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 in response to the Amendment filed on 03/03/2026.
In the instant Amendment, claims 1, 6 and 8 have been amended and claims 1 and 8 are independent claims. Claims 1-14 have been examined and are pending. This Action is made FINAL.
Response to Arguments
The claim objection of claim 14 withdrawn as the claims have been amended.
Applicant argues that “The claims do not use the term "means for." The recited modules are not nonce placeholders but are defined functional components within a processor-implemented architecture. Each module is explicitly tied to specific structural and algorithmic disclosures in the specification.”
The Examiner respectfully disagrees with the Appellant. The Examiner respectfully submits that the specification fails to disclose sufficient corresponding structures for the claim means-plus functions. As addressed in MPEP 2181 and ‘Federal Register,’ Vol. 76, No. 27, issued on February 09, 2011, “[f]or a computer-implemented means-plus-function claim limitation invoking § 112, ¶ 6, the corresponding structure is required to be more than simply a general purpose computer or microprocessor;” “[t]he structure corresponding to a § 112, ¶ 6 claim limitation for a computer-implemented function must include the algorithm needed to transform the general purpose computer or microprocessor disclosed in the specification. The corresponding structure is not simply a general-purpose computer by itself but the special purpose computer as programmed to perform the disclosed algorithm. Thus, the specification must sufficiently disclose an algorithm to transform a general-purpose microprocessor to the special purpose computer” and “[a] rejection under § 112, ¶ 2 is appropriate if the specification discloses no corresponding algorithm associated with a computer or microprocessor.” Nowhere does the specification disclose corresponding algorithm to transform general purpose computer to the special purpose computer to perform claimed means-plus function recited in claim 1. At most, in paragraphs [0046]- [0059] and [0082-0083], the specification discusses “an exemplary computer system in which or with which embodiments of the present disclosure may be utilized. As shown in FIG. 9, a computer system 900 includes an external storage device 914, a bus 912, a main memory 906, a read-only memory 908, a mass storage device 910, a communication port 904, and a processor 902. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that computer system 900 may include more than one processor 902 and communication ports 904. Examples of processor 902 include, but are not limited to, an Intel® Itanium® or Itanium 2 processor(s), or AMD® Opteron® or Athlon MP® processor(s), Motorola® lines of processors, FortiSOC™ system on chip processors or other future processors. The processor 902 may include various modules associated with embodiments of the present disclosure.” Specification does not disclose the processing circuitry, memory, and system components implementing these modules. As the specification does not provide sufficient corresponding structure for the claimed means-plus function, the claim is found invalid as indefinite. “If there is no structure in the specification corresponding to the means-plus-function limitation in the claims, the claims will be found invalid as indefinite.” Biomedino, LLC vs. Waters Technology Corp., 490 F.3d 946, 950 (Fed. Cir. 2007). Therefore, the rejections of claim 1-14, under 35 U.S.C. 112, second paragraph are proper. See also Aristocrat Techs. Australia Pty Ltd, v. Int’l Game Tech., 521 F.3d 1328 (Fed. Cir. 2008) and Finisar Corp. v. The DirecTV Group, Inc., 523 F.3d 1323 (Fed. Cir. 2008).
Applicants’ arguments with respect to claims 1-14 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection.
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 1-14 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 limitations “a query-receiving module configured to receive….,” “a query parser module configured to perform….,” “a data source selection module configured to select….,” “a custom private data query module to….” and “a query resolver module configured to resolve….” have been interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), sixth paragraph, because it uses a non-structural term “query-receiving module,” “query parser module,” “data source selection module,” “ custom private data query module,” and “query resolver module” coupled with functional language “configured to…” without reciting sufficient structure to achieve the function. Furthermore, the non-structural term is not preceded by a structural modifier. Applicant’s specification fails to provide a clear definition to the terms.
Since these claim limitations invokes 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), sixth paragraph, claim 1 is interpreted to cover the corresponding structure described in the specification that achieves the claimed functions, and equivalents thereof. However, the written description fails to disclose the corresponding structure, material, or acts for performing the entire claimed function and to clearly link the structure, material, or acts to the function. No association between the structure and the function can be found in the specification 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.
Applicant may:
(a) Amend the claim so that the claim limitation will no longer be interpreted as a limitation under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), sixth paragraph; or
(b) Amend the written description of the specification such that it clearly links or associates the corresponding structure, material, or acts to the claimed function, without introducing any new matter (35 U.S.C. 132(a)); or
(c) State on the record where the corresponding structure, material, or acts are set forth in the written description of the specification and linked or associated to the claimed function. For more information, see 37 CFR 1.75(d) and MPEP §§ 608.01(o) and 2181.
