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
Applicant’s claim for the benefit of a prior-filed application under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, 365(c), or 386(c) is acknowledged.
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s Preliminary Amendment, filed January 29, 2026, has been fully considered and entered. Accordingly, Claims 21-40 are pending in this application. Claims 21, 28, and 35 are Independent Claims and have been amended.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
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.
Claim 21, 24-28, 30, 31, 33-35, and 38-40 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Avalani (PG Pub. No. 2020/0050694 A1), and further in view of Pal (PG Pub. No. 2019/0147084 A1).
Regarding Claim 21, Avalani discloses a system, comprising:
a plurality of computing devices implementing different respective hosts of a database service offered by a provider network, wherein the database service provides serverless management (see Avalani, paragraph [0024], where this specification begins with a general description of a provider network that implements multiple different services, including data processing services and storage services) to access data using a pool of computing resources implemented using one or more of the different respective hosts (see Avalani, paragraph [0007], where Fig. 5 is a logical block diagram illustrating an example primary processing cluster of a data warehouse service using a format independent data processing service that implements burst manager, according to some embodiments; see also Fig. 5, for leader node 510 and compute nodes 520a-520n), and
wherein the pool of computing resources comprises a leader node and a plurality of compute nodes (see Avalani, paragraph [0052], where node-specific query instructions 504 may be generated or compiled code by query execution 514 that is distributed by leader node 510 to various ones of the compute nodes 520 to carry out the steps needed to perform query 501, including executing the code to generate intermediate results of query 501 at individual compute nodes may be sent back to the leader node 510);
wherein the leader node is configured to receive a database query directed to a database (see Avalani, Fig. 5, where query 501 is received by leader node 510);
distribute work to perform the database query among a first one or more compute nodes of the plurality of compute nodes to perform the database query in parallel (see Avalani, paragraph [0052], where node-specific query instructions 504 may be generated or compiled code by query execution 514 that is distributed by leader node 510 to various ones of the compute nodes 520 to carry out the steps needed to perform query 501, including executing the code to generate intermediate results of query 501 at individual compute nodes may be sent back to the leader node 510 [it is the position of the Examiner that distributing a query among a plurality of compute nodes is inherently parallel]); and
wherein the plurality of compute nodes implement a same query processing engine to perform the portion of the database query (see Avalani, Fig. 5, where remote processing nodes 540a-540n are format independent [it is the position of the Examiner that the broadest reasonable interpretation of format independent data processing service 220 encompasses processing clusters with the same query processing engine as implemented by the primary processing cluster]).
Avalani does not disclose:
wherein the distribution by the leader node instructs at least one of the first one or more compute nodes to use a second one or more compute nodes of the plurality of compute nodes different from the first one or more compute nodes to perform a portion of the database query; and
return a result of the database query generated based on the performance of compute nodes that are different from the first one or more compute nodes.
Avalani in view of Pal discloses:
wherein the distribution by the leader node instructs at least one of the first one or more compute nodes to use a second one or more compute nodes of the plurality of compute nodes different from the first one or more compute nodes to perform a portion of the database query (see Pal, Claim 1, where the method comprises .. defining, by the data intake and query system, a query processing scheme for obtaining and processing the set of data, wherein defining the query processing scheme comprises … assigning the worker node to distribute the results of the subquery to at least two of the plurality of worker nodes to process the results of the subquery to form processed results the processed results to the data intake and query system); and
return a result of the database query generated based on the performance of the portion of the database query at the second one or more compute nodes of the plurality of compute nodes that are different from the first one or more compute nodes (see Pal, Claim 1, where the method comprises .. defining, by the data intake and query system, a query processing scheme for obtaining and processing the set of data, wherein defining the query processing scheme comprises … assigning the worker node to distribute the results of the subquery to at least two of the plurality of worker nodes to process the results of the subquery to form processed results the processed results to the data intake and query system).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine Avalani with Pal for the benefit of quickly search and analyze large set of raw machine data to visually identify data subsets of interest (see Pal, paragraph [0007]).
