DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 05/30/2024, 02/12/2025, 11/21/2025 & 01/22/2026 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
Claim limitation “an acquisition module”, “a transmission module”, “modification module”, “a deletion module” has been evaluated under the three-prong test set forth in MPEP § 2181, subsection I, but the result is inconclusive.
Thus, it is unclear whether this limitation should be interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, because the disclosure is devoid of any structure that performs function in the claim(s). In particular, the specification states:
an acquisition module, Page(s) 3-5, 23-24
a transmission module, Page(s) 3-5, 23-24
a modification module, Page(s) 3-5, 23-24
a deletion module, Page(s) 3-5, 23-24
There is no disclosure of any particular structure, either explicitly or inherently, to perform the cited functional unit(s) listed above. The specification does not provide sufficient details such that one of ordinary skill in the art would understand which structure or structures perform(s) the claimed functions.
The boundaries of this claim limitation are ambiguous; therefore, the claim is indefinite and is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, second paragraph.
In response to this rejection, applicant must clarify whether this limitation should be interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. Mere assertion regarding applicant’s intent to invoke or not invoke 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph is insufficient. Applicant may:
(a) Amend the claim to clearly invoke 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, by reciting “means” or a generic placeholder for means, or by reciting “step.” The “means,” generic placeholder, or “step” must be modified by functional language, and must not be modified by sufficient structure, material, or acts for performing the claimed function;
(b) Present a sufficient showing that 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, should apply because the claim limitation recites a function to be performed and does not recite sufficient structure, material, or acts to perform that function;
(c) Amend the claim to clearly avoid invoking 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, by deleting the function or by reciting sufficient structure, material or acts to perform the recited function; or
(d) Present a sufficient showing that 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, does not apply because the limitation does not recite a function or does recite a function along with sufficient structure, material or acts to perform that function.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim(s) 7-12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claim(s) 13, 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claim(s) does/do not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because the claim(s) are directed to a signal per se.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is obliged to give claims their broadest reasonable interpretation consistent with the specification during proceedings before the USPTO. See in re Zietz, 893 F. 2d 3 19 (Fed. Cir. 1989) (during patent examination the pending claims must be interpreted as broadly as their terms reasonably allow). The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim drawn to a computer readable medium (also called machine readable medium and other such variations) typically covers forms of non-transitory tangible media and transitory propagating signals per se in view of the ordinary and customary meaning of computer readable media, particularly when the specification is silent. See MPEP 21 1 1.01. When the broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim covers a signal per se, the claim must be rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 as covering non-statutory matter. See in re Nuijten, 500 F.3d 1246, 1356-57 (Fed. Cir.2007) (transitory embodiments are not directed to statutory subject matter).
The term "machine-readable storage medium" shall also be taken to include any medium other than a transitory medium such as a carrier wave that is capable of storing or encoding a set of instructions for execution by the machine that cause the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies of the present invention. The term " machine-readable storage medium" shall accordingly be taken to include, but not be limited to, solid-state memories, and optical and magnetic media, which allows machine-readable storage medium to read on both non-transitory storage medium and transitory storage medium, the claims are rejected under the broadest reasonable interpretation as a product of transitory propagating signal.
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, 4-8, 10-14, 16-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a) (2) as being anticipated by Hu et al. (US 2022/0360525 A1).
Re Claim 1, 7 & 13, Hu teaches a node protection method, which is applied to a first node, comprising:
acquiring a first service message, wherein the first service message comprises an IPv6 header and an SRH, the IPv6 header comprises a destination address, the SRH comprises an SID list, and the SID list comprises a backup SID and SIDs of end nodes of a primary path for forwarding the first service message; (Hu; FIG. 1-10; Background, Summary, ¶ [0088]-[0131]; A IPv6 header and a SRH, a destination address, a SID related list, backup SIDs, nodes and paths.)
forwarding a second service message to an end node indicated by the backup SID, wherein the second service message comprises the destination address that is the backup SID, and the destination address is modified after determining that each of the end nodes on the primary path is an unreachable end node and the end node indicated by the backup SID is a reachable end node. (Hu; FIG. 1-10; Background, Summary, ¶ [0088]-[0131], [0150]-[0192]; Forwarding messages, nodes, backup SID, destination address, back up SID, modifying the destination address when a node is deemed unreachable.)
Re Claim 2, 8 & 14, Hu discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the SRH further comprises an SL; (Hu; FIG. 1-10; Background, Summary, ¶ [0088]-[0131], [0136]-[0192], [0263]-[0288]; Segment Lists.)
after acquiring the first service message, the method further comprises:
obtaining a first SL according to a difference between a current SL and a fixed value, and (Hu; FIG. 1-10; Background, Summary, ¶ [0088]-[0131], [0136]-[0192], [0263]-[0288]; A segment list, associated value and different between segment list.)
acquiring a first SID corresponding to the first SL from the SID list; (Hu; FIG. 1-10; Background, Summary, ¶ [0088]-[0131], [0136]-[0192], [0263]-[0288]; A SID related to the SL.)
if an end node indicated by the first SID is unreachable, taking the first SL as the current SL, and (Hu; FIG. 1-10; Background, Summary, ¶ [0088]-[0131], [0136]-[0192], [0263]-[0288]; Selecting a different SL when one is unreachable.)
