Prosecution Insights
Last updated: October 04, 2026
Application No. 18/987,990

APPLICATION-LAYER CONNECTION REDISTRIBUTION AMONG SERVICE INSTANCES

Final Rejection §102§DOUBLEPATENT
Filed
Dec 19, 2024
Priority
Apr 10, 2023 — continuation of 12/212,629
Examiner
CHOU, ALAN S
Art Unit
2451
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
ORACLE INTERNATIONAL Corporation
OA Round
2 (Final)
75%
Grant Probability
Favorable
3-4
OA Rounds
1y 5m
Est. Remaining
89%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 75% — above average
75%
Career Allowance Rate
490 granted / 650 resolved
+17.4% vs TC avg
Moderate +14% lift
Without
With
+14.0%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
3y 2m
Avg Prosecution
13 currently pending
Career history
666
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
12.5%
-27.5% vs TC avg
§103
48.2%
+8.2% vs TC avg
§102
26.2%
-13.8% vs TC avg
§112
3.5%
-36.5% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 650 resolved cases

Office Action

§102 §DOUBLEPATENT
CTNF 18/987,990 CTNF 81668 DETAILED ACTION Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA. Claims 1-20 are presented for examination. Double Patenting 08-33 AIA 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 §§ 706.02(l)(1) - 706.02(l)(3) 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 USPTO Internet website contains terminal disclaimer forms which may be used. Please visit www.uspto.gov/patent/patents-forms. The 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/process/file/efs/guidance/eTD-info-I.jsp . Claims 1-20 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claim 1 of the parent U.S. Patent No. 12,212,629 B2. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because the instant independent claims 1, 11, 20 recite similar steps such as: identifying the application-layer connections.., identifying a high-load service instance of the service instances…, determining a subset of connections…, and terminating the subset of connections. The instant independent claims recites a variant of parent patent invention by identifying a high-load service instance instead of directions of connection initiation for the purpose of finding a subset of connections for termination. Martinez Morais et al. U.S. Patent Number 11,343,329 B1 (hereinafter Martinez Morais ) teaches the steps of finding subset of connections for termination based on high-load instances. Martinez Morais teaches: identifying a high-load service instance of the service instances (see identifying a first type of connections associated with a source above a first threshold, or high-load services instance as claimed, on column 12 line 48-55). Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to identify a subset of the connections with high-load service. The motivation for doing so would have been to find appropriate subset connections to terminate (see column 12 line 45-55 in Martinez Morias ). Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine U.S. Patent No. 12,212,629 B2 with Martinez Morais for the benefit of identifying high-load service subset of connections for termination. Instant Application Parent 12,212,629 B2 1 . A method for redistributing application-layer connections among service instances, the method comprising: identifying the application-layer connections established between service instances and peers; identifying a high-load service instance of the service instances, wherein a number of the application-layer connections established with the high-load service instance satisfies load criteria; determining a subset of connections from a portion of the application-layer connections connected to the high-load service instance; and terminating the subset of connections. 1. A method for redistributing application-layer connections among active-active service instances, the method comprising: determining connection information about connections established with service instances operating in an active-active configuration, wherein the connection information identifies directions of connection initiation for the connections and identifies peers for the connections; based on the connection information, determining a subset of the connections for reestablishment on a per-peer basis using direction-dependent criteria; and terminating the subset of the connections. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 07-07-aia AIA 07-07 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 – 07-12-aia AIA (a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. 07-15-03-aia AIA Claim s 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Martinez Morais et al. U.S. Patent Number 11,343,329 B1 (hereinafter Martinez Morais ) . As per claims 1, 11, 20, Martinez Morais discloses a method for redistributing application-layer connections among service instances (see terminating and reestablishing connection at another server based on server resource load thresholds on column 5 line 20-32), the method comprising: identifying the application-layer connections established between service instances (see network services, or service instances as claimed, implemented using application-layer network protocols on column 28 line 3-12) and peers (see identifying persistent connections with the sources 304, or peers as claimed, on column 12 line 18-25 and see multiple application servers running plurality of applications in a cloud infrastructure as a service, or peers as claimed, on column 27 line 45-56); identifying a high-load service instance of the service instances (see identifying a first type of connections associated with a source above a first threshold, or high-load services instance as claimed, on column 12 line 48-55), wherein a number of the application-layer connections established with the high-load service instance satisfies load criteria (see total resource load satisfies a first threshold, or load criteria as claimed, on column 12 line 48-55); determining a subset of connections from a portion of the application-layer connections connected to the high-load service instance (see determining a first type of connection associated with a source above a first threshold, or subset of connections connected to high-load service instance as claimed, to be migrated on column 12 line 50-56); and terminating the subset of connections (see determining first type of connection to be migrated on column 12 line 50-56 and see migration including terminating the connection at the current server and reestablishing at another server on column 5 line 25-32 and see identified first subset of connections exceeding threshold and to be