Regarding Claim 24, Avalani in view of Pal discloses the system of Claim 21, wherein the second one or more compute nodes of the plurality of compute nodes are hosted at one or more different hosts than the first one or more compute nodes (see Avalani, paragraph [0054], where compute nodes 520 may, for example, be implemented on servers or other computing devices).
Regarding Claim 25, Avalani in view of Pal discloses the system of Claim 21, wherein the data is stored in separate storage service of the provider network than the database service (see Avalani, paragraph [0038], where database data may not be stored locally in a processing cluster 320 but instead may be stored in object-based storage service 330).
Regarding Claim 26, Avalani in view of Pal discloses the system of Claim 21, wherein the database service is a data warehouse service (see Avalani, paragraph [0005], where Fig. 3 is a logical block diagram of a data warehouse service).
Regarding Claim 27, Avalani in view of Pal discloses the system of Claim 21, wherein to distribute the work to perform the database query, the leader node is configured to generate a plan to perform the database query at the leader node (see Avalani, paragraph [0052], where node-specific query instructions 504 may be generated or compiled code by query execution 514 that is distributed by leader node 510 to various ones of the compute nodes 520 to carry out the steps needed to perform query 501, including executing the code to generate intermediate results of query 501 at individual compute nodes may be sent back to the leader node 510 .. query planning 512 may account for remotely stored data by generating node-specific query instructions that include remote operations to be directed by the individual compute nodes; see also Fig. 5, where node-specific query execution instructions 504 include remote operations).
Regarding Claim 28, Avalani discloses a method, comprising:
receiving, at a leader node, a database query directed to a database (see Avalani, Fig. 5, where query 501 is received by leader node 510);
wherein the leader node is part of a pool of computing resources implemented by a database service that provides serverless management to access data using the pool of computing resources (see Avalani, paragraph [0024], where this specification begins with a general description of a provider network that implements multiple different services, including data processing services and storage services), wherein the pool further comprises a plurality of compute nodes wherein the pool of computing resources comprises a leader node and a plurality of compute nodes (see Avalani, paragraph [0052], where node-specific query instructions 504 may be generated or compiled code by query execution 514 that is distributed by leader node 510 to various ones of the compute nodes 520 to carry out the steps needed to perform query 501, including executing the code to generate intermediate results of query 501 at individual compute nodes may be sent back to the leader node 510);
distributing, by the leader node, work to perform the database query among a first one or more compute nodes of the plurality of compute nodes to perform the database query in parallel (see Avalani, paragraph [0052], where node-specific query instructions 504 may be generated or compiled code by query execution 514 that is distributed by leader node 510 to various ones of the compute nodes 520 to carry out the steps needed to perform query 501, including executing the code to generate intermediate results of query 501 at individual compute nodes may be sent back to the leader node 510 [it is the position of the Examiner that distributing a query among a plurality of compute nodes is inherently parallel]); and
wherein the plurality of compute nodes implement a same query processing engine to perform the portion of the database query (see Avalani, Fig. 5, where remote processing nodes 540a-540n are format independent [it is the position of the Examiner that the broadest reasonable interpretation of format independent data processing service 220 encompasses processing clusters with the same query processing engine as implemented by the primary processing cluster]).
Avalani does not disclose:
wherein the distribution by the leader node instructs at least one of the first one or more compute nodes to use a second one or more compute nodes of the plurality of compute nodes different from the first one or more compute nodes to perform a portion of the database query; and
returning, by the leader node, a result of the database query generated based on the performance of compute nodes that are different from the first one or more compute nodes.
