Prosecution Insights
Last updated: April 19, 2026
Application No. 18/640,326

WRITEABLE PARTITIONS WITHIN READ-ONLY REPLICATED RECORDS

Final Rejection §103
Filed
Apr 19, 2024
Examiner
GURMU, MULUEMEBET
Art Unit
2163
Tech Center
2100 — Computer Architecture & Software
Assignee
Nutanix, Inc.
OA Round
4 (Final)
79%
Grant Probability
Favorable
5-6
OA Rounds
3y 2m
To Grant
98%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 79% — above average
79%
Career Allow Rate
377 granted / 475 resolved
+24.4% vs TC avg
Strong +18% interview lift
Without
With
+18.1%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
3y 2m
Avg Prosecution
30 currently pending
Career history
505
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
18.8%
-21.2% vs TC avg
§103
61.2%
+21.2% vs TC avg
§102
3.3%
-36.7% vs TC avg
§112
1.6%
-38.4% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 475 resolved cases

Office Action

§103
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 Response to Amendment This Office Action is in response to the amendment filed on 12/10/25. The applicant’s remarks and amendments to the claims were considered and results as follow: THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Claims 1-4, 8, 11-15, 19, 22-26, 30 and 33 has been amended. Claims 5, 9-10, 16, 20-21, 27 and 31-32 have been cancelled. Claims 34-42 have been added. As a result, claims 1-4, 6-8, 11-15, 17-19, 22-26, 28-30 and 33-42 are now pending in this office action. Claim Objections There are two claims labeled as claim 1; therefore, the claims need to be reordered. Claim Rejections 35 U.S.C. §103 4. 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 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. 6. Claims 1-4, 6-8, 11-15, 17-19, 22-26, 28-30 and 33-42 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Mritunjai et al. (US 2023/0177086 A1) in view of Lee et al. (US 2017/0177658 A1). Regarding claim 1, Mritunjai teaches one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing program instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a first node, (See Mritunjai paragraph [0078], one or more processors executing program instructions stored on a computer-readable storage medium coupled to the processors), cause the one or more processors to perform a method comprising, (See Mritunjai paragraph [0039], one or more processors): receiving a replica of a portion of a first database table, (See Mritunjai paragraph [0041], [0061], a storage node of a replica group to obtain a portion of a database replica from external storage), storing the replica in a read-only partition of a second database table, (See Mritunjai paragraph [0011], [0041], a portion of a database replica already stored in external storage from a storage node of a replica group), Mritunjai does not explicitly disclose adding a writeable column to the replica in a writeable partition of the second database table; and writing data to the added writeable column. However, Lee teaches adding a writeable column to the replica in a writeable partition of the second database table, and writing data to the added writeable column, (See Lee paragraph [0016], each replicated table has associated with it a row-ID generator. The value of the row-ID generator is incremented each time a write (change) operation is performed on a record within the table. The value is copied to a row-ID column of the database record being changed. When the write log entries are generated by the log generator (324, FIG. 3), the information may be included in the write log entries). It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made, to modify adding a writeable column to the replica in a writeable partition of the second database table; and writing data to the added writeable column of Lee in order for performing replication (e.g., replication of database information as modified by insert, update, and/or delete database operations), Claims 12 and 23 recite the same limitations as claim 1 above. Therefore, claims and 23 are rejected based on the same reasoning. Regarding claim 2, Mritunjai taught the one or more non-transitory computer-readable media according to claim 1 as described above. Mritunjai further teaches wherein the replica of the portion of the second database table includes records received from a second node, (See Mritunjai paragraph [0010], [0041], a replica group to obtain a portion of a database replica from external storage when adaptive tiering of database data). Claims 13 and 24 recite the same limitations as claim 2 above. Therefore, claims and 24 are rejected based on the same reasoning. Regarding claim 3, Mritunjai taught the one or more non-transitory computer-readable media according to claim 1 as described above. Mritunjai does not explicitly disclose wherein the method further comprises: receiving a query to execute on the replica of the second database table to access data in both the read-only partition and the writeable partition; and executing the query without using a join. However, Lee teaches wherein the method further comprises: receiving a query to execute on the portion of the database, (See Lee paragraph [0135], the source node executes a database operation on at least one database table maintained by the source node. As used herein, the term database table indicates