DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Priority
The present application claims the benefit of and priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/604,713, filed Nov. 30, 2023.
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 7, 14 and 19 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 applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
As to claims 7, 14 and 19, the claims recite the term “an amount”, the term “an amount” in the claims is a relative term which renders the claims indefinite. The term “an amount” is not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-3, 11 and 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Choi et al. (US 20230246878 A1) (cited in the 11/20/2024 IDS).
As to claim 1, Choi teaches a system comprising: (Figure 6) a first computing resource (Figure 6, Infra for Cloud B 624) of a first cloud service provider (CSP)
(Figure 6, CSP B), the first computing resource housed within a datacenter of a second CSP, the first computing resource comprising (Figure 6, 624 hosted in Cloud Env A provided by CSP A): one or more first processors (implicit from active processing in [0165], infrastructure component 624 that is responsible for enabling link 670 with cloud B 640), and one or more first memory storing first instructions that, upon execution by the one or more first processors, configure the first computing resource to provide a first service to a user ([0164], MEI 622 enables links to be created between cloud A 610 and other clouds, where these links can be used by customers of the other clouds and their associated users to access and make use of services provided by cloud A 610. This is symbolically shown in FIG. 6 as a link 670
created between cloud A 610 and cloud 8 640 Via link 670, a customer of cloud 8 640 can access or use one or more services 614 provided by cloud A 610; service example in [0171], a customer 81 of cloud 8 640 may select to use a service, such as a Database-as-a Service (O8aaS), from the set of services 614 provided by cloud A 610) having a second user account with the second CSP ([0162], techniques are described that enable a link to be created between
two cloud environments that enables a service provided by a first cloud environment provided by a first CSP to be used by a customer (and associated users) of a second different cloud environment provided by a second different CSP, using the customer's account in the second cloud environment), the first service provided via a first private network of the user with the second CSP ([0171], the created database may be provisioned in a virtual network
(e.g., a virtual cloud network or VCN) created for customer 81 in cloud A610);
and a second computing resource of the first CSP (Figure 6, CSPI_B 642; [0160], CSP/ 8 642 provided by CSP 8, and this infrastructure may be used to provide a set of services "Services 8" 644 offered by cloud 8 640), the second computing resource being remote from the datacenter (Figure 6) and communicatively coupled to the first computing resource (Figure 6, 670), the second computing resource comprising: one or more second processors
(implicit from [0160], CSP/ 8 642 provided by CSP 8, and this infrastructure may be used to provide a set of services "Services 8" 644 offered by cloud 8 640), and one or more second memory storing second instructions that, upon execution by the one or more second processors, configure the second computing resource to: provide a second private network
(Figure 1, Customer VCN A 104; Choi encapsulates user environments in VCNs, it is considered that Figure 6, CSPI_B 642 is realized as a VCN) communicatively coupled with the first private network (Figure 1, coupling of 104 by DRG 122 to Remote Cloud Networks 118,
realized as link 670 in Figure 6); and associate the first private network and the second private network with a subscription of a first user account of the user with the first CSP, the subscription available via the second CSP ([0170], cloud B 640 provided by CSP B may include an identity management system that assigns or allocates identity credentials to its subscribing customers and associated users, such as customer B 1 646-1 and associated users 648-1 MEI 622 provided by cloud A 610 enables a user 648-1 associated with cloud B customer B 1 646-1 to access a service from services A 614 in cloud A 610 using identity credentials associated with users 648-1 and customer B 1 646-1 in cloud B 640).
As to claim 2, Choi teaches wherein the subscription is associated with the first service and included in a set of subscriptions associated with the first user account, the set of subscriptions including a second subscription unavailable via the second CSP and available via the first CSP (paragraph [0183], “…creating a network link between the customer subscription 715 (in the second cloud infrastructure)…”).
As to claim 3, Choi teaches wherein the subscription is associated with the first service and defines usage of the first service (paragraph [0184], “…a functionality relates to maintaining logs, metrics, and other performance parameters related to the resources deployed in the customer tenancy and their respective usages …”).
As to claim 11, the limitations of the claim are substantially similar or broader in scope to claim 1. Please refer to claim 1 above.