Avalani in view of Pal discloses:
wherein the distribution by the leader node instructs at least one of the first one or more compute nodes to use a second one or more compute nodes of the plurality of compute nodes different from the first one or more compute nodes to perform a portion of the database query (see Pal, Claim 1, where the method comprises .. defining, by the data intake and query system, a query processing scheme for obtaining and processing the set of data, wherein defining the query processing scheme comprises … assigning the worker node to distribute the results of the subquery to at least two of the plurality of worker nodes to process the results of the subquery to form processed results the processed results to the data intake and query system); and
returning, by the leader node, a result of the database query generated based on the performance of the portion of the database query at the second one or more compute nodes of the plurality of compute nodes that are different from the first one or more compute nodes (see Pal, Claim 1, where the method comprises .. defining, by the data intake and query system, a query processing scheme for obtaining and processing the set of data, wherein defining the query processing scheme comprises … assigning the worker node to distribute the results of the subquery to at least two of the plurality of worker nodes to process the results of the subquery to form processed results the processed results to the data intake and query system).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine Avalani with Pal for the benefit of quickly search and analyze large set of raw machine data to visually identify data subsets of interest (see Pal, paragraph [0007]).
Regarding Claim 30, Avalani in view of Pal discloses the system of Claim 28, wherein the database service is a data warehouse service (see Avalani, paragraph [0005], where Fig. 3 is a logical block diagram of a data warehouse service).
Regarding Claim 31, Avalani in view of Pal discloses the system of Claim 28, wherein the data is stored in separate storage service of the provider network than the database service (see Avalani, paragraph [0038], where database data may not be stored locally in a processing cluster 320 but instead may be stored in object-based storage service 330).
Regarding Claim 33, Avalani in view of Pal discloses the system of Claim 28, wherein the second one or more compute nodes of the plurality of compute nodes are hosted at one or more different hosts than the first one or more compute nodes (see Avalani, paragraph [0054], where compute nodes 520 may, for example, be implemented on servers or other computing devices).
Regarding Claim 34, Avalani in view of Pal discloses the system of Claim 28, wherein to distribute the work to perform the database query, the leader node is configured to generate a plan to perform the database query at the leader node (see Avalani, paragraph [0052], where node-specific query instructions 504 may be generated or compiled code by query execution 514 that is distributed by leader node 510 to various ones of the compute nodes 520 to carry out the steps needed to perform query 501, including executing the code to generate intermediate results of query 501 at individual compute nodes may be sent back to the leader node 510 .. query planning 512 may account for remotely stored data by generating node-specific query instructions that include remote operations to be directed by the individual compute nodes; see also Fig. 5, where node-specific query execution instructions 504 include remote operations).
Regarding Claim 35, Avalani discloses one or more non-transitory, computer-readable storage media, storing program instructions that when executed on or across one or more computing devices cause the one or more computing devices to implement, comprising:
receiving, at a leader node, a database query directed to a database (see Avalani, Fig. 5, where query 501 is received by leader node 510);
wherein the leader node is part of a pool of computing resources implemented by a database service that provides serverless management to access data using the pool of computing resources (see Avalani, paragraph [0024], where this specification begins with a general description of a provider network that implements multiple different services, including data processing services and storage services), wherein the pool further comprises a plurality of compute nodes wherein the pool of computing resources comprises a leader node and a plurality of compute nodes (see Avalani, paragraph [0052], where node-specific query instructions 504 may be generated or compiled code by query execution 514 that is distributed by leader node 510 to various ones of the compute nodes 520 to carry out the steps needed to perform query 501, including executing the code to generate intermediate results of query 501 at individual compute nodes may be sent back to the leader node 510);
distributing, by the leader node, work to perform the database query among a first one or more compute nodes of the plurality of compute nodes to perform the database query in parallel (see Avalani, paragraph [0052], where node-specific query instructions 504 may be generated or compiled code by query execution 514 that is distributed by leader node 510 to various ones of the compute nodes 520 to carry out the steps needed to perform query 501, including executing the code to generate intermediate results of query 501 at individual compute nodes may be sent back to the leader node 510 [it is the position of the Examiner that distributing a query among a plurality of compute nodes is inherently parallel]); and
wherein the plurality of compute nodes implement a same query processing engine to perform the portion of the database query (see Avalani, Fig. 5, where remote processing nodes 540a-540n are format independent [it is the position of the Examiner that the broadest reasonable interpretation of format independent data processing service 220 encompasses processing clusters with the same query processing engine as implemented by the primary processing cluster]).
