DETAILED ACTION
1. This office action is in response to application 19/040,034 filed on 1/29/2025. Claims 1-20 are pending in this office action.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
2. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Double Patenting
3. 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.
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Claims 1-20 rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-9 of U.S. Patent No. 12,229,096. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because the limitations in bold are the same and the differences would have been obvious to an artisan of ordinary skill in the art.
1. A method comprising: obtaining, by an information retrieval system, from a database management system, enterprise data; automatically generating, by the information retrieval system, enterprise data tokens representing the enterprise data; automatically indexing, by the information retrieval system, the enterprise data tokens in an index structure of the information retrieval system;
obtaining, by the information retrieval system, first user input data including a natural
language string expressing a request for data from the information retrieval system; and
automatically generating, by the information retrieval system, a semantic representation of the natural language string, in a form that differs from a structured query language of the database
management system, wherein generating the semantic representation includes:
traversing the index structure to match a portion of the natural language string to
an enterprise data token from the enterprise data tokens; and
obtaining the semantic representation in accordance with the enterprise data token
using a natural language processor.
1. A method comprising: obtaining, by an information retrieval system, from a database management system, enterprise data; automatically generating, by the information retrieval system, enterprise data tokens representing the enterprise data; automatically indexing, by the information retrieval system, the enterprise data tokens in an index structure of the information retrieval system; obtaining, by the information retrieval system, first user input data including a natural language string expressing a request for data from the information retrieval system; automatically generating, by the information retrieval system, a semantic representation of the natural language string, in a form that differs from a structured query language of the database management system, wherein generating the semantic representation includes: traversing the index structure to match a portion of the natural language string to an enterprise data token from the enterprise data tokens; and including the enterprise data token in the semantic representation; automatically converting, by the information retrieval system, the semantic representation into a structured query language query expressing the request for data; obtaining, by the information retrieval system, from the database management system, in response to the structured query language query, results data responsive to the request for data; and automatically outputting, for presentation to a user, the results data.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein indexing the enterprise data tokens includes: including, in the index structure, a root node; including, in the index structure, a first branch depending from the root node, the first branch representing a first symbol from the enterprise data token; and including, in the index structure, a security bitmask for the enterprise data token, such that a security bitmask for the first branch at the root node is a hierarchical logical disjunction based on the security bitmask for the enterprise data token.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein indexing the enterprise data tokens includes: including, in the index structure, a root node; including, in the index structure, a first branch depending from the root node, the first branch representing a first symbol from the enterprise data token; and including, in the index structure, a security bitmask for the enterprise data token, such that a security bitmask for the first branch at the root node is a hierarchical logical disjunction based on the security bitmask for the enterprise data token.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein: obtaining the first user input data includes obtaining a security bitmask for the first user input data; and automatically generating the semantic representation includes: determining that the first symbol matches a symbol from the portion of the natural language string; and determining that a horizontal logical disjunction of a vertical logical conjunction of the security bitmask for the first branch and the security bitmask for the first user input data indicates authorization.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein: obtaining the first user input data includes obtaining a security bitmask for the first user input data; and automatically generating the semantic representation includes: determining that the first symbol matches a symbol from the portion of the natural language string; and determining that a horizontal logical disjunction of a vertical logical conjunction of the security bitmask for the first branch and the security bitmask for the first user input data indicates authorization.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein: automatically indexing the enterprise data tokens includes: including, in the index structure, data indicating an association between the enterprise data token and a column of a table stored in the database management system; and automatically generating the semantic representation includes: in response to determining, by a finite state machine of the information retrieval system, that the column is a measure column, including, in the semantic representation, data indicating an aggregation operation with respect to the measure column.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein: automatically indexing the enterprise data tokens includes: including, in the index structure, data indicating an association between the enterprise data token and a first table stored in the database management system; and including, in the index structure, data indicating an association between a second enterprise data token from the enterprise data tokens and a second table stored in the database management system; automatically generating the semantic representation includes: traversing the index structure to match a second portion of the natural language string to the second enterprise data token; including the second enterprise data token in the semantic representation; identifying a join path for joining data from the first table with data from the second table; including data indicating the join path in the semantic representation; and automatically converting the semantic representation includes: including data indicating the join path in the structured query language query.
The method of claim 1, further comprising:
automatically converting, by the information retrieval system, the semantic representation
into a structured query language query expressing the request for data;
obtaining, by the information retrieval system, from the database management system, in
response to the structured query language query, results data responsive to the request for data; and
automatically outputting, for presentation to a user, the results data.
From claim 20 20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein: to automatically index the enterprise data tokens the processor is configured to execute the instructions to: include, in the index structure, data indicating an association between the enterprise data token and a first table stored in the database management system; and include, in the index structure, data indicating an association between a second enterprise data token from the enterprise data tokens and a second table stored in the database management system; to automatically generate the semantic representation the processor is configured to execute the instructions to: traverse the index structure to match a second portion of the natural language string to the second enterprise data token; include the second enterprise data token in the semantic representation; identify a join path for joining data from the first table with data from the second table; include data indicating the join path in the semantic representation; and to automatically convert the semantic representation the processor is configured to execute the instructions to: include data indicating the join path in the structured query language query.
