DETAILED ACTION
1. This is a Final Office Action Correspondence in response to U.S. Application No. 18/943779 filed on August 13, 2025.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
Information Disclosure Statement filed on September 25, 2025 were reviewed and accepted by the Examiner.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments have been considered but are not persuasive.
On Pgs. 8-18, in regards to 35 U.S.C. 101, relating to claim 1, Applicant argues the 35 U.S.C. 101 rejection.
Examiner replies that in view of the amendments the 35 U.S.C. 101 rejection is removed.
On Pg. 18 of remarks in regards to 35 U.S.C. 103, relating to claim 1, Applicant states “For example, claim 1 recites, among other things, "a plurality of parallel replications comprising a first-level operation and a plurality of second-level operations, "performing... the first-level operation by extracting deltas...stored in a tree structure...having multiple levels of hierarchy comprising more nodes in a lower hierarchal level than a higher hierarchal level," and "partitioning...the key-value pairs associated with the first-level operation...by traversing the tree structure from a top level of the tree structure downward, the first number being configured to be adjusted for each replication cycle." However, neither Chen nor Dayal and Patil, alone or in combination appear to disclose, teach, or suggest at least these elements. Additionally, since some of these features are newly added, the Office has not yet shown that the cited references teach such features. Thus, Applicant respectfully submits that independent claim 1, as amended, stands allowable at least over the cited combination, and respectfully requests that the rejection of this claim be withdrawn.”
Examiner replies that Patil does teach this limitation. Patil discloses the key number is a filesystem object identifier and a file offset. The key number is containing the identifier and file offset is seen as the key-value pairs.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
5. 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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
6. 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.
7. Claim(s) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen et al. U.S. Patent No. 10,459,632 (herein as ‘Chen’) and further in view of Dayal et al. U.S. Patent No. 11,086,545 (herein as ‘Dayal’) and Patil et al. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2022/0188267 (herein as 'Patil').
As to claim 1 Chen teaches a method, comprising:
receiving, by a computing system, a request to perform a cross-region replication between a source file system in a source region and a target file system in a target region (Fig. 2 Col. 8 Lines 44-49 Chen discloses receiving a request to perform a replication between a source and a target);
the first cross-region replication being one of a plurality of parallel replications comprising a first-level operation and a plurality of second-level operations, and a first result of the first-level operation corresponding to a second result of the plurality of second-level operations (Col. 3 Lines 42-49 Chen discloses performing operations in parallel. Col. 8 Lines 33-43 Chen discloses the replication are of snapshots. A first-level operation is a first snapshot. A second level operation is a second snapshot);
Chen does not teach but Dayal teaches performing, by the computing system, the first-level operation by extracting deltas between a first snapshot and a second snapshot the deltas being stored in a tree structure with a plurality of levels associated with the source file system in the source region, (Col. 20 Lines 44-53 discloses Dayal discloses creating hierarchies for the objects in the snapshot. Col. 32 Lines 20-30 and Fig. 10 Dayal discloses generating deltas between snapshots for Btrees);
Chen and Dayal are analogous art because they are in the same field of endeavor, snapshot processing. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to modify the snapshot of Chen to include the btree of Dayal, to prevent inefficiencies in replicating data. The suggestion/motivation to combine is that it would be obvious to try in order to create efficiency of replicating (Col. 1 Lines 45-55 Dayal).
Chen in combination with Dayal does not teach but Patil teaches the tree structure having multiple levels of hierarchy comprising more nodes in a lower hierarchical level than a higher hierarchal level the first snapshot and the second snapshot comprising key-value pairs (Par. 0023 Patil discloses the key number is a filesystem object identifier and a file offset. The key number is containing the identifier and file offset is seen as the key-value pairs);
Chen and Patil are analogous art because they are in the same field of endeavor, snapshot processing. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to modify the snapshot of Chen to include the tree structure hierarchy of Patil, to improve performance. The suggestion/motivation to combine is that it would be obvious to try in order to create storage efficiency (Par. 0001-0002 Patil).
Dayal discloses partitioning, by the computing system, the key-value pairs associated with the first-level operation into a first number of key partitions by traversing the tree structure from a top level of the tree structure downward, the first number being configured to be adjusted for each replication cycle (Col. 5 Lines 35-45 Dayal discloses objects are stored in buckets. Col. 8 Lines 1-10 Dayal disclose the IDS which are seen as keys will be associated with the sub-list object. Col. 23 Lines 60-65 Dayal discloses determining the number of entries to place within sub-list objects, based upon a threshold number. Col. 24 Lines 1-10 Dayal discloses determining the logical blocks to use to store the objects. The IDS are seen as the keys. The logical blocks are seen as the key ranges. The sub-list objects are seen as the partitions);
Dayal teaches and performing, by the computing system, the plurality of second-level operations on the first number of key partitions in parallel, each second-level operation of the plurality of second-level operations being performed on a key partition of the first number of key partitions (Col. 32 Lines 20-30 and Fig. 10 Dayal discloses generating deltas between snapshots for Btrees).