repeating a process of obtaining a first SL according to a difference between a current SL and a fixed value and acquiring a first SID corresponding to the first SL from the SID list until a first SID of a reachable end node is acquired from the SID list; (Hu; FIG. 1-10; Background, Summary, ¶ [0088]-[0131], [0136]-[0192], [0263]-[0288]; Finding a difference between SL, finding a SID related to a SL, reachable nodes.)
if the first SID of the reachable end node is the backup SID,
modifying the destination address to the backup SID to obtain the second service message; (Hu; FIG. 1-10; Background, Summary, ¶ [0088]-[0131], [0136]-[0192], [0263]-[0288]; Modifying a destination address to the backup related SID.)
if the first SID of the reachable end node is not the backup SID, (Hu; FIG. 1-10; Background, Summary, ¶ [0088]-[0131], [0136]-[0192], [0263]-[0288]; A reachable node.)
modifying the destination address to the first SID of the reachable end node to obtain a third service message, and (Hu; FIG. 1-10; Background, Summary, ¶ [0088]-[0131], [0136]-[0192], [0263]-[0288]; Modifying a destination address to the backup related SID and end related node.)
forwarding the third service message to the end node indicated by the first SID. (Hu; FIG. 1-10; Background, Summary, ¶ [0088]-[0131], [0150]-[0192]; Forwarding messages, nodes, backup SID, destination address, back up SID, modifying the destination address when a node is deemed unreachable.)
Re Claim 4, 10 & 16, Hu discloses the method according to claim 1,wherein the end node indicated by the backup SID is a tail node on a backup path for forwarding the first service message; (Hu; FIG. 1-10; Background, Summary, ¶ [0106]-[0131], [0157], [0247]-[0262], [0282]-[0312]; End nodes, backup SID, tail node, backup related path, forwarding of messages.)
or
the end node indicated by the backup SID is a second node, and there is a BE path between the first node and the second node.
Re Claim 5, 11 & 17, Hu discloses the method according claim 1, wherein an SID encapsulated in a penultimate element in the SID list is an SID of a tail node on the primary path, and (Hu; FIG. 1-10; Background, Summary, ¶ [0106]-[0131], [0142]-[0178], [0247]-[0262], [0282]-[0312]; A second to last segment router/node before the final destination, encapsulated and related to the tail node.)
an SID encapsulated in a last element is the backup SID. (Hu; FIG. 1-10; Background, Summary, ¶ [0106]-[0131], [0142]-[0178], [0247]-[0262], [0282]-[0312]; A second to last segment router/node before the final destination, encapsulated and related to the tail node.)
Re Claim 6, 12 & 18, Hu discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein when the first node is a source node, acquiring the first service message comprises: (Hu; FIG. 1-10; Background, Summary, ¶ [0088]-[0090]; A head node.)
receiving a fifth service message; (Hu; FIG. 1-10; Background, Summary, ¶ [0106]-[0131], [0142]-[0178], [0247]-[0262], [0282]-[0312]; The sending of messages.)
if a next hop of a routing table entry matched with the fifth service message is an SRv6 strategy and the SRv6 strategy comprises the primary path and the backup path, (Hu; FIG. 1-10; Background, Summary, ¶ [0106]-[0131], [0142]-[0178], [0247]-[0262], [0282]-[0312]; Primary and backup related paths.)
encapsulating the IPv6 header and the SRH in an outer layer of the fifth service message to obtain the first service message. (Hu; FIG. 1-10; Background, Summary, ¶ [0106]-[0131], [0142]-[0178], [0247]-[0262], [0282]-[0312]; IPv6, SRH, messages and encapsulation.)
Re Claim 19, Hu discloses a machine-readable storage medium, which stores machine executable instructions which, when called and executed by a processor, cause the processor to implement blocks of the method according to claim 1. (Hu; FIG. 1; ¶ [0405]-[0406]; computer readable storage medium.)
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) 3, 9 & 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hu et al. (US 2022/0360525 A1) and further in view of Zhang et al. (US 2023/0078123 A1).
Re Claim 3, 9 & 15, Hu discloses the method according to claim 1, yet does not explicitly suggest wherein after acquiring the first service message, the method further comprises: if the destination address is an SID configured with a specified additional behavior, deleting the IPv6 header and the SRH to obtain a fourth service message; forwarding the fourth service message.
However, in analogous art, Zhang teaches wherein after acquiring the first service message, the method further comprises:
if the destination address is an SID configured with a specified additional behavior, deleting the IPv6 header and the SRH to obtain a fourth service message; (Zhang; FIG. 1; ¶ [0150]-[0206], [0270]-[0288]; The embodiment(s) detail comparable methodology such as destination related address, SID, the removing of a IPv6 header and SRH. The sending of messages.)
forwarding the fourth service message. (Zhang; FIG. 1; ¶ [0150]-[0206], [0270]-[0288]; The embodiment(s) detail comparable methodology such as destination related address, SID, the removing of a IPv6 header and SRH. The sending of messages.)
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHRISTOPHER B ROBINSON whose telephone number is (571)270-0702. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:00-3:00 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, Nicholas R Taylor can be reached at 571-272-3889. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CHRISTOPHER B ROBINSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2443
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