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 .
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 .
Response to Amendment
This Action is responsive to the Applicant’s Amendment/Remarks filed on 01/06/2026. In the Amendment, applicant amended claims 1, 8 and 15. As necessitated by the Amendment, Examiner hereby respectfully withdraws 35 U.S.C § 101 rejections to claims 1-20.
As to Arguments and Remarks filed in the Amendment, please see Examiner’s responses shown after Rejections - 35 U.S.C § 103.
Please note claims 1-20 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) filed on 11/26/2025 has been considered (see form-1449, MPEP 609).
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).
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Claims 1-20 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-20 of U.S. Patent No. 12,222945. Although the conflicting are not patentably distinct from each other because since the claims of the Patent No. 12,222945 contains every element of the claims of the instant application, and as such, anticipate the claims of the instant application 18/991292. (See table below).
Instant Application claim 1
Patent No. 12,222945 claim 1
A system comprising:
a processor; and
a query service, the query service presenting a plurality of data stores as a federated graph using a public schema, the public schema indicating entities and relationships visible in the federated graph, the query service implemented on the processor and configured to:
dynamically probe for metadata for elements of the public schema, wherein the metadata comprises data store latency;
receive an input query, the input query comprising a plurality of variables;
map each of the plurality of variables to the elements of the public schema;
using the metadata comprising the data store latency and the mapping of the plurality of variables to the elements of the public schema, determine a storage tag for each of the plurality of variables, each storage tag identifying a data store of a minimal set of data stores,
wherein the minimal set of data stores is selected from the plurality of data stores, and wherein the minimal set of data stores comprises a smallest count of data stores be searched to satisfy the input query;
based on the storage tags, perform a first store-specific query; and
return a query result based on the first store-specific query.
system comprising: a processor; and a query service implemented on the processor and configured to: receive an input query from a user terminal via a network, the input query comprising a plurality of variables; map each of the plurality of variables of the input query to elements of a public schema, wherein the elements of the public schema comprise entities and relationships; identify a minimum set of multiple data stores for a plurality of store-specific queries, wherein the minimum set of multiple data stores comprises a smallest number of data stores to be searched to satisfy the input query; map the plurality of variables of the input query to the minimum set of multiple data stores; using the mapping of the plurality of variables of the input query to the minimum set of multiple data stores and the mapping of the plurality of variables of the input query to the elements of the public schema, assign storage tags to properties of the plurality of variables of the input query, each storage tag identifying a data store of the minimum set of multiple data stores; based on at least the storage tags, perform the plurality of store-specific queries; and return a query result to the user terminal based on at least the plurality of store-specific queries.
Claims 2-7 of Patent No. 12,222945 satisfies all the elements of claims 2-7 of the instant application, and as such, anticipates the claims of instant application.
Instant Application claim 8
Patent No. 12,991292 claim 8
A computer-implemented method comprising:
dynamically probing for metadata for elements of a public schema, wherein the metadata comprises data store latency;
receiving an input query, the input query comprising a plurality of variables;
mapping each of the plurality of variables to the elements of the public schema;
using the metadata comprising the data store latency and the mapping of the plurality of
variables to the elements of the public schema, determining a storage tag for each of the plurality of variables, each storage tag identifying a data store of a minimal set of data stores,
wherein the minimal set of data stores is selected from the plurality of data stores, and wherein the minimal set of data stores comprises a smallest count of data stores be searched to satisfy the input query;
based on the storage tags, performing a first store-specific query; and
returning a query result based on the first store-specific query.
A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving an input query comprising a plurality of variables; mapping each of the plurality of variables of the input query to elements of a public schema, wherein the elements of the public schema comprise entities and relationships; identifying a minimum set of multiple data stores for a plurality of store-specific queries, wherein the minimum set of multiple data stores comprises a smallest number of data stores to be searched to satisfy the input query; mapping the plurality of variables of the input query to the minimum set of multiple data stores; using the mapping of the plurality of variables of the input query to the minimum set of multiple data stores and the mapping of the plurality of variables of the input query to the elements of the public schema, assigning storage tags to properties of the plurality of variables of the input query, each storage tag identifying the minimum data store of a set of multiple data stores; based on at least the storage tags, performing the plurality of store-specific queries; and returning a query result based on at least the plurality of store-specific queries.