terminated on column 32 line 63 to column 33 line 4). As per claims 2, 12, Martinez Morais discloses the method of claim 1, comprising: receiving an incoming connection request from a peer of the peers to reestablish an application-layer connection in the subset of connections (see terminating and reestablishing a connection to another server on column 5 line 25-32); and selecting a service instance of the service instances to satisfy a load balancing scheme (see selecting a migrating server based on schema on column 6 line 15-20). As per claims 3, 13, Martinez Morais discloses the method of claim 1, wherein determining the subset of connections comprises: determining ages of the portion of the application-layer connections connected to the high-load service instance; and selecting, for inclusion in the subset of connections, a connection with an age of the ages older than another connection in the portion (see determining the subset of connections to be migrated based on longest idle and time server established connection, or age of connection as claimed, on column 5 line 65 to column 6 line 1-12). As per claims 4, 14, Martinez Morais discloses the method of claim 1, wherein determining the subset of connections comprises: ensuring at least one connection between the high-load service instance and a peer of the peers is not included in the subset of connections (see selecting type of connections such as an activate persistent connection as high priority to maintain, or subset of connection as claimed, on column 5 line 60 to column 6 line 6). As per claims 5, 15, Martinez Morais discloses the method of claim 4, wherein a number of connections in the at least one connection is not greater than a predefined maximum number of connections (see threshold of connection number on column 5 line 35-40 and see threshold load number of connections on column 10 line 28-34). As per claims 6, 16, Martinez Morais discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the portion includes inward connections initiated from the peers to the high-load service instance (see migrating connections between peer servers on column 5 line 25-32 within the cloud service, or inward connections as claimed, on column 27 line 45-50). As per claims 7, 17, Martinez Morais discloses the method of claim 1, wherein determining the subset of connections comprises: determining Quality of Service (QoS) factors of the portion of the application-layer connections (see QoS threshold such as server resources, CPU, and memory usage on column 5 line 33-55); and identifying those of the portion of the application-layer connections having QoS factors satisfying QoS thresholds for inclusion in the subset of connections (see using threshold to identify subset type of connections to migrate on column 5 line 60 to column 6 line 5). As per claims 8, 18, Martinez Morais discloses the method of claim 7, comprising: omitting those of the portion of the application-layer connections established after a most recent redistribution application-layer connections from inclusion in the subset of connections (see migration connection selection priority based on time server established connection on column 5 line 62 to column 6 line 5). As per claims 9, 19, Martinez Morais discloses the method of claim 7, comprising: stopping addition of connections to the subset of connections when a threshold number of connections is exceeded (see stop accepting new connections when threshold of connection is exceed on column 10 line 28-34). As per claim 10, Martinez Morais discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the subset of connections includes an outbound connection initiated from the high-load service instance to a peer of the peers, and the method comprising: selecting a different service instance than the high-load service instance from the service instances after the subset of connections are terminated (see terminating connection from the current server instance on column 5 line 28-31); and initiating a connection request to the peer from the different service instance (see reestablish the connection at another server on column 5 line 30-32) . Conclusion 07-96 AIA The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Hamano et al. U.S. Patent Application Publication Number 2012/0131093 A1. Connection distributing between mater and replicas based on balancing heavy load to light lode (see section [0053]). Watson et al. U.S. Patent Application Publication Number 2012/0297238 A1. Migrating identified application resources based on thresholds (see section [0042-0043]). Murgia et al. U.S. Patent Application Publication Number 2018/0198838 A1. QoS classes for applications (see Abstract). Chauhan U.S. Patent Number 10,104,166 B2. Load balancing service for transport layer connection (see Abstract). Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ALAN S CHOU whose telephone number is (571)272-5779. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9:00-5:00 EST. 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, Chris L Parry can be reached at (571)272-8328. 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. /ALAN S CHOU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2451 Application/Control Number: 18/987,990 Page 2 Art Unit: 2451 Application/Control Number: 18/987,990 Page 3 Art Unit: 2451 Application/Control Number: 18/987,990 Page 4 Art Unit: 2451 Application/Control Number: 18/987,990 Page 5 Art Unit: 2451 Application/Control Number: 18/987,990 Page 6 Art Unit: 2451 Application/Control Number: 18/987,990 Page 7 Art Unit: 2451 Application/Control Number: 18/987,990 Page 8 Art Unit: 2451 Application/Control Number: 18/987,990 Page 9 Art Unit: 2451 Application/Control Number: 18/987,990 Page 10 Art Unit: 2451
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Prosecution Timeline

Dec 19, 2024
Application Filed
Mar 26, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §102, §DOUBLEPATENT
Jun 26, 2026
Interview Requested
Jul 02, 2026
Applicant Interview (Telephonic)
Jul 02, 2026
Examiner Interview Summary
Jul 24, 2026
Response Filed
Sep 30, 2026
Final Rejection mailed — §102, §DOUBLEPATENT (current)

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Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

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Prosecution Projections

3-4
Expected OA Rounds
75%
Grant Probability
89%
With Interview (+14.0%)
3y 2m (~1y 5m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Moderate
PTA Risk
Based on 650 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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