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
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s amendment filed on 13 March 2026.
Claims 1, 3-16 and 21 are presented for examination.
Claims 1, 2, 5-10, 13-16 were elected without traverse (elected over the phone on 25 September 2024).
Claim 2 is missing.
Claims 1, 3-16 are amended.
Claim 3, 4, 11, 12 were cancelled, but they are now amended with newly added claim limitations.
Claim 17-20 are cancelled.
Claim 21 is added.
Claim 21 is withdrawn from further consideration.
Priority
The instant application claims benefit of the filing date and priority (continuation) to the U.S. Provisional Patent Application SN: 63407716, filed on 18 September 2022. Accordingly, the filing date of the Provisional Patent Application (18 September 2022) is considered the effective filing date for the examination of the instant application.
Response to Argument
For claims 1, 3-16, applicant’s arguments filed in the amendment filed on 13 March 2026, have been considered but are moot because the arguments do not apply to any of the references being used in the current rejection.
Election/Restrictions
Newly submitted claim 21 directed to an invention that is independent or distinct from the invention originally claimed for the following reasons: Claim 21 recites a method of creating index (e.g. “executing a pre-upsert process to create a baseline search index containing signature attributes of documents from the content source;” and “executing the subsequent upsert crawl on only documents in the modified crawl list to create an updated search index…”)
Since applicant has received an action on the merits for the originally presented invention, this invention has been constructively elected by original presentation for prosecution on the merits. Accordingly, claim 21 withdrawn from consideration as being directed to a non-elected invention. See 37 CFR 1.142(b) and MPEP § 821.03.
To preserve a right to petition, the reply to this action must distinctly and specifically point out supposed errors in the restriction requirement. Otherwise, the election shall be treated as a final election without traverse. Traversal must be timely. Failure to timely traverse the requirement will result in the loss of right to petition under 37 CFR 1.144. If claims are subsequently added, applicant must indicate which of the subsequently added claims are readable upon the elected invention.
Should applicant traverse on the ground that the inventions are not patentably distinct, applicant should submit evidence or identify such evidence now of record showing the inventions to be obvious variants or clearly admit on the record that this is the case. In either instance, if the examiner finds one of the inventions unpatentable over the prior art, the evidence or admission may be used in a rejection under 35 U.S.C. 103 or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) of the other invention.
Claim Objections
Claims 2, 3, 4, 11, 12 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 2 is missing from the claim set filed on 13 March 2026. It is unclear if the claim 2 is cancelled or not.
Claim 3 recites “3. (Currently Amended) The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the preliminary crawl further applies an after-date last-modified filter by comparing a last-modified date recorded in the index with a last-modified date of a file in its native location.”
However, claim 3 was cancelled on 03 November 2025. (MPEP 714: 37 CFR 1.121(c)(5), “Reinstatement of previously canceled claim. A claim which was previously canceled may be reinstated only by adding the claim as a “new” claim with a new claim number.”)
Claim 4 recites “4. (Currently Amended) The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein asynchronously processing the selected files comprises processing the selected files with multiple threads that manage write file data.”
However, claim 4 was cancelled on 03 November 2025. (MPEP 714: 37 CFR 1.121(c)(5), “Reinstatement of previously canceled claim. A claim which was previously canceled may be reinstated only by adding the claim as a “new” claim with a new claim number.”)
Claim 11 recites “11. (Currently Amended) The system of claim 9, wherein the preliminary crawl applies an after- date last-modified filter by comparing a last-modified date recorded in the index with a last- modified date of a file in its native location.”
However, claim 11 was cancelled on 03 November 2025. (MPEP 714: 37 CFR 1.121(c)(5), “Reinstatement of previously canceled claim. A claim which was previously canceled may be reinstated only by adding the claim as a “new” claim with a new claim number.”)
Claim 12 recites “12. (Currently Amended) The system of claim 9, wherein the system updates complete acknowledgement messages.”
However, claim 12 was cancelled on 03 November 2025. (MPEP 714: 37 CFR 1.121(c)(5), “Reinstatement of previously canceled claim. A claim which was previously canceled may be reinstated only by adding the claim as a “new” claim with a new claim number.”)
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1, 3-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 1 recites “before execution of an upsert crawl, executing a preliminary crawl of the content source to search only selected file attributes or signature markers for files added or modified since a last index of record, without reading content of the files, thereby generating a modified crawl list” However, the claim does not recite “execution of an upsert crawl.” The term “upsert crawl” only recited once. It is unclear the following limitations are before “execution of an upsert crawl,” after “execution of an upsert crawl” or a part of “execution of an upsert crawl.”
Claim 9 is rejected for the similar reason as stated in the above.
Dependent claims 3-8 and 10-16 are rejected for fully incorporating the deficiencies of their respective base claims by dependency.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1, 3-16 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the claim objection(s) and rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b), set forth in this Office action.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Sawdon et al., (U.S. Pub. No.: US 20060041606), Abstract, “A computerized document retrieval system has a file store holding a collection of documents, and indexer for constructing and updating at least one index from the contents of the documents, and a search engine for searching the index to retrieve documents from the file store. The indexer comprises three asynchronously executable processes: (a) a crawl process, which scans the file store to find documents requiring to be indexed, (b) an extract process, which accesses the documents requiring to be indexed and extracts indexing data from them, and (c) a build process, which uses the indexing data to construct or update the index.”
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YU ZHAO whose telephone number is (571)270-3427. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9AM-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, Sherief Badawi can be reached at (571) 272-9782. 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.
/YU ZHAO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2169
Prosecution Insights