any portion of a database), to access data in data in both the read-only partition, and the writeable partition, (See Lee paragraph [0104, Application server 605 sends write requests 620 and read requests 625 to node 615 for Table 2. An operation, such as a SQL join operation 630, accessing Tables 1 and 2 must access both nodes 610), and executing the query without using a join, (See Lee paragraph [0174], Similarly, Query1 can be executed by the source node 1204 without waiting for synchronization of DML1 and DML2 with the replica node 1208.). It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made, to modify wherein the method further comprises: receiving a query to execute on the portion of the database, to access data in data in both the read-only partition, and the writeable partition; and executing the query without using a join of Lee in order for performing replication (e.g., replication of database information as modified by insert, update, and/or delete database operations), Claims 14 and 25 recite the same limitations as claim 3 above. Therefore, claims and 25 are rejected based on the same reasoning. Regarding claim 4, Mritunjai taught the one or more non-transitory computer-readable media according to claim 1 as described above Mritunjai further teaches wherein the method further comprises replicating the portion of the second database table, (See Mritunjai paragraph [0019], [0041], The items to maintain locally may be mirrored, copied, or otherwise replicated across replica groups…local database data 132 may differ among the individual storage nodes), including both the read-only partition and the writeable partition to another node, (See Mritunjai paragraph [0032], storage node management 224 may perform partition moves using a physical copying mechanism (e.g., a physical file system mechanism, such as a file copy mechanism) that copies an entire partition from one machine to another, rather than copying a snapshot of the partition data row by). Claims 15 and 26 recite the same limitations as claim 4 above. Therefore, claims and 26 are rejected based on the same reasoning. Regarding claim 6, Mritunjai taught the one or more non-transitory computer-readable media according to claim 1 as described above. Mritunjai further teaches wherein the read-only partition is associated with a partition identifier identifying the read-only partition as read-only, (See Mritunjai paragraph [0011], a portion of a database replica already stored in external storage from a storage node of a replica group); Claims 17 and 28 recite the same limitations as claim 6 above. Therefore, claims 17 and 28 are rejected based on the same reasoning. Regarding claim 7, Mritunjai taught the one or more non-transitory computer-readable media according to claim 1 as described above. Mritunjai further teaches wherein the writeable partition is associated with a partition identifier identifying the writeable partition as writeable. However, Lee teaches wherein the writeable partition is associated with a partition identifier identifying the writeable partition as writeable, (See Lee paragraph [0094], lock tables are partitioned according to the location of their corresponding tables, or partitioned together with a multi-node deadlock detection implementation, to detect when dependencies between write operations carried out at different nodes prevent transaction commitment.). It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made, to modify wherein the writeable partition is associated with a partition identifier identifying the writeable partition as writeable of Lee in order for performing replication (e.g., replication of database information as modified by insert, update, and/or delete database operations), Claims 18 and 29 recite the same limitations as claim 7 above. Therefore, claims and 29 are rejected based on the same reasoning. Regarding claim 8, Mritunjai taught the one or more non-transitory computer-readable media according to claim 1 as described above. Mritunjai further teaches wherein the read-only partition. (See Mritunjai paragraph [0018], portions of database data 132 which may be accessed more frequently or are more likely to be accessed than other portions of the database partition), is associated with metadata indicating that the read-only partition is read-only, (See Mritunjai paragraph [0037], generate appropriate system metadata (e.g., a table identifier that is unique with respect to all other tables in database service 210, table performance or configuration parameters, etc.). Because tables may be stored in multi-table partitions). Claims 19 and 30 recite the same limitations as claim 8 above. Therefore, claims 19 and 30 are rejected based on the same reasoning. Regarding claim 11, Mritunjai taught the one or more non-transitory computer-readable media according to claim 1 as described above. Mritunjai does not explicitly disclose wherein the method further comprises adding a second writeable column to the replica of the database in the writeable partition, wherein the writeable column is writeable only by a first user and the second writeable column is writeable only by a second user. However, Lee teaches wherein the method further comprises adding a second writeable column to the replica of the database in the writeable