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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 11/19/2025 has been entered.
Claims 1, 3-9, 11-17, 19-25, and 27-30 remain pending in this application.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claim Objections
Claims 14 and 20-22 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 14, line 3, “detecting a successful reconnection to the host device” appears to be redundant in view of “in response to successfully reconnecting to the host device” in lines 1-2 of the claim. Claim 22 has the same issue.
Claim 20, line 5, “a” before “failure” and “connection” should be --the--, respectively.
Claim 21 depends on the objected claim and inherits the same issue.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Interpretation
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(f):
(f) Element in Claim for a Combination. – An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The claims in this application are given their broadest reasonable interpretation using the plain meaning of the claim language in light of the specification as it would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim element (also commonly referred to as a claim limitation) is limited by the description in the specification when 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is invoked.
As explained in MPEP § 2181, subsection I, claim limitations that meet the following three-prong test will be interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
(A) the claim limitation uses the term “means” or “step” or a term used as a substitute for “means” that is a generic placeholder (also called a nonce term or a non-structural term having no specific structural meaning) for performing the claimed function;
(B) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is modified by functional language, typically, but not always linked by the transition word “for” (e.g., “means for”) or another linking word or phrase, such as “configured to” or “so that”; and
(C) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is not modified by sufficient structure, material, or acts for performing the claimed function.
Use of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim with functional language creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. The presumption that the claim limitation is interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is rebutted when the claim limitation recites sufficient structure, material, or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
Absence of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is not to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. The presumption that the claim limitation is not interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is rebutted when the claim limitation recites function without reciting sufficient structure, material or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
Claims 25 and 27-30 limitations in this application that use the word “means” (or “step”) are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, except as otherwise indicated in an Office action. Conversely, claim limitations in this application that do not use the word “means” (or “step”) are not being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, except as otherwise indicated in an Office action.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claims 1, 3-9, 11-17, 19-25, and 27-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Frazer et al. (US Patent Application Publication 2005/0055595 A1) in view of Liu et al. (US Patent 7,143,405 B2) and Yang (US Patent Application Publication 2007/0055969 A1, all art already of record).
As to claim 1, Frazer teaches a computing device (see e.g. Fig. 3, 28 and associated text), comprising: one or more memories (See e.g. Fig.3, 82 and associated text, e.g. [0043]- In subscriber station 28, memory unit 78 comprises of two principal components: (1) a volatile random access memory ("RAM") 82, which may be dynamic RAM (DRAM) or synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), used by microprocessor-assembly 72 for storing instructions and data required for operating subscriber station 28); a flash memory (see Fig.3, 86 and associated text, e.g. [0043]- a non-volatile rewritable storage unit, RSU 86, which in subscriber station 28 is flash memory, used to store data, including instructions, that is not lost when subscriber station 28 is without power); and a processing system coupled to the one or more memories and flash memory, and including one or more processors (See Fig.3, 72 and associated text, e.g. [0042]- Microprocessor-assembly 72 can include, for example, a StrongARM processor manufactured by Intel, and performs a variety of functions, including implementing A/D-D/A conversion, filters, encoders, decoders, data compressors, de-compressors and/or packet disassembly) configured to:
receive an update firmware image from a host device (e.g. update server, see Fig.36 and associated text, e.g. [0059]- When it is desired to update the core firmware in the core firmware partition 108, the update core firmware is transferred from an update server 36 over the communications link 32 to subscriber station 28);
