DETAILED ACTION
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
This Final rejection is in response to Applicant’s arguments/remarks submitted on 7/02/2026. Claims 1, 12, 16, 18, and 20 have been amended, therefore claims 1-20 remain pending in the application and are being considered on the merits.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed on 7/02/2026 have been fully considered with the following results:
Regarding the new title requirement, Applicant has amended the title.
The Examiner will therefore withdraw the new title requirement.
Regarding the rejections under 35 U.S.C 103, Applicant argues that none of the previously cited references teach and/or fairly suggest the newly amended claim language. Further, Applicant argues that the virtual machines as previously recited were not generated before the first request and that neither VM listed in Tewari emulates either a host or a memory system. Applicant also amended claim 12 with the inclusion of additional features, including “each of the first virtual machine and the second virtual machine being generated by a development platform different from another development platform that generates the communication management module.”
The Examiner agrees that the currently amended claim language overcomes the previous rejection under 35 U.S.C. 103. However, upon further search and consideration, a new ground of rejection has been made utilizing the Tewari reference in combination with Cardona et al. (US 20240004679), Costea et al. (US 8898668), Spain et al. (US 20240362322), and Maki et al. (US 20220374005). As a result, the 103 rejection will be maintained under this new ground of rejection. For further details please refer to the 103 section below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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, 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.
Claim(s) 1, 9, 12, and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cardona et al. (US 20240004679), Tewari et al. (US 20050216920), Costea et al. (US 8898668), Spain et al. (US 20240362322), and Maki (US 20220374005).
Regarding claims 1, 12, and 20, Cardona teaches: A system / non-transitory computer-readable storage medium / method, comprising: receiving, using a communication management module (a physical NIC which may be bound to a virtual switch that enables VM communication par. 0038), a first request sent from a first virtual machine, the first virtual machine generated before the first request (a virtual machine application generates and then transmits a data packet from application to a virtual switch which enables communication between VMs par. 0038 – 0041), and establish, using the communication management module, communication between the first virtual machine and a second virtual machine in response to the first request (the virtual switch enables communication between VMs, through which a physical NIC which is bound to the virtual switch can transmit data toward the destination point, which can either be within the virtual boundaries of the virtual environment, or to a physical environment par. 0038 – 0041),
Cardona does not explicitly teach the first virtual machine being configured to emulate a host, the second virtual machine being configured to emulate a memory system, and each of the first virtual machine and the second virtual machine being generated by a development platform different from another development platform that generates the communication management module.
However, Tewari teaches: the first virtual machine configured to emulate a host (the VMM allocates and configures the required resources for the device VM in order for the device VM to emulate the desired hardware device par. 0023 – 0024 in which the device VM may not be the only VM in the virtual machine environment that has access to the allocated resources par. 0026);
Both Cardona and Tewari are in the same field of endeavor that includes virtual machine environments and data transmission through virtual machines.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the application to combine the teachings of Cardona with the teachings of Tewari since the teachings of Tewari would enhance the virtual machines of Cardona by enabling the VMs to be able to emulate desired hardware devices.
Modification would allow for a virtual machine environment in which virtual machines may be used as emulation devices for various hardware devices while sharing resources with other virtual machines within the same environment (Tewari: par. 0023 – 0026).
Tewari does not explicitly disclose a second virtual machine that emulates a memory system, nor does it explicitly state that virtual machines and a communication management module are generated by different development platforms.
However, Costea teaches: the second virtual machine being configured to emulate a memory system (a virtual machine may comprise a framework of an operating system, applications, and system configurations that can be utilized to emulate a computing device in which local memory may be emulated Col. 10 Lines 8 - 17),
Costea and the previous combination are in the same field of endeavor that includes virtual machine emulation.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the application to combine the teachings of Cardona and Tewari with the teachings of Costea since the teachings of Costea provide explicit recitation that virtual machine framework may be used to emulate computing devices including local memory.
Modification would allow for virtual machines to be used as emulation devices for local memory or other frameworks that are comprised within a virtual machine (Costea: Col. 10 Lines 8 – 17).