As to claim 2 Chen in combination with Dayal and Patil teaches each and every limitation of claim 1.
In addition Chen teaches wherein each key partition of the key partitions comprises at least one key-value pair stored in the tree structure associated with the source file system (Col. 5 Lines 35-45 Dayal discloses objects are stored in buckets. Col. 8 Lines 1-10 Dayal disclose the IDS which are seen as keys will be associated with the sub-list object).
As to claim 3 Chen in combination with Dayal and Patil teaches each and every limitation of claim 1.
In addition Dayal teaches wherein the cross-region replication comprises encrypting the deltas in the source file system, transferring the encrypted deltas to the target file system (Col. 8 Lines 1-5 Dayal discloses encrypting data);
and decrypting the transferred deltas in the target file system (Col. 44 Lines 15-20 Dayal discloses decrypting the files).
As to claim 4 Chen in combination with Dayal and Patil teaches each and every limitation of claim 1.
In addition Dayal teaches wherein the second result comprises a combined result of the plurality of second-level operations, and the combined result is equivalent to the first result (Col. 43 Lines 27-35 Dayal discloses creating an restore operation of a previously replicated snapshot. The previously replicated snapshot is seen as the first result. The restore operation is seen as a second level operation. Restoring the data is seen as the combined second level operation of the stored snapshot being the same as the previously replicated snapshot which is seen as equivalent second-level operations and first result).
As to claim 5 Chen in combination with Dayal and Patil teaches each and every limitation of claim 1.
In addition Dayal teaches wherein each second-level operation of the plurality of second-level operations extracts a portion of the deltas between the first snapshot and the second snapshot (Col. 9 Lines 43-55 Dayal discloses storing the delta between snapshots).
As to claim 6 Chen in combination with Dayal and Patil teaches each and every limitation of claim 1.
In addition Dayal teaches wherein each second-level operation of the plurality of second-level operations is performed by a processing thread of a plurality of processing threads (Col. 26 Lines 44-48 Dayal discloses using one of a many threads to perform operations).
As to claim 7 Chen in combination with Dayal and Patil teaches each and every limitation of claim 6.
In addition Dayal teaches further comprising coordinating the plurality of second-level operations by using a shared database, wherein the shared database is updated by the plurality of processing threads corresponding to the plurality of second-level operations independently (Col. 25 Lines 11-17 Dayal discloses the snapshots are shared between objects).
As to claim 8 Chen in combination with Dayal and Patil teaches each and every limitation of claim 6.
In addition Dayal teaches wherein the first number is twice a total number of available processing threads for performing the second-level operations in the source file system (Col. 26 Lines 44-48 Dayal discloses using one of a many threads to perform operations).
As to claim 9 Chen in combination with Dayal and Patil teaches each and every limitation of claim 1.
In addition Dayal teaches wherein the traversal of the tree structure from the top level of the tree structure downward stops at a tree level containing at least the first number of the key-value pairs (Col. 11 Lines 13-23 Dayal discloses searching for the content).
As to claim 10 Chen in combination with Dayal and Patil teaches each and every limitation of claim 9.
In addition Dayal teaches wherein the traversal of the tree structure is performed recursively (Col. 11 Lines 15-23 Dayal discloses traversing the nodes).
As to claim 11 Chen teaches a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
receiving, by a computing system, a request to perform a cross-region replication between a source file system in a source region and a target file system in a target region (Fig. 2 Col. 8 Lines 44-49 Chen discloses receiving a request to perform a replication between a source and a target);
the first cross-region replication being one of a plurality of parallel replications comprising a first-level operation and a plurality of second-level operations, and a first result of the first-level operation corresponding to a second result of the plurality of second-level operations (Col. 8 Lines 33-43 Chen discloses the replication are of snapshots. A first-level operation is a first snapshot. A second level operation is a second snapshot);
Chen does not teach but Dayal teaches performing, by the computing system, the first-level operation by extracting deltas between a first snapshot and a second snapshot the deltas being stored in a tree structure with a plurality of levels associated with the source file system in the source region (Col. 20 Lines 44-53 discloses Dayal discloses creating hierarchies for the objects in the snapshot. Col. 32 Lines 20-30 and Fig. 10 Dayal discloses generating deltas between snapshots for Btrees);
Chen and Dayal are analogous art because they are in the same field of endeavor, snapshot processing. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to modify the snapshot of Chen to include the btree of Dayal, to prevent inefficiencies in replicating data. The suggestion/motivation to combine is that it would be obvious to try in order to create efficiency of replicating (Col. 1 Lines 45-55 Dayal).
