DETAILED ACTION
In view of the appeal brief filed on 1/20/2026, PROSECUTION IS HEREBY REOPENED. A new ground of rejection is set forth below.
To avoid abandonment of the application, appellant must exercise one of the following two options:
(1) file a reply under 37 CFR 1.111 (if this Office action is non-final) or a reply under 37 CFR 1.113 (if this Office action is final); or,
(2) initiate a new appeal by filing a notice of appeal under 37 CFR 41.31 followed by an appeal brief under 37 CFR 41.37. The previously paid notice of appeal fee and appeal brief fee can be applied to the new appeal. If, however, the appeal fees set forth in 37 CFR 41.20 have been increased since they were previously paid, then appellant must pay the difference between the increased fees and the amount previously paid.
A Supervisory Patent Examiner (SPE) has approved of reopening prosecution by signing below:
Claims 1-9, 11-20 are pending in the application.
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 Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 1/20/2026 have been fully considered. The Claim Rejections in relating to the 35 USC § 101 is hereby withdrawn.
Regarding the arguments III on pages 4-6 of the Remarks, please see a new combination of references with columns and lines cited below. The Bachmann reference has no longer been applied.
Couris et al. teaches a concurrent display of a data flow pane and a profile pane, including displaying in the data flow pane a flow diagram having a plurality of nodes – See fig. 6: an interactive interface that concurrently display the flow diagram pane 410 and the profile pane 610; para. 23-25: the workspace component 110 is configured to enable diagrammatic authoring of jobs (e.g., series of one or more activities or steps that modify data) and job pipelines (e.g., input dataset, job, and output dataset), by providing an interactive visual workspace or canvas.
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) 1-9, 11-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Couris et al. (20160117371) in view of Agrawal et al. (US 20230112250) and further in view of Zeringue (US 20090024951).
As per claims 1, 12, 18, Couris et al. teaches
a method for combining data sets in a data preparation application, comprising: at a computer system having a display, one or more processors, and memory storing one or more programs configured for execution by the one or more processors: (para. 47: components and/or sub-components may be combined into a single component to provide aggregate functionality; para. 66-67: the computer includes one or more processor(s) 1620, memory 1630, system bus 1640, mass storage device(s) 1650, and one or more interface components.)
displaying a user interface that includes a concurrent display of a data flow pane and a profile pane, including displaying in the data flow pane a flow diagram having a plurality of nodes (fig. 6: an interactive interface that concurrently display the flow diagram pane 410 and the profile pane 610; para. 23-25: the workspace component 110 is configured to enable diagrammatic authoring of jobs (e.g., series of one or more activities or steps that modify data) and job pipelines (e.g., input dataset, job, and output dataset), by providing an interactive visual workspace or canvas);
Couris does not explicitly teach having a respective dataset having a respective plurality of data fields.
Agrawal teaches
a respective dataset having a respective plurality of data fields (para. 14: businesses and other organizations store large amounts of data, such as business records, transaction records, and the like, in data storage systems, such as relational database systems that store data as records, or rows, having values, or fields, corresponding to respective columns in tables that can be interrelated using key values);
receiving, via the user interface, a first user input that selects a first node and a second node of the plurality of nodes from the flow diagram in the data flow pane, wherein the first node corresponds to a first dataset and the second node corresponds to a second dataset (para. 206: receive a set of tables and may create a schema that includes or identifies joins between at least some of the tables of the set of tables. For example, a user may select the tables in the process of creating a worksheet object. Creating the schema includes identifying join candidates and the user can select a subset of the join candidates to include in the definition of the worksheet object).