Costea does not explicitly teach virtual machines and a communication management module being generated on different development platforms.
However, Spain teaches: and each of the first virtual machine and the second virtual machine being generated by a development platform (A virtual machine generation module may include software libraries for spinning up virtual machines under any suitable paradigm, including QEMU, VMWare, Amazon Web Services, Docker etc. par. 0055)
Spain and the previous combination are in the same field of endeavor that includes virtual machine generation and various virtualized modules.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the application to combine the teachings of Cardona, Tewari, and Costea with the teachings of Spain since the teachings of Spain provide a virtual machine generation module that uses a suitable platform for spinning up virtual machines.
Modification would allow for the virtual machines to have been generated on a distinct development platform, such as QEMU, VMWare, or the like (Spain: par. 0055).
Although Spain teaches a communication module, it does not explicitly state that the communication module is developed on a different development platform than the virtual machines.
However, Maki more clearly teaches: a development platform different from another development platform that generates the communication management module (communication function module includes executable format communication program and secure socket communication module that are developed/generated by a program development tool included in the support device par. 0096 - 0098).
Maki and the previous combination are in the same field of endeavor that includes communication modules and secure socket modules used for communication with external devices.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the application to combine the teachings of Cardona, Tewari, Costea, and Spain with the teachings of Maki since the teachings of Maki provides a programmable logic controller that includes a communication module which is generated by a program development tool that does not mention the generation of virtual machines through said tool.
Modification would allow for a separate program development tool/platform on which the communication module could be generated that is different from the development platform used to spin up virtual machines (Maki: par. 0096 – 0096).
Regarding claim 9, Tewari teaches: wherein: the first virtual machine and the second virtual machine are generated by a same computer device (virtual machine environment comprises a computing platform which is capable of executing an OS or VMM par. 0014), and a manner for the communication between the first virtual machine and the second virtual machine includes inter-process communication (device VM and client VM are optimized for inter-VM communication using shared memory par. 0033).
Tewari and the prior combination are in the same field of endeavor that includes virtual machine environments and data transmission through virtual machines.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the application to combine the teachings of Cardona with the teachings of Tewari since the teachings of Tewari would enhance the virtual machines of Cardona by enabling the VMs to be able to emulate desired hardware devices.
Modification would allow for a virtual machine environment in which virtual machines may be used as emulation devices for various hardware devices while sharing resources with other virtual machines within the same environment (Tewari: par. 0023 – 0026).
Claim(s) 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cardona, Tewari, Costea, Spain, and Maki in view of Shirogane et al. (US 20060059188).
Regarding claim 10, Shirogane teaches: wherein: the first virtual machine and the second virtual machine are generated by different computer devices, and a manner for the communication between the first virtual machine and the second virtual machine includes network communication (host computer system HS2 is different from host computer system HS1 and includes an emulator with software which allows implementation of host computer 10 on HS2 par. 0031 and 0057 while the host computers are connected via a SAN par. 0025 - 0027).
Shirogane and the prior combination are in the same field of endeavor including virtual machine emulation.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the application to combine the teachings of Cardona, Tewari, Costea, Spain, and Maki with the teachings of Shirogane since the emulator software on the different host systems allows for different hosts of virtual machines to communicate with one another through a network.
Modification would allow for the virtual machines being generated by the prior combination to be hosted by different devices while allowing for emulation and connection via a SAN (Shirogane: par. 0025 – 0027, 0031, and 0057).
Claim(s) 2- 5, and 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cardona, Tewari, Costea, Spain, and Maki further in view of Kondoh et al. (US 20080086729).