Claims 9-14 of Patent No. 12,222,945 satisfies all the elements of claims 9-14 of the instant application, and as such, anticipates the claims of instant application.
Instant Application claim 15
Patent No. 12,222945 claim 15
A computer storage device having computer-executable instructions stored thereon, which, on execution by a computer, cause the computer to perform operations comprising:
dynamically probing for metadata for elements of a public schema, wherein the metadata comprises data store latency;
receiving an input query, the input query comprising a plurality of variables;
mapping each of the plurality of variables to the elements of the public schema;
using the metadata comprising the data store latency and the mapping of the plurality of
variables to the elements of the public schema, determining a storage tag for each of the plurality of variables, each storage tag identifying a data store of a minimal set of data stores, wherein the minimal set of data stores is selected from the plurality of data stores, and wherein the minimal set of data stores comprises a smallest count of data stores be searched to satisfy the input query;
based on the storage tags, performing a first store-specific query; and
returning a query result based on the first store-specific query.
A computer storage device having computer-executable instructions stored thereon, which, on execution by a computer, cause the computer to perform operations comprising: receiving an input query comprising a plurality of variables, the plurality of variables comprising an entity and a relationship; mapping each of the plurality of variables of the input query to elements of a public schema, wherein the elements of the public schema comprise entities and relationships; identifying a minimum set of multiple data stores for a plurality of store-specific queries, wherein the minimum set of multiple data stores comprises a smallest number of data stores to be searched to satisfy the input query; mapping the plurality of variables of the input query to the minimum set of multiple data stores; using the mapping of the plurality of variables of the input query to the minimum set of multiple data stores and the mapping of the plurality of variables of the input query to the elements of the public schema, assigning storage tags to properties of the plurality of variables of the input query, each storage tag identifying a data store of the minimum set of multiple data stores; based on at least the storage tags, performing the plurality of store-specific queries; and returning a query result based on at least the first plurality of store-specific queries.
Claims 16-20 of Patent No. 12,222,945 satisfies all the elements of claims 16-20 of the instant application, and as such, anticipates the claims of instant application.
Per the instant office action, claims 1-20 are being considered allowable. These claims would be allowed if the current nonstatutory obviousness-type double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-20 of Patent No. 12,222945 is overcome. Case will be allowed upon receive a terminal disclaimer.
Additional Art Considered
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to the Applicants’ disclosure.
The following patents and papers are cited to further show the state of the art at the time of Applicants’ invention with respect to federate queries across multiple data stores which spans the data stores by defining the entities and relationships and inferring the intent of the queries to optimize data searches in the individual data stores.
A. Shimizu et al. (US PGPUB 2016/0154848, hereafter Shimizu); “Database Management Apparatus, Database Management Method, And Storage Medium” disclose “database management which comprising a query acceptance unit which accepts a query to the database; a query execution plan generating unit which generates a query execution plan which includes a database operation which is necessary for executing the accepted query; and a query execution unit which, in executing the accepted query on the basis of the generated query execution plan, dynamically generates a task for executing the database operation, and executes the dynamically generated task. The query execution unit acquires a resource usage state, and, when executing the next database operation, generates a new task on the basis of the resource usage state, and executes the new task in parallel with the task”.
Shimizu also teaches a plurality of queries, the context may be identified based on a transaction ID, a user ID, a schema ID, and the like, and the order in which the tasks are generated may be changed based on the priority of each query [0329].
Shimizu further teaches performance data table and selects the storage having the smallest count [0242], [0247].
B. Pal et al. (US PGPUB 2018/0089306, hereafter Pal); “Query Acceleration Data Store” disclose “utilize a query acceleration data store which query processing scheme for obtaining and processing the set of data is defined. First partial results of the query stored in a data store are identified, with the first partial results corresponding to a first portion of the set of data. One or more partitions are dynamically allocated to obtain a second portion of the set of data from different data sources”.
Pal also teaches query was distributed, search data stores associated with them for events that are responsive to the query. To determine which events are responsive to the query, the indexer searches for events that match the criteria specified in the query [0301].
Pal further teaches collect all the time-ordered partial search results from its source avoids the added need to distribute the time-ordered partial search results between worker nodes to reconstruct the overall time orderliness of the partial search results [0506].
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 extension fee 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 date of this final action.
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/TUAN A PHAM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2163