If applicant wishes to provide further explanation or dispute the examiner’s interpretation of the corresponding structure, applicant must identify the corresponding structure with reference to the specification by page and line number, and to the drawing, if any, by reference characters in response to this Office action.
If applicant does not wish to have the claim limitation treated under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), sixth paragraph, applicant may amend the claim so that it will clearly not invoke 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), sixth paragraph, or present a sufficient showing that the claim recites sufficient structure, material, or acts for performing the claimed function to preclude application of 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), sixth paragraph.
For more information, see MPEP § 2173 et seq. and Supplementary Examination Guidelines for Determining Compliance with 35 U.S.C. § 112 and for Treatment of Related Issues in Patent Applications, 76 FR 7162, 7167 (Feb. 9, 2011).
Regarding claims 2-7 and 14; Claims 2-7 and 14 are depend from claim 1 and are analyzed and rejected accordingly.
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 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 of this title, 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 1-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Avalani (US 2020/0050694), in view of Sharifi (US 2023/0153410) and further in view of Hunter (US 2023/0059494).
Regarding claim 1, Avalani discloses a system for seamless execution of a complex query (Avalani par. 0029; Complex query planning and execution for multiple different data formats), the system comprising:
a query-receiving module configured to receive, at a first user device, a complex query comprising of two or more sub-queries, wherein to resolve at least a first sub-query of the two or more sub-queries access to a private data is required (Avalani par. 0047 and 0059; Processing node(s) 420 may implement query processing 422 or other features of a query engine which may perform multiple different sub-queries (e.g., processing operations) and support multiple different data formats. As noted earlier, remote data processing clients 626 may be implemented by a client library, plugin, driver or other component that sends request sub-queries, such as sub-quer(ies) 632a, 632b, and 632n to format independent data processing service 220. As noted above, in some embodiments, format independent data processing service 220 may implement a common network endpoint to which request sub-quer(ies) 632 are directed, and then may dispatch the requests to respective processing nodes, such as processing nodes 640a, 640b, and 640n. See also par. 0020, 0027, 0029 and 0038);
a query parser module configured to, using a query tree construction logic, perform dependency parsing of the received complex query to determine the two or more sub-queries and an associated dependency order (Avalani par. 0047 and 0062; Processing node(s) 420 may implement query processing 422 or other features of a query engine which may perform multiple different sub-queries (e.g., processing operations) and support multiple different data formats. For example, query processing 422 may implement separate tuple scanners for each data format which may be used to perform scan operations that scan data 432 and which may filter or project from the scanned data, search (e.g., using a regular expression) or sort (e.g., using a defined sort order) the scanned data, aggregate values in the scanned data (e.g., count, minimum value, maximum value, and summation), and/or group by or limit results in the scanned data. For example, query planner 710 may perform various query planning techniques, such as generating a parse tree from a query statement, applying various rewrites or rules-based optimizations to modify the parse tree (e.g., reordering different operations such as join operations), generating different plans for performing the parsed/modified tree, and applying cost estimation techniques to determine estimated costs of the different plans in order to select a least costly plan as the query plan 712 to perform query. See also par. 0040);
a data source selection module configured to select one or more data sources from a plurality of data sources, for accessing the private data, based on any or combination of user settings, historical access of data types from the plurality of data sources, success records of similar private data queries from the plurality of data sources, and analysis of metadata associated with each of the plurality of data sources (Avalani par. 0042 and 0046; Format independent data processing service 220 may implement a control plane 410 and multiple processing node(s) 420 to execute processing requests received from remote data processing client(s) 402. Control plane 410 may arbitrate, balance, select, or dispatch requests to different processing node(s) 420 in various embodiments. Processing node(s) 420 may have fast data processing rates. Processing node(s) 420 may implement client authentication/identification 421 to determine whether a remote data processing client 402 has the right to access data 432 in storage service 430. For example, client authentication/identification 421 may evaluate access credentials, such as a username and password, token, or other identity indicator by attempting to connect with storage service 430 using the provided access credentials. If the connection attempt is unsuccessful, then the data processing node 402 may send an error indication to remote data processing client 402. See also par. 0025);
a custom private data query module configured to:
generate and send at least one of: a private data access request, access attributes, and a custom message for access approver for the selected one or more data sources (Avalani par. 0052; Leader node 510 may also manage the communications among compute nodes 520 instructed to carry out database operations for data stored in the processing cluster 500. For example, node-specific query instructions 504 may be generated or compiled code by query execution 514 that is distributed by leader node 510 to various ones of the compute nodes 520 to carry out the steps needed to perform query 501. See also par. 0025 and 0036); and