Avalani does not disclose:
wherein the distribution by the leader node instructs at least one of the first one or more compute nodes to use a second one or more compute nodes of the plurality of compute nodes different from the first one or more compute nodes to perform a portion of the database query; and
returning, by the leader node, a result of the database query generated based on the performance of compute nodes that are different from the first one or more compute nodes.
Avalani in view of Pal discloses:
wherein the distribution by the leader node instructs at least one of the first one or more compute nodes to use a second one or more compute nodes of the plurality of compute nodes different from the first one or more compute nodes to perform a portion of the database query (see Pal, Claim 1, where the method comprises .. defining, by the data intake and query system, a query processing scheme for obtaining and processing the set of data, wherein defining the query processing scheme comprises … assigning the worker node to distribute the results of the subquery to at least two of the plurality of worker nodes to process the results of the subquery to form processed results the processed results to the data intake and query system); and
returning, by the leader node, a result of the database query generated based on the performance of the portion of the database query at the second one or more compute nodes of the plurality of compute nodes that are different from the first one or more compute nodes (see Pal, Claim 1, where the method comprises .. defining, by the data intake and query system, a query processing scheme for obtaining and processing the set of data, wherein defining the query processing scheme comprises … assigning the worker node to distribute the results of the subquery to at least two of the plurality of worker nodes to process the results of the subquery to form processed results the processed results to the data intake and query system).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine Avalani with Pal for the benefit of quickly search and analyze large set of raw machine data to visually identify data subsets of interest (see Pal, paragraph [0007]).
Regarding Claim 38, Avalani in view of Pal discloses the one or more non-transitory, computer-readable storage media of claim 35, wherein the second one or more compute nodes of the plurality of compute nodes are hosted at one or more different hosts than the first one or more compute nodes (see Avalani, paragraph [0054], where compute nodes 520 may, for example, be implemented on servers or other computing devices).
Regarding Claim 39, Avalani in view of Pal discloses the one or more non-transitory, computer-readable storage media of claim 35, wherein to distribute the work to perform the database query, the leader node is configured to generate a plan to perform the database query at the leader node (see Avalani, paragraph [0052], where node-specific query instructions 504 may be generated or compiled code by query execution 514 that is distributed by leader node 510 to various ones of the compute nodes 520 to carry out the steps needed to perform query 501, including executing the code to generate intermediate results of query 501 at individual compute nodes may be sent back to the leader node 510 .. query planning 512 may account for remotely stored data by generating node-specific query instructions that include remote operations to be directed by the individual compute nodes; see also Fig. 5, where node-specific query execution instructions 504 include remote operations).
Regarding Claim 40, Avalani in view of Pal discloses the one or more non-transitory, computer-readable storage media of claim 35, wherein the database service is a data warehouse service (see Avalani, paragraph [0005], where Fig. 3 is a logical block diagram of a data warehouse service).
Claims 22, 29, and 36 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Avalani and Pal as applied to Claims 21, 24-28, 30, 31, 33-35, and 38-40 above, and further in view of Cheng (CN104461752B).
Regarding Claim 22, Avalani in view of Pal discloses the system of Claim 21, wherein the leader node is further configured to:
receive a second database query directed to the database (see Avalani, Fig. 5, where query 501 is received by leader node 510).
Avalani does not disclose:
determine not to use the second one or more compute nodes of the plurality of compute nodes that are different from the first one or more compute nodes;
distribute further work to perform the second database query using the first one or more compute nodes to perform the second database query in parallel; and
return a result of the second database query generated based on the distribution of the work to perform the second database query.
