Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Objection to the Specification
2. The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
Art Rejection
3. 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 of this title, 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. This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
5. Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Arora, U.S. pat. Appl. Pub. No. 2017/0324632.
Per claim 1, Arora discloses a computer implemented method comprising:
a) receiving mirrored traffic (from a tap device) comprising a copy of traffic between a first network device and a second network device (see par 0038);
b) identifying session packets that belong to a communication session between the first network device 102A and second network device 102B , wherein the session packets comprise a first plurality of session packets followed by a second plurality of session packets, i.e., packets that are offset in time (see par 0048);
c) capturing the first plurality of session packets that represent the communication session (see par 0050); and
d) dropping the second plurality of session packets that follow the first plurality of session packets, i.e., duplicate packets of the first packets (see par 0050).
Arora does not explicitly teach capturing the first plurality of packets that represent a beginning portion of the communication session. Arora however teaches capturing only certain packets to reduce amounting of captured packets by not capturing (or dropping) payload packets, i.e., packets that follow the beginning portion of the communication session (see par 0030).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement Arora ‘s method of capturing only certain types of packets that includes packets representing beginning portion of the communication session because it would have enabled reducing the amount of captured data (see par 0030).
Per claim 2, Arora teaches capturing the first packets includes forwarding the first packets to a monitoring tool (see par 0030).
Per claim 3, Arora teaches employing various network monitoring tools including traffic monitoring device which monitor and analyze traffic, and a data recorder which records all packets (see par 0037). Arora does not explicitly teach forwarding the second dropped packets to a packet recorder.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to recognize that for the second packets that are dropped by the traffic monitoring device, i.e., to reduce the computing requirement at the monitoring device, such packets would still be forwarded to the data recorder to perform data recording/logging function.
Per claim 4, Arora does not teach explicitly teach capturing the third packets that follow the second packets, the third packet representing an end of the communication session.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to capture or retain any portion of the communication session including the end of the communication session in practicing Arora invention.
Per claims 5-6, Arora teaches that the first plurality of the first packets comprises session packets send from the first device to second device and/or session packets sent from the second device to the first device (see par 0048).
Per claim 7, Arora teaches that communication session is an Ethernet protocol compliant session between a client on the first network and a client on a second network such as TCP session (see par 0037).
Claims 8-20 re similar in scope as that of claims 1-7 and hence are rejected for the same rationale set forth for claims 1-7.
Conclusion
6. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Viet Vu whose telephone number is 571-272-3977. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday through Thursday from 8:00am to 6:00pm. The Group general information number is 571-272-2400. The Group fax number is 571-273-8300.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Emmanuel Moise, can be reached at 571-272-3865.
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/Viet D Vu/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2455
7/27/26
Prosecution Insights