Prosecution Insights
Last updated: July 17, 2026
Application No. 18/520,250

SECURED BOOTSTRAP WITH DYNAMIC AUTHORIZATION

Final Rejection §103
Filed
Nov 27, 2023
Priority
Dec 01, 2022 — provisional 63/429,454
Examiner
TRUVAN, LEYNNA THANH
Art Unit
2435
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
ORACLE INTERNATIONAL Corporation
OA Round
2 (Final)
76%
Grant Probability
Favorable
3-4
OA Rounds
1y 1m
Est. Remaining
97%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 76% — above average
76%
Career Allowance Rate
391 granted / 511 resolved
+18.5% vs TC avg
Strong +20% interview lift
Without
With
+20.1%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
3y 9m
Avg Prosecution
15 currently pending
Career history
532
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
0.9%
-39.1% vs TC avg
§103
70.0%
+30.0% vs TC avg
§102
19.4%
-20.6% vs TC avg
§112
1.1%
-38.9% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 511 resolved cases

Office Action

§103
DETAILED ACTION Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . 2. The amendment of claims 1-20, filed on 12/19/2025, is acknowledged and considered. Claims 1-2, 4-9, 11-16, and 18-20. Claims 3, 10, and 17 are cancelled by Applicant. Claims 1, 8, and 15 are independent claims. Priority 3. This application has relationship to PRO 63429454, filed on 12/1/2022. Response to Arguments 4. Applicant's arguments filed 12/19/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. In response to the arguments: Applicant should submit an argument under the heading “Remarks” pointing out disagreements with the examiner’s contentions. Applicant must also discuss the references applied against the claims, explaining how the claims avoid the references or distinguish from them. Applicant merely argues that neither of the references alone or in combination, teaches or suggest all the features. The arguments is now on the burden of the Applicant to present facts and support from the original disclosure or by citing specific information from the the cited references. Applicant fails to include in the arguments any support to disprove the cited references against the claim limitations. As for the argument regarding launching the first instance and the second instance: Support for “launching, by the computing device, the first instance on a customer server”, Van Biljon discloses assigning the launch of the at least one instance to the at least one computing node based on the match and launching the instance on the assigned computing node [Van Biljon: para 0057]. Each department has different servers and desktop needs, and requires machine images that fulfill these needs. Machine images are created by the organization's technical staff but are launched by employees within a department [Van Biljon: para 0362]. As such, there may be different server usage by different entities such as the user or employee or cloud system. The server that is with the desktop of the employees suggest the customer server. As for the “second instance”, may broadly be in the form of more than one instance or a plurality of instances would constitute the second instance per se. As such, Van Biljon the control plane controls the registration, distribution and management of large numbers of virtual machines as directed by requests received from users through APIs compatible with cloud systems and services being serviced [Van Biljon: para 0184-0186]. More examples of second instance launch by a request [Van Biljon: para 0132-0133, 0162, 0190]. As for launching the second instance on a server, Van Biljon discloses cloud computing organization that utilizes cloud management system, the organization uses the cloud management system to provide virtual desktops and virtual servers to the various regions [Van Biljon: para 0362]. As such, the server includes requests from users with the cloud systems, suggest an instance can launch on a server in the service provider. As such, Van Biljon reads on the claim language of “launching, by the computing device, the first instance on a customer server in the customer partition using the instance image identified by the first request” and “launching, by the computing device, the second instance on a server in the service provider partition using the instance image identified by the request”. 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 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. The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 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. 5. Claim(s) 1, 2, 4-9, 11-16 and 18-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Van Biljon, et al. [US 20190213649] in view of Acar, et al.[US 20210297504]. As per claim 1: Van Biljon, et al. teaches a method, comprising: receiving, by a computing device of a cloud service provider [Van Biljon: para 0005], a first request to launch a first instance in a customer partition, the first request identifying at least one of a cluster or an instance image; [Van Biljon: para 0040; , a request from the user to launch an instance of an object, determining, at the home cloud system, a designated remote cloud system based on the request, and launching the instance of the object at the designated remote cloud] launching, by the computing device, the first instance on a customer server [Van Biljon: para 0057; assigning the launch of the at least one instance to the at least one computing node based on the match and launching the instance on the assigned computing node. Para 0362; Each department has different servers and desktop needs, and