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 .
Terminal Disclaimer
The terminal disclaimer filed on 8/5/2026 disclaiming the terminal portion of any patent granted on this application which would extend beyond the expiration date of U.S. Patent Number 12,074,766 has been reviewed and is accepted. The terminal disclaimer has been recorded.
Response to Amendment
The applicant’s amendments have overcome the rejections presented in the previous office actions based on 112a and 112b.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-3 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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.
Claim(s) 1-3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Number 6,445,679 by Taniguchi et al. in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication Number 2011/0310737 by Klingenbrunn et al.
As to claim 1, Taniguchi teaches a communication control system (Figure 30, stream transfer device in reception node 13) comprising: a memory; and a processor coupled to the memory, the processor being configured to: according to an instruction from an external device, cause a relay device (relay node 12) on a network including a communication device (stream transfer device 20) to change a network setting of the network (col. 4, lines 61-65 and col. 7, lines 59-67, setting and operation section 131 is external to device 20); after the network setting has been changed (col. 37, lines 36-42), determine whether or not communication of the communication device matches a specific communication condition (col. 37, lines 42-64), wherein the specific communication condition includes the communication being performed at a specific cycle (col. 2, lines 44-65); however Taniguchi does not notify an error to the external device in response to determining that the communication of the communication device does not match the specific communication condition.
Klingenbrunn teaches notifying a user of an external device of an error in response to determining that a communication of a communication device does not match the specific communication condition (paragraph 113, a user can be notified when QOS conditions are not satisfactory).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the network management art at the time of the applicant’s filing to combine the teachings of Taniguchi regarding managing network settings at a relay device with the teachings of Klingenbrunn regarding notifying an external device of an error when communications do not match a specific (QOS) condition because such information could be helpful to the user that specifies the settings to device 131 in Taniguchi and would not require substantial modification to notify the user of the information already monitored by QOS controller in the stream transfer device of the reception node of Taniguchi.
As to claim 2, Taniguchi teaches a communication control system (Figure 30, stream transfer device in reception node 13) comprising: a memory; and a processor coupled to the memory, the processor being configured to: according to an instruction from an external device (col. 4, lines 61-65 and col. 7, lines 59-67, setting and operation section 131 is external to device 20), cause a relay device (relay node 12) on a network including a communication device (stream transfer device 20 in relay node 12) to change a network setting of the network (col. 37, lines 36-42); after the network setting has been changed, determine whether or not communication of the communication device matches a specific communication condition (col. 37, lines 42-64), wherein the specific communication condition wherein the specific communication condition includes communication being performed in a specific communication quantity range (col. 4, lines 40-60); however Taniguchi does not notify an error to the external device in response to determining that the communication of the communication device does not match the specific communication condition.
Klingenbrunn teaches notifying a user of an external device of an error in response to determining that a communication of a communication device does not match the specific communication condition (paragraph 113, a user can be notified when QOS conditions are not satisfactory).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the network management art at the time of the applicant’s filing to combine the teachings of Taniguchi regarding managing network settings at a relay device with the teachings of Klingenbrunn regarding notifying an external device of an error when communications do not match a specific (QOS) condition because such information could be helpful to the user that specifies the settings to device 131 in Taniguchi and would not require substantial modification to notify the user of the information already monitored by QOS controller in the stream transfer device of the reception node of Taniguchi.
As to claim 3, it is rejected for the same reasoning as claims 1 and/or 2.
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 DOUGLAS B BLAIR whose telephone number is (571)272-3893. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9am-5pm.
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/DOUGLAS B BLAIR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2454
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