receive the private data and inputs against each of the access attributes based on approval and interaction of the access approver (Avalani par. 0052; Leader node 510 may also manage the communications among compute nodes 520 instructed to carry out database operations for data stored in the processing cluster 500. For example, node-specific query instructions 504 may be generated or compiled code by query execution 514 that is distributed by leader node 510 to various ones of the compute nodes 520 to carry out the steps needed to perform query 501, including executing the code to generate intermediate results of query 501 at individual compute nodes may be sent back to the leader node 510. Leader node 510 may receive data and query responses or results from compute nodes 520 in order to determine a final result 503 for query 501. See also par. 0053 and 0055); and
a query resolver module configured to resolve the first sub-query based on the received private data and subsequently resolving other sub-queries of the complex query based on the resolved first sub-query and the associated dependency order (Avalani par. 0052-0053; A database schema, data format and/or other metadata information for the data stored among the compute nodes, such as the data tables stored in the cluster, may be managed and stored by leader node 510. Query planning 512 may account for remotely stored data by generating node-specific query instructions that include remote operations to be directed by individual compute node(s). As discussed in more detail below with regard to FIG. 7, a leader node may implement burst manager 515 to send 506 a query plan generated by query planning 512 to be performed at a burst processing cluster and return results 508 received from the burst processing cluster to a client as part of results 503. a result cache 519 may be implemented as part of leader node 510. For example, as query results are generated, the results may also be stored in result cache 519 (or pointers to storage locations that store the results either in primary processing cluster 500 or in external storage locations), in some embodiments. Result cache 519 may be used instead of burst capacity, in some embodiments, by recognizing queries which would otherwise be sent to a burst processing cluster to be performed that have results stored in result cache 519. See also par. 0054).
Avalani teaches, a query resolver module configured to resolve the first sub-query (Avalani par. 0052). However, Avalani does not explicitly disclose wherein a query resolver module configured to resolve the first sub-query based on the received private data.
However, in an analogous art, Sharifi teaches a query resolver module configured to resolve the first sub-query based on the received private data (Sharifi par. 0030 and 0035; Personal information pertaining to a particular user may be stored in a central location such as a centralized data store hosted by a cloud service provider and managed by a profile service of the cloud service provider. The profile service 170 may verify the identity of the user and verify that the user 10 consents to releasing the personal information 200 to the assistant service 300 and then release the requested personal information 200 to the assistants service 300 to fulfill the query 20 without requiring the user 10 to input the personal information in full).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the teachings of Sharifi with the method and system of Avalani, wherein a query resolver module configured to resolve the first sub-query based on the received private data to provide users with a means for fulfill the query without requiring the user to input the personal information in full (Sharifi par. 0035).
Avalani teaches, query planner perform various query planning techniques, such as generating a parse tree from a query statement, applying various rewrites or rules-based optimizations to modify the parse tree (Avalani par. 0062) and Sharifi teaches a query resolver module configured to resolve the first sub-query based on the received private data (Sharifi par. 0030 and 0035) . However, Avalani and Sharifi do not explicitly disclose wherein the query tree construction logic creates a structured representation of the complex query in the form of a query tree visually and logically maps out the relationships and dependencies among the two or more sub-queries.
However, in an analogous art, Hunter teaches wherein the query tree construction logic creates a structured representation of the complex query in the form of a query tree visually and logically maps out the relationships and dependencies among the two or more sub-queries (Hunter par. 0058-0059, 0080 and 0093; Generally, phrase structure parsing uses the theory of context free grammars to produce a parse tree where the leaves are words and internal nodes are nested phrases of different syntactic types (constituents) such as verb phrases and noun phrases that serve to group syntactically related words. Whereas syntactic parsing converts a sentence to a phrase or dependency tree, deep semantic parsing using predicate logic may convert a sentence into logical formulas that embodies the meaning in some sense or domain. Furthermore, some embodiments may generate visual display representing of the program state data to show the directed graph and its associated statuses, categories, or other information. For example, as further described below, some embodiments may display the directed graph as a set of UI elements structured as a hierarchy tree in a web application. A graphical user interface (GUI), such as a web interface, may provide for visual presentation of succinct, interactive maps of ROP summaries (e.g., including how they inherit from each other hierarchically or by reference), which can provide visual and interactive search and navigation facility using the annotated document. See also par. 0177).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the teachings of Hunter with the method and system of Avalani and Sharifi, wherein the query tree construction logic creates a structured representation of the complex query in the form of a query tree visually and logically maps out the relationships and dependencies among the two or more sub-queries to provide users with a means for display of a search result for a query of a data structure generated (Hunter par. 0178).
