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 .
Status of Claims
In response to communications filed on 29 October 2025, claims 1-20 are presently pending in the application, of which, claims 1, 11 and 17 are presented in independent form. The Examiner acknowledges amended claims 1, 7, 9-11, 16-17, and 20. No claims were cancelled or newly added.
Response to Remarks/Arguments
In view of the Pre-Appeal Conference decision filed on 21 July 2026, PROSECUTION IS HEREBY REOPENED. A new ground of rejection is set forth below.
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.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable by Richardson, Craig, et al (U.S. 8,296,271, issued 23 October 2012, and known hereinafter as Richardson) in view of Dahbour, Ziyad, et al (U.S. 2016/0019276 and known hereinafter as Dahbour)(newly presented) .
As per claim 1, Richardson teaches a computer program product, the computer program product being tangibly embodied on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and comprising instructions that, when executed by at least one computing device, are configured to cause the at least one computing device to:
query a database (e.g. Richardson, see column 7, lines 1-10], which discloses a user identification (User ID) parameter is provided which allows the database administrator or a user to scan (e.g. query) the transaction logs for specified user identification, uniquely distinguishing each user accessing the database, therefore log files can be scanned for all operations performed by that user. Additionally, see column 3, lines 20-25, which discloses a log scanner allows a DBMS to perform queries over the scanned transaction logs and determine the exact operations, or query that resulted in a corruption of data.), the database containing log record repository (e.g. Richardson, see column 5, lines 32-38], which discloses the database systems commonly employ transaction logs in order to provide transaction autonomy, where a transaction log is a file that records the state of the database before a modification is made and the state of the database after the modification has been made.);
query the log record repository (e.g. Richardson, see column 7, lines 1-10], which discloses a user identification (User ID) parameter is provided which allows the database administrator or a user to scan (e.g. query) the transaction logs for specified user identification, uniquely distinguishing each user accessing the database, therefore log files can be scanned for all operations performed by that user. Additionally, see column 3, lines 20-25, which discloses a log scanner allows a DBMS to perform queries over the scanned transaction logs and determine the exact operations, or query that resulted in a corruption of data.) for a plurality of log records to retrieve pre-move log records logged prior to the table movement and identifying the moved table as being included within the source tablespace (Richardson, see column 4, line 65 to column 5, line 30 discloses each of the nodes includes a corresponding node log, which tracks and maintains modifications, edits, or deletions performed to the database tables by the respective nodes, where a catalog node may also be provided which retrieves a list of transactions performed in each of the node logs and references the list of transactions for a selected set of nodes, where the database system commonly employ transaction logs in order to provide transaction autonomy, where a transaction log is a file that records the state of the database before a modification is made and the state of the database after the modification has been made.), and post-move log records logged after the table movement and identifying the moved table as being included within the target tablespace (e.g. Richardson, see column 6, line 58 to column 8, line 50, which discloses the operation allows a user to scan all transactions of a specific type, where once the scan parameters are chosen, the log scanning algorithm scans the individual node transaction logs, the catalog, and any additional files for transactions that meet the selected scanning parameter. The rollback manager then assimilates the data received from the log scanner and provides an interface for the administrator to select the point to which the data in the database should be rolled-back and subsequently manages the rollback of the data. The Examiner notes that the rollback process is tracked and logged thereby illustrating most-move log records.); and
modify (e.g. Richardson, see column 7, lines 15-20[, which discloses operation parameters allow a user to scan all transaction of a specific type. Databases typically perform three types of activities: insert row, modify row, or delete which may be referred to simply as operations.) the pre-move log records to obtain updated pre-move log records identifying the moved table as being included within the target tablespace (e.g. Richardson, see column 7, line 50 to column 10, line 35, which discloses the rollback function accumulates all changes that are needed in order to reverse each operation in a temporary rollback table, the changes are recorded as full data row images that are either inserted or deleted from a corresponding table (e.g. target) and updates the transaction log.).
Although Richardson discloses querying a database, it does not explicitly disclose query a database to retrieve a table movement of a moved table from a source tablespace to a target tablespace within the database.