Chen in combination with Dayal does not teach but Patil teaches the first snapshot and the second snapshot comprising key-value pairs (Par. 0023 Patil discloses the key number is a filesystem object identifier and a file offset. The key number is containing the identifier and file offset is seen as the key-value pairs);
Chen and Patil are analogous art because they are in the same field of endeavor, snapshot processing. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to modify the snapshot of Chen to include the tree structure hierarchy of Patil, to improve performance. The suggestion/motivation to combine is that it would be obvious to try in order to create storage efficiency (Par. 0001-0002 Patil).
Dayal discloses partitioning, by the computing system, the key-value pairs into a first number of key partitions by traversing the tree structure from a top level of the tree structure downward, the first number being configured to be adjusted for each replication cycle (Col. 5 Lines 35-45 Dayal discloses objects are stored in buckets. Col. 8 Lines 1-10 Dayal disclose the IDS which are seen as keys will be associated with the sub-list object. Col. 23 Lines 60-65 Dayal discloses determining the number of entries to place within sub-list objects, based upon a threshold number. Col. 24 Lines 1-10 Dayal discloses determining the logical blocks to use to store the objects. The IDS are seen as the keys. The logical blocks are seen as the key ranges. The sub-list objects are seen as the partitions);
and performing, by the computing system, the plurality of second-level operations on the first number of key partitions in parallel, each second-level operation of the plurality of second-level operations being performed on a key partition of the first number of key partitions (Col. 32 Lines 20-30 and Fig. 10 Dayal discloses generating deltas between snapshots for Btrees).
Chen and Dayal are analogous art because they are in the same field of endeavor, snapshot processing. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to modify the snapshot of Chen to include the btree of Dayal, to prevent inefficiencies in replicating data. The suggestion/motivation to combine is that it would be obvious to try in order to create efficiency of replicating (Col. 1 Lines 45-55 Dayal).
As to claim 12 Chen in combination with Dayal and Patil teaches each and every limitation of claim 11.
In addition Chen teaches wherein each key partition of the key partitions comprises at least one key-value pair stored in the tree structure associated with the source file system (Col. 5 Lines 35-45 Dayal discloses objects are stored in buckets. Col. 8 Lines 1-10 Dayal disclose the IDS which are seen as keys will be associated with the sub-list object).
As to claim 13 Chen in combination with Dayal and Patil teaches each and every limitation of claim 11.
In addition Chen teaches wherein each second-level operation of the plurality of second-level operations extracts a portion of the deltas between the first snapshot and the second snapshot (Col. 9 Lines 43-55 Dayal discloses storing the delta between snapshots).
wherein the second result comprises a combined result of the plurality of second-level operations, and the combined result is equivalent to the first result (Col. 43 Lines 27-35 Dayal discloses creating an restore operation of a previously replicated snapshot. The previously replicated snapshot is seen as the first result. The restore operation is seen as a second level operation. Restoring the data is seen as the combined second level operation of the stored snapshot being the same as the previously replicated snapshot which is seen as equivalent second-level operations and first result).
As to claim 14 Chen in combination with Dayal and Patil teaches each and every limitation of claim 11.
In addition Dayal teaches wherein each second-level operation of the plurality of second-level operations is performed by a processing thread of a plurality of processing threads (Col. 26 Lines 44-48 Dayal discloses using one of a many threads to perform operations).
As to claim 15 Chen in combination with Dayal and Patil teaches each and every limitation of claim 14.
In addition Dayal teaches the operations further comprising coordinating the plurality of second-level operations by using a shared database, wherein the shared database is updated by the plurality of processing threads corresponding to the plurality of second-level operations independently (Col. 25 Lines 11-17 Dayal discloses the snapshots are shared between objects).
As to claim 16 Chen teaches a computing system, comprising:
one or more processors (Col. 10 Lines 17-22 Chen discloses a processor);
and one or more computer readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, (Col. 3 Lines 5-10 Chen discloses a storage media); cause the system to:
receive a request to perform a cross-region replication between a source file system in a source region and a target file system in a target region (Fig. 2 Col. 8 Lines 44-49 Chen discloses receiving a request to perform a replication between a source and a target);
the first cross-region replication being one of a plurality of parallel replications comprising a first-level operation and a plurality of second-level operations, and a first result of the first-level operation corresponding to a second result of the plurality of second-level operations (Col. 8 Lines 33-43 Chen discloses the replication are of snapshots. A first-level operation is a first snapshot. A second level operation is a second snapshot);
Chen does not teach but Dayal teaches performing, by the computing system, the first-level operation by extracting deltas between a first snapshot and a second snapshot the deltas being stored in a tree structure with a plurality of levels associated with the source file system in the source region (Col. 20 Lines 44-53 discloses Dayal discloses creating hierarchies for the objects in the snapshot. Col. 32 Lines 20-30 and Fig. 10 Dayal discloses generating deltas between snapshots for Btrees);
Chen and Dayal are analogous art because they are in the same field of endeavor, snapshot processing. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to modify the snapshot of Chen to include the btree of Dayal, to prevent inefficiencies in replicating data. The suggestion/motivation to combine is that it would be obvious to try in order to create efficiency of replicating (Col. 1 Lines 45-55 Dayal).