requires machine images that fulfill these needs. Machine images are created by the organization's technical staff but are launched by employees within a department. As such, there may be different server usage by different entities such as the user or employee or cloud system. The server that is with the desktop of the employees suggest the customer server] in the customer partition using the instance image identified by the first request; [Van Biljon: para 0048; receiving an authorization to service a request, the request being from a user for launching an instance, in response to receiving the authorization, determining based on the request, an image list, and the image list including information corresponding to a plurality of machine images. Further, includes identifying at least one machine image from the image list associated with a functional requirement of the request and launching the instance at the at least one computing node (i.e. customer premise or customer partition). More examples on para 0051, 0053; assigning the request to be serviced by a cluster from the plurality of clusters, and launching the instance from the assigned cluster] receiving, by the computing device, an authentication request [Van Biljon: para 0144; Each customer has an identity provider that provides the necessary authentication tokens to gain access to services. Para 0245; Authentication is done by performing an authentication request. This returns an authentication token if successful. This token is then included in all other requests as proof of authentication, and may be updated in response to any request] to authenticate the first instance; [Van Biljon: para 0051; receiving an authorization to service a request, the request being from a user for launching an instance, in response to receiving the authorization, requesting resource availability information from the plurality of computing nodes for processing the request, wherein the plurality of computing nodes are organized into a plurality of clusters. Para 0067; the control plane include a cluster and workload component, authentication and permissions component, monitoring component, metering and billing component] in accordance with a determination that the first instance is authentic [Van Biljon: para 0054; determining whether the user submitting the launch plan has permission to access at least one an image list specified in the launch plan, including information corresponding to a plurality of machine images. In addition, determining whether the user has permission to launch at least one new instance of an image in that launch plan], **adding, by the computing device, the first instance to the cluster identified in the first request; [**rejected under a secondary reference, discussion below] receiving, by the computing device of the cloud service provider, a second request to launch a second instance in a service provider partition, the request identifying at least one of the cluster or a second instance image; [Van Biljon: para 0198; FIGS. 3A and 3B, a launch plan is a request to execute one or more virtual machines, or instances. It specifies a set of images to be executed, as well as the size of the virtual machines to execute them on, which block and network devices to attach to the machines, and the relationships between the newly created instances] launching, by the computing device, the second instance on a server in the service provider partition using the instance image identified by the request; and [Van Biljon: para 0184-0186; Once each server/machine has been initialized, the control plane allocates requests for services from users to the appropriate resources in the various systems of the control plane. Thus, the control plane controls the registration, distribution and management of large numbers of virtual machines as directed by requests received from users through APIs compatible with cloud systems and services being serviced. Para 0362; cloud computing organization that utilizes cloud management system, the organization uses the cloud management system to provide virtual desktops and virtual servers to the various regions. As such, the server includes requests from users with the cloud systems, suggest an instance can launch on a server in the service provider. Para: 0132-0133,0162, 0190; More examples of second instance launch by a request] **adding, by the computing device, the second instance to the cluster identified in the second request. [**rejected under a secondary reference, discussion below] Van Biljon discloses the method includes determining whether the user has permission to launch at least one new instance of an image in that launch plan [Van Biljon: para 0054]. Upon receiving a request to attach a volume to an instance, the site controller consults the storage site controller to determine the network location and storage area network (“SAN”) protocols supported by the volume. It adds this information to the request and delegates it down to the appropriate cluster controller based upon its internal mapping from instances to clusters. The cluster controller similarly delegates the request down to the appropriate node controller responsible for the node on which the instance is hosted [Van Biljon: para 0384]. Van Biljon suggest “adding, by the computing device, the second instance”, by the ability to add information to the request that is associated to the mapping from instances to clusters. However, Van Biljon did not clearly teach “adding, by the computing device, the first instance to the cluster identified in the