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 .
Priority
Applicant’s claim for the benefit of a prior-filed application under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, 365(c), or 386(c) is acknowledged.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 7/18/24 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 1-16 and 19-25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sankaran et al., United States Patent Publication 20150324346 (hereinafter “Sankaran”), in view of Gould et al., United States Patent Publication 2005/0114368 (hereinafter “Gould”).
Claim 1:
Sankaran discloses:
A method of qualifying a join to be performed within a spreadsheet data visualizer that accepts a list of values as input, displaying those qualified joinable fields in spreadsheet data visualizer populating selection lists, and in the spreadsheet data visualizer joining and using the fields to populate the visualizer chart, including:
receiving a user input setting at least one input of a spreadsheet data visualizer (see paragraph [0046]). Sankaran teaches receiving a user input selection for a spreadsheet viewer;
accessing a join qualification flag for joinability of the first data set with at least a second data set via a first join key field in the first data set and a second join key field in the second data set (see paragraph [0046]). Sankaran teaches accessing a match metric that represents a joinability between field within the first and second data sets;
responsive to the specified field in the first data set and the join qualification flag for joinability of the first data set and the second data set, automatically displaying a list including a plurality of fields of the second data set, receiving a user selection from the list of a field from the second data set, and populating an input of the spreadsheet data visualizer with the selected field from the second data set (see paragraphs [0046]-[0048]). Sankaran teaches displaying a preview of the data that can be/is matched;
joining the specified field from the first set and the selected field from the second data set employing an application default or user specified join type employing the first join key field in the first data set and the second join key field in the second data set to produce a list of joined values (see paragraphs [0047] and [0048]). Sankaran teaches joining and unifying the fields and data that are computed to have good joinability; and
using the list of values in the joined data to create the spreadsheet visualizer chart (see paragraphs [0055] and [0076]). Sankaran teaches using the combined data and the preview to create a view of the combined data.
Sankaran fails to expressly disclose selecting specific spreadsheets field to unify.
Gould discloses:
wherein the input is a specified field in a first data set (see paragraph [0076]). Gould teaches the input is a specified field of the data set.
accessing a join qualification flag for joinability of the first data set with at least a second data set via a first join key field in the first data set and a second join key field in the second data set (see paragraph [0124]). Gould teaches accessing a flag that represents the joinability of a field from a first data set and a field in a second data set;
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method disclosed by Sankaran to include selecting specific fields as an input to the join function for the purpose of being user friendly selecting specific data to unify, as taught by Gould.
Claim 2:
Sankaran fails to expressly disclose the flag being set before user input.
Gould discloses:
wherein the join qualification flag is set before user input in the visualizer chart input (see paragraph [0139]). Gould teaches the flag for joinability is set before the user input.
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method disclosed by Sankaran to include the joinability flag being set before the user input into the join function for the purpose of efficiently validating data before using the data in the join function, as taught by Gould.
Claim 3:
Sankaran discloses:
wherein the join of the first and second data sets requires no visible joining input or joining function input in the visualizer inputs panel (see paragraphs [0057], [0066] and [0085]). Sankaran teaches the joining function can be performed automatically.
Claim 4:
Sankaran discloses:
wherein the join of the first and second data sets includes a visible joining input or joining function input in the visualizer inputs panel (see paragraphs [0066]). Sankaran teaches the user selects the type of unifying action desired for creating the composite spreadsheet.
Claim 5:
Sankaran discloses:
wherein the joining input or joining function input specifies the join type (see paragraphs [0066]). Sankaran teaches the user selects the type of unifying action desired for creating the composite spreadsheet.
Claim 6:
Sankaran discloses:
wherein the joining input or joining function input specifies the join keys (see paragraphs [0072]-[0074]). Sankaran teaches the user selects the join keys for the join function.
Claim 7:
Sankaran discloses:
wherein a type of join and/or the join keys can be changed via inclusion in the spreadsheet data visualizer inputs of a joining input or joining function input changing the type of join and/or changing the join keys used by the join (see paragraph [0072]-[0074]). Sankaran teaches allowing the user to make a selection/changing of the keys for the joining function.
Claim 8:
Sankaran fails to expressly disclose the flag being stored with the first and second data set.