Dashbour teaches query a database (e.g. Dashbour, see paragraph [0040], which discloses the query processor receives database queries and processes them.) to retrieve a table movement of a moved table from a source tablespace to a target tablespace within the database (e.g. Dashbour, see paragraphs [0044-0045], which discloses a tablespace manager that manages tablespaces of the database system, where the database system supports commands to assign a table to a tablespace or to move a table from a source tablespace to a target tablespace, where as a result, the tablespace manager moves the data of the table from a file of the source tablespace to a file of the target tablespace, where data subsetting module moves the data of the tables to specific files so that the file copy module can be invoked.).
Richardson is directed to optimizing data recovery in a parallel database. Dashbour is directed to exporting subset of a database. Both are analogous art because they are directed to tablespace manipulation and therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify the teachings of Richardson with the teachings of Dashbour to include the claimed features with the motivation to improve data log efficiency.
As per claim 11, Richardson teaches a computer-implemented method, the method comprising:
query a database (e.g. Richardson, see column 7, lines 1-10], which discloses a user identification (User ID) parameter is provided which allows the database administrator or a user to scan (e.g. query) the transaction logs for specified user identification, uniquely distinguishing each user accessing the database, therefore log files can be scanned for all operations performed by that user. Additionally, see column 3, lines 20-25, which discloses a log scanner allows a DBMS to perform queries over the scanned transaction logs and determine the exact operations, or query that resulted in a corruption of data.), the database containing log record repository (e.g. Richardson, see column 5, lines 32-38], which discloses the database systems commonly employ transaction logs in order to provide transaction autonomy, where a transaction log is a file that records the state of the database before a modification is made and the state of the database after the modification has been made.);
query the log record repository (e.g. Richardson, see column 7, lines 1-10], which discloses a user identification (User ID) parameter is provided which allows the database administrator or a user to scan (e.g. query) the transaction logs for specified user identification, uniquely distinguishing each user accessing the database, therefore log files can be scanned for all operations performed by that user. Additionally, see column 3, lines 20-25, which discloses a log scanner allows a DBMS to perform queries over the scanned transaction logs and determine the exact operations, or query that resulted in a corruption of data.) for a plurality of log records to retrieve pre-move log records logged prior to the table movement and identifying the moved table as being included within the source tablespace (Richardson, see column 4, line 65 to column 5, line 30 discloses each of the nodes includes a corresponding node log, which tracks and maintains modifications, edits, or deletions performed to the database tables by the respective nodes, where a catalog node may also be provided which retrieves a list of transactions performed in each of the node logs and references the list of transactions for a selected set of nodes, where the database system commonly employ transaction logs in order to provide transaction autonomy, where a transaction log is a file that records the state of the database before a modification is made and the state of the database after the modification has been made.), and post-move log records logged after the table movement and identifying the moved table as being included within the target tablespace (e.g. Richardson, see column 6, line 58 to column 8, line 50, which discloses the operation allows a user to scan all transactions of a specific type, where once the scan parameters are chosen, the log scanning algorithm scans the individual node transaction logs, the catalog, and any additional files for transactions that meet the selected scanning parameter. The rollback manager then assimilates the data received from the log scanner and provides an interface for the administrator to select the point to which the data in the database should be rolled-back and subsequently manages the rollback of the data. The Examiner notes that the rollback process is tracked and logged thereby illustrating most-move log records.); and
modify (e.g. Richardson, see column 7, lines 15-20[, which discloses operation parameters allow a user to scan all transaction of a specific type. Databases typically perform three types of activities: insert row, modify row, or delete which may be referred to simply as operations.) the pre-move log records to obtain updated pre-move log records identifying the moved table as being included within the target tablespace (e.g. Richardson, see column 7, line 50 to column 10, line 35, which discloses the rollback function accumulates all changes that are needed in order to reverse each operation in a temporary rollback table, the changes are recorded as full data row images that are either inserted or deleted from a corresponding table (e.g. target) and updates the transaction log.).
Although Richardson discloses querying a database, it does not explicitly disclose query a database to retrieve a table movement of a moved table from a source tablespace to a target tablespace within the database.
Dashbour teaches query a database (e.g. Dashbour, see paragraph [0040], which discloses the query processor receives database queries and processes them.) to retrieve a table movement of a moved table from a source tablespace to a target tablespace within the database (e.g. Dashbour, see paragraphs [0044-0045], which discloses a tablespace manager that manages tablespaces of the database system, where the database system supports commands to assign a table to a tablespace or to move a table from a source tablespace to a target tablespace, where as a result, the tablespace manager moves the data of the table from a file of the source tablespace to a file of the target tablespace, where data subsetting module moves the data of the tables to specific files so that the file copy module can be invoked.).