partition, (See Lee paragraph [0016], each replicated table has associated with it a row-ID generator. The value of the row-ID generator is incremented each time a write (change) operation is performed on a record within the table. The value is copied to a row-ID column of the database record being changed. When the write log entries are generated by the log generator (324, FIG. 3), the information may be included in the write log entries), wherein the writeable column is writeable only by a first user and the second writeable column is writeable only by a second user, (See Lee paragraph [0079], The value of the row-ID generator is incremented each time a write (change) operation is performed on a record within the table. The value is copied to a row-ID column of the database record being changed. When the write log entries are generated by the log generator (324, FIG. 3), the information may be included in the write log entries). It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made, to modify wherein the method further comprises adding a second writeable column to the replica of the database in the writeable partition, wherein the writeable column is writeable only by a first user and the second writeable column is writeable only by a second user of Lee in order for performing replication (e.g., replication of database information as modified by insert, update, and/or delete database operations). Claims 22 and 33 recite the same limitations as claim 11 above. Therefore, claims 22 and 33 are rejected based on the same reasoning. Regarding claim 20, Mritunjai taught the system according to claim 12 as described above. Mritunjai further teaches wherein each portion of the database in the writeable partition is associated with metadata indicating that each column is writeable, (See Mritunjai paragraph [0037], Metadata or other system data for tables may also be stored as part of database partitions using similar partitioning schemes and using similar indexes). . Claim 31 recite the same limitations as claim 20 above. Therefore, claim 31 are rejected based on the same reasoning. Regarding claim 34, Mritunjai teaches one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing program instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a first node, (See Mritunjai paragraph [0078], one or more processors executing program instructions stored on a computer-readable storage medium coupled to the processors), cause the one or more processors to perform a method comprising, (See Mritunjai paragraph [0039], one or more processors): receiving a replica of a first collection of key-value pairs, (See Mritunjai paragraph [0024], accessing data in tables hosted in key-value database. Such services may be enterprise-class database systems that are highly scalable and extensible. In some embodiments, access requests (e.g., requests to get/obtain items, See Mritunjai paragraph [0061], a storage node of a replica group to obtain a portion of a database replica from external storage); storing the replica in a read-only partition of a second collection of key-value pairs, (See Mritunjai paragraph [0011], a portion of a database replica already stored in external storage from a storage node of a replica group, See Mritunjai paragraph [0024], storing and accessing data in tables hosted in key-value database. Such services may be enterprise-class database systems that are highly scalable and extensible. In some embodiments, access requests (e.g., requests to get/obtain items); Mritunjai does not explicitly disclose adding a key-value pair to the replica in a writeable partition of the second collection of key-value pairs; and writing data to the added key-value pair. However, Lee teaches adding a key-value pair to the replica in a writeable partition of the second collection of key-value pairs; and writing data to the added key-value pair, (See Lee paragraph [0016], each replicated table has associated with it a row-ID generator. The value of the row-ID generator is incremented each time a write (change) operation is performed on a record within the table. The value is copied to a row-ID column of the database record being changed. When the write log entries are generated by the log generator (324, FIG. 3), the information may be included in the write log entries). It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made, to modify adding a key-value pair to the replica in a writeable partition of the second collection of key-value pairs; and writing data to the added key-value pair of Lee in order for performing replication (e.g., replication of database information as modified by insert, update, and/or delete database operations). Regarding claim 35, Mritunjai taught the one or more non-transitory computer-readable media according to claim 34 as described above. Mritunjai further teaches wherein the replica of the second collection of key-value pairs includes records received from a second node, (See Mritunjai paragraph [0010], a replica group to obtain a portion of a database replica from external storage when adaptive tiering of database data, See Mritunjai paragraph [0024], storing and accessing data in tables hosted in key-value database. Such services may be enterprise-class database systems that are highly scalable and extensible. In some