5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
automatically converting, by the information retrieval system, the semantic representation
into a structured query language query expressing the request for data;
obtaining, by the information retrieval system, from the database management system, in
response to the structured query language query, results data responsive to the request for data; and
automatically outputting, for presentation to a user, the results data.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein: automatically indexing the enterprise data tokens includes: including, in the index structure, data indicating an association between the enterprise data token and a column of a table stored in the database management system; and automatically generating the semantic representation includes: in response to determining, by a finite state machine of the information retrieval system, that the column is a measure column, including, in the semantic representation, data indicating an aggregation operation with respect to the measure column.
6. The method of claim 5, wherein:
obtaining the first user input data includes obtaining the first user input data from a user device; and automatically outputting the results data includes outputting the results data to the user
device.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein: obtaining the first user input data includes obtaining the first user input data from a user device; and automatically outputting the results data includes outputting the results data to the user device.
7. The method of claim 5, wherein automatically indexing the enterprise data tokens includes: including, in the index structure, data indicating an association between the enterprise data token and a first table stored in the database management system; and
including, in the index structure, data indicating an association between a second
enterprise data token from the enterprise data tokens and a second table stored in the database management system;
automatically generating the semantic representation includes:
traversing the index structure to match a second portion of the natural language
string to the second enterprise data token;
including the second enterprise data token in the semantic representation;
identifying a join path for joining data from the first table with data from the second table; including data indicating the join path in the semantic representation; and automatically converting the semantic representation includes:
including data indicating the join path in the structured query language query.
20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein: to automatically index the enterprise data tokens the processor is configured to execute the instructions to: include, in the index structure, data indicating an association between the enterprise data token and a first table stored in the database management system; and include, in the index structure, data indicating an association between a second enterprise data token from the enterprise data tokens and a second table stored in the database management system; to automatically generate the semantic representation the processor is configured to execute the instructions to: traverse the index structure to match a second portion of the natural language string to the second enterprise data token; include the second enterprise data token in the semantic representation; identify a join path for joining data from the first table with data from the second table; include data indicating the join path in the semantic representation; and to automatically convert the semantic representation the processor is configured to execute the instructions to: include data indicating the join path in the structured query language query.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein:
obtaining the enterprise data includes:
obtaining relationship data indicating a relationship between the first table and the
second table stored; and storing the relationship data in the information retrieval system; and identifying the join path includes using the relationship data.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein: automatically indexing the enterprise data tokens includes: including, in the index structure, data indicating an association between the enterprise data token and a first column of a first table stored in the database management system; automatically generating the semantic representation includes: identifying candidate joint paths, wherein identifying the candidate join paths includes: identifying a first candidate join path for joining data from the first column with data from a second column from a second table stored in the database management system; and identifying a second candidate join path for joining data from the first column with data from a third column from the second table; obtaining second user input data indicating a join path from the candidate join paths; including data indicating the join path in the semantic representation; and automatically converting the semantic representation includes: including data indicating the join path in the structured query language query.
9. The method of claim 5, wherein:
automatically indexing the enterprise data tokens includes: including, in the index structure, data indicating an association between the enterprise data token and a first column of a first table stored in the database management system;
automatically generating the semantic representation includes: identifying candidate joint paths, wherein identifying the candidate join paths includes: identifying a first candidate join path for joining data from the first column with data from a second column from a second table stored in the database management system; and identifying a second candidate join path for joining data from the first column with data from a third column from the second table; obtaining second user input data indicating a join path from the candidate join paths; including data indicating the join path in the semantic representation; and automatically converting the semantic representation includes: including data indicating the join path in the structured query language query.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein: automatically indexing the enterprise data tokens includes: including, in the index structure, data indicating an association between the enterprise data token and a first column of a first table stored in the database management system; automatically generating the semantic representation includes: identifying candidate joint paths, wherein identifying the candidate join paths includes: identifying a first candidate join path for joining data from the first column with data from a second column from a second table stored in the database management system; and identifying a second candidate join path for joining data from the first column with data from a third column from the second table; obtaining second user input data indicating a join path from the candidate join paths; including data indicating the join path in the semantic representation; and automatically converting the semantic representation includes: including data indicating the join path in the structured query language query.
Claims 10-16 are non-transitory computer readable medium claims substantially corresponding to the method of claims 1-9 and are thus rejected for the same reasons as set forth in the rejection of claims 1-9.
Claims 17-20 are apparatus claims substantially corresponding to the method of claims 1-9 and are thus rejected for the same reasons as set forth in the rejection of claims 1-9.
Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ELIYAH STONE HARPER whose telephone number is (571)272-0759. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 10:00 am - 6:00 pm.
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/Eliyah S. Harper/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2166 February 21, 2026