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 § 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 1-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter.
Claims 1-9 does not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because it is directed to a computer readable recording medium which, given its broadest reasonable interpretation, would typically covers forms of both non-transitory tangible media and transitory propagating signals per se in view of the ordinary and customary meaning of a computer readable recording medium. 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 subject matter. In an effort to assist the patent community in overcoming the rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 101, the USPTO suggest the following approach. A claim drawn to such a medium (or the like) that covers both transitory and non-transitory embodiments may be amended to narrow the claim to cover only statutory embodiments to avoid a rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 101 by adding the limitation "non-transitory" to the claim. Such an amendment would typically not raise the issue of new matter, even when the specification is silent because the broadest reasonable interpretation relies on the ordinary and customary meaning that includes signals per se.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1-5, 10 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Urman et al (US 20210385169) in view of Okubo et al (US 20020181437).
As to claim 1 Urman discloses a computer-readable recording medium having stored therein an information processing program that causes an information processing apparatus to execute a processing comprising (Urman Fig.1, ¶0058, ¶0064): generating a first transmission frame and a second transmission frame by duplicating a transmission frame (Urman ¶0059- 3rd sentence- In FIG. 1, the plurality of packets 132 is illustrated as including packets P1-P3 but the plurality of packets 132 may include any number of packets. The sender communication apparatus 112 modifies the plurality of packets 132 to create a plurality of modified packets 134 and copies or duplicates the plurality of modified packets 134 to create a plurality of duplicate packets 136; Urman ¶0059- last two sentences- the sender communication apparatus 112 transmits the sent packets 138S, which include a plurality of modified packets 134S and a plurality of duplicate packets 136S sent separately over different communication paths through the network 106 to the receiver device 104. In other words, the sender communication apparatus 112 transmits the sent packets 138S in two or more separate streams to the receiver communication apparatus 124. Fig. 2 ¶0071- 4th sentence- the message 130 may include one or more video frames that are packetized by the sender communication apparatus 112 into video packets , Fig.2, ); transmitting the first transmission frame to a first network interface card (NIC); transmitting the second transmission frame to a second NIC; transmitting the first transmission frame in the first NIC to a network; and transmitting the second transmission frame in the second NIC to the network (Urman ¶0058- penultimate sentence- The sender and receiver communication apparatuses 112 and 124 may each be implemented as a network interface controller (“NIC”), a network interface card, a network adapter, a Local Area Network (“LAN”) adapter, a physical network interface, a host channel adapter (“HCA”), an Ethernet NIC, and the like ¶0059- last sentence- Then, the sender communication apparatus 112 transmits the sent packets 138S, which include a plurality of modified packets 134S and a plurality of duplicate packets 136S sent separately over different communication paths through the network 106 to the receiver device 104. In other words, the sender communication apparatus 112 transmits the sent packets 138S in two or more separate streams to the receiver communication apparatus 124).
Urman however is silent wherein the duplicated transmission frame are of a of a data link layer and are in response to accepting a transmission request for data that is used for process control. However, in an analogous art Ohkubo remedies this deficiency: (Ohkubo ¶0175- the data link transmission control unit 234 is functionally composed of functional blocks shown in FIG. 13. Namely, the data link transmission control unit 234 is composed of a selection block 234A configured to select one base station out of the base stations upon reception of packet storage notification from base stations and select one base station desired to transmit a packet addressed to the mobile station of its own, based on receiving qualities for the respective base stations; a transmission request block 234B configured to issue a request for transmission of a packet to the base station selected). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the teachings of Urman with that of Ohkubo for the purpose of transmitting duplicate frames simultaneously over independent NICs.
As to claim 2 the combined teachings of Urman and Ohkubo disclose the information processing program according to claim 1, wherein the information processing program further causes a second information processing apparatus to execute a processing comprising, performing duplicate detection on the first transmission frame and the second transmission frame based on a sequence number of a packet header in response to receiving the first transmission frame or the second transmission frame (Urman ¶0071- last sentence- the plurality of packet identifiers 222 may be implemented as other types of sequence numbers (e.g., generated in accordance with other standards) that may be stored in the packet identifier field 330 of the packet header 324 (see FIG. 3),; and discarding, when duplication of the first transmission frame and the second transmission frame has been detected, the first transmission frame or the second transmission frame that is received later (Urman ¶0062- 1st sentence- the receiver communication apparatus 124 keeps at most a single instance of each of the received packets 138R to obtain a plurality of received modified packets 140, and discards the rest of the received packets 138R; Urman ¶0094- 6th sentence- if the size of the sliding window is set to ten packets, the sliding window is expecting packet identifier values 1-10, the anti-replay engine 406 receives ten packets in this order [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11] within the sliding window, and the anti-replay engine 406 receives the eighth packet outside the sliding window, the anti-replay engine 406 will discard the eighth packet).