determine essential image sections (e.g. core firmware) and non-essential image sections (e.g. auxiliary software) of a working firmware image stored in the flash memory (See e.g. [0048]- In subscriber station 28, the RSU 86 is initially divided into three partitions, namely a boot partition 104, a core firmware partition 108 and an auxiliary software partition 112 and [0051]- The core firmware needed to provide at least minimum functionality to subscriber station 28 is initially written into core firmware partition 108. The core firmware is responsible for providing the basic operations of subscriber station 28. These basic operations can include memory management, task handling, managing files, input/output, etc. and at least the minimum amount of functionality required to allow subscriber station 28 to communicate with the base station 24 (but not necessarily enough functionality to provide any end user services) and [0054]- The auxiliary software is not particularly limited and can include optional device drivers, user applications, system software applications, data files, software and end user applications such as telephone call processing software, voice and audio codecs, software filters, firewalls, utilities, help files, subscriber data files, digital media files, and other such applications and data files);
erase data in the non-essential image sections from the flash memory (See e.g. [0061]- Once a complete correct copy of the update/replacement core firmware, i.e.--the "new" core firmware, is received at subscriber station 28 and stored in the RAM 82, the update process continues by writing the new core firmware over all or part of the portion of the RSU 86 previously occupied by the auxiliary software partition 112. In order to perform this overwriting, any remaining processes which were executing on subscriber station 28 and which require read access to the auxiliary software in the auxiliary software partition 112 are terminated; As used herein, the terms "overwriting" and "overwritten" are intended to comprise the necessary operations for placing new data into a non-volatile memory to replace previous data and includes, in the case of flash memory, first erasing the memory before writing new data to it),
store essential image sections of the update firmware image to the flash memory (see e.g. [0061]- Once these processes, if any, are terminated, the new core firmware is copied from RAM 82 and written to the RSU 86. The new core firmware is indicated in FIG. 4b as a new core firmware partition 108') and
reboot the computing device from the essential image sections of the update firmware image stored in the flash memory (See e.g. [0066]- When the contents of the new core firmware partition 108' have been verified as having been written correctly, the new core firmware partition 108' is identified to subscriber station 28 as containing the most recent core firmware; Once this is done, the boot loader on the next reboot of subscriber station 28 will only locate the superblock of the new core firmware partition 108', which is the most recent valid core firmware partition, and subscriber station 28 will boot from partition 108').
Frazer does not specifically teach wherein the essential image sections comprise instructions for connecting with the host device to perform a device firmware update and the non-essential image sections are not required for performing the device firmware update.
In an analogous art of updating software/firmware, however, Liu teaches wherein essential image sections (e.g. essential software) comprise instructions for connecting with a host device (e.g. server device) to perform a device firmware update and non-essential image sections (e.g. non-essential software) are not required for performing the device firmware update (see e.g. col.5 lines 9-14: the operating system of client device 106 is further configured to determine which existing code/data is essential to the device's operation during upgrade and which code/data is not essential to the device's operation during upgrade and lines 43-50: the operation software was divided into two groups. The first group consisted of all the software necessary to do an upgrade, i.e., essential software. This essential software included the full operating system, file system, drivers, full Internet Explorer (IE) browser, graphics and upgrade application. The second group contained code/data that is not required during the upgrade process, i.e., the non-essential software and e.g. Fig.4 and associated text, e.g. col.6 lines 39-42: In step 406, the essential software is used to connect to server device 106 and download new essential software, overwriting all or part of non-essential software, as needed).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the method of Frazer to incorporate/implement the limitations as taught by Lui in order to provide a more efficient method/system of upgrading software and other data in devices in a failsafe manner.
Frazer in view of Liu teaches the non-essential image sections stored in the flash memory (see e.g. Frazer: [0043], [0051] and [0054]), but does not specifically teach transmit the non-essential image sections stored in the flash memory for storage in memory of the host device which provided the update firmware image.
