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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows: Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception (i.e., a law of nature, a natural phenomenon, or an abstract idea) without significantly more.
Regarding independent claims the limitations generate a local state and identify a resource, as drafted, recites functions that, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers a function that could reasonably be performed in the mind, including with the aid of pen and paper, but for the recitation of generic computer components. That is, the limitations as cited above as drafted, are functions that, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, recite the abstract idea of a mental process.
Thus, these limitation falls within the “Mental Processes” grouping of abstract ideas under Prong 1.
Under Prong 2, this judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. The claim recites the following additional limitations: interface circuitry, programmable circuitry, medium. The additional elements are recited at a high-level of generality such that it amounts no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using generic computer, and/or mere computer components, MPEP 2106.05(f), and steps of catalog do nothing more than add insignificant extra solution activity to the judicial exception of merely data storing. Accordingly, the additional elements do not integrate the recited judicial exception into a practical application and the claim is therefore directed to the judicial exception. See MPEP 2106.05(g) (Ex. v. Consulting and updating an activity log, Ultramercial, 772 F.3d at 715, 112 USPQ2d at 1754).
Under Step 2B, the claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. As discussed above with respect to integration of the abstract idea into a practical application, the additional elements of interface circuitry, programmable circuitry, medium, amount to no more than mere instructions, or generic computer/computer components to carry out the exception. Furthermore, the limitations directed to catalog the courts have identified mere data storing is well-understood, routine and conventional activity. See MPEP 2106.05(d) (Ex. iv. Storing and retrieving information in memory, Versata Dev. Group, Inc. v. SAP Am., Inc., 793 F.3d 1306, 1334, 115 USPQ2d 1681, 1701 (Fed. Cir. 2015); OIP Techs., 788 F.3d at 1363, 115 USPQ2d at 1092-93;).
The recitation of generic computer instruction and computer components to apply the judicial exception, and mere data gathering do not amount to significantly more, thus, cannot provide an inventive concept. Accordingly, the claims are not patent eligible under 35 USC 101.
Regarding claim 2, 4, 5, 12, 13, 18 the limitations of identifying functions, generating local state, that can be reasonably performed in the human mind, thus, additional mental process defined in the claims. The claim does not include any additional element, thus, no limitation that needs to be analyzed under prong 2 for practical application, or under step 2B for significantly more.
Regarding claim 3, 6, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20 the limitation of where information is stored, synching information, property association, query and update, triggering a no operation are considered mere instructions, or generic computer/computer components to carry out the exception Accordingly, the additional element recited in claim 3 fails to provide a practical application under prong 2, or amount to significantly more under step 2B.
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.
Claim/s 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Holzman (Pat. No. US 11,431,563) in view of Kumar (Pub. No. US 2024/0022640).
Claim 1, 9, 17 Holzman teaches “an apparatus comprising: interface circuitry; machine readable instructions; and programmable circuitry to at least one of instantiate or execute the machine readable instructions to ([Col. 14, Lines 15-18] processors, memory): generate a local state for a first resource, the first resource obtained from a cloud service model associated with a registered cloud account, the first resource including a first identifier (([Col. 12, Line 54-60] “(60) In some examples, upon selecting a discovered cloud resource (e.g., a child component 416) within the topology 410, the display area 420 may provide additional information about the cloud resource. The additional information may include name of the resource, status of the resource, account associated with the resource, and other information as shown in display area 430 of the FIG. 4A. [Col. 11, Lines 50-60] (55) In the above examples, the cloud management platform (e.g., 122) may parse through the state file (downloaded in step 360 of FIG. 3A) after deploying the cloud infrastructure. The cloud management platform may determine one or more resources created by the cloud infrastructure tool as a result of parsing the state file. The cloud management platform may orchestrate and create the one or more resources within a graphical user interface 400 of the cloud management platform. The cloud management platform may create a topology 410 within the graphical user interface 400, as shown in FIG. 4A. [Fig. 4A-4B] each resource comprising identifiers ex. 414, 415, etc.…); identify a second resource from the cloud service model, the second resource including a second identifier ([Fig. 4A-4B] each resource comprising identifiers ex. 414, 415, etc.…)”.
However, Holzman may not explicitly teach details of cataloging information.