Regarding claims 2 and 13, Kondoh teaches: wherein: the first request includes first address information of the first virtual machine (MMU manages storing of address spaces for each VMID par. 0071 – 0072), and the establishing communication between the first virtual machine and a second virtual machine in response to the first request comprises: sending the first request to the second virtual machine (requester VM sending access request to another virtual machine par. 0108); receiving second address information sent from the second virtual machine, the second address information is determined based on the first request (address information can include specifying an address region which is being target for access par. 0087); and establishing a link between the first virtual machine and the second virtual machine based on the first address information and the second address information (memory management module of the virtual machine manager judges authority of access of the requester virtual machine and permits communication of desired access to memory par. 0108).
Kondoh and the prior combination are in the same field of endeavor that includes virtual machine linking/communication.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the application to combine the teachings of Cardona, Tewari, Costea, Spain, and Maki with the teachings of Kondoh since the teachings of Kondoh would enhance the prior combination through increasing reliability by preventing resource contention issues while also providing security between shared resources of VMs.
Modification would allow for address information to be shared between virtual machines that can permit communication based on access to a memory region (Kondoh: par. 0108).
Regarding claim 3, Kondoh teaches: wherein the establishing communication between the first virtual machine and a second virtual machine in response to the first request further comprises: establishing a mapping relationship between the first virtual machine and the second virtual machine based on the first address information and the second address information (VMs use a consistent shared memory which creates a mapping relationship between all of the VMs that have authority of access to the shared memory par. 0108).
Kondoh and the prior combination are in the same field of endeavor that includes virtual machine linking/communication.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the application to combine the teachings of Cardona, Tewari, Costea, Spain, and Maki with the teachings of Kondoh since the teachings of Kondoh would enhance the prior combination through increasing reliability by preventing resource contention issues while also providing security between shared resources of VMs.
Modification would allow for address information to be shared between virtual machines that can permit communication based on access to a memory region (Kondoh: par. 0108).
Regarding claim 4, Kondoh teaches: wherein: the first request further includes an operation command (requester virtual machine issuing a write command par. 0124), and the establishing communication between the first virtual machine and a second virtual machine in response to the first request further comprises: sending data information sent from the first virtual machine to the second virtual machine in response to the operation command (information regarding the requester virtual machine is sent to the PAM par. 0124); or sending the data information sent from the second virtual machine to the first virtual machine in response to the operation command.
Kondoh and the prior combination are in the same field of endeavor that includes virtual machine linking/communication.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the application to combine the teachings of Cardona, Tewari, Costea, Spain, and Maki with the teachings of Kondoh since the teachings of Kondoh would enhance the prior combination through increasing reliability by preventing resource contention issues while also providing security between shared resources of VMs.
Modification would allow for address information to be shared between virtual machines that can permit communication based on access to a memory region (Kondoh: par. 0108).
Regarding claim 5, Kondoh teaches: buffering the data information (translation look-aside buffer holds address information regarding the requester virtual machine as well as other data information par. 0071).
Kondoh and the prior combination are in the same field of endeavor that includes virtual machine linking/communication.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the application to combine the teachings of Cardona, Tewari, Costea, Spain, and Maki with the teachings of Kondoh since the teachings of Kondoh would enhance the prior combination through increasing reliability by preventing resource contention issues while also providing security between shared resources of VMs.
Modification would allow for address information to be shared between virtual machines that can permit communication based on access to a memory region (Kondoh: par. 0108).
Claim(s) 6-8, and 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cardona, Tewari, Costea, Spain, and Maki further in view of Somohano et al. (US 9697172).
Regarding claims 6 and 14, Somohano teaches: receiving a second request sent from at least one of the first virtual machine or the second virtual machine (receiving request from user to disconnect nodes within virtual network Col. 9 Lines 24 – 33); and disconnecting the communication between the first virtual machine and the second virtual machine in response to the second request, the second request being different from the first request (removal of connection between one or more virtual machines based on the users request Col. 9 Lines 24 – 33).
Somohano and the prior combination are in the same field of endeavor that includes managing connections between virtual machines.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the application to combine the teachings of Cardona, Tewari, Costea, Spain, and Maki with the teachings of Somohano since the teachings of Somohano would enhance the prior combination by allowing users to make changes to a virtual network to determine how said changes would affect a physical network, thereby allowing simulation of network changes.
