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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on August 7, 2024, February 6, 2025, June 2, 2025, and June 13, 2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the Examiner.
Claim Objections
Claims 10 and 18 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 10, line 1: insert –to—after “redirected”.
Claim 18, line 2: insert –to—after “redirected”.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-7, 9-15, and 17-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Parthasarathy (US# 2020/0134479).
Regarding claim 1, Parthasarathy teaches a container-attached storage facility comprising: a cloud-resident (distributed storage) containerized control module [virtualized controller, 0082 & 0086; see also 0104 for executable storage container such as virtual disk controller 876/826] situated in a Kubernetes Pod [0105, lines 3-5]; and a plurality of storage devices organized into a common access space [0057, lines 1-4] and accessible by the cloud-resident containerized control module [0110], wherein, responsive to receiving a storage I/O request referencing a portion of storage addressable by the common access space, the cloud-resident containerized control module redirects the storage I/O request to a storage device of the common access space [0113].
Regarding claim 2, Parthasarathy teaches wherein storage I/O is redirected to at least one instance of the storage devices of the common access space forms a cloud-provided block storage facility [0102, lines 20-35].
Regarding claim 3, Parthasarathy teaches wherein at least one instance of the storage devices of the common access space is situated in at least one of, an on-premises environment, or a third-party (cloud) environment [0004;0033].
Regarding claim 4, Parthasarathy teaches wherein the storage I/O request referencing a portion of storage addressable in the common access space is translated into a long-haul I/O [0027, cloud-based storage incorporates data operations over distance (long-haul I/O not defined in claim)].
Regarding claim 5, Parthasarathy teaches wherein the storage I/O request referencing a portion of storage addressable in the common access space is redirected to a storage pool formed of node-local storage facilities [0102, lines 29-35; 0108, lines 1-10].
Regarding claim 6, Parthasarathy teaches further comprising an external locator service that stores metadata (name or key) pertaining to the node-local storage facilities that form the storage pool [0099, lines 1-9; see also 0091].
Regarding claim 7, Parthasarathy teaches wherein the storage I/O request referencing a portion of storage addressable by the common access space is translated from a first protocol into a second protocol [0086; iSCSI to virtual disk communication and translation].
Claims 9 and 17 recite similar subject matter to that of claim 1, and are rejected for the same reasons as claim 1.
Claims 10 and 18 recites similar subject matter to that found in claim 2, and is rejected for the same reasons as claim 2.
Claims 11 and 19 recite similar subject matter to that of claim 3, and are rejected for the same reasons as claim 3.
Claims 12 and 20 recite similar subject matter to that of claim 4, and are rejected for the same reasons as claim 4.
Claim 13 recites similar subject matter to that of claim 5, and is rejected for the same reasons as claim 5.
Claim 14 recites similar subject matter to that of claim 6, and is rejected for the same reasons as claim 6.
Claim 15 recites similar subject matter to that of claim 7, and is rejected for the same reasons as claim 7.
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) 8 and 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Parthasarathy (US# 2020/0134479) in view of OFFICIAL NOTICE.
Regarding claim 8, Parthasarathy teaches iSCSI storage protocol for devices [0086, 0110], but fails to teach wherein the first protocol is iSCSI and the second protocol is SONET. One of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that protocol translating between iSCSI and SONET would solve the problem of long distance communication linking that iSCSI lacks, where SONET provides the backbone and infrastructure for routing the iSCSI IP traffic beyond standard IP networks to users at great distance from each other. The Examiner takes OFFICIAL NOTICE of this teaching. Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the storage translation system of Parthasarathy to include the iSCSI to SONET protocol translation because of the benefit disclosed supra.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Brian R. Peugh whose telephone number is (571) 272-4199. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday from 7:30am to 3:30pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Rocio Del Mar Perez-Velez, phone number 571-270-5935, can be reached. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 703-872-9306.
Any inquiry of a general nature or relating to the status of this application or proceeding should be directed to the receptionist whose telephone number is 571-272-2100.
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/BRIAN R PEUGH/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2133