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 .
Attempt for Communication
To expedite prosecution, the examiner called on 01/06/2026 and left voice mail with the applicant’s representative Kevin Jones (Reg. No. 56,809) in attempt to resolve the pending 101 and 112(b) issues. No reply call was received by COB on 01/08/2026.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDSs) filed 06/11/2024 fail to comply with 37 CFR 1.98(a)(2), which requires a legible copy of each cited foreign patent document; each non-patent literature publication or that portion which caused it to be listed; and all other information or that portion which caused it to be listed.
No copies were submitted for the citations stricken through.
The IDSs have been placed in the application file, but the information referred to the missing document copies therein has not been considered.
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.
Claims 15-20 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 applicant has provided evidence that the applicant intends the term "computer-readable media” to include non-statutory matter. The applicant describes a computer-readable media including non-statutory mediums (see paragraph 0041 – the term computer-readable media includes communications media). As such, the claim(s) is/are drawn to a form of energy. Energy is not one of the four categories of invention and therefore this/these claim(s) is/are not statutory. Energy is not a series of steps or acts and thus is not a process. Energy is not a physical article or object and as such is not a machine or manufacture. Energy is not a combination of substances and therefore not a composition of matter.
The examiner suggests amending the claim(s) to read as a “non-transitory computer storage medium” (based on the definition for this term in paragraph 0041).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
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.
Claims 14 and 20 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 applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
In claim 14, after a period in line 7, lines 7-20 recite the identical subject matter, as recited in lines 9-17 of claim 8 (upon which claim 14 depends on). Accordingly, the scope of claim 14 is unclear, thus, indefinite.
Claim 20 recites the limitation "after uncapping the lower priority inference workloads" in line 3.
There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. The “uncapping the lower priority inference workloads” is defined in claim 19 rather than claim 18 (upon which claim 20 currently depends on). Accordingly, for the purpose of examination, it is assumed that claim 20 depends on claim 19.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-13 are allowed.
Claims 15-19 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 101, set forth in this Office action.
Claim 14 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
Claim 20 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 101 and the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
MacNamara et al., US Patent Appl. Pub. No. 2025/0013493 teaches adjusting the frequency of an interface circuitry based on monitoring the priority levels of processes by adjusting the frequency of operation of the interface circuitry to prioritize frequency of operation requested by a higher priority workload over a frequency of operations requested by a lower priority workload (Abstract, paragraph 0061, FIG. 7, paragraph 0069).
Mahindru et al., US Patent Appl. Pub. No. 2018/0101214 teaches adjusting the voltage and the clock speed of respective processor cores within a set of processor cores according to a workload priority of respective workloads performed by each respective one of the processor cores, wherein the workload priority is assigned based upon a service level agreement (SLA) (Abstract, FIG. 3, paragraph 0067, FIG. 4, paragraph 0070).
Kochar et al., US Patent Appl. Pub. No. 2024/0103469 teaches managing power within a power distribution system by monitoring when power consumption corresponding to devices receiving power from an upstream device breaches (or approaches) a budget threshold corresponding to an amount of power allocated to the upstream device and initiating operations to distribute power caps for the devices, accordingly (Abstract, FIG. 5, paragraph 0073).
Applicant’s Admitted Prior Art (AAPA) teaches challenges with respect to power constraints associated with execution of large language models (LLMs) workloads in datacenters (specification, paragraphs 0001-0003).
Regarding claims 1, 8, and 15, none of the prior art and the AAPA disclose or suggest receiving a power consumption level for a row of graphic processing unit (GPU) servers, the row of GPU servers being part of an inference cluster of servers, determining whether the power consumption level exceeds a second threshold level, upon determining the power consumption level exceeds the second threshold level, capping lower priority inference workloads to a second frequency level, and upon determining the power consumption level does not exceed the second threshold level, determining whether the power consumption exceeds first threshold level, and upon determining the power consumption level exceeds the first threshold level, capping the lower priority inference workloads to a first frequency level, wherein a first threshold rule restricts low priority inference workloads from exceeding the first frequency level when the power consumption level exceeds the first threshold level, a second threshold rule restricts the low priority inference workloads from exceeding the second frequency level and restricts high priority inference workloads from exceeding a third frequency level, wherein the second frequency level is lower than the first frequency level and the third frequency level is higher than the first frequency level.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to STEFAN STOYNOV whose telephone number is (571)272-4236. The examiner can normally be reached 8AM - 4:30PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Andrew J Jung can be reached at 571-270-3779. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/STEFAN STOYNOV/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2175