In an analogous art of updating firmware, however, Yang teaches transmit image sections (e.g. original code 124) stored in a flash memory (e.g. first memory 120) for storage in memory of a host device (e.g. storage device 200) which provided the update firmware image (see Figs.1,2 and associated text, e.g. [0015]- the storage device 200 is a storage server located at a remote site, hence the I/O interface 114 is a communication adaptor for communicating with the server via the communication link 300, including wired links, such as cable, optical fiber, telephone wire, Ethernet cable, etc., and wireless links, such as IEEE 802.11 series, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPRS, 3G, etc., [0017]- The storage device 200 has an update code 220 and a backup region 240 for storing a backup code 242 and [0018]- when the updating process is performed to the original code 124, the processor 110 copies the original code 124 through the second memory 140 to the backup region 240 as indicated by the backup code 242; the original section in the first temporary 146 is copied to the backup region 240 of the storage device 200, as indicated as Arrow B in FIG. 2. After the original section is backed up, the update section in the second temporary region 148 is copied to the first memory 120 to replace the corresponding original section, as indicated as Arrow C in FIG. 2).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the method of Frazer in view of Liu to incorporate/implement the limitations as taught by Yang in order to provide a more efficient method/system of upgrading firmware in devices in a failsafe manner.
As to claim 3, Lui further teaches wherein one or more processors (see e.g. col.3 lines 58-64: Computing system 200 is, in this example, in the form of a PC, however, in other examples computing system may take the form of a dedicated server(s), a special-purpose device, an appliance, a handheld computing device, a mobile telephone device, a pager device, etc. As shown, computing system 200 includes a processing unit 221) are further configured to send a request to establish a connection to a host device (e.g. server 102) in response to rebooting a computing device (e.g. client device 106) from the essential image sections of the update firmware image stored in the memory (see e.g. Fig.4: 408, 410 and associated text, e.g. col.6 lines 20-22: new essential software 320 is used to reboot client device 106 and if successful to then reconnect client device 106 to server device 102 and lines 43-47: in step 408, client device 106 attempts to reboot and reconnect to server device 102, using the new essential software. If the attempts in step 408 are successful, then method 400 continues to step 410, wherein new non-essential software is downloaded, as needed and overwriting any old software too).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the method of Frazer to incorporate/implement the limitations as taught by Lui in order to provide a more efficient method/system of upgrading software and other data in devices in a failsafe manner.
As to claim 4, Liu further teaches wherein the one or more processors of the processing system are further configured to detect a failure to establish a connection to the host device and reboot from the essential image sections of the working firmware image (e.g. old essential software) in response to detecting a failure to establish a connection to the host device (see e.g. Fig.4: 408, 411 and associated text, e.g. col. 6 lines 42-50: in step 408, client device 106 attempts to reboot and reconnect to server device 102, using the new essential software; If the attempts in step 408 fail, then method 400 proceeds to step 411, wherein client device 102 is booted and subsequently connected to server device 106 using the old essential software).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the method of Frazer to incorporate/implement the limitations as taught by Lui in order to provide a more efficient method/system of upgrading software and other data in devices in a failsafe manner.
As to claim 5, Frazer also teaches wherein the one or more processors of the processing system are further configured to request and receive the data in the non-essential image sections from the host device after rebooting from the essential image sections of the working firmware image; and store the received data in the flash memory (see e.g. [0067]- the subscriber system 28 can be rebooted to execute the new core firmware and the auxiliary software can then be downloaded from the update server and stored in the new auxiliary software partition 112' and [0068]- a transfer of valid auxiliary software can be requested from the update server 36 and stored in the RSU 86 as a restored auxiliary software partition 112 ).
As to claim 6, Liu further teaches wherein the one or more processors of the processing system are further configured to detect a successful reconnection to the host device, commit the essential image sections of the update firmware image to the flash memory in response to the successful reconnection to the host device, erase the essential image sections of the working firmware image, and store non-essential image sections of the update firmware image received from the host device in the flash memory (See col.6 lines 16-28: During the upgrade process, essential software 310 remains intact, while all or part of non-essential software 312 is overwritten by new essential software 320, as depicted at time t.sub.1. At time t.sub.2, new essential software 320 is used to reboot client device 106 and if successful to then reconnect client device 106 to server device 102. Assuming that the reboot and reconnect are successful, then any new non-essential software 322 is downloaded, as needed, to replace overwritten portions of non-essential software 312 and/or provide upgrades to non-essential software 312. The upgrade process ends at time t.sub.3, wherein new non-essential software 322 has overwritten a portion of the old essential software 310).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the method of Frazer to incorporate/implement the limitations as taught by Lui in order to provide a more efficient method/system of upgrading software and other data in devices in a failsafe manner.