Kumar teaches “catalog the second resource when the second identifier is different from the first identifier ([0091] configuration items as Holzman’s resources [0112] In the identification phase, proxy servers 312 may determine specific details about a classified device. The probes used during this phase may be based on information gathered about the particular devices during the classification phase. For example, if a device was classified as LINUX®, a set of LINUX®-specific probes may be used. Likewise, if a device was classified as WINDOWS® 10, as a set of WINDOWS®-10-specific probes may be used. As was the case for the classification phase, an appropriate set of tasks may be placed in task list 502 for proxy servers 312 to carry out. These tasks may result in proxy servers 312 reading information from the particular device, such as basic input/output system (BIOS) information, serial numbers, network interface information, media access control address(es) assigned to these network interface(s), IP address(es) used by the particular device and so on. This identification information may be stored as one or more configuration items in CMDB 500 along with any relevant relationships therebetween. Doing so may involve passing the identification information through IRE 514 to avoid generation of duplicate configuration items, for purposes of disambiguation, and/or to determine the table(s) of CMDB 500 in which the discovery information should be written. [0141] In some cases, duplicate configuration items may be automatically detected by IRE 514 or in another fashion. These configuration items may be deleted or flagged for manual de-duplication.)”.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to apply the teachings of Kumar with the teachings of Holzman in order to provide a system that teaches saving data pertaining to resources. The motivation for applying Kumar teaching with Holzman teaching is to provide a system that allows for efficient management of configuration data. Holzman, Kumar are analogous art directed towards management of resources. Together Holzman, Kumar teaches every limitation of the claimed invention. Since the teachings were analogous art known at the filing time of invention, one of ordinary skill could have applied the teachings of Kumar with the teachings of Holzman by known methods and gained expected results.
Claim 2, 10, 18, the combination teaches the claim, wherein Kumar teaches “the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the programmable circuitry is to identify the second resource using a provisioning service, the second resource stored in a local inventory of the provisioning service when the second identifier is different from the first identifier ([0091] configuration items as Holzman’s resources [0112] In the identification phase, proxy servers 312 may determine specific details about a classified device. The probes used during this phase may be based on information gathered about the particular devices during the classification phase. For example, if a device was classified as LINUX®, a set of LINUX®-specific probes may be used. Likewise, if a device was classified as WINDOWS® 10, as a set of WINDOWS®-10-specific probes may be used. As was the case for the classification phase, an appropriate set of tasks may be placed in task list 502 for proxy servers 312 to carry out. These tasks may result in proxy servers 312 reading information from the particular device, such as basic input/output system (BIOS) information, serial numbers, network interface information, media access control address(es) assigned to these network interface(s), IP address(es) used by the particular device and so on. This identification information may be stored as one or more configuration items in CMDB 500 along with any relevant relationships therebetween. Doing so may involve passing the identification information through IRE 514 to avoid generation of duplicate configuration items, for purposes of disambiguation, and/or to determine the table(s) of CMDB 500 in which the discovery information should be written. [0141] In some cases, duplicate configuration items may be automatically detected by IRE 514 or in another fashion. These configuration items may be deleted or flagged for manual de-duplication.)”.
Rationale to claim 1 is applied here.
Claim 3, 11, 19 the combination teaches the claim, wherein Kumar teaches “the apparatus of claim 2, wherein, when the second resource is stored in the local inventory, the programmable circuitry is to sync the second resource with a catalog inventory ([0091] configuration items as Holzman’s resources [0112] In the identification phase, proxy servers 312 may determine specific details about a classified device. The probes used during this phase may be based on information gathered about the particular devices during the classification phase. For example, if a device was classified as LINUX®, a set of LINUX®-specific probes may be used. Likewise, if a device was classified as WINDOWS® 10, as a set of WINDOWS®-10-specific probes may be used. As was the case for the classification phase, an appropriate set of tasks may be placed in task list 502 for proxy servers 312 to carry out. These tasks may result in proxy servers 312 reading information from the particular device, such as basic input/output system (BIOS) information, serial numbers, network interface information, media access control address(es) assigned to these network interface(s), IP address(es) used by the particular device and so on. This identification information may be stored as one or more configuration items in CMDB 500 along with any relevant relationships therebetween. Doing so may involve passing the identification information through IRE 514 to avoid generation of duplicate configuration items, for purposes of disambiguation, and/or to determine the table(s) of CMDB 500 in which the discovery information should be written. [0141] In some cases, duplicate configuration items may be automatically detected by IRE 514 or in another fashion. These configuration items may be deleted or flagged for manual de-duplication.)”.
Claim 4, 12, 20 the combination teaches the claim, wherein Holzman teaches “the apparatus of claim 2, wherein the programmable circuitry is to generate the local state for the first resource in a provisioning inventory of the provisioning service ([Col. 8, Lines 38-50] In some examples, the cloud management platform may further execute initialization and plan commands under step 310 that allow a configuration specified in a cloud template to be previewed prior to implementing changes to achieve the desired state of the cloud infrastructure. Specifically, the cloud management platform may use the container orchestration platform 128 deployed over the cloud management platform to perform initialization and execution of the plan. In step 312, the cloud management platform may create a job or task over a container cluster (within orchestration platform 128) to execute the plan command. In step 314, the cloud management platform may upload content or template associated with the configuration file to the job.)”.