Richardson is directed to optimizing data recovery in a parallel database. Dashbour is directed to exporting subset of a database. Both are analogous art because they are directed to tablespace manipulation and therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify the teachings of Richardson with the teachings of Dashbour to include the claimed features with the motivation to improve data log efficiency.
As per claim 17, Richardson teaches a system comprising:
at least one memory including instructions (e.g. Richardson, see Figure 1, which discloses a processor coupled to memory.); and
at least one processor that is operably coupled to the at least one memory and that is arranged and configured to execute instructions that (e.g. Richardson, see Figure 1, which discloses a processor coupled to memory.), when executed, cause the at least one processor to:
query a database (e.g. Richardson, see column 7, lines 1-10], which discloses a user identification (User ID) parameter is provided which allows the database administrator or a user to scan (e.g. query) the transaction logs for specified user identification, uniquely distinguishing each user accessing the database, therefore log files can be scanned for all operations performed by that user. Additionally, see column 3, lines 20-25, which discloses a log scanner allows a DBMS to perform queries over the scanned transaction logs and determine the exact operations, or query that resulted in a corruption of data.), the database containing log record repository (e.g. Richardson, see column 5, lines 32-38], which discloses the database systems commonly employ transaction logs in order to provide transaction autonomy, where a transaction log is a file that records the state of the database before a modification is made and the state of the database after the modification has been made.);
query the log record repository (e.g. Richardson, see column 7, lines 1-10], which discloses a user identification (User ID) parameter is provided which allows the database administrator or a user to scan (e.g. query) the transaction logs for specified user identification, uniquely distinguishing each user accessing the database, therefore log files can be scanned for all operations performed by that user. Additionally, see column 3, lines 20-25, which discloses a log scanner allows a DBMS to perform queries over the scanned transaction logs and determine the exact operations, or query that resulted in a corruption of data.) for a plurality of log records to retrieve pre-move log records logged prior to the table movement and identifying the moved table as being included within the source tablespace (Richardson, see column 4, line 65 to column 5, line 30 discloses each of the nodes includes a corresponding node log, which tracks and maintains modifications, edits, or deletions performed to the database tables by the respective nodes, where a catalog node may also be provided which retrieves a list of transactions performed in each of the node logs and references the list of transactions for a selected set of nodes, where the database system commonly employ transaction logs in order to provide transaction autonomy, where a transaction log is a file that records the state of the database before a modification is made and the state of the database after the modification has been made.), and post-move log records logged after the table movement and identifying the moved table as being included within the target tablespace (e.g. Richardson, see column 6, line 58 to column 8, line 50, which discloses the operation allows a user to scan all transactions of a specific type, where once the scan parameters are chosen, the log scanning algorithm scans the individual node transaction logs, the catalog, and any additional files for transactions that meet the selected scanning parameter. The rollback manager then assimilates the data received from the log scanner and provides an interface for the administrator to select the point to which the data in the database should be rolled-back and subsequently manages the rollback of the data. The Examiner notes that the rollback process is tracked and logged thereby illustrating most-move log records.); and
modify (e.g. Richardson, see column 7, lines 15-20[, which discloses operation parameters allow a user to scan all transaction of a specific type. Databases typically perform three types of activities: insert row, modify row, or delete which may be referred to simply as operations.) the pre-move log records to obtain updated pre-move log records identifying the moved table as being included within the target tablespace (e.g. Richardson, see column 7, line 50 to column 10, line 35, which discloses the rollback function accumulates all changes that are needed in order to reverse each operation in a temporary rollback table, the changes are recorded as full data row images that are either inserted or deleted from a corresponding table (e.g. target) and updates the transaction log.).
Although Richardson discloses querying a database, it does not explicitly disclose query a database to retrieve a table movement of a moved table from a source tablespace to a target tablespace within the database.
Dashbour teaches query a database (e.g. Dashbour, see paragraph [0040], which discloses the query processor receives database queries and processes them.) to retrieve a table movement of a moved table from a source tablespace to a target tablespace within the database (e.g. Dashbour, see paragraphs [0044-0045], which discloses a tablespace manager that manages tablespaces of the database system, where the database system supports commands to assign a table to a tablespace or to move a table from a source tablespace to a target tablespace, where as a result, the tablespace manager moves the data of the table from a file of the source tablespace to a file of the target tablespace, where data subsetting module moves the data of the tables to specific files so that the file copy module can be invoked.).
