DETAILED ACTION
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 3/12/2026 has been entered.
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 .
Response to Amendment
Applicant presents amendments to claims 1, 3, 9, 11, and 16. All amendments have been fully considered.
Applicant’s amendments are sufficient to overcome the previous rejection under 35 U.S.C. 112(b), providing an unambiguous set of claims. As discussed in a previous interview, the original combination of prior art was directed more toward deduplication because the breadth of the claim language allowed for a reading on that technology. In light of Applicant’s successful clarification of the claims, a new interpretation was made, the previous rejection under 35 U.S.C. 103 is withdrawn, and a new search was conducted providing prior art more in line with the intended direction of the invention. Therefore, a new body of relevant references are presented and a new rejection is issued with a new reference selected to serve as the basis for anticipation under 35 U.S.C. 102.
Response to Arguments
Applicant presents arguments with respect to independent claims 1, 9, and 16. All arguments have been fully considered.
The Examiner agrees that in light of the amendments, the previously cited combination of references fails to teach each and every limitation of the claimed invention. As mentioned above, the clarification of the claims leads to a narrower search more in line with the intended subject matter of the invention. A new search was conducted and a new rejection is presented.
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:
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 1–20 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Alpern (US 2009/0070752 A1, published Mar, 12, 2009).
Regarding claims 1, 9, and 16, Alpern discloses: a method, comprising: obtaining, by at least one entity associated with an operating system of at least one processing device, at least a portion of a file to be written to the at least one processing device, wherein the file comprises one or more of: (i) a template and (ii) an image, wherein the one or more of (i) the template and (ii) the image is associated with one or more of: (i) a virtual machine and (ii) a container, and wherein at least a portion of the at least one entity is executed by the at least one processing device (assets include executable virtual machine images, whereas shards atomic units into which all asserts are divided and are discrete pieces of files shared across assets. Alpern ¶¶ 31–32.); obtaining, by the at least one entity, at least one file-specific value associated with the at least a portion of the file (a manifest is created which maps the hierarchical names used by the application for entities (files, etc.) into shard identifiers. Alpern ¶ 67. The tamper-proof virtual machine image is composed of multiple shards glued together by one or more metashards forming a manifest where shards are identified by cryptographic digest of their contents. Alpern ¶ 92.); comparing, by the at least one entity, the at least one file-specific value to at least one value from a list of designated values (the shards are identified by a cryptographic digest of their contents and the digest is recomputed when a shard is first used, then comparing by matching the computed digest with the result stored (understood to be well-known that retrieving values from electronically stored values amounts to retrieving values from a list of stored values) in the cryptographic digest. Alpern ¶ 92.); and initiating, by the at least one entity, at least one automated action based at least in part on a result of the comparison (the VMM will refuse to run the application if the tamper detection mechanism detects any tampering. Alpern ¶¶ 91–92.); wherein the method is performed by the at least one processing device comprising a processor coupled to a memory (Alpern ¶ 4.).
Regarding claims 2, 10, and 17, Alpern discloses the limitations of claims 1, 9, and 17, respectively, wherein the at least one automated action comprises one or more of writing the at least a portion of the file to at least one file system; generating at least one notification; deleting the at least a portion of the file from a file system of the at least one processing device; preventing access to the at least a portion of the file; and limiting access to the at least a portion of the file (the VMM will refuse to run the application if the tamper detection mechanism detects any tampering. Alpern ¶¶ 91–92.).
Regarding claims 3 and 11, Alpern discloses the limitations of claims 1 and 9, respectively, further comprising storing the one or more of (i) the template and (ii) the image in an inventory of the at least one processing device (prefetching from the server into the client’s local cache before they are required. Alpern ¶ 63–65 and 74.).
Regarding claims 4, 12, and 18, Alpern discloses the limitations of claims 1, 9, and 16, respectively, wherein the at least one file-specific value associated with the at least a portion of the file comprises a hash value calculated in response to receiving a request to write the at least a portion of the file to the at least one processing device (the shards are identified by a cryptographic digest of their contents and the digest is recomputed when a shard is first used. Alpern ¶ 92.).
Regarding claims 5, 13, and 19, Alpern discloses the limitations of claims 1, 9, and 16, respective, wherein the list comprises a list of file-specific values associated with one or more designated files (the shards are identified by a cryptographic digest of their contents and the digest is recomputed when a shard is first used, then comparing by matching the computed digest with the result stored (understood to be well-known that retrieving values from electronically stored values amounts to retrieving values from a list of stored values) in the cryptographic digest. Alpern ¶ 92. Shards are atomic units into which all asserts are divided and are discrete pieces of files shared across assets. Alpern ¶¶ 31–32.).
Regarding claim 6, 14, and 20, Alpern discloses the limitations of claims 1, 9, and 16, respectively, wherein the at least one entity obtains the at least a portion of the file to be written to the at least one processing device by intercepting a request to write the at least a portion of the file to the at least one processing device (intercepting interfaces enabling optimization of software management where shards are fetched as they are needed enabling the asset to be progressively deployed by overlapping deployment with execution. Alpern ¶¶ 35–36.).
Regarding claim 7, Alpern discloses the limitations of claim 1, wherein the at least one processing device comprises one or more of a host device and at least one virtual resource executing on a hypervisor (the virtual machine monitor (VMM). Alpern Figure 1 and ¶¶ 4, 42, 91–92, 94).
Regarding claims 8 and 15, Alpern discloses the limitations of claims 1 and 9, respectively, wherein the at least one entity associated with the operating system comprises at least one software entity associated with an operating system kernel (Alpern ¶¶ 2–3.).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: Duane (US 2011/0246778 A1, published Oct. 6, 2011), VM images used at endpoint machines where the endpoint requires validation that the VM instance runs without tampering; Carter (US 2008/0201708 A1, published Aug. 21, 2008), validating a VM images the ensure the image has not been tampered with prior to installation; Schweitzer (US 9,471,354 B1, issued Oct. 18, 2016), verification of VM images by dissecting the image into data blocks and hashing the blocks; and Srivastava (US 2022/0222100 A1, published Jul. 14, 2022), integrity protection of container images guarding against tampering prior to being run.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to VANCE M LITTLE whose telephone number is (571) 270-0408. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday - Friday 9:30am - 5:30pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jung (Jay) Kim can be reached on (571) 272-3804. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/VANCE M LITTLE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2493