Claim 5, 13 the combination teaches the claim, wherein Holzman teaches “the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the programmable circuitry is to generate the local state for the first resource based on a first property of the first resource and a second property of the first resource ([Col. 12, Lines 20-41] (58) In some examples, each of the child components (414, 416, 418, 420) presenting the cloud resource may show additional detail about the cloud resource such as a resource name, a resource type, resource index, and other attributes of the child component. In the above examples, all of the cloud resources created in response to deploying the cloud template (under execution phase 350) are presented as child components within the topology 410. The cloud resources are infrastructure objects or components created to support the cloud infrastructure. Each of the cloud resources may be a processor, memory, network or storage related component for supporting one or more client applications using the cloud infrastructure. In some examples, the cloud resource may be an instance (e.g., aws_instance_web 416) of the processor, memory, network and/or storage related component or service. For example, aws_instance_web 416 may be associated with an instance of a virtual machine providing compute capacity to the one or more applications using the cloud infrastructure. In some examples, state information with one or more cloud resources may be displayed along with identification of the cloud resources (presented as child components within the topology).)”.
Claim 6, 14 the combination teaches the claim, wherein Holzman teaches “ The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the first property is associated with resource identification in the cloud service model and the second property is associated with resource identification in a catalog inventory of a resource provider ([Col. 12, Lines 20-41] (58) In some examples, each of the child components (414, 416, 418, 420) presenting the cloud resource may show additional detail about the cloud resource such as a resource name, a resource type, resource index, and other attributes of the child component. In the above examples, all of the cloud resources created in response to deploying the cloud template (under execution phase 350) are presented as child components within the topology 410. The cloud resources are infrastructure objects or components created to support the cloud infrastructure. Each of the cloud resources may be a processor, memory, network or storage related component for supporting one or more client applications using the cloud infrastructure. In some examples, the cloud resource may be an instance (e.g., aws_instance_web 416) of the processor, memory, network and/or storage related component or service. For example, aws_instance_web 416 may be associated with an instance of a virtual machine providing compute capacity to the one or more applications using the cloud infrastructure. In some examples, state information with one or more cloud resources may be displayed along with identification of the cloud resources (presented as child components within the topology)”.
Claim 7, 15 the combination teaches the claim, wherein Holzman teaches “the apparatus of claim 6, wherein the programmable circuitry is to initiate a query of the local state of the first resource to update the first resource based on the first property ([Col. 13, Lines 12-29] (62) In the above examples, the cloud management platform may periodically request a Command Line Interface (CLI) associated with the cloud infrastructure tool over the orchestration platform (or coiner clusters) to get updated state information for the one or more resources within the cloud infrastructure. Specifically, the cloud management platform may request to execute a read command over CLI to get state information for the one or more cloud resources. Upon execution of the read command, the cloud management platform may receive a new state file that includes the latest status information for the cloud resources. Accordingly, the topology 410 may be updated based on the latest status information for the cloud resources. In some examples, the cloud management platform may determine topology 410 based on the plan after the plan is executed in plan phase 350, as shown in FIG. 3A. Specifically, the topology 410 may be determined by parsing the plan file downloaded in step 320 of FIG. 3A.)”.
Claim 8, 16 the combination teaches the claim, wherein Kumar teaches “the apparatus of claim 7, wherein, when the first identifier does not match the second identifier, the programmable circuitry is to trigger a no operation instruction associated with updating the catalog inventory ([0137] A goal of each identification rule is to use a combination of attributes that can unambiguously distinguish a configuration item from all other configuration items, and is expected not to change during the lifetime of the configuration item. Some possible attributes for an example server device may include serial number, location, operating system, operating system version, memory capacity, and so on. If a rule specifies attributes that do not uniquely identify the configuration item, then multiple components may be represented as the same configuration item in the CMDB. Also, if a rule specifies attributes that change for a particular configuration item, duplicate configuration items may be created. [0138] Thus, when a data source provides information regarding a configuration item to IRE 514, IRE 514 may attempt to match the information with one or more rules. If a match is found, the configuration item is written to the CMDB or updated if it already exists within the CMDB. If a match is not found, the configuration item may be held for further analysis.)”.
Rationale to claim 1 is applied here.
Conclusion
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/WYNUEL S AQUINO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2199
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