in response to receiving the first user input, displaying, in the profile pane: (i)
a first schema corresponding to the selected first node in a first portion of the profile pane, (ii) a second schema corresponding to the selected second node in a second portion of the profile pane, different from the first portion of the profile pane (para. 15-16, 209-210: figs. 5A-5B illustrate an example of user interfaces for receiving the set of tables used to identify join candidates. The user may invoke an action to create a worksheet. A multi-step user interface may be displayed to the user to create a star schema of the worksheet. In a first step, the names of available tables may be displayed and the user is prompted, via a prompt, to select one of the tables as the fact table for the star schema. The example illustrates that three tables are identified: the tables named FACT_SALES, DIM PRODUCT, and DIM_STORES. A radio button illustrates that the user selected the FACT_SALES table as the fact table. In a second step, the user is prompted, via a prompt, to select, from the remaining tables, one or more dimension tables. Checked checkboxes illustrate that the user selected the tables named DIM_PRODUCTS and DIM_STORES as desired dimension tables),
and (iii) one or more join candidates for joining data from the first dataset and the second dataset, wherein each of the join candidates is a respective data field that exists in both the first and second datasets; receiving, via the profile pane, a second user input selecting a first join candidate from the one or more join candidates, the first join candidate corresponding to a common data column that exists in both the first and second datasets; in response to receiving the second user input, performing a join operation that joins the first and second datasets ( para. 82: distinctly identifiable operative data units or structures representing one or more data portions, one or more entities, users, groups, or organizations represented in the internal data, or one or more aggregations, collections, relations, analytical results, visualizations, or groupings thereof, may be represented in the low-latency data access and analysis system as objects; para. 129: the semantic interface may identifying a bar chart visualization for results data including one measure and attribute; fig. 7);
storing the combined data columns from the first and second datasets to a target dataset; and generating and displaying, in the flow diagram, a new node that graphically connects the first node and the second node (fig. 5A: displaying the final join candidates to the user. However, other ways of displaying the final join candidates to the user are possible; para. 240: a valid schema can then be obtained from the query strings of the query execution history. That is, for example, column names and tables names identified in one or more query strings may be combined to form the schema; para. 245: the join candidate can be stored in a worksheet object that is used to obtain tabular data according to criteria of the worksheet object. A data query can be generated according to the worksheet object such that the data query includes join criteria according to the selected join candidate. Query results are obtained as a result of performing or executing the data query. The query results can be output for storage or to a display).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Couris and the joining of datasets of Agrawal et al. to allow users interact, view, analyze and/or modify the visualizations of selected data sets effectively in order to help better service decisions/tasks.
Couris and Agrawal do not explicitly disclose each node of the plurality of nodes corresponding to a respective dataset having a respective plurality of data fields.
Zeringue discloses in figs. 1-2A: flow diagram contains datasets: Customer, Invoice; fig. 9B: fields/columns of datasets; para. 33-34.
Thus, it would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Couris, Agrawal and the flow diagram of jointed datasets of Zeringue et al. in order to allow users to view, analyze and/or modify the visualizations of selected data sets effectively in order to help better service decisions/tasks.
As per claims 2, 13, Couris et al. teaches
prior to receiving the first user input to select the first node and the second node: receiving a third user input via the user interface to connect to a data source, wherein the data source includes the first dataset and the second dataset (para. 24: the source component 120 is configured to expose heterogeneous data sources. Data sources can made available by search and import functionality provided by the source component 120. Additionally, the source component 120 can be configured to monitor user or entity accounts or the like and make accessible data sources available automatically. Data sources rendered by the source component 120 are interactive and can be used as input for one or more jobs. For example with a gesture, such as drag-and-drop, a data; para. 37: a diagram is displayed of a job receiving input from a data source and outputting a new data source that reflects application of one or more transformation operations provided by the job).
Couris and Agrawal do not explicitly teach in response to receiving the third user input, displaying, in the user interface, a first icon corresponding to the first dataset and a second icon corresponding to the second dataset.
Zeringue teaches
in response to receiving the third user input, displaying, in the user interface, a first icon corresponding to the first dataset and a second icon corresponding to the second dataset (figs. 1-2A: flow diagram contains datasets: Customer, Invoice; para. 17-18: the graphical icons 32-35 include at least one icon 34 that identifies a database operation, and one or more table icons 32, 33 that identify sets of data in the database (e.g., tables) to be included in the database query).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Couris, Agrawal and the flow diagram of jointed datasets of Zeringue et al. in order to allow users to view, analyze and/or modify the visualizations of selected data sets effectively in order to help better service decisions/tasks.
As per claim 3, Couris et al. teaches
wherein the data source comprises one of: a worksheet, an XML file, a JSON file, a PDF file, a data cube, or a SQL database (para. 36, 46: the code 1120 includes a "group by" operation in a text editor environment, wherein the operation was previously specified graphically within the preview panel 510. The code 1120 can be modified in line by adding, removing, or changing transformation operations).
As per claims 4, 14, Couris et al. teaches
the first and second icons are displayed in a first area of the user interface; the flow diagram is displayed in a second area of the user interface; displaying the flow diagram having the plurality of nodes includes: receiving a user input that drags the first and second icons from the first area of the user interface to the second area of the user interface (para. 21: the workspace can include a visual representation of a data source, for example dragged and dropped from a source pane. Upon selection of the data source, a preview can be generated and presented to a user within the context of the workspace. The preview can include at least a subset of data from the data source and optionally one or more graphs associated with the data; para. 39; fig. 14).