Gould discloses:
wherein the join qualification flag for the first and second data set is stored with and accessed with first data and second sets (see paragraph [0139]). Gould teaches the flag for joinability is set and stored as an entry in the data/log file.
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method disclosed by Sankaran to include the joinability flag being set and stored in the data for the purpose of efficiently validating data before using the data in the join function, as taught by Gould.
Claim 9:
Sankaran discloses:
wherein the join qualification flag for the first and second data set is stored within the spreadsheet (see paragraph [0163]). Sankaran teaches the join flag can be stored in the source spreadsheet.
Claim 10:
Sankaran discloses:
wherein a join can be added via a spreadsheet visualizer join input or a join prebuilt function input inputted within the spreadsheet visualizer inputs (see paragraph [0073]). Sankaran teaches the join is a prebuilt function selected by drop-down menu.
Claim 11:
Sankaran fails to expressly disclose selecting specific spreadsheets field to unify.
Gould discloses:
wherein fields in joinable data sets are displayed in a single list for selection (see paragraphs [0076] and [0174]). Gould teaches the input is a specified field displayed for selection.
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method disclosed by Sankaran to include selecting specific fields as an input to the join function for the purpose of being user friendly selecting specific data to unify, as taught by Gould.
Claim 12:
Sankaran discloses:
wherein a join can be added via a spreadsheet visualizer join input or a join prebuilt function input inputted within the spreadsheet visualizer inputs (see paragraph [0073]). Sankaran teaches the join is a prebuilt function selected by drop-down menu.
Claim 13:
Sankaran fails to expressly disclose a SQL type.
Gould discloses:
wherein the join type for the joining is an SQL join type (see paragraphs [0077]). Gould teaches using an SQL join type.
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method disclosed by Sankaran to include an SQL join type for the purpose of efficiently joining data using a variety of comment data system formats, as taught by Gould.
Claim 14:
Sankaran discloses:
wherein the joined fields are used in a prebuilt function formula within the visualizer input (see paragraphs [0064], [0073] and [0074]). Sankaran teaches the join is a prebuilt function selected by drop-down menu containing data to join multiple formats.
Claim 15:
Sankaran discloses:
wherein a spreadsheet visualizer input formula includes multiple prebuilt spreadsheet functions combined by one or more algebraic operators (see paragraphs [0068]-[0071]). Sankaran teaches the view includes being able to view multiple formats and combine data into a common forms being performed by prebuilt spreadsheet functions.
Claim 16:
Sankaran discloses:
wherein the data sets are data tables external to the spreadsheet (see paragraph [0042]). Sankaran teaches the data being external to the spreadsheet.
Claims 19-22:
Although Claims 19-22 are non-transitory computer readable memory claims, they are interpreted and rejected for the same reasons as the method of Claims 1-4, respectively.
Claims 23-25:
Although Claims 23-25 are system claims, they are interpreted and rejected for the same reasons as the method of Claims 1, 11 and 12, respectively.
Claims 17 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sankaran, in view of Gould, in further view of et al., United States Patent Publication 2005/0114368 (hereinafter “Gould”).
Claim 17:
Sankaran and Gould fail to expressly disclose ranges of data or tables within spreadsheet cells.
Kotler discloses:
wherein the data sets are ranges of data or tables within cells of the spreadsheet (see column 7 lines 9-25). Kotler teaches nested tables within spreadsheet cells.
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method disclosed by Sankaran and Gould to include tables within spreadsheet cells for the purpose of efficiently handling interdependencies within spreadsheet data, as taught by Kotler.
Claim 18:
Sankaran discloses:
wherein the data sets are data tables external to the spreadsheet (see paragraph [0042]). Sankaran teaches the data being external to the spreadsheet.
Sankaran and Gould fail to expressly disclose ranges of data or tables within spreadsheet cells.
Kotler discloses:
wherein the data sets are a combination of ranges of data or tables within cells of the spreadsheet (see column 7 lines 9-25). Kotler teaches nested tables within spreadsheet cells.
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method disclosed by Sankaran and Gould to include tables within spreadsheet cells for the purpose of efficiently handling interdependencies within spreadsheet data, as taught by Kotler.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TIONNA M BURKE whose telephone number is (571)270-7259. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8a-4p.
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/TIONNA M BURKE/Examiner, Art Unit 2178 6/13/26
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