DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to an application filed on November 18, 2024, in which claims 1 through 7 are pending, and ready for examination.
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
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on November 18, 2024 was filed before the mailing date of a first Office Action on the merits. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Priority
Acknowledgement is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority based on applications filed in the Republic of Korea on or about December 21, 2023.
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
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 1-7 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.
Claims 1 and 5 each recite, “the ingress container that received [the packet]”.
There is insufficient antecedent basis for this element in the claim(s).
Claims 2-4, 6, and 7 are each dependent upon one of claims 1 or 5, and are therefore rejected under the same rationale(s) as claim 1 and/or 5, based upon that dependency.
It is also noted that claim 5 recites limitations beginning with the terms “when” and “if”; these terms permit the relevant claim limitations to be construed as reciting optional claim language, thus rendering those limitations as having no patentable weight. While this alone is not a basis for rejection, Applicant is advised of this claim construction to facilitate appropriate amendment(s) to the claim(s) in order to distinguish the claim(s) from the prior art.
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 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 as the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter.
Claim 1 purports to be directed to a “device”; however, under a broad yet reasonable interpretation in view of the specification, the alleged device’s components of “Docker services”, “containers”, “program(s)”, and “driver(s)” may all be merely data structures. Therefore, the broadest and reasonable interpretation of the claimed “device” is/are a data structure, or software per se. A claim that recites no more than software, logic, or a data structure (i.e., an abstraction) does not fall within any statutory category. In re Warmerdam, 33 F.3d 1354,1361 (Fed. Cir. 1994). Significantly, "[a]bstract software code is an idea without physical embodiment." Microsoft Corp. v. AT& T Corp., 550 U.S. 437, 449 (2007). Manipulation of data utilizing a computer program (software), no matter its function, is nothing more than the representation of an algorithm or group of algorithms, conceptually no different from a list of steps written down with pencil and paper for execution by a human being. See In re Ferguson, 558 F.3d 1359, 1363 (Fed. Cir. 2009) (quoting Gottschalk v. Benson, 409 U.S. 63, 67 (1972)). The subject matter of claims permitted within 35 U.S.C. 101 must be a machine, a manufacture, a process, or a composition of matter. "[T]he four categories [of §101] together describe the exclusive reach of patentable subject matter. If the claim covers material not found in any of the four statutory categories, that claim falls outside the plainly expressed scope of §101 even if the subject matter is otherwise new and useful." In re Nuijten, 500 F.3d 1346, 1354 (Fed. Cir. 2007); accord In re Ferguson, 558 F.3d 1359 (Fed. Cir. 2009).
Claims 2-4 are each dependent from claim 1, fail to remedy the issue(s) noted above with regard to claim 1 under this title, and are therefore also rejected under the same rationale as claim 1, based upon that dependency.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-7 would be allowable, should Applicant overcome the claim rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112 and 35 U.S.C. 101 set forth herein, supra.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Ball, Darrell, U.S. Pub. No. 2023/0066013
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to J. Brant Murphy whose telephone number is (571)272-6433. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 8am - 4pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Amir Mehrmanesh can be reached at 571-270-3351. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/J. BRANT MURPHY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2435
February 7, 2026
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