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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-11 and 13-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Segre et al. (US Pub 2015/0271249).
Regarding claim 1, Segre discloses a method performed by a survivability server associated with a contact center service, comprising:
determining that the contact center service operating in survivability mode is transitioned to a normal mode (para 0069; 0078, 0144-0145; fig. 5);
identifying an idle agent not engaged with an end user, the idle agent connected to the survivability server (para 0095, 0120);
transmitting a request to a device of the idle agent to connect to a central server associated with the contact center service (para 0150-0151, 0153; 0149, 0169);
identifying an engaged agent (para 0100, 0120); and
waiting until the engaged agent becomes idle prior to transmitting a request to a device of the engaged agent to connect to the central server (para 0120 – “stop the redirection of telephony communication to the CC branch nodes and instead target requests back to the data center 500, enabling graceful transition instead of abrupt disconnection of current calls”).
Regarding claim 2, Segre discloses further comprising: transmitting, to the central server, queue-related data indicating queued end users at the survivability server (para 0068).
Regarding claim 3, Segre discloses wherein the central server restores the queued end users into a queue associated with the central server based on the queue (para 0153 – “enabling graceful transition instead of abrupt disconnection of current calls”).
Regarding claim 4, Segre discloses further comprising:
stop connecting queued end users to agents at the survivability server based on determining that the contact center service is transitioned to the normal mode (para 0147-0151, 0153).
Regarding claim 5, Segre discloses wherein determining that the contact center service operating in the survivability mode is transitioned to the normal mode comprises:
receiving an indication from the central server indicating that the contact center service is transitioned to the normal mode (para 0143, 0147).
Regarding claim 6, Segre discloses further comprising: transmitting, to the central server, data related to contact center requests received at the survivability server while the contact center service is in the survivability mode (para 0069).
Regarding claim 7, Segre discloses further comprising: transmitting an alert to the idle agent indicating that the contact center service will be transitioned to normal mode (para 0153).
Regarding claim 8, Segre discloses wherein identifying the idle agent comprises:
querying a data store storing agent status information; and selecting an agent whose status is marked as idle (para 0095, 0120).
Regarding claim 9 and 15, see rejection of claim 1.
Regarding claim 10 and 16, see rejection of claim 2.
Regarding claim 11, see rejection of claim 4.
Regarding claim 13, see rejection of claim 6.
Regarding claim 14 and 20, see rejection of claim 8.
Regarding claim 17, Segre discloses transmitting notifications to queued end users to reconnect to the contact center service (para 0153).
Regarding claim 18, see rejection of claim 5.
Regarding claim 19, see rejection of claim 5.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 12 is 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NAFIZ E HOQUE whose telephone number is (571)270-1811. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8-5.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ahmad Matar can be reached at (571)272-7488. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/NAFIZ E HOQUE/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2693