first request” and “adding, by the computing device, the second instance to the cluster identified in the second request”. Acar teach an invention related to resource management in a cloud computing environment and provide techniques for configuring an application stack executing in the cloud computing environment in response to changes in resource demand [Acar: para 0002]. Acar discusses auto-scaling service determines that an additional application server needs to be provisioned to the cluster. For instance, a metrics repository server that collect metrics for the cluster may indicate to the auto-scaling service that a specified condition has been triggered for adding a new instance to the cluster. Once determined, the auto-scaling service may provision the instance and add the instance to the cluster. Advantageously, this approach allows an auto-scaling solution to manage applications, such as closed-source or enterprise applications, that do not scale server instances without manual configuration. When an auto-scaling service adds new application server instances to a cluster, using an event-driven computing service, automatically inject and execute scripts of a configuration package associated with the application to directly configure the new instances and the cluster [Acar: para 0018-0020]. Acar discusses another example that involves settings such as the amount of instances to provision, and registers the new instances with the load balancer and adds the instances to the cluster. The auto-scaling server provides the configuration engine to automatically configure the cluster when a new instance is added or removed, using a configuration package associated with the underlying application. Each of the configuration packages is associated with a given application and contains application-specific scripts and data used to update a cluster when instances are added or removed [Acar: para 0030-0031]. As such, one would be motivated to include “adding, by the computing device, the first instance to the cluster identified in the first request” and “adding, by the computing device, the second instance to the cluster identified in the second request”, allows an auto-scaling solution to manage applications where auto-scaling service adds instances to a cluster, using an event-driven computing service, automatically inject and execute scripts of a configuration package associated with the application to directly configure the new instances and the cluster. Thus, Acar obviously suggest adding a new (first) instance to the cluster per a request associated to the instance per se. Further, Acar obviously suggest adding second instance or more than one instances by the amount of instances to provision and adds the instances to the cluster. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Acar with Van Biljon to teach “adding, by the computing device, the first instance to the cluster identified in the first request” and “adding, by the computing device, the second instance to the cluster identified in the second request”, for the reason to allow an auto-scaling solution to manage applications, where such auto-scaling service adds instances to a cluster that can configure the new instances and the cluster [Acar: para 0018-0020]. Claim 2: Van Biljon: para 0003, 0128 [dynamic workload allocation in cloud computing environments, create and delete dynamically]; discussing the method of claim 1, wherein adding the first instance to the cluster comprises: creating a dynamic group comprising the first instance and one or more additional instances, where the one or more additional instances can be part of the customer partition or a service partition; and adding, by the compute device, the dynamic group to the cluster. Claim 3: Cancelled Claim 4: Van Biljon: para 0045-0048 in view of Acar: para 0003 [suggesting auto-scaling service for cluster “Kubernetes cluster”, under the same pretext and motivation as in claim 1]; discussing the method of claim 1, wherein the cluster is a Kubernetes cluster. Claim 5: Van Biljon: para 0059; discussing the method of claim 1, wherein launching the first instance comprises: creating, by the computing device, the cluster. Claim 6: Van Biljon: para 0315; discussing the method of claim 1, wherein the first request to authenticate the first instance comprises authentication credentials that are signed with a public key of the cluster. Claim 7: Van Biljon: para 0269, 0315 [credentials]; discussing the method of claim 6, wherein authenticating the first instance comprises: verifying, by the computing device, the authentication credentials with a private key of the cluster. As per claim 8: Van Biljon, et al. teaches a system comprising: one or more data processors; and [Van Biljon: para 0005] one or more computer readable media storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more data processors, cause the one or more data processors to perform operations comprising: [Van Biljon: para 0005] receiving a first request to launch a first instance in a customer partition [Van Biljon: para 0051, 0063], the first request identifying at least one of a cluster or an instance image; [Van Biljon: para 0040; , a request from the user to launch an instance of an object, determining, at the home cloud system, a designated remote cloud system based on the request, and launching the instance of the object at the designated remote cloud] launching the first instance on a customer server [Van Biljon: para 0057; assigning the launch of the at least one instance to the at least one computing