Richardson is directed to optimizing data recovery in a parallel database. Dashbour is directed to exporting subset of a database. Both are analogous art because they are directed to tablespace manipulation and therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify the teachings of Richardson with the teachings of Dashbour to include the claimed features with the motivation to improve data log efficiency.
As per claims 2, 12, and 18, the modified teachings of Richardson and Dahbour teaches the computer program product of claim 1, the method of claim 11, and the system of claim 17, respectively, wherein the instructions are further configured to cause the at least one computing device to:
query a catalog of the database to identify table movement activity, including a list of moved tables (e.g. Richardson, see column 7, line 50 to column 10, line 35, which discloses the a log scanner function allows the database to perform queries over the scanned transaction logs and determine the exact operation or a query that resulted in a corruption of data.); and
identify the table movement from the table movement activity, including identifying the moved table from the list of moved tables (e.g. Richardson, see column 6, line 58 to column 8, line 50, which discloses a log scanner may scan to determine (e.g. identify) a list of recent transaction, where the log information may include a time stamp, nature of change, source, target, etc.).
As per claims 3 and 13, the modified teachings of Richardson and Dahbour teaches the computer program product of claim 1 and the method of claim 11, respectively, wherein the instructions are further configured to cause the at least one computing device to:
distinguish the pre-move log records from the post-move log records by analyzing a log order value of each of the plurality of log records with respect to a movement time at which the table movement occurred (e.g. Richardson, see column 5, line 1 to column 6, line 65, which discloses each of the nodes includes a corresponding node log which tracks and maintains modifications, edits, or deletions performed to the database tables, by the respective nodes. The information regarding the nature of the modification, the time the modification has taken place and the data in the table before and after the modification, and other pertinent information regarding activities by the nodes is stored in the transaction logs.).
As per claim 4, the modified teachings of Richardson and Dahbour teaches the computer program product of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further configured to cause the at least one computing device to:
identify a reorganization process executed with respect to the database (e.g. Richardson, see column 5, line 1 to column 6, line 65, which discloses each of the nodes includes a corresponding node log which tracks and maintains modifications, edits, or deletions performed to the database tables, by the respective nodes. The information regarding the nature of the modification, the time the modification has taken place and the data in the table before and after the modification, and other pertinent information regarding activities by the nodes is stored in the transaction logs.); and
identify the table movement as occurring as part of the reorganization process (e.g. Richardson, see column 6, line 58 to column 8, line 50, which discloses the operation allows a user to scan all transactions of a specific type, where once the scan parameters are chosen, the log scanning algorithm scans the individual node transaction logs, the catalog, and any additional files for transactions that meet the selected scanning parameter. The rollback manager then assimilates the data received from the log scanner and provides an interface for the administrator to select the point to which the data in the database should be rolled-back and subsequently manages the rollback of the data.).
As per claim 5, the modified teachings of Richardson and Dahbour teaches the computer program product of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further configured to cause the at least one computing device to:
identify the table movement as occurring in response to a command of the database (e.g. Richardson, see column 6, line 58 to column 8, line 50, which discloses the operation allows a user to scan all transactions of a specific type, where once the scan parameters are chosen, the log scanning algorithm scans the individual node transaction logs, the catalog, and any additional files for transactions that meet the selected scanning parameter. The rollback manager then assimilates the data received from the log scanner and provides an interface for the administrator to select the point to which the data in the database should be rolled-back and subsequently manages the rollback of the data.).
As per claims 6, 14 and 19, the modified teachings of Richardson and Dahbour teaches the computer program product of claim 1, the method of claim 11, and the system of claim 17, respectively, wherein the database has a database identifier (ID) and includes the source tablespace with a source tablespace ID and the target tablespace with a target tablespace ID (e.g. Richardson, see column 5, line 35 to column 6, line 55, which discloses a transaction sequence begins with a log record, where every transaction sequence is uniquely identified by a transaction identifier assigned by the database system. A transaction ID field is present in every log record.), and wherein the instructions are further configured to cause the at least one computing device to:
identify the moved table within the pre-move log records using a combination of the database ID, the source tablespace ID, and a table ID of the moved table (e.g. Richardson, see column 6, line 58 to column 8, line 50, which discloses a log scanner may scan to determine (e.g. identify) a list of recent transaction, where the log information may include a time stamp, nature of change, source, target, etc.); and
change the source tablespace ID to the target tablespace ID within the pre-move log records to thereby obtain the updated pre-move log records (e.g. Richardson, see column 5, line 1 to column 6, line 65, which discloses each of the nodes includes a corresponding node log which tracks and maintains modifications, edits, or deletions performed to the database tables, by the respective nodes. The information regarding the nature of the modification, the time the modification has taken place and the data in the table before and after the modification, and other pertinent information regarding activities by the nodes is stored in the transaction logs.).