As to claim 16, the limitations of the claim are substantially similar or broader in scope to claim 1. Please refer to claim 1 above.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claim(s) 4-10, 12-15 and 17-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Choi et al. (US 20230246878 A1) in view of Ferris et al. (Pub. No.: US 20110295998 A1).
As to claim 4, Choi does not explicitly teach collecting resource usage and utilization metric.
However, in the same field of endeavor (cloud computing) Ferris teaches second computing resource is further configured to: collect resource usage information associated with at least one of the first private network or the second private network (paragraph [0035], “register, track, and compile the usage history of the user's selected software in the cross-cloud usage database 150”); and
generate a utilization metric to transmit to the second CSP using a service identifier of the first service, the subscription, and the resource usage information (fig. 5).
Based on Choi in view of Ferris, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to incorporate collecting resource usage and utilization metric (taught by Ferris) with accessing different cloud environments (taught by Choi) in order to keep tracking of usage information of cloud resources for billing or other purposes as motived by Ferris (paragraph [0006]).
As to claim 5, Choi does not explicitly teach generating a subscription identifier based on service identifier.
However, in the same field of endeavor (cloud computing) Ferris teaches second computing resource is further configured to: receive, from the first CSP, a service identifier for the first service of the first CSP (paragraph [0033], “…The cross-cloud usage database 150 can record the application and/or other software name or other ID, version, usage times, usage durations, and/or other information related to the user's use of the selected software, once that software has been provisioned by the set of marketplace clouds 146…”); and
generate a subscription identifier indicating the subscription based at least in part on the service identifier (paragraph [0033], “The cross-cloud usage database 150 can record the application and/or other software name or other ID, version, usage times, usage durations, and/or other information related to the user's use of the selected software, once that software has been provisioned by the set of marketplace clouds 146”).
Based on Choi in view of Ferris, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to incorporate generating a subscription identifier based on service identifier (taught by Ferris) with accessing different cloud environments (taught by Choi) in order to keep tracking of usage information of cloud resources for billing or other purposes as motived by Ferris (paragraph [0006]).
As to claim 6, Ferris further teaches wherein the subscription identifier is associated with at least one of a resource allocation or a resource usage (paragraph [0033], “The cross-cloud usage database 150 can record the application and/or other software name or other ID, version, usage times, usage durations, and/or other information related to the user's use of the selected software, once that software has been provisioned by the set of marketplace clouds 146”). The limitations of claim 6 are rejected in view of the analysis of claim 5 above, and the rationale to combine, as discussed in claim 5, applies here as well.
As to claim 7, Ferris further teaches second computing resource is further configured to: collect resource usage information associated with at least one of the first private network or the second private network (paragraph [0016], “collection of machines, services, or processes”); and
generate, by a second service of the first CSP, an amount based at least in part on the resource usage information and the subscription identifier (paragraph [0023], “the cloud management system 104 of an associated cloud can for example meter the usage and/or duration of the set of instantiated virtual machines 116, to generate subscription and/or billing records for a user that has launched those machines”). The limitations of claim 7 are rejected in view of the analysis of claim 5 above, and the rationale to combine, as discussed in claim 5, applies here as well.
As to claim 8, Ferris further teaches wherein the subscription identifier is generated based at least in part on the service identifier matching a second service identifier included in a first subscription mapping system (paragraph [0035], “…the cross-cloud mapping service 148 can register, track, and compile the usage history of the user's selected software in the cross-cloud usage database 150…”). The limitations of claim 8 are rejected in view of the analysis of claim 5 above, and the rationale to combine, as discussed in claim 5, applies here as well.
As to claim 9, Ferris further teaches second computing resource is further configured to: receive a first indication of the second service identifier from a user device of the first CSP before receiving the service identifier (paragraph [0036], “application”);
receive a second indication of the subscription identifier from the user device before receiving the service identifier from the user device (paragraph [0036], “user id”); and
receive a third indication for the first subscription mapping system to associate the subscription identifier and the second service identifier (paragraph [0036], “stored in the cross-cloud usage database”). The limitations of claim 9 are rejected in view of the analysis of claim 5 above, and the rationale to combine, as discussed in claim 5, applies here as well.
