Prosecution Insights
Last updated: October 02, 2026
Application No. 18/355,808

I/O FAILOVER USING ADAPTER FIRMWARE

Non-Final OA §101
Filed
Jul 20, 2023
Examiner
BUTLER, SARAI E
Art Unit
2100
Tech Center
2100 — Computer Architecture & Software
Assignee
International Business Machines Corporation
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
88%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
0m
Est. Remaining
99%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 88% — above average
88%
Career Allowance Rate
1019 granted / 1156 resolved
+33.1% vs TC avg
Moderate +11% lift
Without
With
+10.7%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 4m
Avg Prosecution
19 currently pending
Career history
1177
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
4.3%
-35.7% vs TC avg
§103
54.5%
+14.5% vs TC avg
§102
20.2%
-19.8% vs TC avg
§112
9.7%
-30.3% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 1156 resolved cases

Office Action

§101
DETAILED ACTION 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 18/355808 filed on July 20, 2023 in which Claims 1-20 are presented for examination. Status of Claims Claims 1-20 are pending. Claims 1-16 are allowed. Claims 17-20 are rejected under 101. Information Disclosure Statement The information disclosure statement (IDS) was submitted on July 20, 2023. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner. 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. The claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. As per claims 17-20, they are rejected because applicant has provided evidence that applicant intends the term "non-volatile computer readable medium” to include non-statutory matter. Applicant describes a non-volatile computer readable medium as including a means to communicate (see paragraph 29). As such, the claim is drawn to a form of energy. Energy is not one of the four categories of invention and therefore this claim(s) is/are not statutory. Energy is not a series of steps or acts and thus is not a process. Energy is not a physical article or object and as such is not a machine or manufacture. Energy is not a combination of substances and therefore not a composition of matter. Allowable Subject Matter Claims 1-16 are allowable in light of the Applicant's argument and in light of the prior art made of record. Reasons for Indicating Allowable Subject Matter The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: Upon searching a variety of databases, the examiner considers “ reissuing, by the host driver and responsive to the query failing, the query a predefined number of times; and sending, by the host driver to a host bus adapter (HBA) firmware and responsive to the reissued queries failing, a mailbox command to store failure statistics related to the target storage port”, in Claims 1 and 10; in conjunction with all other limitations of the dependent and independent claims are not taught or suggested by the prior art of record (PTO-892). Therefore, claims 1-16 are hereby allowed. Prior Art Made of Record Manmohan et al. (US Patent 8,447,826) teaches the certain node may own one or more storage groups and perform various services on one or more mailboxes within these storage groups. One or more computer users associated with these mailboxes may communicate mailbox information commands to the certain node, which mounts the mailboxes and perform these commands. For example, the certain node may perform various file system operations (e.g., read data, write data, delete data, create file and/or the like) on the mailboxes (e.g., one or more mailbox database files). Hathorn et al. (US Patent Application 2017/0093760) teaches three Queue Sets are used for I/O servicing, embedded port configuration and recovery mailbox commands. The default I/O queue set may have a Request/Response queue for target I/O processing and Fibre Channel services. An additional set of Request/Response queues are used for “Mailbox commands” sent using messages as per Fibre. The target input queue is a special type of queue used for the embedded port to initiate I/O requests and services to the driver that is also referred to as the Fibre Channel Driver. Smith et al. (US Patent Application 2020/0244583) teaches the data storage system, such as target ports thereof, may be notified regarding the occurrence of a state change in the communications fabric such as using the registered state change notification (RSCN) notification with an FC fabric. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SARAI E BUTLER whose telephone number is (571)270-3823. The examiner can normally be reached 8 am to 4 pm. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ashish Thomas can be reached at 571-272-0631. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /SARAI E BUTLER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2114
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Jul 20, 2023
Application Filed
Nov 30, 2023
Response after Non-Final Action
Sep 18, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §101 (current)

Precedent Cases

Applications granted by this same examiner with similar technology

Patent 12748664
HIGH AVAILABILITY USING VIRTUAL STORAGE CONTROLLERS IN A SCALE OUT STORAGE CLUSTER
3y 3m to grant Granted Sep 29, 2026
Patent 12711028
FLASH MEMORY ARCHITECTURE IMPLEMENTING INTERCONNECTION REDUNDANCY
1y 7m to grant Granted Aug 18, 2026
Patent 12705061
APPLICATION PROGRAMMING INTERFACE TO INDICATE ACCELERATOR ERROR HANDLERS
1y 7m to grant Granted Aug 11, 2026
Patent 12664051
DATA PROTECTION AND RECOVERY
1y 10m to grant Granted Jun 23, 2026
Patent 12645554
SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PLANNING AND EXECUTING TEST OF ELECTRONIC DEVICE
2y 2m to grant Granted Jun 02, 2026
Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

Strategy Recommendation AI-generated — please review before filing

Get a prosecution strategy drawn from examiner precedents, rejection analysis, and claim mapping.
Typically takes 5-10 seconds — AI-generated, attorney review required before filing

Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
88%
Grant Probability
99%
With Interview (+10.7%)
2y 4m (~0m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 1156 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

Sign in with your work email

Enter your email to receive a magic link. No password needed.

Personal email addresses (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) are not accepted.

Free tier: 3 strategy analyses per month