As per claims 7, 15, and 20, the modified teachings of Richardson and Dahbour teaches the computer program product of claim 1, the method of claim 11, and the system of claim 17, respectively, wherein the instructions are further configured to cause the at least one computing device to:
obtain the pre-move log records and the post-move log records from log records of the database (e.g. Richardson, see column 7, line 50 to column 10, line 35, which discloses the rollback function accumulates all changes that are needed in order to reverse each operation in a temporary rollback table, the changes are recorded as full data row images that are either inserted or deleted from a corresponding table (e.g. target) and updates the transaction log.);
store the pre-move log records and the post-move log records within a log record buffer to obtain stored pre-move log records and store post-move log records (e.g. Richardson, see column 7, line 50 to column 10, line 35, which discloses the rollback function accumulates all changes that are needed in order to reverse each operation in a temporary rollback table, the changes are recorded as full data row images that are either inserted or deleted from a corresponding table (e.g. target) and updates the transaction log.); and
update the stored pre-move log records within the log record buffer to obtain the updated pre-move log records stored within the log records buffer (e.g. Richardson, see column 7, line 50 to column 10, line 35, which discloses the rollback function accumulates all changes that are needed in order to reverse each operation in a temporary rollback table, the changes are recorded as full data row images that are either inserted or deleted from a corresponding table (e.g. target) and updates the transaction log.).
As per claim 8, the modified teachings of Richardson and Dahbour teaches the computer program product of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further configured to cause the at least one computing device to:
request the updated pre-move log records and the post-move log records using an identification of the target tablespace (e.g. Richardson, see column 7, line 50 to column 10, line 35, which discloses the rollback function accumulates all changes that are needed in order to reverse each operation in a temporary rollback table, the changes are recorded as full data row images that are either inserted or deleted from a corresponding table (e.g. target) and updates the transaction log.); and
execute processing of the updated pre-move log records and the post-move log records (e.g. Richardson, see column 7, line 50 to column 10, line 35, which discloses the rollback function accumulates all changes that are needed in order to reverse each operation in a temporary rollback table, the changes are recorded as full data row images that are either inserted or deleted from a corresponding table (e.g. target) and updates the transaction log.).
As per claims 9 and 16, the modified teachings of Richardson and Dahbour teaches the computer program product of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further configured to cause the at least one computing device to:
obtain, from a catalog of the database and in response to identifying the table movement, event data related to the source tablespace (e.g. Richardson, see column 6, line 58 to column 8, line 50, which discloses a log scanner may scan to determine (e.g. identify) a list of recent transaction, where the log information may include a time stamp, nature of change, source, target, etc.); and
process the updated pre-move log records and the post-move log records, using the event data to process the updated pre-move log records (e.g. Richardson, see column 7, line 50 to column 10, line 35, which discloses the rollback function accumulates all changes that are needed in order to reverse each operation in a temporary rollback table, the changes are recorded as full data row images that are either inserted or deleted from a corresponding table (e.g. target) and updates the transaction log.).
As per claim 10, the modified teachings of Richardson and Dahbour teaches the computer program product of claim 9, wherein the instructions are further configured to cause the at least one computing device to:
capture the event data prior to the table movement within an event repository that is external to the database (e.g. Richardson, see column 7, line 50 to column 10, line 35, which discloses the rollback function accumulates all changes that are needed in order to reverse each operation in a temporary rollback table, the changes are recorded as full data row images that are either inserted or deleted from a corresponding table (e.g. target) and updates the transaction log.).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure. See attached PTO-892 that includes additional prior art of record describing the general state of the art in which the invention is directed to.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FARHAN M SYED whose telephone number is (571)272-7191. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30AM-5:30PM.
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/FARHAN M SYED/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2161 September 15, 2026
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