As to claim 7, Frazer also teaches wherein the host device is a remote application (e.g. radio sector manager) operating on a server computing device that is connected to the computing device over wire or wireless communication channels (see e.g. [0038]- a software update server 36 that contains software loads for subscriber stations 28 and [0059]- the update core firmware is transferred from an update server 36, as described in more detail below, over the communications link 32 to subscriber station 28; and [0076]- Radio sector managers 204 are preferably located in each base station 24 of the network 20 and can be co-located with or implemented within the update server 36).
As to claim 8, Frazer also teaches wherein the host device is a memory controller component (e.g. update client) of the computing device (see e.g. [0076]- each subscriber station 28, as part of its core firmware, includes an update client 208, which executes on subscriber station 28).
As to claim 9, the limitations of method claim 9 are substantially similar to the
limitations of device claim 1, and therefore, it is rejected for the reasons stated above.
As to claim 11, the limitations of method claim 11 are substantially similar to the limitations of device claim 3, and therefore, it is rejected for the reasons stated above.
As to claim 12, the limitations of method claim 12 are substantially similar to the limitations of device claim 4, and therefore, it is rejected for the reasons stated above.
As to claim 13, the limitations of method claim 13 are substantially similar to the limitations of device claim 5, and therefore, it is rejected for the reasons stated above.
As to claim 14, the limitations of method claim 14 are substantially similar to the limitations of device claim 6, and therefore, it is rejected for the reasons stated above.
As to claim 15, the limitations of method claim 15 are substantially similar to the limitations of device claim 7, and therefore, it is rejected for the reasons stated above.
As to claim 16, the limitations of method claim 16 are substantially similar to the limitations of device claim 8, and therefore, it is rejected for the reasons stated above
As to claim 17, the limitations of medium claim 17 are substantially similar to the
limitations of device claim 1, and therefore, it is rejected for the reasons stated above.
As to claim 19, the limitations of medium claim 19 are substantially similar to the limitations of device claim 3, and therefore, it is rejected for the reasons stated above.
As to claim 20, the limitations of medium claim 20 are substantially similar to the limitations of device claim 4, and therefore, it is rejected for the reasons stated above.
As to claim 21, the limitations of medium claim 21 are substantially similar to the limitations of device claim 5, and therefore, it is rejected for the reasons stated above.
As to claim 22, the limitations of medium claim 22 are substantially similar to the limitations of device claim 6, and therefore, it is rejected for the reasons stated above.
As to claim 23, the limitations of medium claim 23 are substantially similar to the limitations of device claim 7, and therefore, it is rejected for the reasons stated above.
As to claim 24, the limitations of medium claim 24 are substantially similar to the limitations of device claim 8, and therefore, it is rejected for the reasons stated above.
As to claim 25, the limitations of device claim 9 are substantially similar to the
limitations of device claim 1, and therefore, it is rejected for the reasons stated above.
As to claim 27, the limitations of device claim 27 are substantially similar to the limitations of device claim 3 , and therefore, it is rejected for the reasons stated above.
As to claim 28, the limitations of device claim 28 are substantially similar to the limitations of device claim 4, and therefore, it is rejected for the reasons stated above.
As to claim 29, the limitations of device claim 29 are substantially similar to the limitations of device claim 5, and therefore, it is rejected for the reasons stated above.
As to claim 30, the limitations of device claim 30 are substantially similar to the limitations of device claim 6, and therefore, it is rejected for the reasons stated above.
Conclusion
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/CHENECA SMITH/ Examiner, Art Unit 2192
/S. Sough/SPE, Art Unit 2192