node based on the match and launching the instance on the assigned computing node. Para 0362; Each department has different servers and desktop needs, and requires machine images that fulfill these needs. Machine images are created by the organization's technical staff but are launched by employees within a department. As such, there may be different server usage by different entities such as the user or employee or cloud system. The server that is with the desktop of the employees suggest the customer server]in the customer partition using the instance image identified by the first request; [Van Biljon: para 0048; receiving an authorization to service a request, the request being from a user for launching an instance, in response to receiving the authorization, determining based on the request, an image list, and the image list including information corresponding to a plurality of machine images. Further, includes identifying at least one machine image from the image list associated with a functional requirement of the request and launching the instance at the at least one computing node (i.e. customer premise or customer partition). More examples on para 0051, 0053; assigning the request to be serviced by a cluster from the plurality of clusters, and launching the instance from the assigned cluster] receiving an authentication request [Van Biljon: para 0144; Each customer has an identity provider that provides the necessary authentication tokens to gain access to services. Para 0245; Authentication is done by performing an authentication request. This returns an authentication token if successful. This token is then included in all other requests as proof of authentication, and may be updated in response to any request] to authenticate the first instance; [Van Biljon: para 0051; receiving an authorization to service a request, the request being from a user for launching an instance, in response to receiving the authorization, requesting resource availability information from the plurality of computing nodes for processing the request, wherein the plurality of computing nodes are organized into a plurality of clusters. Para 0067; the control plane may further include a cluster and workload component, authentication and permissions component, monitoring component, metering and billing component] in accordance with a determination that the first instance is authentic [Van Biljon: para 0054; determining whether the user submitting the launch plan has permission to access at least one an image list specified in the launch plan, including information corresponding to a plurality of machine images. In addition, determining whether the user has permission to launch at least one new instance of an image in that launch plan], **adding the first instance to the cluster identified in the first request; [**rejected under a secondary reference, discussion below] receiving a second request to launch a second instance in a service provider partition, the request identifying at least one of the cluster or a second instance image; [Van Biljon: para 0198; FIGS. 3A and 3B, a launch plan is a request to execute one or more virtual machines, or instances. It specifies a set of images to be executed, as well as the size of the virtual machines to execute them on, which block and network devices to attach to the machines, and the relationships between the newly created instances] launching the second instance on a partition server in the service provider partition using the instance image identified by the second request; and [Van Biljon: para 0184-0186; Once each server/machine has been initialized, the control plane allocates requests for services from users to the appropriate resources in the various systems of the control plane. Thus, the control plane controls the registration, distribution and management of large numbers of virtual machines as directed by requests received from users through APIs compatible with cloud systems and services being serviced. Para 0362; cloud computing organization that utilizes cloud management system, the organization uses the cloud management system to provide virtual desktops and virtual servers to the various regions. As such, the server includes requests from users with the cloud systems, suggest an instance can launch on a server in the service provider. Para: 0132-0133,0162, 0190; More examples of second instance launch by a request] **adding the second instance to the cluster identified in the second request. [**rejected under a secondary reference, discussion below] Van Biljon discloses the method includes determining whether the user has permission to launch at least one new instance of an image in that launch plan [Van Biljon: para 0054]. Upon receiving a request to attach a volume to an instance, the site controller consults the storage site controller to determine the network location and storage area network (“SAN”) protocols supported by the volume. It adds this information to the request and delegates it down to the appropriate cluster controller based upon its internal mapping from instances to clusters. The cluster controller similarly delegates the request down to the appropriate node controller responsible for the node on which the instance is hosted [Van Biljon: para 0384]. Van Biljon suggest “adding, by the computing device, the second instance”, by the ability to add information to the request that is associated to the mapping from instances to clusters. However, Van Biljon did not clearly teach “adding, by the computing device, the first instance to the