Regarding claim 2, Avalani, Sharifi and Hunter disclose the system of claim 1,
Sharifi further discloses wherein the complex query is at least one of: a text query or a voice query (Sharifi par. 0041; Subsequently, the user 10 inputs the personal information 200 (e.g., by spoken input or textual input) to the user device 110 for use by the assistant service 300 to fulfill the query ).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the teachings of Sharifi with the method and system of Avalani and Hunter, wherein a query resolver module configured to resolve the first sub-query based on the received private data to provide users with a means for fulfill the query without requiring the user to input the personal information in full (Sharifi par. 0035).
Regarding claim 3, Avalani, Sharifi and Hunter disclose the system of claim 1,
Avalani further discloses wherein the private data access request along with the access attributes, and the custom message is presented to the access approver (Avalani par. 0052; Leader node 510 may also manage the communications among compute nodes 520 instructed to carry out database operations for data stored in the processing cluster 500. For example, node-specific query instructions 504 may be generated or compiled code by query execution 514 that is distributed by leader node 510 to various ones of the compute nodes 520 to carry out the steps needed to perform query 501. See also par. 0025 and 0036).
Regarding claim 4, Avalani, Sharifi and Hunter disclose the system of claim 1,
Avalani further discloses wherein the access attributes comprise at least one of: information indicative of a retention period of the private data, permitted application that will use the private data, and specific context in which the private data is to be used (Avalani par. 0067; In at least some embodiments, burst manager 730 may be configured via user and/or control plane requests. For example, as discussed below with regard to FIG. 8, events that trigger the request for a burst processing cluster may be specified (e.g., scheduled time periods that a burst cluster may be active, the level of utilization of query execution slot(s)/queue(s) 760 before using a burst cluster, to enable/disable predictive burst processing which may allow burst manager 730 to perform time series or other types of analysis to determine when burst capacity may be needed for a database and preemptively obtain burst processing cluster(s) to meet the determined need).
Regarding claim 5, Avalani, Sharifi and Hunter disclose the system of claim 1,
Sharifi further discloses wherein the received private data is used, maintained, or deleted based on the inputs received against each of the access attributes from the access approver (Sharifi par. 0030 and 0035; Personal information pertaining to a particular user may be stored in a central location such as a centralized data store hosted by a cloud service provider and managed by a profile service of the cloud service provider. The profile service 170 may verify the identity of the user and verify that the user 10 consents to releasing the personal information 200 to the assistant service 300 and then release the requested personal information 200 to the assistants service 300 to fulfill the query 20 without requiring the user 10 to input the personal information in full).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the teachings of Sharifi with the method and system of Avalani and Hunter, wherein a query resolver module configured to resolve the first sub-query based on the received private data to provide users with a means for fulfill the query without requiring the user to input the personal information in full (Sharifi par. 0035).
Regarding claim 6, Avalani, Sharifi and Hunter disclose the system of claim 1,
Avalani further discloses wherein the custom message generated is a natural language message comprising at least one of: a reason for the access request, a potential impact of the data access, and a duration for which the data will be used (Avalani par. 0067; In at least some embodiments, burst manager 730 may be configured via user and/or control plane requests. For example, as discussed below with regard to FIG. 8, events that trigger the request for a burst processing cluster may be specified (e.g., scheduled time periods that a burst cluster may be active, the level of utilization of query execution slot(s)/queue(s) 760 before using a burst cluster, to enable/disable predictive burst processing which may allow burst manager 730 to perform time series or other types of analysis to determine when burst capacity may be needed for a database and preemptively obtain burst processing cluster(s) to meet the determined need).
Regarding claim 7, Avalani, Sharifi and Hunter disclose the system of claim 1,
Avalani further discloses wherein the first user device is one of a smart assistant device, a mobile phone, a tablet computer, or a general-purpose computer (Avalani par. 0087; In different embodiments, computer system 2000 may be any of various types of devices, including, but not limited to, a personal computer system, desktop computer, laptop, notebook, or netbook computer, mainframe computer system, handheld computer, workstation, network computer, a camera, a set top box, a mobile device, a consumer device, video game console, handheld video game device, application server, storage device, a peripheral device such as a switch, modem, router, or in general any type of computing node, compute node, computing device, compute device, or electronic device).
Regarding claims 8-14; claims 8-14 are directed to a method/system associated with the system claimed in claims 1-7 respectively. Claims 8-14 are similar in scope to claims 1-7 respectively, and are therefore rejected under similar rationale respectively.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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 nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) 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 SANCHIT K SARKER whose telephone number is (571)270-7907. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30 AM-5:30 PM.
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, FARID HOMAYOUNMEHR can be reached at 571-272-3739. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SANCHIT K SARKER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2495