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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-4,7-12,15-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more. The claim(s) recite(s) mental processes – concepts performed in the human mind.
Regarding claim 1, the claim is directed to mental processes.
The limitations ‘defining a relationship hierarchy between components operating jointly in a system; classifying the events transformed from log entries based on the relationship hierarchy; correlating two or more queried events based on a respective event classification and the first predetermined time period by marking respective entries for the queried event with a same correlation identifying tag’ are mental processes – concepts performed in the human mind by observation, evaluation, judgment, and/or opinion.
Step 2 A: Prong two
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because the additional elements ‘storing information associated with the first and second sets of events in entries in a data structure and in a time series database, wherein a respective entry indicates the determined event classification and any correlations to other events’ are directed to generic computer components recited at a high-level of generality such that they amount to nothing more than mere instructions to apply the exception using generic computer components (MPEP 2106.05(f)).
Step 2B
The claim(s) does/do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the additional elements ‘obtaining, from components operating jointly in the system, events information indicating a first set of events transformed from log entries associated with the components and a second set of events returned from queries to the components for standard events tracked by the components; querying the data structure for events associated with a first predetermined time period, wherein the first predetermined time period is based on at least one of: measurements relating to power consumption, application run time, and transaction results associated with the components; or detection of errors and events across the components of the system; generating a visual representation indicating the correlated events, the visual representation including the correlated queried events; and responsive to the visual representation indicating an anomaly, allowing corrective actions addressing the indicated anomaly’ are directed to adding insignificant extra-solution activity to the judicial exception (MPEP 2106.05(g)), including data gathering, displaying information, and performing a corrective action.
Regarding claim 2, the limitation ‘wherein the components comprise at least one of: hardware or software associated with storage components in the system; hardware or software associated with host components in the system, wherein the host components comprise one or more of a graphical processor unit (GPU), a high bandwidth memory (HBM), a central processing unit (CPU) or core, a CPU memory, and a peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) component; or hardware or software associated with fabric components of the system, wherein the fabric components comprise one or more of a network device, a switch, a switch agent, a centralized fabric manager, a fabric agent, and a network interface’ are directed to adding insignificant extra-solution activity to the judicial exception (MPEP 2106.05(g)), including data gathering from various types of components.
Regarding claim 3, the limitation ‘further comprising generating the log entries indicating the first set of events by: extracting logs from one or more of the components in the system; removing noise in the extracted logs by filtering the extracted logs; obtaining re-formatted log entries by re-formatting the filtered logs; and generating event information based on characteristics of the re-formatted log entries’ are mental processes – concepts performed in the human mind by observation, evaluation, judgment, and/or opinion.
Regarding claim 4, the limitation ‘wherein the characteristics of the re-formatted log entries comprise at least one of: identity of an entity or a component associated with the log entry; a time associated with an event which generated the log entry; an event category; an event type; or a description of the event’ are mental processes – concepts performed in the human mind by observation, evaluation, judgment, and/or opinion.
Regarding claim 7, the limitations ‘further comprising: generating a report based on the correlated events; displaying the report; and performing a first action based on the displayed report, wherein the first action comprises a respective corrective action addressing the indicated anomaly’ are directed to adding insignificant extra-solution activity to the judicial exception (MPEP 2106.05(g)).
Regarding claim 8, the limitations ‘wherein the displayed report includes one or more interactive elements facilitating viewing or manipulating the displayed information, including at least one of: a detected anomaly; a recommended action indicating remediation of the detected anomaly; or a configurable option indicating that the computer is to automatically perform the recommended action’ are directed to adding insignificant extra-solution activity to the judicial exception (MPEP 2106.05(g)).
Regarding claim 9, with the exception of the limitations ‘a processor; and a storage device storing instructions which when executed by the processor comprise instructions to’, the claim is directed to mental processes.
The limitations ‘define a relationship hierarchy between components operating jointly in a system; classify the events interpreted from log entries based on a topology of the components in the network environment; correlate two or more queried events based on a respective event classification and the first predetermined time period by marking respective entries for the queried event with a same correlation identifying tag’ are mental processes – concepts performed in the human mind by observation, evaluation, judgment, and/or opinion.
