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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority based on an application filed in Europe on 10 August 2023. It is noted, however, that applicant has not filed a certified copy of the European application as required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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 applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 1 is rejected as being indefinite because of the following limitation in lines 6-7: “…hosting, by the operating system kernel, an Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, UEFI, emulation environment…” The construction of this limitation makes it unclear whether it should be interpreted as a listing of multiple items, or as a single item. The claim should be amended to appropriately clarify the limitation. For example: “…hosting, by the operating system kernel, an Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) emulation environment…”. Line 8 of claim 1 (“launching…”) may also be indefinite depending on the intended interpretation of lines 6-7, as “the UEFI emulation environment” may lack proper antecedent basis.
Claim 2 is rejected as being indefinite for the limitation “the computer system”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim, as there is no prior original recitation of “a computer system” in claim 2 or its parent. Claims 4-6, 8, 9, 11-13 employ the same language and are rejected on the same basis.
Claim 6 is rejected as being indefinite for the limitation “a subsequent boot loader”. Claim 1 has already provided an original recitation of “at least one subsequent boot loader”. It is therefore unclear whether the “subsequent boot loader” in claim 6 is a reference to this limitation, or establishing a new boot loader. Claim 6 is also rejected as being indefinite for the limitation “the hardware of the computer system”. “The computer system” lacks proper antecedent basis; therefore “the hardware” of the computer system also lacks proper antecedent basis.
Claim 9 is rejected as being indefinite for the limitation “the functionality provided by the UEFI of the computer system”. “The computer system” lacks proper antecedent basis; therefore “the functionality” and “the UEFI” of the computer system also lacks proper antecedent basis.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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)(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.
Claims 1, 2, 5, 13, and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Warkentin et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0195484.
Regarding claim 1, Warkentin discloses a computer-implemented method for launching at least one boot loader, the method comprising:
launching an emulation environment boot loader [Fig. 1: hypervisor 118; para. 0033: “…hypervisor 118 initializes virtual platform 150 for a VM 120 in response to VM power on…”]1, wherein the emulation environment boot loader comprises an operating system kernel [Fig. 1: kernel 134] that is launched as part of the emulation environment boot loader;
hosting, by the operating system kernel, an Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, UEFI, emulation environment [para. 0026: “Virtual platform 150 includes a virtual firmware 144 (e.g., a… unified extensible firmware interface (UEFI) firmware).”]; and
launching, inside the UEFI emulation environment, at least one subsequent boot loader [para. 0026: “Virtual firmware 144 performs initialization of virtual platform 150 prior to handing off execution to a bootloader of guest OS 126.”].
Regarding claim 2, Warkentin discloses launching at least one intermediate boot loader inside the UEFI emulation environment, the intermediate bootloader being loaded before booting a main operating system of the computer system [para. 0026: bootloader of guest OS 126].
Regarding claim 5, Warkentin discloses launching a final operating system loader for launching a main operating system of the computer system [para. 0026: bootloader of guest OS 126].
Claim 13 is recites the same functions as the method of claim 1, and is therefore rejected on the same basis.
Regarding claim 14, Warkentin discloses an apparatus for a computer system, the apparatus comprising one or more interfaces and one or more processors, wherein the apparatus is configured to perform the method according to claim 1 [Fig. 1].
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 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Warkentin in view of Venkat et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2015/0033220.
Regarding claim 8, Warkentin discloses the method of claim 1, and also teaches an OS kernel launched by the emulation environment boot loader, but does not teach device drivers for supporting one or more hardware devices are launched with the OS kernel.
Venkat discloses device drivers for supporting one or more hardware devices are launched with an OS kernel [para. 0016: “The hypervisor typically provides a number of device drivers that support use of I/O by the VMs being managed by the hypervisor.”].
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 Warkentin and Venkat by modifying Warkentin to launch device drivers with the OS kernel, as taught by Venkat. Warkentin and Venkat both disclose the use of hypervisor. Warkentin additionally teaches that the system includes I/O devices [Fig. 1: IO 114; para. 0016]] Venkat teaches that device drivers are typically provided by a hypervisor to support I/O use by VMs. It would therefore have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to apply the teachings of Venkat to Warkentin based on Venkat’s teachings that provision of device drivers by hypervisors is typical, and that such provision enables the use of the I/O devices in Warkentin’s system.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Sakib et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0051347, discloses executable components for a VM including UEFI firmware, and OS boot loader, and an OS kernel [para. 0052].
Emelyanov et al., U.S. Patent No. 11,113,400, discloses a boot loader that is verified by an OS kernel prior to launching an emulation environment [col. 3, lines 20-24].
Kato et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2018/0239896, discloses an emulation environment that is launched by a boot loader [para. 0038].
Miloser, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2016/0328173, discloses a management layer that includes a micro-kernel instantiated by a boot loader [para. 0008].
Uemura et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2013/0086583, discloses a UEFI of an emulation environment that reads a boot loader to obtain a boot image prior to handing over control to a guest OS [para. 0103].
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JI H BAE whose telephone number is (571)272-7181. The examiner can normally be reached Tuesday to Friday and every other Monday, 9 am to 6 pm.
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/JI H BAE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2176 U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Phone: 571-272-7181
Fax: 571-273-7181
ji.bae@uspto.gov
1 The broadest reasonable interpretation (BRI) of a “emulation environment boot loader” may include hypervisor 118, which is disclosed by Warkentin as initializing a virtual platform.