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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on December 12, 2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings have been considered and accepted by the examiner.
Specification
The title, abstract, and specification have been considered and accepted by the examiner.
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP § 2146 et seq. for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
The filing of a terminal disclaimer by itself is not a complete reply to a nonstatutory double patenting (NSDP) rejection. A complete reply requires that the terminal disclaimer be accompanied by a reply requesting reconsideration of the prior Office action. Even where the NSDP rejection is provisional the reply must be complete. See MPEP § 804, subsection I.B.1. For a reply to a non-final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.111(a). For a reply to final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.113(c). A request for reconsideration while not provided for in 37 CFR 1.113(c) may be filed after final for consideration. See MPEP §§ 706.07(e) and 714.13.
The USPTO Internet website contains terminal disclaimer forms which may be used. Please visit www.uspto.gov/patent/patents-forms. The actual filing date of the application in which the form is filed determines what form (e.g., PTO/SB/25, PTO/SB/26, PTO/AIA /25, or PTO/AIA /26) should be used. A web-based eTerminal Disclaimer may be filled out completely online using web-screens. An eTerminal Disclaimer that meets all requirements is auto-processed and approved immediately upon submission. For more information about eTerminal Disclaimers, refer to www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/applying-online/eterminal-disclaimer.
Claims 1-3, 7-11, and 15-17 rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-20 of U.S. Patent No. 12,182,420. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because they would be anticipated by the claims of the ‘420 patent.
Present Application
US 12,182,420
1. A method comprising:
detecting a condition in an input/output (I/O) stream between a virtual machine and a backup system that stores a snapshot of the virtual machine, wherein the condition causes the backup system to become out-of-sync with the virtual machine;
activating, in accordance with detecting the condition, a resynchronization mode for the virtual machine;
updating, in accordance with the resynchronization mode, a bitmap that is configured to document changed data blocks resulting from writes to a virtual disk of the virtual machine;
transmitting, to a log receiver service of the backup system, the changed data blocks documented via the bitmap to support resynchronization of the backup system,
1. (…)
based at least in part on a condition of the intercepted I/O stream or the replicated I/O stream:
6. (…) wherein the condition comprises an interruption or discontinuity associated with the I/O stream, an interruption or discontinuity associated with the replicated I/O stream, or both…
7. (…) based at least in part on an I/O filter switching to a resynchronization mode from a synchronization mode.
2. (…) modifying, in response to a data block of the plurality of data blocks being changed, a corresponding bit within the at least one bitmap to indicate that the data block is changed.
3. (…) transmitting data of the changed data blocks to a log receiver service for resynchronization of the recoverable log chain.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein updating the bitmap comprises:
modifying, in response to a data block of a plurality of data blocks being changed, a corresponding bit within the bitmap to indicate that the data block is changed.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
(…)
modifying, in response to a data block of a plurality of data blocks being changed, a corresponding bit within the bitmap to indicate that the data block is changed.
3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
maintaining, based at least in part on activating the resynchronization mode, a buffer that is configured to read data of the changed data blocks of the virtual machine and transmit the data of the changed data blocks to the log receiver service for the resynchronization mode.
4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: (…)
Maintaining a second buffer that reads modified data of the modified data blocks of the computing object and transmits the modified data to a log receiver service for resynchronization of the recoverable log chain.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting the condition comprises:
detecting an interruption or discontinuity associated with the I/O stream that results in the backup system becoming out-of-sync with the virtual machine, wherein the resynchronization mode is activated based at least in part on detecting the interruption or discontinuity.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the condition comprises an interruption or discontinuity with the I/O stream, an interruption or discontinuity associated with the replicated I/O stream, or both.
8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
filtering, using an I/O filter, the I/O stream to identify the changed data blocks in accordance with the resynchronization mode, wherein the bitmap is updated based at least in part the filtering.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the intercepted I/O stream is filtered to identify changed data blocks based at least in part on an I/O filter switching to a resynchronization mode from a synchronization mode.
Claims 9-11 and 15-17 are directed to an apparatus and non-transitory computer readable medium embodiments of the method of claims 1-3 and would thus be obvious over the same claims as well as corresponding apparatus and medium claims of the ‘420 patent.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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.
Claims 1-3, 9-11, and 15-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US PGPub 2015/0007172 to Hudzia et al. (“Hudzia”).
Regarding claims 1, Hudzia discloses a method comprising:
detecting a condition in an input/output stream between a virtual machine and a backup system that stores a snapshot of the virtual machine (see fig. 1 and paragraphs 21-27, physical server 112 at a second location stores checkpoint copies of virtual machine 102), wherein the condition causes the backup system to become out-of-sync with the virtual machine (see paragraph 37, a checkpoint trigger monitor is configured to detect I/O operations as conditions for checkpointing);
activating, in accordance with detecting the condition, a resynchronization mode for the virtual machine (see paragraph 38, the checkpoint trigger causes a pause manager to pause the vCPUs to perform an incremental checkpoint);
updating, in accordance with the resynchronization mode, a bitmap that is configured to document changed data blocks resulting from active writes to a virtual disk of the virtual machine (see paragraph 41, during a checkpointing operation, a dirty bitmap is generated to indicate pages that have been altered since the last checkpoint); and
transmitting, to a log receiver service of the backup system, the changed data blocks documented via the bitmap to support resynchronization of the backup system (see paragraph 43, the transfer manager 136 commences transfer of identified dirtied memory pages).
Regarding claim 9, Hudzia discloses an apparatus comprising:
one or more memories storing processor-executable code; and one or more processors coupled with the one or more memories and individually or collectively operatable to execute the code to cause the apparatus to perform the method of claim 1.
Regarding claim 15, Hudzia discloses a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing code, the code comprising instructions executable by one or more processors to perform the method of claim 1.
Regarding claims 2, 10, and 16, Hudzia discloses the method, apparatus, and non-transitory computer-readable medium wherein updating the bitmap comprises modifying, in response to a data block of a plurality of data blocks being changed, a corresponding bit within the bitmap to indicate that the data block is changed (see paragraph 41, the dirty bit bitmap generator 130 generates a bitmap representation showing the modified pages).
Regarding claims 3, 11, and 17, Hudzia discloses the method, apparatus, and non-transitory computer-readable medium, further comprising:
maintaining, based at least in part on activating the resynchronization mode, a buffer that is configured to read data of the changed data blocks of the virtual machine and transmit the data of the changed data blocks to the log receiver service for the resynchronization mode (see paragraph 47, buffer 134 is used to perform copy-on-write to transfer the dirty page that is about to be subsequently altered by an ongoing operation).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-6, 12-14, and 18-20 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
The prior art does not disclose or suggest activating, in accordance with the bitmap indicating that no changed data blocks remain at the virtual machine, a data synchronization mode for the virtual machine and sending disk writes associated with the virtual machine to the log receiver service in accordance with the data synchronization mode.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DANIEL D TSUI whose telephone number is (571)270-3253. 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, Hosain Alam can be reached at (571)272-3978. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/DANIEL D TSUI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2132