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
This Office Action is responsive to the applicants’ Amendment filed on 11/24/2025, in which claims 1-8, 12-13, and 15-24 are pending.
Response to Amendment
Applicant has amended claims 1, 3, 6, 8, 16, 19, 21, and 23; claims 9-11, and 14 is/are canceled; and claims 1-1-8, 12-13, and 15-24 are pending.
Response to Remarks
Applicant's remarks, see pages 14-16, filed November 24, 2025, with respect to Ritchie have been fully considered, however they are not persuasive.
In the Remarks, Applicant argued in substance that…
(A) With respect to claim 1, applicant states that Ritchie does not disclose that the network is a cloud environment, (recited from page 15 of remarks filed on 11/254/2025).
As to point (A), Examiner respectfully disagrees given the broadest reasonable interpretation, and the claims are interpreted in light of the specification, limitations from the specification are not read into the claims. Examiner submits that Ritchie does disclose a network cloud environment. Cloud environment and network (Abstract); cloud computing environment [05]; network, and a cloud environment and a virtual cloud environment [14-17, 26-29]. Given the broadest reasonable interpretation of the claim, Ritchie does disclose a network to be a cloud environment, as disclosed when “fewer routes provided to the customer 222 by the network 202 may provide the network with more resources and devices to provide services to other customers”, a network and a cloud environment is performing the same [30].
(B) With respect to claim 1, applicant states that Ritchie does not disclose that the network includes a virtual private cloud and a multi-cloud gateway for cross-cloud data transmisison, (recited from page 15 of remarks filed on 11/254/2025).
As to point (B), Examiner respectfully disagrees given the broadest reasonable interpretation, Examiner submits that Ritchie does disclose multi cloud environment/instances including public and private cloud to allow the customer device to access multiple instances [10-11, 17-19].
(C) With respect to claim 1, applicant states that Ritchie does not disclose that the specific content included in the request, (recited from page 15 of remarks filed on 11/254/2025).
As to point (C), Examiner respectfully disagrees given the broadest reasonable interpretation, Examiner submits that Ritchie does disclose wherein contents are included in the request. The transmission of communication packets between the customer 222 and the network 202, connection 214 may also provide for transmission of the customer-cloud connectivity information [22-23, 27]. And teaches wherein the network components to receive and/or transmit packets that include the VLAN tags of the packet stream from the customer [25].
(D) With respect to claim 1, applicant states that Ritchie does not involve the cross-cloud data transmission and routing scheduling capabilities that the multi-cloud gateway defined, (recited from page 16 of remarks filed on 11/254/2025).
As to point (D), Examiner respectfully disagrees given the broadest reasonable interpretation, Examiner submits that Ritchie does disclose cross-cloud data transmission and routing. See Fig. 1, provides connectivity between a customer 122 and multiple instances of a cloud environment [11], and discloses where communication can be differentiated between different cloud instances [19].
(E) With respect to claim 1, applicant states that Ritchie does not involves no content related to VPC mapping at all, let alone further information about VPC mapping as defined in amended claim 1, (recited from page 16 of remarks filed on 11/254/2025).
As to point (E), Examiner respectfully disagrees given the broadest reasonable interpretation, Examiner submits that Ritchie does disclose mapping/charting/facilitating content related to the private cloud. Ritchie discloses wherein the connection facilitated by the network 102 may be a connection over a public portion of the network 102 or a connection over a private or dedicated portion of the network [11-14]. Additionally, Ritchie discloses wherein the network 202 may establish a private Layer 2 communication path between the customer 222 and the cloud instances (FIG. 3 [28-29]).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-2, 4-5, 7, 12-13, 15, 17-18, 20, 22, and 24 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Ritchie et al. (US 20190014038 A1) hereinafter “Ritchie”.