cluster identified in the first request” and “adding the second instance to the cluster identified in the second request”. Acar teach an invention related to resource management in a cloud computing environment and provide techniques for configuring an application stack executing in the cloud computing environment in response to changes in resource demand [Acar: para 0002]. Acar discusses auto-scaling service determines that an additional application server needs to be provisioned to the cluster. For instance, a metrics repository server that collect metrics for the cluster may indicate to the auto-scaling service that a specified condition has been triggered for adding a new instance to the cluster. Once determined, the auto-scaling service may provision the instance and add the instance to the cluster. Advantageously, this approach allows an auto-scaling solution to manage applications, such as closed-source or enterprise applications, that do not scale server instances without manual configuration. When an auto-scaling service adds new application server instances to a cluster, using an event-driven computing service, automatically inject and execute scripts of a configuration package associated with the application to directly configure the new instances and the cluster [Acar: para 0018-0020]. Acar discusses another example that involves settings such as the amount of instances to provision, and registers the new instances with the load balancer and adds the instances to the cluster. The auto-scaling server provides the configuration engine to automatically configure the cluster when a new instance is added or removed, using a configuration package associated with the underlying application. Each of the configuration packages is associated with a given application and contains application-specific scripts and data used to update a cluster when instances are added or removed [Acar: para 0030-0031]. As such, one would be motivated to include “adding, by the computing device, the first instance to the cluster identified in the first request” and “adding the second instance to the cluster identified in the second request”, allows an auto-scaling solution to manage applications where auto-scaling service adds instances to a cluster, using an event-driven computing service, automatically inject and execute scripts of a configuration package associated with the application to directly configure the new instances and the cluster. Thus, Acar obviously suggest adding a new (first) instance to the cluster per a request associated to the instance per se. Further, Acar obviously suggest adding second instance or more than one instances by the amount of instances to provision and adds the instances to the cluster. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Acar with Van Biljon to teach “adding, by the computing device, the first instance to the cluster identified in the first request” and “adding, by the computing device, the second instance to the cluster identified in the second request”, for the reason to allow an auto-scaling solution to manage applications, where such auto-scaling service adds instances to a cluster that can configure the new instances and the cluster [Acar: para 0018-0020]. Claim 9: Van Biljon: para 0003, 0128 [dynamic workload allocation in cloud computing environments, create and delete dynamically]; discussing the system of claim 8, wherein adding the first instance to the cluster comprises: creating a dynamic group comprising the first instance and one or more additional instances, where the one or more additional instances can be part of the customer partition or a service partition; and adding the dynamic group to the cluster. Claim 10: Cancelled Claim 11: Van Biljon: para 0045-0048 in view of Acar: para 0003 [suggesting auto-scaling service for cluster “Kubernetes cluster”, under the same pretext and motivation as in claim 1]; discussing the system of claim 8, wherein the cluster is a Kubernetes cluster. Claim 12: Van Biljon: para 0059; discussing the system of claim 8, wherein launching the first instance comprises: creating the cluster. Claim 13: Van Biljon: para 0315; discussing the system of claim 8, wherein the first request to authenticate the first instance comprises authentication credentials that are signed with a public key of the cluster. Claim 14: Van Biljon: para 0269, 0315 [credentials]; discussing the system of claim 13, wherein authenticating the first instance comprises: verifying the authentication credentials with a private key of the cluster. As per claim 15: Van Biljon, et al. teaches one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer- readable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising: receiving a first request to launch a first instance in a customer partition [Van Biljon: para 0051], the first request identifying at least one of a cluster or an instance image; [Van Biljon: para 0040; , a request from the user to launch an instance of an object, determining, at the home cloud system, a designated remote cloud system based on the request, and launching the instance of the object at the designated remote cloud] launching the first instance on a customer server [Van Biljon: para 0057; assigning the launch of the at least one instance to the at least one computing node based on the match and launching the instance on the assigned computing node. Para 0362; Each department has different servers and desktop needs, and requires machine images that fulfill these needs. Machine images are created by the organization's technical