Prosecution Insights
Last updated: August 16, 2026
Application No. 18/962,213

Data Access Method and Apparatus, and First Computing Device

Final Rejection §101§103
Filed
Nov 27, 2024
Priority
Oct 18, 2019 — CN 201910995668.7 +2 more
Examiner
ROJAS, MIDYS
Art Unit
2133
Tech Center
2100 — Computer Architecture & Software
Assignee
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
OA Round
2 (Final)
88%
Grant Probability
Favorable
3-4
OA Rounds
11m
Est. Remaining
96%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 88% — above average
88%
Career Allowance Rate
724 granted / 826 resolved
+32.7% vs TC avg
Moderate +8% lift
Without
With
+7.8%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 8m
Avg Prosecution
14 currently pending
Career history
845
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
3.9%
-36.1% vs TC avg
§103
37.9%
-2.1% vs TC avg
§102
28.7%
-11.3% vs TC avg
§112
23.1%
-16.9% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 826 resolved cases

Office Action

§101 §103
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 . Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 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. 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. Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu et al. [US 2018/0139039], Applicant Cited Art, in view of Qiu et al. [EP3358456A1]. Claim 1, Liu et al. discloses a method implemented by a network adapter [par. 0048], wherein the method comprises: receiving, from a host, a write operation command to write to-be-written data [par. 0049; par. 0055]; processing, based on the write operation command, the to-be-written data to obtain first processed data [encryption operation, par. 0060]; and writing the first processed data into the storage pool [save the encrypted to be written data, par. 0062]. Liu et al. does not teach but Qiu et al. discloses receiving a write operation by a network adapter [par. 0004, 0010] and from a host over a network [par. 0004, 0009], writing data into a storage pool [par. 0023], processing data by the network adapter [par. 0004, 0010, 0020-0023], and writing data by the network adapter [par. 004,0020-0023]. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Liu et al. as disclosed by Qiu et al. since doing so implements a network capable system that enables scalability, remote access, and integration with other services. Claim 2, Liu et al. in view of Qiu et al. discloses the method of claim 1, wherein processing the to-be- written data comprises performing erasure coding (EC), data integrity field (DIF) protection, encryption on the to-be-written data, or decryption on the to-be-written data [CRC encryption, par. 0062]. Claim 3, Liu et al. in view of Qiu et al. discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the first processed data comprises a verification data block of the to-be-written data [CRC code, par. 0062], and wherein writing the first processed data comprises storing the verification data block in the storage pool [store the CRC code and the encrypted to be written data in a storage area, par. 0061]. Claim 4, Liu et al. in view of Qiu et al. discloses the method of claim 3, wherein writing the first processed data further comprises storing the verification data block in a memory of the network adapter [par. 0061-0062]. Claim 5, Liu et al. in view of Qiu et al. discloses the method of claim 3, wherein the first processed data further comprises the to-be-written data, and wherein before processing the to-be-written data the method further comprises storing the to-be-written data in a memory of the network adapter [steps 201-204, par. 0055-0060]. Claim 6, Liu et al. in view of Qiu et al. discloses the method of claim 5, wherein writing the first processed data comprises storing the to-be-written data from the memory into the storage pool [par. 0062]. Claim 7, Liu et al. in view of Qiu et al. discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the first processed data comprises the to-be-written data and data integrity field (DIF) protection data, or wherein the first processed data comprises data based on encryption of the to-be-written data [par. 0062]. Claim 8, Liu et al. in view of Qiu et al. discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, from the host, a read operation command to read data from the storage pool; reading, based on the read operation command, the data from the storage pool to obtain read data; processing the read data to obtain second processed data; and sending, to the host, the second processed data [data read commands, par. 0008]. Claim 9, Liu et al. in view of Qiu et al. discloses the method of claim 8, wherein processing the read data comprises performing decryption processing on the read data [par. 0022-0033, decrypting to be read data]. Claims 10-19 and 19-20 are rejected using the same rationale as claims 1-9. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101 The rejection of Claims 19-20 under 35 U.S.C. 101 as directed to signals per se has been withdrawn in view of applicant’s amendments. Response to Arguments Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-20 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on the combination of references applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument. Conclusion 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. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MIDYS ROJAS whose telephone number is (571)272-4207. The examiner can normally be reached 7:00am -3:00pm M-F. 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, Rocio del Mar Perez-Velez can be reached at (571) 270-5935. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /MIDYS ROJAS/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2133
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Nov 27, 2024
Application Filed
Jan 13, 2025
Response after Non-Final Action
Dec 22, 2025
Non-Final Rejection (signed) — §101, §103
Jan 26, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §101, §103
Apr 21, 2026
Response Filed
Jul 15, 2026
Final Rejection mailed — §101, §103 (current)

Precedent Cases

Applications granted by this same examiner with similar technology

Patent 12699527
TWO-DIMENSIONAL DATA ACCESS FOR VOLATILE MEMORY
4y 0m to grant Granted Aug 04, 2026
Patent 12670400
SYNAPTIC MEMORY AND MEMORY ARRAY USING FOWLER-NORDHEIM TIMERS
3y 4m to grant Granted Jun 30, 2026
Patent 12656955
APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR DYNAMICALLY RECONFIGURING MEMORY REGION OF MEMORY DEVICE
3y 0m to grant Granted Jun 16, 2026
Patent 12658236
METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CALIBRATING WRITE TIMING IN A MEMORY SYSTEM
1y 8m to grant Granted Jun 16, 2026
Patent 12645378
METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DYNAMIC STORAGE SCALING
1y 10m to grant Granted Jun 02, 2026
Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

Strategy Recommendation AI-generated — please review before filing

Get a prosecution strategy drawn from examiner precedents, rejection analysis, and claim mapping.
Typically takes 5-10 seconds — AI-generated, attorney review required before filing

Prosecution Projections

3-4
Expected OA Rounds
88%
Grant Probability
96%
With Interview (+7.8%)
2y 8m (~11m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Moderate
PTA Risk
Based on 826 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

Sign in with your work email

Enter your email to receive a magic link. No password needed.

Personal email addresses (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) are not accepted.

Free tier: 3 strategy analyses per month