As per claims 5, 15, Couris and Agrawal do not explicitly teach join type.
Zeringue teaches
wherein the second user input further includes user selection of a join type for joining the first and second datasets, wherein the join type is one of: a left outer join, an inner join, a right outer join, or a full outer join (para. 23 and fig. 3: join types; fig. 8B).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Couris, Agrawal and the join types of Zeringue to allow users to combine data based on tasks and enable users to manipulate or retrieve data from multiple tables.
As per claims 6, 16, Couris et al. teaches
displaying the single data table in the user interface (para. 53: the visualization for the preview is selected. For example, the visualization can by a table of data, a graph of the data, a timeline of data, or a map including the data, among others.)
Even if Couris and Agrawal do not explicitly teach said limitation,
Zeringue teaches in fig. 1, item 32: Invoice table.
Thus, it would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Couris, Agrawal and a data table of Zeringue to allow users to select and/or combine data based on tasks and enable users to manipulate or retrieve data from multiple tables.
As per claims 7, 17, Couris and Agrawal do not explicitly teach said claims.
Zeringue teaches
wherein the first user input further includes user selection of a join icon in the user interface (fig. 2A: Join types with icons; para. 18: to create this database query, a join icon 34 is input to the process editor region 31 of the interface 30, for example by selecting the join icon 34 from a list of possible database operations and dragging the icon 34 into the process editor region 31).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Couris, Agrawal with the user selection of join icon of Zeringue to allow users to combine data based on tasks and enable users to manipulate or retrieve data from multiple tables.
As per claims 8, 19, Couris et al. teaches
wherein each of the first schema and the second schema includes information about respective data fields and statistical information about data values for the respective data fields (fig. 6: displaying information about the respective data fields and statistical information about data values for the respective data fields; para. 29: the view generation component 320 can simply present the data in some form, such as a tabular form comprising rows and columns; para. 41, 55: a visualization is generated based on at least one of the computed measures. The visualization can correspond to a graph e.g., bar, histogram, ring, pie ...; para. 31: determine a set of descriptive statistics regarding an entire data set or portions thereof... and statistical summaries (e.g., mean, median, mode, variance, standard deviation...), among others. These measures can be provided to the view generation component 320, which can visualize these measures
and a variety of ways. This provides users with a quick overview of the data with which they are working a graph of distinct products in a product column can be presented to give a user insight regarding distribution of the data in the column. As other example, the measures can be utilized to produce graphs capturing sales over time and different type of products.)
As per claims 9, 20, Couris et al. teaches
wherein the information about the respective data fields includes one or more histograms that display distributions of data values for the respective data fields (para. 29: the view generation component 320 can be configured to generate graphs based on the data, such as a pie graph, a bar group, a line graph, or a histogram. Further, the view generation component 320 can generate a view based on the data; para. 41, 55: a visualization is generated based on at least one of the computed measures. In accordance with one embodiment, the visualization can correspond to a graph e.g., bar, histogram, ring, pie ...)
As per claims 11, Couris and Agrawal do not explicitly teach said claim.
Zeringue teaches
displaying concurrently, with the one or more join candidates, an option to hide display of at least one of the one or more join candidates (para. 43: the hierarchical views displayed in the navigate region 50 may be expanded or collapsed, for example to show or hide the details of the subquery. In this way, the user can easily see the hierarchical relationship between all of the SQL clauses in the expression as well any hierarchical relationships within an SQL clause, such as nested subqueries).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Couris, Agrawal with the hide option of Zeringue to allow users snot to show of certain dataset by choice.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Convertino (US 20160328406) teaches in figs. 3, 4A1: receive datasets.
Tolle (US 20080195930) teaches at para. 24: as a result of "gender" being removed from report filter area 112 and added to the axis field area 114, interactive chart 108 would reflect the change by adding a new category hierarchy to the X-axis. Data fields can also be removed from the selection areas.
Mital (7184967) teaches at col. 6:38-41: the single action was generated by clicking on and dragging on an action component in a workflow graphical component menu or stencil 22' into the business workflow process area 20', using a user selection device, for example, a computer mouse.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LINH BLACK whose telephone number is (571)272-4106. The examiner can normally be reached 9AM-5PM EST M-F.
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/LINH BLACK/Examiner, Art Unit 2163 5/23/2026
/TONY MAHMOUDI/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2163
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