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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-13 are pending.
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 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.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority based on an application filed in China on 5/16/2024. It is noted, however, that applicant has not filed a certified copy of the Chinese application as required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter.
Claims 8 is directed a device that when interpreted in light of the specification may read on software alone which is non- statutory. Specifically, the device comprises terminals which in turn comprises modules and thus the device is nothing more than modules, where the modules may be software alone. In order to comply, the claimed devices must explicitly comprise hardware (e.g. a processor, memory) so they may not be reasonably be interpreted as software alone.
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 1-13 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.
Claim 1 recites, “wherein the system terminal is first application software mounted on the network terminal.” The limitation is unclear as the structure and grammar of the limitation is unclear to the examiner. Specifically, software is typically installed not “mounted” thus leaving the reader in doubt as to what is occurring. Further it is unclear in what context “first” is being used. That is, sequentially is the “mounting” the first step to occur in the claim (just recite an active “mounting” or “installing” step then)? Is “first” differentiating this application software from “a second application software”?
Claim 1 recites, “receiving, by the device terminal, the network startup command, simulating unplugging, plugging and reconnection of the network cable, and ensuring that an address management module is in a startup state during reconnection.” By not reciting, “during the reconnection,” the claim is unclear since it is not specifically referencing when the ensuring occurs.
Claim 8 recites substantially similar limitations to those recited in claim 1 and is rejected by the same rationale.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-13 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
US Pat. 7,352,289 – The method involves detecting a change of connection state of a network cable connector i.e. RJ-45 connector, using a sensor that resides in the connector. A change of connection state signal is transmitted from the sensor to a processor within the connector. The processor within the connector is operated to generate connection state information from the change of connection state signal. The processor is operated to communicate the connection state information to a connection state monitoring utility within information technology (IT) network.
US Pat. 7,657,762 – A power manager to control power state of plug-in circuit module, operable with a standard allowing unplugging of module from processing circuit, is implemented based on power control processes. A program interface and communication link is established between power manager and device driver, power manager and system BIOS, respectively. An input/output interface is provided between system BIOS and plug-in circuit module, to simulate with system BIOS one of connection and disconnection of circuit module to/from system BIOS.
US Pat. 9,955,217 – The method involves judging whether a state of set-top box changes from a broadcasting state when a broadcasting service is provided to a passive standby state in a network connection between the set-top box and a head end. State information associated with an IP address is received from the set-top box response to the state of the set-top box changing to the passive standby state. A state change command is transmitted to the set-top box to maintain the network connection for the IP address allocated to the set-top box based on the received state information.
US Pat. 12,436,910 – The network interface controller (NIC) has media access controllers (MACs) associated with physical layers (PHYs). The controller initializes a timer with a delay time for one of the PHYs in response to a power on reset, to delay configuration of one PHY for the delay time after the reset. The controller is provided PHY and MACs after delay time has expired. The PHY are disabled during delay time. The delay time is from 1 to 1023 seconds, and each PHY has a same delay time, where the delay times are for respective PHY.
US Pub. No. 2007/0162594 – The method involves detecting a pending disconnection of a device such as virtual machine, which is operating within a virtual computing network. A message indicating the pending disconnection is generated and transmitted to at least one network component such as network virtualization service provider (VSP) and network driver interface specification (NDIS) miniport, and the disconnection of the device is paused.
US Pub. No. 2007/0041388 – A network device e.g. sensor comprises configuration information used to operate the network device in network environment. A connector in the network device provides external communication with the network device. The storage device comprises instructions for implementing dynamic host control protocol (DHCP) server, DHCP client and domain name server (DNS). An embedded Ethernet device in electrical communication with the storage device and the connector uses the instructions for operating the network device.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THOMAS J DAILEY whose telephone number is (571)270-1246. The examiner can normally be reached 9:30am-6:00pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Umar Cheema can be reached on 571-270-3037. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/THOMAS J DAILEY/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2458
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