Step 2A: Prong two
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because the additional elements ‘a processor; and a storage device storing instructions which when executed by the processor comprise instructions to; store information associated with the first and second sets of events in entries in a data structure and in a time series database, wherein a respective entry indicates the determined event classification and any correlations to other events’ are directed to generic computer components recited at a high-level of generality such that they amount to nothing more than mere instructions to apply the exception using generic computer components (MPEP 2106.05(f)).
Step 2B
The claim(s) does/do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the additional elements ‘obtain, from components operating jointly in the system, events information indicating a first set of events transformed from log entries associated with the components and a second set of events returned from queries to the components for standard events tracked by the components; query the data structure for events associated with a first predetermined time period, wherein the first predetermined time period is based on at least one of: measurements relating to power consumption, application run time, and transaction results associated with the components; or detection of errors and events across the components of the system; generate a visual representation indicating the correlated events, the visual representation including the correlated queried events; and responsive to the visual representation indicating an anomaly, allow corrective actions addressing the indicated anomaly’ are directed to adding insignificant extra-solution activity to the judicial exception (MPEP 2106.05(g)), including data gathering, displaying information, and performing a corrective action.
Regarding claim 10, the limitation ‘wherein the components comprise at least one of: hardware or software associated with storage components in the network environment; hardware or software associated with host components in the network environment, wherein the host components comprise one or more of a graphical processor unit (GPU), a high bandwidth memory (HBM), a central processing unit (CPU) or core, a CPU memory, and a peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) component; or hardware or software associated with fabric components of the network environment, wherein the fabric components comprise one or more of a network device, a switch, a switch agent, a centralized fabric manager managing switches in the fabric, a fabric agent operating on a switch, wherein the fabric agent programs the switch and interacts with network protocol agents, and a network interface’ are directed to adding insignificant extra-solution activity to the judicial exception (MPEP 2106.05(g)), including data gathering from various types of components.
Regarding claim 11, the limitations ‘extract logs from one or more of the components in the network environment; remove noise in the extracted logs by filtering the extracted logs; obtain re-formatted log entries by re-formatting the filtered logs; and generate event information based on characteristics of the re-formatted log entries’ are mental processes – concepts performed in the human mind by observation, evaluation, judgment, and/or opinion.
Regarding claim 12, the limitations ‘wherein the characteristics of the re-formatted log entries comprise at least one of: identity of an entity or a component associated with the log entry; a time associated with an event which generated the log entry; an event category; an event type; or a description of the event’ are mental processes – concepts performed in the human mind by observation, evaluation, judgment, and/or opinion.
Regarding claim 15, the limitations ‘generate a report based on the correlated events; displaying the report; and perform a first action based on the displayed report, wherein the first action comprises a respective corrective action addressing the indicated anomaly’ are directed to adding insignificant extra-solution activity to the judicial exception (MPEP 2106.05(g)).
Regarding claim 16, the limitations ‘wherein the displayed report includes one or more interactive elements facilitating viewing or manipulating the displayed information, including at least one of: a detected anomaly; a recommended action indicating remediation of the detected anomaly; or a configurable option indicating that the computer is to automatically perform the recommended action’ are directed to adding insignificant extra-solution activity to the judicial exception (MPEP 2106.05(g)).
Regarding claim 17, the limitations ‘classify updated events indicated in the updated events information; correlate two or more events based on the updated events, a respective event classification, and the predetermined time window’ are mental processes – concepts performed in the human mind by observation, evaluation, judgment, and/or opinion.
The limitations ‘responsive to allowing the corrective actions addressing the anomaly indicated in the visual representation or performing the first action based on the displayed report: obtain updated events information from the components; re-generate the visual representation indicating the correlated events; and responsive to the re-generated visual representation indicating one or more other anomalies, allow further corrective actions addressing the one or more other anomalies’ are directed to adding insignificant extra-solution activity to the judicial exception (MPEP 2106.05(g)).
Regarding claim 18, with the exception of the limitations ‘A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions to’, the claim is directed to mental processes.
