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 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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 1/29/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Claims 1 – 20 are pending in this Office Action. After a further search and a thorough examination of the present application, claims 1 – 20 remain rejected.
Applicant's arguments filed with respect to claims 1 – 20 have been fully considered but they are moot in view of new rejection.
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 pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a), the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned at the time any inventions covered therein were made absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and invention dates of each claim that was not commonly owned at the time a later invention was made in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(c) and potential pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102(e), (f) or (g) prior art under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a).
Claims 1 – 20 are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Chitalia et al. (US 2018/0287902 A1) (‘Chitalia’ herein after) further in view of Kim et al. (US 2024/0078728 A1) (‘Kim’ herein after) further in view of Hollander et al. (US 2020/0301939 A1) (‘Hollander’ herein after).
With respect to claim 1, 11,
Chitalia teaches a data analytics system, comprising: one or more processors; and a memory having stored thereon instructions that, upon execution by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to implement an analytics service governance process to generate data visualizations (DVs) of underlying system-level metadata used to run an analytics service configured to generate DVs of user-provided datasets by using DV capabilities of the analytics service (paragraphs 84 – 86 teach reports and illustrations presented through the use of a dashboard in graphical or tabular format, Chitalia), the analytics service governance process including: establish a connection to an analytics system database containing the system-level metadata as a dataset (paragraph 86 – 89 teach datasets of various metrics and resources, Chitalia); generate a governance dashboard providing access to pre-generated DV options based on selected system-level metadata related to user-created objects in the analytics system database (figure 9A, 9B, paragraphs 229 – 235 teaches a dashboard representing a collection of user interfaces, providing information on various metrics, Chitalia); receive a user selection of object categories and filters from pre-generated DV options and produce a governance DV based on the user selection depicting a relationship of objects at the system level from the object categories (figure 9A, 9B, paragraphs 231 – 240 teaching user input or user interactions with metric selection and generating user interfaces in compliance with the user input and filters applied accordingly, Chitalia).
Chitalia teaches access by administrator and hidden data bit it does not teach explicitly as claimed the governance process and dashboard.
However, Kim teaches governance rules and processes with the dashboard to be able to share information without exposing data that is not permitted in paragraphs 84, 86, 88 – 90 stating sensitive assets are in business contexts, and data governance rules and processes may apply to resharing dashboard content as snapshots. Governance for dashboards is often achieved through setting permissions (e.g., who can read, write, and delete), thus dashboard snapshots must go beyond static screenshots to include live visualization content through which existing data governance policies can be enforced.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention because for references are directed to the same field of study namely, analysis of data with interfaces/dashboards. Furthermore, Kim’s system improves on the system of Chitalia by using dashboards for monitoring and communicating aspects of data, particularly for data professionals having limited programming expertise. Dashboards range from static, magazine-style, and infographic dashboards to analytic, embedded, and repository dashboards. Data professionals tend to use analytic dashboards enabled by business intelligence tools (e.g., Tableau) that often contain a relatively larger number of interactive elements. In order to answer a specific question, one must make selections and adjust parameters or filters.
Chitalia in combination with Kim teaches governance rules and processes with the dashboard to be able to share information including visualization content through which existing data governance policies can be enforced but does not teach explicitly claimed the system-level metadata.
However, Hollander teaches system-level metadata and underlying system metadata used to run an analytics service to generate data visualizations in paragraphs 62 – 64 teaching that the system is configured to access information on an underlying database to facilitate user selection of visualization options. In one example, the visualization system is configured to identify an underlying data target contains array format information or other formats unique to documents and/or dynamic schema architecture. Paragraphs 74 – 75 and 112 – 128 teach about when some may require a super-admin role who is able to view/modify any data in the system without having permissions explicitly granted per entity. This system is configured to enable the capability if requested; in additional examples, similar functionality can be achieved by directly modifying the system metadata documents in the underlying database.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention because for references are directed to the same field of study namely, analysis of data with interfaces/dashboards. Furthermore, Hollander modifies the combination of Chitalia and Kim because it incorporates the advantage of visualization comprising display for visualization of a dashboard builder interface, the second display including a visualization of data fields within the database and/or database collection, wherein the at least one processor is configured to accept drag and drop operations in the user interface associated with the data fields to generate visualizations of the database and/or database collection data, and wherein the at least one processor is configured to dynamically select visualization operations responsive to data selected via the drag and drop operations. to the combination.
With respect to claim 2, 12,
Chitalia as modified teaches the data analytics system of claim 1, wherein the system-level metadata includes system information generated by operation of the analytics service and required for the analytics service to function (paragraphs 237, 245 – 249, Chitalia).
With respect to claim 3, 13,
Chitalia as modified teaches the data analytics system of claim 2, wherein the system-level metadata includes information about system-wide objects (paragraphs 237, 245 – 249, Chitalia).
With respect to claim 4, 14,
Chitalia as modified teaches the data analytics system of claim 3, wherein: the system-level metadata includes protected information not accessible to users and the pre-generated DV options based on the selected metadata are configured to not expose the protected information (paragraphs 84, 86, 88 – 90, Kim).
With respect to claim 5, 15,
Chitalia as modified teaches the data analytics system of claim 4, further comprising instructions that, upon execution, cause the one or more processors to: establish the connection to the analytics system database via a hidden connection configured so that the analytics system database is not directly queryable by users (paragraphs 231 – 233, Chitalia).
With respect to claim 6, 16,
Chitalia as modified teaches the data analytics system of claim 5, further comprising instructions that, upon execution, cause the one or more processors to: determine whether a user accessing the analytics service is an administrator having access rights to the governance dashboard and withhold access to the governance dashboard when the user is not an administrator (paragraphs 238, 249, Chitalia).
With respect to claim 7, 17,
Chitalia as modified teaches the data analytics system of claim 6, wherein the governance DV depicts information about objects that influences a performance metric of the analytics service (paragraphs 237, 245 – 249, Chitalia and paragraphs 84, 86, 88 – 90, Kim).
With respect to claim 8, 18,
Chitalia as modified teaches the data analytics system of claim 7, wherein the analytics service is deployed as a cloud-based service (figure 16, paragraphs 229, 234,238, Chitalia).
With respect to claim 9, 19,
Chitalia as modified teaches the data analytics system of claim 7, wherein the analytics service is deployed as an on-premises service (paragraphs 230, 235, Chitalia).
With respect to claim 10, 20,
Chitalia as modified teaches the data analytics system of claim 7, further comprising instructions that, upon execution, cause the one or more processors to: add the governance DV to the governance dashboard and add additional DVs produced based on the selected metadata from the analytics system database to the governance dashboard (paragraphs 84, 86, 88 – 90, Kim).
Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 20210055885 A1 teaches enhanced access using composite data views. It teaches if a user has opened a filtered read/write/modify view of the same data, the data would be unlocked for writing for that user, and shown the same in both the filtered read/write/modify view and the filtered read view.
US 20240111784 A1 teaches listings have filters and filters define specific identity data of users that may view references to the listing when browsing the catalog and they may define a class of users (users of a certain profession, users associated with a particular company or organization, users within a particular geographical area or country) that may view references to the listing.
US 20220043863 A1 teaches products for persisting queries or filters originating from reports within one dashboard and propagating such queries or filters to reports in other dashboards within an information management user interface environment.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NAVNEET K GMAHL whose telephone number is 571-272-5636.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, SANJIV SHAH can be reached on . The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/NAVNEET GMAHL/Examiner, Art Unit 2166 Dated: 3/5/2026
/SANJIV SHAH/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2166