As to claim 1, Ritchie discloses a cloud service method applicable to a local cloud configured with a multi-cloud gateway (Ritchie, abstract [10-14], discloses a cloud service associated with a multiple instances connection to a cloud environment), comprising:
receiving, by the multi-cloud gateway of the local cloud, a cloud service request, wherein the cloud service request carries a request source address, a request ontology, an address of a target cloud service, and an address of a local cloud virtual private cloud (VPC) (Ritchie [21-23], discloses wherein the network 202 may receive a request from the customer 222, wherein a customer device in a customer location to connect to an instance in the cloud environment 242. The request may be to connect to multiple instances 204-208 or a newly established instance in the cloud environment 242. For example, the customer 222 or an administrator of the customer network, and can purchase or otherwise request access to one or more resources 204-208 of the cloud environment 242, and the resources 204-208 may be data storage, compute resources, security resources, or any other virtual resource available from a virtual cloud environment);
sending, by the multi-cloud gateway of the local cloud, the cloud service request to a multi-cloud gateway of a remote cloud according to pre-stored routing information of the target cloud service corresponding to the address of the target cloud service, to enable the multi-cloud gateway of the remote cloud to send the cloud service request to the target cloud service configured on the remote cloud via a mapping VPC according to the address of the local cloud VPC and the address of the target cloud service, and to send target data returned by the target cloud service to the multi-cloud gateway of the local cloud according to pre-stored routing information of the mapping VPC, wherein the mapping VPC is a VPC configured in the remote cloud and having a mapping relationship with the local cloud VPC, and an address of the mapping VPC is the same as the address of the local cloud VPC (Ritchie [10-11, 17-19, 28-30], discloses wherein provides connectivity between a customer 122 and multiple instances of a cloud environment 142 by way of a telecommunications network, and additionally discloses the network environment 200 for providing connectivity between a customer 222 to a telecommunications network 202 and multiple instances 204-208 of a cloud environment 242, which provides the advantage of a single connection 216 instead of multiple connections, additionally multi-tenant connection can allow for multiple VLANs within each of multiple customers on the same physical interconnection can handle more customers than just customer to cloud environment, and furthermore teaches wherein the network 202 may instruct the cloud environment 242 to create a virtual gateway between the communication port at the cloud and a particular instance 204 utilized by the customer 222. The virtual gateway may then be associated with a particular VLAN tag or identifier that the customer 222 uses to identify packets intended for the particular instance 204 of the cloud environment); and
receiving, by the multi-cloud gateway of the local cloud, the target data sent by the multi-cloud gateway of the remote cloud, and sending the target data to the request source address (Ritchie [27-30], discloses wherein the network 202 may provide the VLAN tags received from the customer 222 to the cloud environment 242 that are associated with the cloud instances 204-208 utilized by the customer. With the connection 216 established and the VLAN information, the cloud environment 242 may create a virtual interface associated with the communication port of the connection 216 to manage the receipt and transmission of packets on the path).
As to claim 2, Ritchie discloses the cloud service method according to claim 1, wherein the local cloud is further configured with a multi-cloud controller, and the cloud service method further comprises: requesting, by the multi-cloud controller of the local cloud, a multi-cloud controller of the remote cloud to perform multi-cloud control registration (Ritchie [21-23, 29-30], discloses wherein the request may be to connect to multiple instances or a newly established instance in the cloud environment, and wherein the customer provides connectivity information between the customer and the cloud environment for establishing information for registration).
Claim 9. (canceled)
Claim 10. (canceled)
Claim 11. (canceled)
Claim 14. (canceled)
Claims 4-5, 7, 12-13, 15, 17-18, 20, 22, and 24 is/are corresponding method/apparatus and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium claims that recite similar limitations as of claims 1 and 2 and do not contain any additional features with respect to novelty and/or inventive steps; therefore, they are rejected under the same rationale.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 6, 8, 16, 19, 21, and 23 is/are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See Form 892.
Correspondence Information
The rejections are based upon the broadest reasonable interpretation of the claims. Applicant is advised that the specified citations of the relied upon prior art, in the above rejections, are only representative of the teachings of the prior art, and that any other supportive sections within the entirety of the reference (including any figures, incorporation by references, claims and/or priority documents) is implied as being applied to teach the scope of the claims.
Applicant may not introduce any new matter to the claims or to the specification. For any subsequent response that contains new/amended claims, Applicant is required to cite its corresponding support in the specification. (See MPEP chapter 2163.03 section (I.) and chapter 2163.04 section (I.) and chapter 2163.06)
accordingly, 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 extension fee 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 Razu Miah whose telephone number is (571)270-5433. The examiner can normally be reached M-F, 9-5 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, Glenton Burgess can be reached at 23949. 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.
/RAZU A MIAH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2441