DETAILED ACTION
The instant application having Application No. 18/930442 filed on October 29, 2024 is presented for examination by the examiner.
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.
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 .
Internet Communications
Applicant is encouraged to submit a written authorization for Internet communications (PTO/SB/439, found at http:/www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/sb0439.pdf) in the instant patent application to authorize the examiner to communicate with the applicant via email. The authorization will allow the examiner to better practice compact prosecution. The written authorization can be submitted via one of the following methods only: (1) Central Fax, which can be found in the Conclusion section of this Office action; (2) regular postal mail; (3) EFS WEB; or (4) the service window on the Alexandria campus. EFS web is the recommended way to submit the form since this allows the form to be entered into the file wrapper within the same day (system dependent). Written authorization submitted via other methods, such as direct fax to the examiner or email, will not be accepted. See MPEP § 502.03.
Applicant is also encouraged to contact the Examiner for an Interview, should the Applicant determine that clarifying and further illustrating the distinguishing features of the instant application may further the prosecution.
Oath/Declaration
The applicant’s oath/declaration has been reviewed by the examiner and is found to conform to the requirements prescribed in 37 C.F.R. 1.63.
Information Disclosure Statement
As required by M.P.E.P. 609(C), the applicant’s submission of the Information Disclosure Statement is acknowledged by the examiner and the cited references have been considered in the examination of the claims now pending. As required by M.P.E.P. 609(C), a copy of the PTOL-1449 initialed and dated by the examiner is attached to the instant office action.
Drawings
The applicant’s drawings submitted are acceptable for examination purposes.
Claim Objections
Claims 9, 11, and 18 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claims 9, 11, and 18, recite “the first queue”, which should be “the at least one first queue”.
Appropriate correction is required.
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 1-20 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 pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Claim 1, 12, and 19 recite the terms “lower layer data” and “higher layer data”; however, it is unclear as what type of data would be reasonably construed as “lower layer data” or “higher layer data”.
Dependent claims 2-11, 13-18, and 20 are rejected for the same reasons as cited above and for being dependent on a previously rejected base claim.
The examiner has cited particular examples of 35 U.S.C. 112 rejections above. It is respectfully requested that, in preparing responses, the applicant check the claims for further 35 U.S.C. 112 rejections in the event that it was inadvertently missed by the examiner to advance prosecution.
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP §§ 706.02(l)(1) - 706.02(l)(3) for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
The USPTO Internet website contains terminal disclaimer forms which may be used. Please visit www.uspto.gov/patent/patents-forms. The filing date of the application in which the form is filed determines what form (e.g., PTO/SB/25, PTO/SB/26, PTO/AIA /25, or PTO/AIA /26) should be used. A web-based eTerminal Disclaimer may be filled out completely online using web-screens. An eTerminal Disclaimer that meets all requirements is auto-processed and approved immediately upon submission. For more information about eTerminal Disclaimers, refer to www.uspto.gov/patents/process/file/efs/guidance/eTD-info-I.jsp.
Claims 1-20 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-20 of U.S. Patent No. 11743270 and claims 1-20 of U.S. Patent No. 12149542. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because they are all drawn towards parsing lower layer data from packets, storing the packet payloads in a first queue, storing the packet payload in a second queue based on the packet protocol, parsing higher layer data from the packet payloads in the second queue, and storing the higher layer data and lower layer data in a third queue.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1, 12, and 19 are objected to as being allowable, but would be allowable if the Double Patenting Rejection and 35 USC 112 Rejections are overcome. The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: The primary reason for the allowance of the claims is the inclusion of the limitation, inter alia, “parsing, with at least one processor, lower layer data from each packet of a plurality of packets; communicating, with at least one processor, a respective payload of each respective packet of the plurality of packets to at least one first queue; routing, with at least one processor, the respective payload of each respective packet of the plurality of packets to a respective second queue of a plurality of second queues based on a respective protocol of the respective packet; parsing, with at least one processor, higher layer data from the respective payload of each respective packet from each respective second queue of the plurality of second queues, wherein the higher layer data comprises data associated with at least one layer higher than the lower layer data in a multi-layer protocol; communicating, with at least one processor, the lower layer data for each packet of the plurality of packets to a third queue; and communicating, with at least one processor, the higher layer data for each packet of the plurality of packets to the third queue". The closest prior art of record includes:
Jackowski (US 2012/0042060) – teaches putting packets into one of a plurality of queues based on the priority of the packet. Jackowski also teaches that the packet interceptor operates at the transport layer of the network stack. However, Jackowski appears to put each packet into one individual queue and doesn’t put every packet into all three queues.
Salo (US 2018/0375836) – teaches having packet transmit queues and analyzing fields in the packets to determine which packets to discard and inserting packets into the appropriate queues based on the fields in the packets. However, Salo appears to put each packet into one individual queue and doesn’t put every packet into all three queues.
Wiryaman (US 2001/0030970) – teaches using flow control at the transport layer to limit the amount of data that is sent.
Delorme (US 2012/0269150) – teaches putting packets into one of a plurality of queues based on the priority level of the packet.
Dietz (US 6651099) – teaches receiving packets and parsing data from the packet depending on the protocol of the packet and determines if the packet is part of an existing flow or a new flow using a flow-entry database.
Rubinstein (US 2004/0088425) – teaches a parser that operates at the application layer to determine if the traffic follows the formal syntax of the data transmission protocol.
Vange (US 2002/0004796) – teaches parsing the payload of a packet at the transport layer.
Singhal (US 2004/0034800) – teaches parsing a packet to collect data at different layers such as the data link layer, the network layer, and the application layer.
Narayanaswamy (US 2009/0328219) – teaches parsing packets to collect data as well as putting the packets into FIFO queues.
However, the concept of using three different queues, parsing various data from the different network layers of the packet, and routing data from every packet into all three queues as currently claimed cannot be found in the prior art of record.
Claims 2-11, 13-18, and 20 are objected to for the same reasons as cited above and for being dependent on a previously objected to base claim if the Claim Objections are overcome.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOHN B KING whose telephone number is (571)270-7310. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 10AM-6PM EST.
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, Yin-Chen Shaw can be reached on 5712728878. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/John B King/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2498