualization device, flow information usable by the virtual network interface card for determining routing of traffic associated with a virtual network,
storing flow information usable by the virtual network interface card for traffic associated with a virtual network; and
a host machine hosting a compute instance of the virtual network, wherein the host machine is connected with the network virtualization device, and wherein the compute instance is associated with the virtual network interface card;
a host machine connected with the network virtualization device and hosting a compute instance from the virtual network,
wherein the network interface service hosted on the set of servers is configured to:
store configuration information about a configuration of the virtual network;
Store, in the network virtualization device, version information about the flow information;
store version information about the configuration information;
transmit, to a control plane, a check request including a vector clock populated with one or more version indicators from the version information;
7. The system of claim 6, wherein sending the version information comprises sending a vector clock populated with an indicator of a version of each portion of the plurality of portions that form the configuration information.
receive, from the control plane and in response to the transmitting the check request, a notification identifying that at least a portion of the flow information is outdated;
12. The method of claim 11, wherein the request is sent to the network interface service in response to receiving an indication from the control plane that the flow information is outdated and prior to receiving the packet from the compute instance.
receive, from the host machine of a compute instance, a packet for traffic associated with the computer instance;
determine that a portion of the flow information applying to the packet is outdated;
determine that the virtual network interface card is associated with the flow information;
determine, based on the version information, that the flow information on the network virtualization device is outdated;
transmit, to the network interface service, an update request to receive updated flow information;
generate, based on the configuration information and the version information, an update to the flow information; and send, to the network virtualization device, the update.
receive, from the network interface service, and in response to the update request, updated flow information and updated version information, wherein the updated flow information and updated version information is based on configuration information about the virtual network stored on the set of servers hosting the network interface service; and
store, in the network virtualization device, the updated flow information and the updated version information.
8, 15 and 20, The system of claim 7, wherein the configuration information comprises security policies, overlay-to-substrate internet protocol (IP) address mappings, and route rules for one or more packet flows, and wherein the updated flow information comprises at least one of a security policy, an overlay-to-substrate IP address mapping, or a route rule.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein the configuration information comprises security policies, overlay-to-substrate internet protocol (IP) address mappings, and route rules for one or more packet flows, and wherein the flow information comprises at least one of a security policy, an overlay-to-substrate IP address mapping, or a route rule included in the configuration information.
Claims 2, 12 and 17
Claim 6
Claim 3
Claim 16
Claims 5, 13 and 18
Claims 3 and 17
Claim 6
Claim 12
Claims 7, 14 and 19
Claim 1
Claims 9
Claim 3
Claim 10
Claim 8
However, US 11637770B2 remain silent on a substrate network hosting a virtual network; a set of servers connected with a substrate network hosting a virtual network, the set of servers hosting a network interface service, the network interface service storing configuration information about a configuration of the virtual network and version information about the configuration information; store version information about the flow information, receive, from the host machine of a compute instance, a packet for traffic associated with the computer instance; receive, from the network interface service, an updated flow information and updated version information, the updated flow information and updated version information based on configuration information about the virtual network stored on the set of servers of the network interface service; and store the updated flow information and the updated version information.
Ang discloses a substrate network hosting a virtual network (¶0033, teaches physical network controller (pNIC) to provide flow processing offload (FPO) for a host computer connected to the pNIC. The host computers host a set of compute nodes (e.g., virtual machines (VMs), Pods, containers, etc.) in a virtual or logical network, ¶0039, teaches The pNIC 120 also includes a physical network port 121 that connects the pNIC 120 and the VMs 111 a-n and vNICs 112 a-n to a physical network (i.e. substrate network);
a set of servers connected with the substrate network hosting a virtual network, the set of servers hosting a network interface service (abstract, teaches The host computers host a set of compute nodes in a virtual network, ¶0033, teaches the host computers host a set of compute nodes (e.g., virtual machines (VMs), Pods, containers, etc.) in a virtual or logical network, the set of compute nodes are each associated with a set of interfaces (virtual NICs, ports, etc.) that are each assigned a locally-unique virtual port identifier (VPID) by a flow processing and action generator ¶0039, teaches The pNIC 120 also includes a physical network port 121 that connects the pNIC 120 and the VMs 111 a-n and vNICs 112 a-n to a physical network (i.e. substrate network), ¶0045, teaches a set of physical functions 434 a-i through a PCIe bus 432, to multiple servers 410 a-n each hosting a set of compute nodes (e.g., VMs 411 a-x), the network interface service storing configuration information about a configuration of the virtual network (¶0033, teaches the set of compute nodes are each associated with a set of interfaces (virtual NICs, ports, etc.) that are each assigned a locally-unique virtual port identifier (VPID) by a flow processing and action generator, ¶0042, teaches the slow path processing may indicate that a particular forwarding rule (i.e. configuration information) applies to the data message flow and supplies a set of criteria that uniquely identify the flow to which the data message belongs and an action to take for future data messages belonging to that flow, ¶0044, teaches the local controller 365, in some embodiments, configures the slow path processor 263 with forwarding rules and additional policies (e.g., firewall policies, encryption policies, etc.) necessary to implement a data message processing pipeline defined for the SDN (or a set of logical forwarding elements of the SDN). The local controller 365, in some embodiments, also provides information received from the pNIC 120 and the SDN controllers 366 to the mapping generator 368 to identify the VPIDs and PPIDs of the different interfaces and the connections between the interfaces to generate VPID to PPID mappings. Additionally, the local controller 365 notifies the mapping generator 368 when a configuration change affects the VPID to PPID mappings (i.e. mappings as configuration information) to allow the mapping generator 368 to generate a new or updated VPID to PPID mapping);
Therefore, it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify ’s US 11637770B2’ s system with a substrate network hosting a virtual network; a set of servers connected with a substrate network hosting a virtual network, the set of servers hosting a network interface service, the network interface service storing configuration information about a configuration of the virtual network of Ang, in order to maintain integrity, reliability and manageability of virtual networks within set of servers (Ang, ¶0047).