Chen in combination with Dayal does not teach but Patil teaches the tree structure having multiple levels of hierarchy comprising more nodes in a lower hierarchical level than a higher hierarchal level the first snapshot and the second snapshot comprising key-value pairs (Par. 0023 Patil discloses the key number is a filesystem object identifier and a file offset. The key number is containing the identifier and file offset is seen as the key-value pairs);
Chen and Patil are analogous art because they are in the same field of endeavor, snapshot processing. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to modify the snapshot of Chen to include the tree structure hierarchy of Patil, to improve performance. The suggestion/motivation to combine is that it would be obvious to try in order to create storage efficiency (Par. 0001-0002 Patil).
Dayal discloses partitioning, by the computing system, the key-value pairs associated with the first-level operation into a first number of key partitions by traversing the tree structure from a top level of the tree structure downward, the first number being configured to be adjusted for each replication cycle (Col. 5 Lines 35-45 Dayal discloses objects are stored in buckets. Col. 8 Lines 1-10 Dayal disclose the IDS which are seen as keys will be associated with the sub-list object. Col. 23 Lines 60-65 Dayal discloses determining the number of entries to place within sub-list objects, based upon a threshold number. Col. 24 Lines 1-10 Dayal discloses determining the logical blocks to use to store the objects. The IDS are seen as the keys. The logical blocks are seen as the key ranges. The sub-list objects are seen as the partitions);
and performing, by the computing system, the plurality of second-level operations on the first number of key partitions in parallel, each second-level operation of the plurality of second-level operations being performed on a key partition of the first number of key partitions (Col. 32 Lines 20-30 and Fig. 10 Dayal discloses generating deltas between snapshots for Btrees).
As to claim 17 Chen in combination with Dayal and Patil teaches each and every limitation of claim 6.
In addition Dayal teaches wherein each second-level operation of the plurality of second-level operations extracts a portion of the deltas between the first snapshot and the second snapshot (Col. 9 Lines 43-55 Dayal discloses storing the delta between snapshots);
wherein the second result comprises a combined result of the plurality of second-level operations, and the combined result is equivalent to the first result (Col. 43 Lines 27-35 Dayal discloses creating an restore operation of a previously replicated snapshot. The previously replicated snapshot is seen as the first result. The restore operation is seen as a second level operation. Restoring the data is seen as the combined second level operation of the stored snapshot being the same as the previously replicated snapshot which is seen as equivalent second-level operations and first result).
As to claim 18 Chen in combination with Dayal and Patil teaches each and every limitation of claim 16.
In addition Dayal teaches wherein each second-level operation of the plurality of second-level operations is performed by a processing thread of a plurality of processing threads (Col. 26 Lines 44-48 Dayal discloses using one of a many threads to perform operations).
As to claim 19 Chen in combination with Dayal and Patil teaches each and every limitation of claim 18.
In addition Dayal teaches wherein the computing system is further caused to coordinate the plurality of second-level operations by using a shared database, wherein the shared database is updated by the plurality of processing threads corresponding to the plurality of second-level operations independently (Col. 25 Lines 11-17 Dayal discloses the snapshots are shared between objects).
As to claim 20 Chen in combination with Dayal and Patil teaches each and every limitation of claim 16.
In addition Dayal teaches wherein the traversal of the tree structure from the top level of the tree structure downward stops at a tree level containing at least the first number of the key-value pairs (Col. 5 Lines 35-45 Dayal discloses objects are stored in buckets. Col. 8 Lines 1-10 Dayal disclose the IDS which are seen as keys will be associated with the sub-list object. Col. 23 Lines 60-65 Dayal discloses determining the number of entries to place within sub-list objects, based upon a threshold number. Col. 24 Lines 1-10 Dayal discloses determining the logical blocks to use to store the objects. The IDS are seen as the keys. The logical blocks are seen as the key ranges. The sub-list objects are seen as the partitions).
Conclusion
8. Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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.
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/J.A.M/ October 30, 2025 Examiner, Art Unit 2159
/ANN J LO/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2159