As to claim 10, Ferris further teaches wherein the subscription identifier is generated based at least in part on the service identifier being unique compared to a set of resource identifiers included in a first resource subscription system (paragraph [0020], “The selected sets of resource servers can be identified by unique identifiers”). The limitations of claim 10 are rejected in view of the analysis of claim 5 above, and the rationale to combine, as discussed in claim 5, applies here as well.
As to claim 12, Choi does not explicitly teach collecting resource usage and utilization metric.
However, in the same field of endeavor (cloud computing) Ferris teaches collecting, by the second computing resource, resource usage information associated with at least one of the first private network or the second private network (paragraph [0035], “register, track, and compile the usage history of the user's selected software in the cross-cloud usage database 150”); and
generating, by the second computing resource, a utilization metric to transmit to a system of the second CSP using a service identifier of the first service, the resource usage information, and the subscription associated with the service identifier and defines usage of the first service (fig. 5).
Based on Choi in view of Ferris, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to incorporate collecting resource usage and utilization metric (taught by Ferris) with accessing different cloud environments (taught by Choi) in order to keep tracking of usage information of cloud resources for billing or other purposes as motived by Ferris (paragraph [0006]).
As to claim 13, Choi does not explicitly teach generating a subscription identifier based on service identifier.
However, in the same field of endeavor (cloud computing) Ferris teaches second computing resource is further configured to: receiving, by the second computing resource and from the first CSP, a service identifier for the first service of the first CSP (paragraph [0033], “…The cross-cloud usage database 150 can record the application and/or other software name or other ID, version, usage times, usage durations, and/or other information related to the user's use of the selected software, once that software has been provisioned by the set of marketplace clouds 146…”); and
generating, by the second computing resource, a subscription identifier indicating the subscription based at least in part on the service identifier (paragraph [0033], “The cross-cloud usage database 150 can record the application and/or other software name or other ID, version, usage times, usage durations, and/or other information related to the user's use of the selected software, once that software has been provisioned by the set of marketplace clouds 146”).
Based on Choi in view of Ferris, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to incorporate generating a subscription identifier based on service identifier (taught by Ferris) with accessing different cloud environments (taught by Choi) in order to keep tracking of usage information of cloud resources for billing or other purposes as motived by Ferris (paragraph [0006]).
As to claim 14, Ferris further teaches second computing resource is further configured to: collecting, by the second computing resource, resource usage information associated with at least one of the first private network or the second private network (paragraph [0016], “collection of machines, services, or processes”); and
generating, by the second computing resource, an amount based at least in part on the resource usage information and the subscription identifier (paragraph [0023], “the cloud management system 104 of an associated cloud can for example meter the usage and/or duration of the set of instantiated virtual machines 116, to generate subscription and/or billing records for a user that has launched those machines”). The limitations of claim 14 are rejected in view of the analysis of claim 13 above, and the rationale to combine, as discussed in claim 13, applies here as well.
As to claim 15, Ferris further teaches wherein the subscription identifier is generated based at least in part on the service identifier matching a second service identifier included in a first subscription mapping system (paragraph [0035], “…the cross-cloud mapping service 148 can register, track, and compile the usage history of the user's selected software in the cross-cloud usage database 150…”). The limitations of claim 15 are rejected in view of the analysis of claim 13 above, and the rationale to combine, as discussed in claim 13, applies here as well.
As to claim 17, the limitations of the claim are substantially similar to claim 12. Please refer to claim 12 above.
As to claim 18, the limitations of the claim are substantially similar to claim 13. Please refer to claim 13 above.
As to claim 19, the limitations of the claim are substantially similar or broader in scope to claim 14. Please refer to claim 14 above.
As to claim 20, the limitations of the claim are substantially similar or broader in scope to claim 9. Please refer to claim 9 above.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Pogrebinsky et al. (Pub. No.: US 20170006119 A1), teaches accessing a subscriber’s resources in a second cloud utilizing a first cloud (paragraph [0044]).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ABDULKADER M ALRIYASHI whose telephone number is (313)446-6551. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 8AM - 5PM Alt, Friday, EST.
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/Abdulkader M Alriyashi/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2447 4/4/2026
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