The limitations ‘define a relationship hierarchy between components operating jointly in a system; classify the events transformed from log entries based on the relationship hierarchy; correlating two or more queried events based on a respective event classification and the first predetermined time period by marking respective entries for the queried event with a same correlation identifying tag’ are mental processes – concepts performed in the human mind by observation, evaluation, judgment, and/or opinion.
Step 2A: Prong two
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because the additional elements ‘A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions to; store information associated with the first and second sets of events in entries in a data structure and in a time series database, wherein a respective entry indicates the determined event classification and any correlations to other events’ are directed to generic computer components recited at a high-level of generality such that they amount to nothing more than mere instructions to apply the exception using generic computer components (MPEP 2106.05(f)).
Step 2B
The claim(s) does/do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the additional elements ‘obtain, from components operating jointly in the system, events information indicating a first set of events transformed from log entries associated with the components and a second set of events returned from queries to the components for standard events tracked by the components; query the data structure for events associated with a first predetermined time period, wherein the first predetermined time period is based on at least one of: measurements relating to power consumption, application run time, and transaction results associated with the components; or detection of errors and events across the components of the system; generate a visual representation indicating the correlated events, the visual representation including the correlated queried events; and responsive to the visual representation indicating an anomaly, allow corrective actions addressing the indicated anomaly’ are directed to adding insignificant extra-solution activity to the judicial exception (MPEP 2106.05(g)), including data gathering, displaying information, and performing a corrective action.
Regarding claim 19, the limitation ‘generate the log entries indicating the first set of events by: extracting logs from one or more of the components in the system; removing noise in the extracted logs by filtering the extracted logs; obtaining re-formatted log entries by re-formatting the filtered logs; and generating event information based on characteristics of the re-formatted log entries’ are mental processes – concepts performed in the human mind by observation, evaluation, judgment, and/or opinion.
Regarding claim 20, the limitations ‘classify updated events indicated in the updated events information; correlate two or more events based on the updated events, a respective event classification, and the predetermined time window’ are mental processes – concepts performed in the human mind by observation, evaluation, judgment, and/or opinion.
The limitation ‘display the visual representation or the report, wherein the displayed visual representation or the report includes one or more interactive elements facilitating viewing or manipulating displayed information, wherein the displayed information includes at least one of: a detected anomaly; a recommended action indicating remediation of the detected anomaly; or a configurable option indicating that the computer is to automatically perform the recommended action; and responsive to allowing the corrective actions addressing the indicated anomaly: obtain updated events information from the components; re-generate the visual representation indicating the correlated events; and responsive to the re-generated visual representation indicating one or more other anomalies, allow further corrective actions addressing the one or more other anomalies’ are directed to adding insignificant extra-solution activity to the judicial exception (MPEP 2106.05(g)).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments and amendments filed 04/29/2026 have been fully considered. The 101 – abstract idea rejection still stands. Concerning Applicant’s arguments of the 101 – abstract idea rejection – some of the limitations do recite a mental process. The ‘defining’ limitation is a mental process - concept performed in the human mind by observation, evaluation, judgment, and/or opinion. The ‘obtaining’ limitation is merely data gathering and considered under Step 2B. The ‘storing’ limitation is using a generic computer component as a tool to perform an action and is considered under Step 2B. The ‘querying’ limitation is merely data gathering and considered under Step 2B. The ‘correlating’ limitation is a mental process - concept performed in the human mind by observation, evaluation, judgment, and/or opinion. The ‘generating a visual representation’ is insignificant extra-solution activity considered under Step 2B. The ’improvement to other technology or technical field’/’solution to a problem’ is not seen by the Examiner. The claims are directed to mental processes, using generic computer components as a tool to perform actions, data gathering, displaying information and performing a corrective action.
The prior art rejection for claims 1-4,7-12,15-20 has been removed. There is no prior art rejection for these claims because of the combination of the newly added limitations.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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 Yolanda L Wilson whose telephone number is (571)272-3653. The examiner can normally be reached M-F (7:30 am - 4 pm).
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/Yolanda L Wilson/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2113
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