However, US 11637770B2 in view of Ang remain silent on version information about the configuration information, store, in the network virtualization device version information about the flow information, transmit, to the network interface service an update request to receive updated flow information, receive, from the network interface service, an updated flow information and updated version information, the updated flow information and updated version information based on configuration information ; and store the updated flow information and the updated version information.
Pizzo discloses version information about the configuration information (¶0020, teaches Based on the configuration of the query, the database can return, for example, versioning information for all monitored data tables, versioning information for monitored data tables with outstanding cache dependencies, or versioning information for monitored data tables that have changed, ¶0048, teaches identifies a current version of a data table, ¶0058, teaches version comparisons required in order to maintain cache entries (i.e. flow information), see ¶0074),
Store, in the network virtualization device, version information about the flow information (¶0016, teaches a number of server computer systems (i.e. set of servers) each access dynamic content from the same database, ¶0021-¶0022, teaches server computer systems can be the network virtualization device, ¶0020, teaches versioning information for monitored data tables with outstanding cache dependencies, ¶0048, teaches identifies a current version of a data table, ¶0058, teaches version comparisons required in order to maintain cache entries (i.e. flow information).
transmit, to the network interface service, an update request to receive updated flow information (¶0016, teaches a number of server computer systems (i.e. set of servers) each access dynamic content from the same database, ¶0034, teaches the server computer system (e.g., in response to user input) configures a data table in the database to provide a change notification table with updated versioning information (e.g., change IDs) when content in the data table is altered (e.g., inserted, deleted, updated). The server computer system queries the change notification table from time to time or in response to a request to retrieve cached content to request updated versioning information for corresponding data tables).
receive, from the network interface service, and in response to the update request, an updated flow information, and updated version information (¶0110, teaches computer system 520 includes network interface 553, through which computer system 520 receives data from external sources and/or transmits data to external sources, ¶0034, teaches in response to a request to retrieve cached content to request updated versioning information for corresponding data tables, ¶0061, teaches received versioning information to update appropriate key entries within cache, wherein entries within cache is flow information, ¶0020, teaches based on the configuration of the query, the database can return, for example, versioning information for all monitored data tables, versioning information for monitored data tables with outstanding cache dependencies, or versioning information for monitored data tables that have changed), wherein the updated flow information and updated version information is based on configuration information (¶0020, teaches Based on the configuration of the query, the database can return, for example, versioning information for all monitored data tables, versioning information for monitored data tables with outstanding cache dependencies, or versioning information for monitored data tables that have changed, ¶0061, teaches received versioning information to update appropriate key entries within cache, wherein entries within cache is flow information, ¶0071, teaches returning the updated versioning information to a requesting server computer system such that the updated versioning information can be used to determine the validity of content in a cache entry (i.e. flow information) at the server computer system, ¶0074, teaches updated versioning information is returned form the database to the server computer system. Based on the configuration of the query, the database can return, for example, versioning information for all monitored data tables, versioning information for monitored data tables with outstanding cache dependencies, or versioning information for monitored data tables that have changed).
store the updated flow information and the updated version information (¶0071, teaches returning the updated versioning information to a requesting server computer system such that the updated versioning information can be used to determine the validity of content in a cache entry (i.e. flow information) at the server computer system, ¶0074, teaches updated versioning information is returned form the database to the server computer system. Based on the configuration of the query, the database can return, for example, versioning information for all monitored data tables, versioning information for monitored data tables with outstanding cache dependencies, or versioning information for monitored data tables that have changed).
Therefore, it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify US 11637770B2’s system in view of Ang’s VM as virtualization device with version information about the configuration information, store, in the network virtualization device version information about the flow information, transmit, to the network interface service an update request to receive updated flow information, receive, from the network interface service, an updated flow information and updated version information, the updated flow information and updated version information based on configuration information ; and store the updated flow information and the updated version information of Pizzo, in order to ensure that the flow information is consistent across different components in the network, efficient updates and robust communication in network systems (Pizzo, ¶0020 and ¶0055).
However, Ang in view of Pizzo remain silent on receive, from the host machine of a compute instance, a packet for traffic associated with the computer instance.
Nunes discloses receive, from the host machine of a compute instance (¶0076, teaches virtual machines 211 and 212 (i.e. compute instance) operate on host 221 (i.e. host machine)), a packet for traffic associated with the computer instance (¶0025, teaches Dropping a packet (i.e. packet for traffic) may result when a given packet is associated with a communication or flow no longer being processed. A packet may also be dropped because a virtual device lacks sufficient instructions for handling a packet of a type received. Alternatively, a device may be unable to successfully route a given packet to a specified destination, ¶0080, teaches a virtual router created by a tenant to route traffic between the tenant's virtual machines (i.e. computer instance), ¶0141, teaches when an egress host receives a return packet from a virtual machine (VM) (i.e. compute instance) hosted on the physical host associated with the egress host. The return process or reverse flow establishes the return tunnel that returns traffic of a connection, see ¶0134).
Therefore, it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Ang’s a DROP for packets that are not to be forwarded in view of Pizzo’s system with receive, from the host machine of a compute instance, a packet for traffic associated with the computer instance of Nunes, in order to host machine acts as intermediary, receiving traffic and forwarding it to the correct VM instance (Nunes, ¶0085).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-20 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if applicant file a terminal disclaimer to overcome the double patenting rejection.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GOLAM MAHMUD whose telephone number is (571)270-0385. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 8.00-5.00pm.
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/GOLAM MAHMUD/Examiner, Art Unit 2458
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