staff but are launched by employees within a department. As such, there may be different server usage by different entities such as the user or employee or cloud system. The server that is with the desktop of the employees suggest the customer server] in the customer partition using the instance image identified by the first request; [Van Biljon: para 0048; receiving an authorization to service a request, the request being from a user for launching an instance, in response to receiving the authorization, determining based on the request, an image list, and the image list including information corresponding to a plurality of machine images. Further, includes identifying at least one machine image from the image list associated with a functional requirement of the request and launching the instance at the at least one computing node (i.e. customer premise or customer partition). More examples on para 0051, 0053; assigning the request to be serviced by a cluster from the plurality of clusters, and launching the instance from the assigned cluster] receiving an authentication request [Van Biljon: para 0144; Each customer has an identity provider that provides the necessary authentication tokens to gain access to services. Para 0245; Authentication is done by performing an authentication request. This returns an authentication token if successful. This token is then included in all other requests as proof of authentication, and may be updated in response to any request] to authenticate the first instance; [Van Biljon: para 0051; receiving an authorization to service a request, the request being from a user for launching an instance, in response to receiving the authorization, requesting resource availability information from the plurality of computing nodes for processing the request, wherein the plurality of computing nodes are organized into a plurality of clusters. Para 0067; the control plane may further include a cluster and workload component, authentication and permissions component, monitoring component, metering and billing component] in accordance with a determination that the first instance is authentic [Van Biljon: para 0054; determining whether the user submitting the launch plan has permission to access at least one an image list specified in the launch plan, including information corresponding to a plurality of machine images. In addition, determining whether the user has permission to launch at least one new instance of an image in that launch plan], **adding the first instance to the cluster identified in the first request; [**rejected under a secondary reference, discussion below] receiving a second request to launch a second instance in a service provider partition, the request identifying at least one of the cluster or a second instance image; [Van Biljon: para 0198; FIGS. 3A and 3B, a launch plan is a request to execute one or more virtual machines, or instances. It specifies a set of images to be executed, as well as the size of the virtual machines to execute them on, which block and network devices to attach to the machines, and the relationships between the newly created instances] launching the second instance on a provider server in the service provider partition using the instance image identified by the second request; and [Van Biljon: para 0184-0186; Once each server/machine has been initialized, the control plane allocates requests for services from users to the appropriate resources in the various systems of the control plane. Thus, the control plane controls the registration, distribution and management of large numbers of virtual machines as directed by requests received from users through APIs compatible with cloud systems and services being serviced. Para 0362; cloud computing organization that utilizes cloud management system, the organization uses the cloud management system to provide virtual desktops and virtual servers to the various regions. As such, the server includes requests from users with the cloud systems, suggest an instance can launch on a server in the service provider. Para: 0132-0133,0162, 0190; More examples of second instance launch by a request] **adding the second instance to the cluster identified in the second request. [**rejected under a secondary reference, discussion below] Van Biljon discloses the method includes determining whether the user has permission to launch at least one new instance of an image in that launch plan [Van Biljon: para 0054]. Upon receiving a request to attach a volume to an instance, the site controller consults the storage site controller to determine the network location and storage area network (“SAN”) protocols supported by the volume. It adds this information to the request and delegates it down to the appropriate cluster controller based upon its internal mapping from instances to clusters. The cluster controller similarly delegates the request down to the appropriate node controller responsible for the node on which the instance is hosted [Van Biljon: para 0384]. Van Biljon suggest “adding, by the computing device, the second instance”, by the ability to add information to the request that is associated to the mapping from instances to clusters. However, Van Biljon did not clearly teach “adding, by the computing device, the first instance to the cluster identified in the first request” and “adding the second instance to the cluster identified in the second request”. Acar teach an invention related to resource management in a cloud computing environment and provide techniques for configuring an application