DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-20 are pending and have been examined.
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 .
Claim Objections
Claims 9-10, 19-20 are objected to because of the following informalities: “NVMe” must be spelled out. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 19 is objected to because of the following informalities: it does not end with a period. Appropriate correction is required.
Double Patenting
Claims 1-20 are provisionally rejected under the judicially created doctrine of obviousness-type double patenting as being unpatentable over claims of Patent Application 18/377,830. Although the conflicting claims are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because
“A method for emulating a local storage for a host computer comprising a network interface card (NIC), the method comprising:on the NIC: deploying a storage emulator program to emulate a local virtual volume (vVol) storage, from a plurality of external storages accessed through the NIC, for a set of processes executing on the host computer, the plurality of external storages comprising at least one external storage that is not a native vVol storage; and configuring an interface of a bus connecting the NIC to the host computer to provide the emulated local vVol storage for the set of processes” (claim 1, instant application) is analogous to
“A method for configuring a network interface card (NIC) that is connected to a host computer and that emulates a local non-volatile memory express (NVMe) storage device for a set of processes executing on the host computer using a plurality of external storages, the method comprising: configuring, on an operating system (OS) of the NIC: a storage emulator program to present the plurality of external storages to the set of processes as the local NVMe storage device; and a disk device to exchange NVMe requests and responses between the set of processes and the plurality of external storages by exchanging the NVMe requests and responses (i) with a virtual NVMe (vNVMe) controller of the NIC through a storage stack of the OS, or (ii) directly with the vNVMe controller such that the disk device bypasses the storage stack, wherein exchanging the NVMe requests and responses directly with the vNVMe controller optimizes performance of the NIC” (claim 1, copending 18/377,830).
This is a provisional obviousness-type double patenting rejection because the conflicting claims of the instant application have not in fact been patented.
The claims of the conflicting patents and/or applications contain every element of claims 1-20 of the instant application and thus anticipate the claims of the instant application. Claims 1-20 of the instant application therefore are not patently distinct from the copending application claims and as such are unpatentable for obvious-type double patenting. A later patent/application claim is not patentably distinct from an earlier claim if the later claim is anticipated by the earlier claim.
“A later patent claim is not patentably distinct from an earlier patent claim if the later claim is obvious over, or anticipated by, the earlier claim. In re Longi, 759 F.2d at 896, 225 USPQ at 651 (affirming a holding of obviousness-type double patenting because the claims at issue were obvious over claims in four prior art patents); In re Berg, 140 F.3d at 1437, 46 USPQ2d at 1233 (Fed. Cir. 1998) (affirming a holding of obviousness-type double patenting where a patent application claim to a genus is anticipated by a patent claim to a species with that genus). “ELI LILLY AND COMPANY v BARR LABORATORIES, INC., United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, ON PETITION FOR REHEARING EN BANC (DECIDED: May 30, 2001).
“Claim 12 and Claim 13 are generic to the species of invention covered by claim 3 of the patent. Thus, the generic invention is “anticipated” by the species of the patented invention. Cf., Titanium Metals Corp. v. Banner, 778 F.2d 775, 227 USPQ 773 (Fed. Cir. 1985) (holding that an earlier species disclosure in the prior art defeats any generic claim) 4. This court’s predecessor has held that, without a terminal disclaimer, the species claims preclude issuance of the generic claim. In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 944, 214 USPQ 761, 767 (CCPA 1982); Schneller, 397 F.2d at 354. Accordingly, absent a terminal disclaimer, claims 12 and 13 were properly rejected under the doctrine of obviousness-type double patenting.” (In re Goodman (CA FC) 29 USPQ2d 2010 (12/3/1993).
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kim (20220206962).
Regarding claims 1 and 17, Kim teaches A method for emulating a local storage for a host computer comprising a network interface card (NIC), the method comprising: on the NIC: / A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program for execution by at least one processing unit of a network interface card (NIC) of a host computer for emulating a local storage for the host computer, the program comprising sets of instructions for (abstract, figs.1, 3-4, par.32-38, 46-51):
deploying a storage emulator program to emulate a local virtual volume (vVol) storage, from a plurality of external storages accessed through the NIC, for a set of processes executing on the host computer, the plurality of external storages comprising at least one external storage that is not a native vVol storage (par.32-38, 52-57, 69-72); and
configuring an interface of a bus connecting the NIC to the host computer to provide the emulated local vVol storage for the set of processes (fig.1, 7, par.34-38, 52-57).
Regarding claim 2, Kim teaches wherein configuring the interface comprises configuring a virtual function (VF) of a physical function (PF) of the interface to provide the emulated local vVol storage for the set of processes (par.72-78).
Regarding claim 3, Kim teaches wherein the PF is a physical interface of the NIC (par.72-78).
Regarding claim 4, Kim teaches wherein the VF is a virtualized interface of the physical interface of the NIC (par.72-78).
Regarding claim 5, Kim teaches wherein the bus is a peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) bus (par.33-36, 56-60).
Regarding claims 6 and 18, Kim teaches wherein deploying the storage emulator program to emulate the local vVol storage comprises configuring the storage emulator program with a storage conversion application to convert the at least one external storage that is not a native vVol storage to at least one vVol storage such that the local vVol storage is emulated using only vVol storages (par.53-60).
Regarding claim 7, Kim teaches wherein the storage emulator program is implemented as a virtual machine (VM) executing on the NIC (par.51-56).
Regarding claim 8, Kim teaches wherein the storage emulator program is implemented as an application executing on the NIC (par.51-56).
Regarding claims 9 and 19, Kim teaches wherein configuring the interface of the bus to provide the emulated local vVol storage comprises configuring the storage emulator program to use the interface of the bus to present the local vVol storage as if it were an NVMe device local to the host computer (par.50-57).
Regarding claims 10 and 20, Kim teaches wherein the local vVol storage is presented as if it were the NVMe device local to the host computer by connecting the local vVol storage to an NVMe driver of the host computer (par.50-57).
Regarding claim 11, Kim teaches wherein the set of processes comprise a set of one or more machines executing on the host computer (par.32-36).
Regarding claim 12, Kim teaches wherein the set of machines is a first set of machines executing on the host computer, and a second set of one or more machines executing on the host computer are unaware of the emulated local VVol storage (par.80-84, 94-96).
Regarding claim 13, Kim teaches wherein the set of processes comprises a hypervisor executing on the host computer (par.33-40).
Regarding claim 14, Kim teaches wherein the set of processes comprises an operating system executing on the host computer (par.33-40).
Regarding claim 15, Kim teaches deploying a network fabric driver on the NIC to access the plurality of external storages through one or more intervening networks (figs, 1, 7, par.29-32).
Regarding claim 16, Kim teaches wherein the network fabric driver is a non-volatile memory express over fabric (NVMeOF) driver (figs, 1, 7, par.34-38, 67-70, 82-84).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: the remaining references put forth on the PTO-892 form are directed to access to virtualized storage, Glimcher (20230305977) similarly teaches the claimed elements (par.28-31, 47-54).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to David García Cervetti whose telephone number is (571)272-5861. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8AM-5PM.
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, HADI S ARMOUCHE can be reached at (571)270-3618. 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.
/David Garcia Cervetti/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2409