Avalani in view of Cheng discloses:
determine not to use the second one or more compute nodes of the plurality of compute nodes that are different from the first one or more compute nodes (see Cheng, Abstract, where it is possible to ensure tasks that continue to be executed on the initially assigned computing nodes as much as possible, effectively avoiding the unbalanced computing resource occupancy of each node after the tasks are reassigned to other nodes);
distribute further work to perform the second database query using the first one or more compute nodes to perform the second database query in parallel (see Avalani, paragraph [0052], where node-specific query instructions 504 may be generated or compiled code by query execution 514 that is distributed by leader node 510 to various ones of the compute nodes 520 to carry out the steps needed to perform query 501, including executing the code to generate intermediate results of query 501 at individual compute nodes may be sent back to the leader node 510 [it is the position of the Examiner that distributing a query among a plurality of compute nodes is inherently parallel]); and
return a result of the second database query generated based on the distribution of the work to perform the second database query (see Avalani, paragraph [0052], where node-specific query instructions 504 may be generated or compiled code by query execution 514 that is distributed by leader node 510 to various ones of the compute nodes 520 to carry out the steps needed to perform query 501, including executing the code to generate intermediate results of query 501 at individual compute nodes may be sent back to the leader node 510; leader node 510 may receive data and query responses or results from compute nodes 520 in order to determine a final result 503 for query 501).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine Avalani with Cheng for the benefit of avoiding unbalanced resource occupancy caused by reassignment of workloads to other nodes (see Cheng, Abstract).
Regarding Claim 29, Avalani in view of Pal discloses the method of Claim 28, further comprising:
receiving, at the leader node, a second database directed to the database (see Avalani, Fig. 5, where query 501 is received by leader node 510).
Avalani does not disclose:
determining, by the leader node, not to use the second one or more compute nodes of the plurality of compute nodes that are different from the first one or more compute nodes;
distributing, by the leader node, further work to perform the second database query using the first one or more compute nodes to perform the second database query in parallel; and
returning, by the leader node, a result of the second database query generated based on the distribution of the work to perform the second database query.
Avalani in view of Cheng discloses:
determining, by the leader node, not to use the second one or more compute nodes of the plurality of compute nodes that are different from the first one or more compute nodes (see Cheng, Abstract, where it is possible to ensure tasks that continue to be executed on the initially assigned computing nodes as much as possible, effectively avoiding the unbalanced computing resource occupancy of each node after the tasks are reassigned to other nodes);
distributing, by the leader node, further work to perform the second database query using the first one or more compute nodes to perform the second database query in parallel (see Avalani, paragraph [0052], where node-specific query instructions 504 may be generated or compiled code by query execution 514 that is distributed by leader node 510 to various ones of the compute nodes 520 to carry out the steps needed to perform query 501, including executing the code to generate intermediate results of query 501 at individual compute nodes may be sent back to the leader node 510 [it is the position of the Examiner that distributing a query among a plurality of compute nodes is inherently parallel]); and
returning, by the leader node, a result result of the second database query generated based on the distribution of the work to perform the second database query (see Avalani, paragraph [0052], where node-specific query instructions 504 may be generated or compiled code by query execution 514 that is distributed by leader node 510 to various ones of the compute nodes 520 to carry out the steps needed to perform query 501, including executing the code to generate intermediate results of query 501 at individual compute nodes may be sent back to the leader node 510; leader node 510 may receive data and query responses or results from compute nodes 520 in order to determine a final result 503 for query 501).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine Avalani with Cheng for the benefit of avoiding unbalanced resource occupancy caused by reassignment of workloads to other nodes (see Cheng, Abstract).
Regarding Claim 36, Avalani in view of Pal discloses the one or more non-transitory, computer-readable storage media of Claim 35, storing further instructions that when executed on or across the one or more computing devices, cause the one or more computing devices to implement:
receiving, at the leader node, a second database directed to the database (see Avalani, Fig. 5, where query 501 is received by leader node 510).
