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 .
Claims 1-20 are active in this application.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 11/24/2024 are 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 § 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 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.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Chang (US 2022/091743).
Regarding claims 1, 10, and 19, Chang discloses a method, a system comprising a memory and a processing device, and a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions (Figure 3), comprising:
receiving a command to generate a snapshot of a bucket of object storage of a storage system, wherein the snapshot records a state of the bucket at a particular point in time ([0221], “To use Bucket Versioning Snapshot 504 (“BVS”), BVS mode may be enabled on a bucket. BVS 504 may be a feature that is managed through storage system management APIs in some embodiments. In a BVS-enabled bucket, BVSs may be taken to establish a series of recovery points.”, [0238]-[0239], the scheduling policy for bucket versioning snapshot creation corresponds to command as claimed, “there are policies for the bucket versioning snapshots. In the following example, an administrator or other user can create a policy for BVS snapshots.[0239] FIG. 9 illustrates an example bucket versioning snapshot policy 904. A user enters information for a create policy form 902, for example through a user interface supported by an object-based storage system implementing bucket versioning snapshots”, [0249], “Bucket versioning snapshots 1320 is an embodiment of a bucket versioning snapshots system, for example implemented on an object-based storage system (see FIG. 4), that includes read-only BVS and BVS policies as described above”, [0269], the system stores objects in a bucket at a storage device of a storage system. Each object has a version. Each object may have a name. There may be multiple buckets, [0270] “the system generates a snapshot of the bucket. The snapshot captures the version of each object in the bucket at the time of the snapshot.”); and
generating, in response to the command, the snapshot ([0241] “A storage admin creates BVS using a BVS Scheduling Policy, which allows a storage administrator to specify the interval of BVS creation. For example, a storage administrator may create a storage policy stating “Create one BVS every Y hours”. Accordingly, the storage system will automatically create one BVS on the bucket according to the policy, [0270] “the system generates a snapshot of the bucket. The snapshot captures the version of each object in the bucket at the time of the snapshot.”).
Regarding claims 2 and 11, Chang discloses wherein generating the snapshot comprises generating the snapshot using a schema element shared between the object storage and file storage of the storage system, wherein the schema element facilitates bucket snapshots and file snapshots ([0208]).
Regarding claims 3, 12, and 20, Chang discloses wherein the snapshot records object data of the bucket and object metadata of the bucket at the particular point in time ([0217], “an object-based storage system 400 that stores objects 412 with multiple versions 420 in buckets 410 and produces bucket versioning snapshots (see FIG. 5) in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. A memory 408 in the object-based storage system 400 stores the buckets 410, objects 412 in the buckets 410, and bucket snapshots 430. The storage system 400, more specifically the processor(s) 404 executing the operating system 406, can communicate regarding objects 412, buckets 410, bucket snapshots 430 and other aspects of storage, object data 416 and object metadata 414”, [0241] “A storage admin creates BVS using a BVS Scheduling Policy, which allows a storage administrator to specify the interval of BVS creation. For example, a storage administrator may create a storage policy stating “Create one BVS every Y hours”. Accordingly, the storage system will automatically create one BVS on the bucket according to the policy, [0270] “the system generates a snapshot of the bucket. The snapshot captures the version of each object in the bucket at the time of the snapshot.”).
Regarding claims 4 and 13, Chang discloses restoring the snapshot to the bucket ([0246], “the bucket versioning snapshot restore, the bucket 1204 has bucket versioning snapshots 1214, 1216 named BVS1 and BVS2. Storage administrators may use BVS Restore to rewind the state of the entire bucket back to a previous good recovery point”).
Regarding claims 5 and 14, Chang discloses wherein restoring the snapshot to the bucket comprises restoring deleted object versioning for one or more objects of the bucket ([0235]-[0237]).
Regarding claims 6 and 15, Chang discloses restoring the snapshot to another bucket different than the bucket ([0245]-[0246]).
Regarding claims 7 and 16, Chang discloses replicating the snapshot to another storage system ([0218], [0249]).
Regarding claims 8 and 17, Chang discloses maintaining a snapshot management layer facilitating snapshot operations for the object storage of the storage system and file storage of the storage system ([0136], [0220]-[0221]).
Regarding claims 9 and 18, Chang discloses presenting a read-only view of the snapshot without restoring the snapshot ([0242]-[0243], read-only snapshot).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 2/12/2026 have been fully considered. The previous rejections have been withdrawn. However, the new ground of rejection presented in this Office action as addressed above.
Applicant’s amendment to the Specification overcomes the previous objection.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Aizman (US 2017/0123931) discloses Object Storage System With A Distributed Namespace And Snapshot And Cloning Features.
Shekhar (US 2016/0210308) discloses object-based storage replication and recovery.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MERILYN P NGUYEN whose telephone number is 571-272-4026. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kavita Stanley can be reached on (571) 272-8352. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MERILYN P NGUYEN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2153
May 30, 2026
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