Modification would allow for requests within the virtual environment to remove the communication connections between virtual machines (Somohano: Col. 9 Lines 24 – 33).
Regarding claim 7, Somohano teaches: wherein the disconnecting the communication between the first virtual machine and a second virtual machine in response to the second request comprising: clearing a mapping relationship between the first virtual machine and the second virtual machine in response to the second request (removal of connection between two nodes within the virtual network would require removal of any relationships between the two nodes Col. 9 Lines 24 – 33).
Somohano and the prior combination are in the same field of endeavor that includes managing connections between virtual machines.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the application to combine the teachings of Cardona, Tewari, Costea, Spain, and Maki with the teachings of Somohano since the teachings of Somohano would enhance the prior combination by allowing users to make changes to a virtual network to determine how said changes would affect a physical network, thereby allowing simulation of network changes.
Modification would allow for requests within the virtual environment to remove the communication connections between virtual machines (Somohano: Col. 9 Lines 24 – 33).
Regarding claim 8, Somohano teaches: wherein the second request includes a disconnect request or a timeout request (user request to disconnect nodes Col. 9 Lines 24 – 33).
Somohano and the prior combination are in the same field of endeavor that includes managing connections between virtual machines.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the application to combine the teachings of Cardona, Tewari, Costea, Spain, and Maki with the teachings of Somohano since the teachings of Somohano would enhance the prior combination by allowing users to make changes to a virtual network to determine how said changes would affect a physical network, thereby allowing simulation of network changes.
Modification would allow for requests within the virtual environment to remove the communication connections between virtual machines (Somohano: Col. 9 Lines 24 – 33).
Claim(s) 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cardona, Tewari, Costea, Spain, and Maki further in view of Park et al. (US 20200092184).
Regarding claim 11, Park teaches: wherein the memory system comprises Universal Flash Storage (storage unit 1040 may include universal flash storage par. 0113).
Park and the prior combination are in the same field of endeavor that includes virtual machine emulation.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the application to combine the teachings of Cardona, Tewari, Costea, Spain, and Maki with the teachings of Park since the teachings of Park would enhance the prior combination by allowing for storage units to be inclusive of universal flash storage which would further emulation capabilities of the virtual machines.
Modification would allow for the memory system emulation to include universal flash storage (Park: par. 0113).
Claim(s) 15 and 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cardona, Tewari, Costea, Spain, and Maki further in view of Prasad et al. (US 20200267072).
Regarding claim 15, Prasad teaches: wherein: the processor includes a first processor and a second processor from different computing devices in the system, the buffer storing instructions, which when executed by the first processor, cause the first processor to run a first development platform (development platform which configures VNF data par. 0015), and to generate the first virtual machine through the first development platform (development platform configures VNF data with hardware and software requirements to enable VNF to be launched in virtual machines of the environment par. 0015) ; and the buffer storing instructions, which when executed by the second processor, cause the second processor to run the first development platform, and to generate the second virtual machine through the first development platform (VNF is enabled to launch on any virtual machines in the environment par. 0015).
Prasad and the prior combination are in the same field of endeavor that includes development platforms and virtualized environments.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the application to combine the teachings of Tewari and Shirogane with the teachings of Prasad since the teachings of Prasad would enhance the prior combination by providing a development platform that allows for configuring VNF data with hardware and software requirements that may then be launched inside of virtual machines.
Modification would allow for a development platform that uses VNF data to launch on various virtual machines within an environment (Prasad: par. 0015).
Regarding claim 17, Prasad teaches: wherein: the processor comprises a processor of a same computing device in the system, and the buffer storing instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: run a first development platform, and generate the first virtual machine and the second virtual machine through the first development platform (the development platform configures VNF data to enable launching in virtual machines within the environment par. 0015).
Prasad and the prior combination are in the same field of endeavor that includes development platforms and virtualized environments.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the application to combine the teachings of Tewari and Shirogane with the teachings of Prasad since the teachings of Prasad would enhance the prior combination by providing a development platform that allows for configuring VNF data with hardware and software requirements that may then be launched inside of virtual machines.