stack executing in the cloud computing environment in response to changes in resource demand [Acar: para 0002]. Acar discusses auto-scaling service determines that an additional application server needs to be provisioned to the cluster. For instance, a metrics repository server that collect metrics for the cluster may indicate to the auto-scaling service that a specified condition has been triggered for adding a new instance to the cluster. Once determined, the auto-scaling service may provision the instance and add the instance to the cluster. Advantageously, this approach allows an auto-scaling solution to manage applications, such as closed-source or enterprise applications, that do not scale server instances without manual configuration. When an auto-scaling service adds new application server instances to a cluster, using an event-driven computing service, automatically inject and execute scripts of a configuration package associated with the application to directly configure the new instances and the cluster [Acar: para 0018-0020]. Acar discusses another example that involves settings such as the amount of instances to provision, and registers the new instances with the load balancer and adds the instances to the cluster. The auto-scaling server provides the configuration engine to automatically configure the cluster when a new instance is added or removed, using a configuration package associated with the underlying application. Each of the configuration packages is associated with a given application and contains application-specific scripts and data used to update a cluster when instances are added or removed [Acar: para 0030-0031]. As such, one would be motivated to include “adding, by the computing device, the first instance to the cluster identified in the first request” and “adding the second instance to the cluster identified in the second request”, allows an auto-scaling solution to manage applications where auto-scaling service adds instances to a cluster, using an event-driven computing service, automatically inject and execute scripts of a configuration package associated with the application to directly configure the new instances and the cluster. Thus, Acar obviously suggest adding a new (first) instance to the cluster per a request associated to the instance per se. Further, Acar obviously suggest adding second instance which is more than one instances by the amount of instances to provision and adds the instances to the cluster. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Acar with Van Biljon to teach “adding, by the computing device, the first instance to the cluster identified in the first request” and “adding the second instance to the cluster identified in the second request”, for the reason to allow an auto-scaling solution to manage applications, where such auto-scaling service adds instances to a cluster that can configure the new instances and the cluster [Acar: para 0018-0020]. Claim 16: Van Biljon: para 0003, 0128 [dynamic workload allocation in cloud computing environments, create and delete dynamically]; discussing the one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of wherein adding the first instance to the cluster comprises: creating a dynamic group comprising the first instance and one or more additional instances, where the one or more additional instances can be part of the customer partition or a service partition; and adding the dynamic group to the cluster. Claim 17: Cancelled Claim 18: Van Biljon: para 0045-0048 in view of Acar: para 0003 [suggesting auto-scaling service for cluster “Kubernetes cluster”, under the same pretext and motivation as in claim 1]; discussing the one or more non-transitory computer readable media of The one or more non-transitory computer readable media of wherein the cluster is a Kubernetes cluster. Claim 19: Van Biljon: para 0059; discussing the one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of wherein launching the first instance comprises: creating the cluster. Claim 20: Van Biljon: para 0269, 0315 [credentials]; discussing the one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of wherein the first request to authenticate the first instance comprises authentication credentials that are signed with a public key of the cluster. Conclusion THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a). A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Leynna Truvan whose telephone number is (571)272-3851. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9:00AM-5:00PM, EST. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Amir Mehrmanesh can be reached at 571-270-3351. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. Leynna Truvan Examiner Art Unit 2435 /L.TT/Examiner, Art Unit 2435 /EDWARD ZEE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2435
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Prosecution Timeline

Nov 27, 2023
Application Filed
Jul 21, 2025
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §103
Dec 19, 2025
Response Filed
Apr 07, 2026
Final Rejection mailed — §103
Jul 10, 2026
Interview Requested

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Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

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Prosecution Projections

3-4
Expected OA Rounds
76%
Grant Probability
97%
With Interview (+20.1%)
3y 9m (~1y 1m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Moderate
PTA Risk
Based on 511 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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