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 .
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 allowance or after an Office action under Ex Parte Quayle, 25 USPQ 74, 453 O.G. 213 (Comm'r Pat. 1935). 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, prosecution in this application has been reopened pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on June 12, 2026 has been entered.
1. Claims 1-2, 4-7, 9-17 and 19-20 are pending consideration.
Information Disclosure Statement
2. An initialed and dated copy of Applicant’s IDS (form 1449), received on June 12, 2026, is attached to this Office Action.
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP § 2146 et seq. for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
The filing of a terminal disclaimer by itself is not a complete reply to a nonstatutory double patenting (NSDP) rejection. A complete reply requires that the terminal disclaimer be accompanied by a reply requesting reconsideration of the prior Office action. Even where the NSDP rejection is provisional the reply must be complete. See MPEP § 804, subsection I.B.1. For a reply to a non-final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.111(a). For a reply to final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.113(c). A request for reconsideration while not provided for in 37 CFR 1.113(c) may be filed after final for consideration. See MPEP §§ 706.07(e) and 714.13.
The USPTO Internet website contains terminal disclaimer forms which may be used. Please visit www.uspto.gov/patent/patents-forms. The actual filing date of the application in which the form is filed determines what form (e.g., PTO/SB/25, PTO/SB/26, PTO/AIA /25, or PTO/AIA /26) should be used. A web-based eTerminal Disclaimer may be filled out completely online using web-screens. An eTerminal Disclaimer that meets all requirements is auto-processed and approved immediately upon submission. For more information about eTerminal Disclaimers, refer to www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/applying-online/eterminal-disclaimer.
Claims 1-2, 4-7, 9-17 and 19-20 are provisionally rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-20 of copending Application No. 19/373,466 (reference application). Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because the ‘466 applicant discloses the limitations of the present application. Claim 3 of the ‘466 Application discloses receiving, from an administrator of a tenant of the multi-tenant system, input indicative of an authorization model for the tenant, the authorization model indicating types of objects of the tenant and types of relations that the types of objects have with users of the tenant (‘466: see claim 1, limitation 1), wherein the input comprises at least one natural language message indicating at least one rule of the authorization model that indicates the types of objects of the tenant and the types of relations that the types of objects have with the users of the tenant (‘466: see claim 2), generating, in response to receiving the input that comprises the at least one natural language message, the authorization model from the at least one natural language message using an artificial intelligence model (‘466: see claim 2, limitation 2), wherein the generated authorization model is expressed with a domain-specific language (DSL) (‘466: see claim 3), receiving a plurality of relationship tuples indicating a plurality of relations between a plurality of users and a plurality of objects (‘466: see claim 1, limitation 3), receiving a request to determine whether a user of the tenant is authorized to perform an action on an objects (‘466: see claim 1, limitation 4), making a determination of whether the user is authorized to perform the action on the object the determination being made in accordance with the generated authorization model and a set of relationship tuples of the plurality of relationship tuples, the set of relationship tuples based at least in part on the request (‘466: see claim 1, limitation 5), and responding to the request in accordance with the determination (‘466: see claim 1, limitation 6). Therefore, claim 3 discloses all the limitations of the independent claim of the present application. The dependent claims are likewise disclosed by the dependent claims 4-15.
This is a provisional nonstatutory double patenting rejection because the patentably indistinct claims have not in fact been patented.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KAVEH ABRISHAMKAR whose telephone number is (571)272-3786. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-5:30.
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/KAVEH ABRISHAMKAR/
07/14/2026Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2494
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