embodiments, access requests (e.g., requests to get/obtain items); Regarding claim 36, Mritunjai taught the one or more non-transitory computer-readable media according to claim 34 as described above. Mritunjai further teaches wherein the method further comprises replicating the second collection of key-value pairs, (See Mritunjai paragraph [0019], The items to maintain locally may be mirrored, copied, or otherwise replicated across replica groups…local database data 132 may differ among the individual storage nodes, See Mritunjai paragraph [0024], storing and accessing data in tables hosted in key-value database. Such services may be enterprise-class database systems that are highly scalable and extensible. In some embodiments, access requests (e.g., requests to get/obtain items), including both the read-only partition and the writeable partition to another node, (See Mritunjai paragraph [0032], storage node management 224 may perform partition moves using a physical copying mechanism (e.g., a physical file system mechanism, such as a file copy mechanism) that copies an entire partition from one machine to another, rather than copying a snapshot of the partition data row by). Regarding claim 37, Mritunjai taught the one or more non-transitory computer-readable media according to claim 34 as described above. Mritunjai does not explicitly disclose wherein the method further comprises adding a second writeable column to the replica of the database in the writeable partition, wherein the writeable column is writeable only by a first user and the second writeable column is writeable only by a second user. However, Lee teaches wherein the method further comprises adding a second writeable column to the replica of the database in the writeable partition, (See Lee paragraph [0016], each replicated table has associated with it a row-ID generator. The value of the row-ID generator is incremented each time a write (change) operation is performed on a record within the table. The value is copied to a row-ID column of the database record being changed. When the write log entries are generated by the log generator (324, FIG. 3), the information may be included in the write log entries), wherein the writeable column is writeable only by a first user and the second writeable column is writeable only by a second user, (See Lee paragraph [0079], The value of the row-ID generator is incremented each time a write (change) operation is performed on a record within the table. The value is copied to a row-ID column of the database record being changed. When the write log entries are generated by the log generator (324, FIG. 3), the information may be included in the write log entries). It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made, to modify wherein the method further comprises adding a second writeable column to the replica of the database in the writeable partition, wherein the writeable column is writeable only by a first user and the second writeable column is writeable only by a second user of Lee in order for performing replication (e.g., replication of database information as modified by insert, update, and/or delete database operations). Regarding claim 38, Mritunjai taught the one or more non-transitory computer-readable media according to claim 34 as described above. Mritunjai further teaches wherein the writeable partition is associated with a partition identifier identifying the writeable partition as writeable, (See Mritunjai paragraph [0037], Metadata or other system data for tables may also be stored as part of database partitions using similar partitioning schemes and using similar indexes). Regarding claim 39, Mritunjai teaches one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing program instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a first node, (See Mritunjai paragraph [0078], one or more processors executing program instructions stored on a computer-readable storage medium coupled to the processors), cause the one or more processors to perform a method comprising, (See Mritunjai paragraph [0039], one or more processors): receiving a replica of a first document-based database, (See Mritunjai paragraph [0061], a storage node of a replica group to obtain a portion of a database replica from external storage); storing the replica in a read-only partition of a second document-based database, (See Mritunjai paragraph [0011], a portion of a database replica already stored in external storage from a storage node of a replica group, See Mritunjai paragraph [0024], storing and accessing data in tables hosted in key-value database. Such services may be enterprise-class database systems that are highly scalable and extensible. In some embodiments, access requests (e.g., requests to get/obtain items). Mritunjai does not explicitly disclose adding a document to the replica in a writeable partition of the second document- based database; and writing data to the added document. However, Lee teaches adding a document to the replica in a writeable partition of the second document- based database; and writing data to the added document, (See Lee paragraph [0016], each replicated table has associated with it a row-ID generator. The value of the row-ID generator is incremented each time a write (change) operation is performed on a record