Modification would allow for a development platform that uses VNF data to launch on various virtual machines within an environment (Prasad: par. 0015).
Claim(s) 16 and 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cardona, Tewari, Costea, Spain, Maki, Kondoh, and Prasad and further in view of Heidari (US 20200045041).
Regarding claim 16, Kondoh teaches: buffer instructions corresponding to the communication management module into the buffer (translation look-aside buffer composed of information pieces regarding communication between different VMIDs par. 0071), the second development platform being different from the first development platform.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the application to combine the teachings of Cardona, Tewari, Costea, Spain, Maki, and Prasad with the teachings of Kondoh since the teachings of Kondoh would enhance the prior combination through increasing reliability by preventing resource contention issues while also providing security between shared resources of VMs.
Kondoh does not explicitly teach development platforms.
However, Heidari teaches: wherein the buffer storing instructions, which when executed by the first processor or the second processor, cause the first processor or the second processor to: run a second development platform (of the one or more development platforms par. 0016); generate the communication management module (creation of centralized gateway server on development platform that handles communication/access to a service via an interface between a merchant or service provider par. 0016);
Heidari and the prior combination are in the same field of endeavor that includes multiple development platforms that can generate communication modules.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the application to combine the teachings of Cardona, Tewari, Costea, Spain, Maki, Kondoh, and Prasad with the teachings of Heidari since the teachings of Heidari would enhance the prior combination by providing multiple different development platforms while providing for communication between them through a centralized gateway server, further providing authentication and security between systems/APIs.
Modification would allow for multiple development platforms using a centralized gateway server for communication (Heidari: par. 0016).
Regarding claim 18, Kondoh teaches: buffer instructions corresponding to the communication management module into the buffer (translation look-aside buffer composed of information pieces regarding communication between different VMIDs par. 0071), the second development platform being different from the first development platform.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the application to combine the teachings of Cardona, Tewari, Costea, Spain, Maki, and Prasad with the teachings of Kondoh since the teachings of Kondoh would enhance the prior combination through increasing reliability by preventing resource contention issues while also providing security between shared resources of VMs.
Kondoh does not explicitly teach development platforms.
However, Heidari teaches: wherein the buffer storing instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: run a second development platform (of the one or more development platforms par. 0016), generate the communication management module (creation of centralized gateway server on development platform that handles communication/access to a service via an interface between a merchant or service provider par. 0016)
Heidari and the prior combination are in the same field of endeavor that includes multiple development platforms that can generate communication modules.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the application to combine the teachings of Cardona, Tewari, Costea, Spain, Maki, Kondoh, and Prasad with the teachings of Heidari since the teachings of Heidari would enhance the prior combination by providing multiple different development platforms while providing for communication between them through a centralized gateway server, further providing authentication and security between systems/APIs.
Modification would allow for multiple development platforms using a centralized gateway server for communication (Heidari: par. 0016).
Claim(s) 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cardona, Tewari, Costea, Spain, Maki, Kondoh, Prasad, and Heidari further in view of Butts et al. (US 20050022143).
Regarding claim 19, Butts teaches: wherein: the first development platform includes: a virtual operating system emulator (one or more software development platforms includes an emulator par. 0025), and the second development platform includes a C-language development platform (one or more software development platforms can be provided in any programming language including C par. 0025).
Butts and the prior combination are in the same field of endeavor that includes development platforms and emulation.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the application to combine the teachings of Cardona, Tewari, Costea, Spain, Maki, Kondoh, Prasad, and Heidari with the teachings of Butts since the teachings of Butts would enhance the prior combination by allowing one or more development platforms to compile and simulate software models, which can be provided in any language, while also including emulators of any kind on the software development platforms.
Modification would allow for further expansion of the development platforms to be provided in C-language (Butts: par. 0025).
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/J.S.M./Examiner, Art Unit 2198
/PIERRE VITAL/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2198
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