Office Action Predictor
Last updated: April 16, 2026
Application No. 18/819,496

COLLECTING PASSIVE DNS TRAFFIC TO GENERATE A VIRTUAL AUTHORITATIVE DNS SERVER

Non-Final OA §103§112
Filed
Aug 29, 2024
Examiner
TRUONG, LAN DAI T
Art Unit
2444
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
Level 3 Communications, LLC
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
91%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
2y 11m
To Grant
96%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 91% — above average
91%
Career Allow Rate
701 granted / 770 resolved
+33.0% vs TC avg
Minimal +4% lift
Without
With
+4.5%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 11m
Avg Prosecution
20 currently pending
Career history
790
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
16.9%
-23.1% vs TC avg
§103
44.6%
+4.6% vs TC avg
§102
2.1%
-37.9% vs TC avg
§112
22.5%
-17.5% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 770 resolved cases

Office Action

§103 §112
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 . DETAILED ACTION 1.This action is response to application filed on 08/29/2024. Claims 1-8 are pending. Allowable Subject Matter 2. Claim 8 is objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. The allowable subject matter in claim 8 is “causing the recursive DNS resolver to host the virtual authoritative DNS server”. 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. 3. Claim 1 recites the limitation "the recursive DNS resolver" in line 5. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. 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. 4. Claims 1-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Joe et al. (US 20140006577) in view of Treuhaft et al. (US 20190342260) Regarding claim 1: A method, comprising: passively capturing domain name system (DNS) data: (Jeo teaches DNS network devices include an authoritative name server which stores virtual DNS records (a virtual DNS record may include one or multiple criteria fields that identify one or multiple criteria correlated or mapped to an IP address provides a domain name system service that includes URI to IP address translation: Jeo [0021]; [0027]). However, Jeo does not explicitly teach detecting a trigger event associated with an authoritative DNS server. In similar art, Treuhaft teaches receiving a request for the DNS information associated with domain name, then issue the DNS request to authoritative nameservers (Treuhaft figure 9, item 758; asbstract); in response to detecting the trigger event: causing the recursive DNS resolver to retrieve last known valid information associated with a zone from an observer system, the last known valid information being associated with the passively captured DNS data: (Treuhaft teaches an authoritative nameserver maintains a master list for a zone which is a group of computing devices. The recursive DNS nameserver obtains domain name information such as IP of the requested resource from authoritative DNS nameservers. Treuhaft also teaches finding if matching record is found with a valid (not expired) TTL field, the name server returns the cached domain name information to the client (Treuhaft, figure 9; [0006]; [0008] abstract); and causing the recursive DNS resolver to use the passively captured DNS data to provide an answer to a query received from a remote computing device: (finding if matching record is found with a valid (not expired) TTL field, the nameserver returns the cached domain name information to the client: Treuhaft, astract). Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention time was made to combine Treuhaft’s ideas into Jeo’s system in order to provide better resolution processes for domain name system (see, Treuhaft [0009]). Regarding claim 2: In addition to the rejection claim 1, Jeo-Treuhaft further teaches storing the passively captured DNS data at the observer system: (storing previously retrieved domain information in a local cache of DNS nameserver: Treuhaft [0010]; [0045]). Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention time was made to combine Treuhaft’s ideas into Jeo’s system in order to provide better resolution processes for domain name system (see, Treuhaft [0009]). Regarding claim 3: In addition to the rejection claim 1, Jeo-Treuhaft further teaches detecting the trigger event comprises detecting a change in an address record associated with the authoritative DNS server (modifying the domain name information at the recursive nameserver in response to a failure to receive a response to the DNS request from the one or more authoritative nameserver for the domain name: Treuhaft [0015]). Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention time was made to combine Treuhaft’s ideas into Jeo’s system in order to provide better resolution processes for domain name system (see, Treuhaft [0009]). Regarding claim 4: In addition to the rejection claim 1, Jeo-Treuhaft further teaches receiving a notification from an entity associated with the authoritative DNS server: (a DNS nameserver may first issue a DNS request to one of the root servers for generic top level domain information, followed by one or more DNS requests to various ones of the authoritative name servers to determine the requested domain name information. Treuhaft, [0046]). Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention time was made to combine Treuhaft’s ideas into Jeo’s system in order to provide better resolution processes for domain name system (see, Treuhaft [0009]). Regarding claim 5: In addition to the rejection claim 1, Jeo-Treuhaft further teaches determining that an internet protocol (IP) address associated with an answer to a received query is identified in a database of known IP address threats: (Treuhaft teaches recursive DNS nameservers obtain domain name information such as the IP address of a requested resource from authoritative nameservers. Treuhaft also teaches receiving DNS requests from the Internet and resolving the DNS requests based on domain name records, such as a DNS record including a domain name, which is used as a key to lookup a corresponding IP address: Treuhaft [0007]-[0008]; [0064]). Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention time was made to combine Treuhaft’s ideas into Jeo’s system in order to provide better resolution processes for domain name system (see, Treuhaft [0009]). Regarding claim 6: In addition to the rejection claim 1, Jeo-Treuhaft further teaches the passively captured DNS data is associated with a geographic area (recursive DNS server clusters are distributed in different physical geographic locations to resolve requests. The recursive DNS server stores cached domain name information or later using: Treuhaft [0037]; [0039]). Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention time was made to combine Treuhaft’s ideas into Jeo’s system in order to provide better resolution processes for domain name system (see, Treuhaft [0009]). Regarding claim 7: In addition to the rejection claim 1, Jeo-Treuhaft further teaches generating a virtual authoritative DNS server using the passively captured DNS data: (Jeo teaches DNS network devices include an authoritative name server which stores virtual DNS records that provide a virtual domain name system service. For example, a virtual DNS record may include one or multiple criteria fields that identify one or multiple criteria correlated or mapped to an IP address provides a domain name system service that includes URI to IP address translation: Jeo [0021]; [0027]). Conclusions 5. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LAN DAI T TRUONG whose telephone number is (571)272-7959. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 7:00 Am to 3:00 PM. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Follansbee John A can be reached on 571-272-3964. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /LAN DAI T TRUONG/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2444
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Prosecution Timeline

Aug 29, 2024
Application Filed
Dec 13, 2025
Non-Final Rejection — §103, §112
Mar 25, 2026
Response Filed

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Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
91%
Grant Probability
96%
With Interview (+4.5%)
2y 11m
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 770 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow rate.

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