Avalani does not disclose:
determining, by the leader node, not to use the second one or more compute nodes of the plurality of compute nodes that are different from the first one or more compute nodes;
distributing, by the leader node, further work to perform the second database query using the first one or more compute nodes to perform the second database query in parallel; and
returning, by the leader node, a result of the second database query generated based on the distribution of the work to perform the second database query.
Avalani in view of Cheng discloses:
determining, by the leader node, not to use the second one or more compute nodes of the plurality of compute nodes that are different from the first one or more compute nodes (see Cheng, Abstract, where it is possible to ensure tasks that continue to be executed on the initially assigned computing nodes as much as possible, effectively avoiding the unbalanced computing resource occupancy of each node after the tasks are reassigned to other nodes);
distributing, by the leader node, further work to perform the second database query using the first one or more compute nodes to perform the second database query in parallel (see Avalani, paragraph [0052], where node-specific query instructions 504 may be generated or compiled code by query execution 514 that is distributed by leader node 510 to various ones of the compute nodes 520 to carry out the steps needed to perform query 501, including executing the code to generate intermediate results of query 501 at individual compute nodes may be sent back to the leader node 510 [it is the position of the Examiner that distributing a query among a plurality of compute nodes is inherently parallel]); and
returning, by the leader node, a result of the second database query generated based on the distribution of the work to perform the second database query (see Avalani, paragraph [0052], where node-specific query instructions 504 may be generated or compiled code by query execution 514 that is distributed by leader node 510 to various ones of the compute nodes 520 to carry out the steps needed to perform query 501, including executing the code to generate intermediate results of query 501 at individual compute nodes may be sent back to the leader node 510; leader node 510 may receive data and query responses or results from compute nodes 520 in order to determine a final result 503 for query 501).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine Avalani with Cheng for the benefit of avoiding unbalanced resource occupancy caused by reassignment of workloads to other nodes (see Cheng, Abstract).
Claims 23 and 32 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Avalani and Pal as applied to Claims 21, 24-28, 30, 31, 33-35, and 38-40 above, and further in view of Fultheim (PG Pub. No. 2012/0054748 A1).
Regarding Claim 23, Avalani in view of Pal discloses the system of Claim 21, wherein:
Avalani does not disclose the second one or more compute nodes of the plurality of compute nodes are hosted on the same one of the hosts. Fultheim discloses the second one or more compute nodes of the plurality of compute nodes are hosted on the same one of the hosts (see Fultheim, paragraph [0082], where node 68, for example, has two virtual nodes 90, 92, which are enclosed by broken lines).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine Avalani with Fultheim for the benefit of an operating system-agnostic cluster computing system (see Fultheim, Abstract).
Regarding Claim 32, Avalani in view of Pal discloses the method of Claim 28, wherein:
Avalani does not disclose the second one or more compute nodes of the plurality of compute nodes are hosted on the same one of the hosts. Fultheim discloses the second one or more compute nodes of the plurality of compute nodes are hosted on the same one of the hosts (see Fultheim, paragraph [0082], where node 68, for example, has two virtual nodes 90, 92, which are enclosed by broken lines).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine Avalani with Fultheim for the benefit of an operating system-agnostic cluster computing system (see Fultheim, Abstract).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s Arguments, filed January 29, 2026, have been fully considered, but they are moot in light of the new grounds of rejection.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to the Applicant’s disclosure:
Shetye (PG Pub. No. 2015/0339486 A1), which concerns front-end and back-end security protocols.
Lang (PG Pub. No. 2017/0083588 A1), which concerns a per-node custom code engine for distributed query processing.
Birnbaum (US Patent No. 9,141,648 B1), which concerns management of database blocks.
Kruse (PG Pub. No. 2018/0198691 A1), which concerns workload reassignment following communication failure.
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 FARHAD AGHARAHIMI whose telephone number is (571)272-9864. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9am - 5pm ET.
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/FARHAD AGHARAHIMI/Examiner, Art Unit 2161
/APU M MOFIZ/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2161
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