within the table. The value is copied to a row-ID column of the database record being changed. When the write log entries are generated by the log generator (324, FIG. 3), the information may be included in the write log entries). It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made, to modify adding a document to the replica in a writeable partition of the second document- based database; and writing data to the added document of Lee in order for performing replication (e.g., replication of database information as modified by insert, update, and/or delete database operations), Regarding claim 40, Mritunjai taught the one or more non-transitory computer-readable media according to claim 39 as described above. Mritunjai further teaches wherein the replica of the second document-based database includes documents received from a second node, (See Mritunjai paragraph [0010], a replica group to obtain a portion of a database replica from external storage when adaptive tiering of database data). Regarding claim 41, Mritunjai taught the one or more non-transitory computer-readable media according to claim 41 as described above. Mritunjai further teaches wherein the method further comprises replicating the second document-based database, (See Mritunjai paragraph [0019], The items to maintain locally may be mirrored, copied, or otherwise replicated across replica groups…local database data 132 may differ among the individual storage nodes), including both the read-only partition and the writeable partition to another node, (See Mritunjai paragraph [0032], storage node management 224 may perform partition moves using a physical copying mechanism (e.g., a physical file system mechanism, such as a file copy mechanism) that copies an entire partition from one machine to another, rather than copying a snapshot of the partition data row by). Regarding claim 42, Mritunjai taught the one or more non-transitory computer-readable media according to claim 39 as described above. Mritunjai further teaches Mritunjai does not explicitly disclose wherein the method further comprises adding a second document to the replica of the second document-based database in the writeable partition, wherein the added document is writeable only by a first user and the second document is writeable only by a second user. However, Lee teaches wherein the method further comprises adding a second document to the replica of the second document-based database in the writeable partition, (See Lee paragraph [0016], each replicated table has associated with it a row-ID generator. The value of the row-ID generator is incremented each time a write (change) operation is performed on a record within the table. The value is copied to a row-ID column of the database record being changed. When the write log entries are generated by the log generator (324, FIG. 3), the information may be included in the write log entries), wherein the added document is writeable only by a first user and the second document is writeable only by a second user, (See Lee paragraph [0079], The value of the row-ID generator is incremented each time a write (change) operation is performed on a record within the table. The value is copied to a row-ID column of the database record being changed. When the write log entries are generated by the log generator (324, FIG. 3), the information may be included in the write log entries). It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made, to modify wherein the method further comprises adding a second document to the replica of the second document-based database in the writeable partition, wherein the added document is writeable only by a first user and the second document is writeable only by a second user of Lee in order for performing replication (e.g., replication of database information as modified by insert, update, and/or delete database operations). Response to Arguments Applicant's arguments with respect to claims 1-4, 6-8, 11-15, 17-19, 22-26, 28-30 and 33-42 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection. Conclusions/Points of Contacts Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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 MULUEMEBET GURMU whose telephone number is (571)270-7095. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9am - 5pm. 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, Tony Mahmoudi can be reached at 5712724078. 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. /MULUEMEBET GURMU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2163
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Prosecution Timeline

Apr 19, 2024
Application Filed
Nov 30, 2024
Non-Final Rejection — §103
Feb 13, 2025
Applicant Interview (Telephonic)
Feb 22, 2025
Examiner Interview Summary
Feb 25, 2025
Response Filed
Jun 12, 2025
Final Rejection — §103
Jul 25, 2025
Applicant Interview (Telephonic)
Aug 01, 2025
Examiner Interview Summary
Aug 04, 2025
Response after Non-Final Action
Aug 21, 2025
Request for Continued Examination
Aug 30, 2025
Response after Non-Final Action
Sep 06, 2025
Non-Final Rejection — §103
Nov 26, 2025
Applicant Interview (Telephonic)
Dec 01, 2025
Examiner Interview Summary
Dec 10, 2025
Response Filed
Mar 20, 2026
Final Rejection — §103 (current)

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