As to claim 3 the combined teachings of Urman and Ohkubo disclose the information processing program according to claim 1, wherein the processing further comprising, issuing an identifier for uniquely identifying the transmission frame (Urman ¶0069- 2nd sentence- The plurality of packet identifiers 222 include a unique packet identifier for each of the plurality of packets 132.); and assigning the identifier to the transmission frame, wherein the information processing program further causes a second information processing apparatus to execute a processing comprising, performing duplicate detection on the first transmission frame and the second transmission frame based on the identifier in response to receiving the first transmission frame or the second transmission frame (Umer ¶0062- 6th sentence- The receiver communication apparatus 124 may pass a first packet received with each of the particular packet identifiers, and drop or ignore subsequent packets received with duplicate packet identifiers or having a packet identifier that is not one of the particular packet identifiers. Each of the first packets received is placed in a packet location within the ordered data set according to the original order. The original order may be indicated by the packet identifier. ; and discarding, when duplication of the first transmission frame and the second transmission frame has been detected, the first transmission frame or the second transmission frame that is received later(Urman ¶0062- 1st sentence- the receiver communication apparatus 124 keeps at most a single instance of each of the received packets 138R to obtain a plurality of received modified packets 140, and discards the rest of the received packets 138R; Urman ¶0094- 6th sentence- if the size of the sliding window is set to ten packets, the sliding window is expecting packet identifier values 1-10, the anti-replay engine 406 receives ten packets in this order [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11] within the sliding window, and the anti-replay engine 406 receives the eighth packet outside the sliding window, the anti-replay engine 406 will discard the eighth packet).
As to claim 4 the combined teachings of Urman and Ohkubo disclose the information processing program according to claim 3, wherein the issuing the identifier for uniquely identifying the transmission frame includes issuing the identifier for each transmission destination of the transmission frame and for each transmission frame(Urman ¶0069- 2nd sentence- The plurality of packet identifiers 222 include a unique packet identifier for each of the plurality of packets 132.); Urman ¶0073- 1st and 2nd sentences- FIG. 3, the modified format 320 may be used to create each of the plurality of modified packets 134 and the plurality of duplicate packets 136 may also each have the format 320. The modified format 320 may include the destination address field 302, the source address field 304, the VLAN field 306, the payload field 308, and a redundancy header 322 (e.g., a RTAG header).
As to claim 5 the combined teachings of Urman and Ohkubo disclose the information processing program according to claim 3, wherein the assigning the identifier to the transmission frame includes assigning the identifier to an option area included in a header of the transmission frame (Umer ¶0102- 4ht sentence- the header 310 includes a respective packet identifier field 330 (e.g., storing the startPrbu value and/or PSN).
As to claims 10 and 11 Urman discloses an information processing method and apparatus comprising (100 of Fig. 1): a dual output unit (134 of Fig. 1; ¶0058- penultimate sentence- The sender and receiver communication apparatuses 112 and 124 may each be implemented as a network interface controller (“NIC”)) that is configured to generate a first transmission frame and a second transmission frame by duplicating a transmission frame; transmit the first transmission frame to a first network interface card (NIC); transmit the second transmission frame to a second NIC; transmit the first transmission frame in the first NIC to a network; and transmit the second transmission frame in the second NIC to the network (Urman ¶0059- last sentence- Then, the sender communication apparatus 112 transmits the sent packets 138S, which include a plurality of modified packets 134S and a plurality of duplicate packets 136S sent separately over different communication paths through the network 106 to the receiver device 104. In other words, the sender communication apparatus 112 transmits the sent packets 138S in two or more separate streams to the receiver communication apparatus 124).
Urman however is silent wherein the duplicated transmission frame are of a of a data link layer and are in response to accepting a transmission request for data that is used for process control. However, in an analogous art Ohkubo remedies this deficiency: Ohkubo ¶0175- the data link transmission control unit 234 is functionally composed of functional blocks shown in FIG. 13. Namely, the data link transmission control unit 234 is composed of a selection block 234A configured to select one base station out of the base stations upon reception of packet storage notification from base stations and select one base station desired to transmit a packet addressed to the mobile station of its own, based on receiving qualities for the respective base stations; a transmission request block 234B configured to issue a request for transmission of a packet to the base station selected). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the teachings of Urman with that of Ohkubo for the purpose of purpose of transmitting duplicate frames simultaneously over independent NICs.
Claim(s) 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Urman in view of Okubo and further in view of Kandasamy et al (US 20200137628).
As to claim 6 the combined teachings of Urman and Ohkubo disclose the information processing program according to claim 3, however silent wherein the assigning the identifier to the transmission frame includes assigning the identifier to an option area included in a datagram header of a network layer. However, in an analogous art Kandasamy remedies this deficiency: Kandasamy ¶0129- The source proxy 303 then encapsulates each SCM into an IP datagram at the modified network layer 3133 and applies header compression to the IP header of the IP datagram, header compression providing a header compression residue and a rule identifier related to the connection identifier comprised in the header of the SCM packet. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the combined teachings of Urman and Ohkubo with that of Kandasamy for the purpose of error detection at the network layer.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7-9 are 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 DERRICK V ROSE whose telephone number is (571)270-7460. The examiner can normally be reached 9am- 6pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, YEMANE MESFIN can be reached at 571-272-3927. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/DERRICK V ROSE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462
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