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 .
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s preliminary amendment filed 14 February 2025 has been considered and entered. Accordingly, claims 1-20 are pending in this application. An erroneous second claim 10 has been cancelled; the remaining claims 1-20 are original.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 05/13/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
The information disclosure statement filed 07/16/2025 fails to fully comply with 37 CFR 1.98(a)(3)(i) because it does not include a concise explanation of the relevance, as it is presently understood by the individual designated in 37 CFR 1.56(c) most knowledgeable about the content of the information, of each reference listed that is not in the English language. It has been placed in the application file, but the information referred to therein has not been fully considered. Specifically, the cited reference CN 101499094 B is entirely in Chinese and no translation or concise explanation of the relevance has been provided. Accordingly, this reference has not been considered. All other references in the IDS have been considered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 7-9 and 16-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
As to claims 7 and 16, both at line 1, the claims refer to the step of reconstructing the prefix keys. However, there is no antecedent basis for reconstructing the prefix keys in the claims or their parents 1 and 10, respectively. As such, it is unclear when the reconstruction occurs, or even if it is a step performed by the claimed method or system. Accordingly, the scope of the claims cannot be properly ascertained, rendering them indefinite. Applicant may have intended the claims to depend from claims 6 and 15, respectively, as those claims do actively recite a step of reconstructing the prefix keys.
As to claims 8, 9, 17, and 18, the claims depend from claims 7 and 16 without curing their deficiencies under 35 UCS §112(b) as set forth above. Accordingly, the claims are rejected under 35 USC §112(b) for the same reasons as claims 7 and 16 above.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
Claims 1, 2, 5, 6, 10, 11, 14, 15, 19, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ho et al. (US 2016/0086110 A1), hereinafter Ho, in view of Shadmon et al. (cited in IDS filed 07/16/2025)(US 2002/0120598 A1), hereinafter Shadmon, and further in view of Prilepov et al. (US 2014/0281943 A1), hereinafter Prilepov.
As to claim 1, Ho discloses a method for efficiently encoding a trie data structure for transmission, the method comprising:
receiving, by a computing system, an application programming interface (API) request pertaining to the trie data structure ([0032], Lines 1-6, [0041], [0061], Lines 11-14; A user initiates a request to select desired stored prefix trees, i.e. trie data structures, via a user interface. The desired trees must be provided to enable selection. The user interface thus being a program interacting with a storage program via software “input/output interfaces” analogous to the claimed API request.), wherein the trie data structure is indicative of flows of customer interactions with automated agents of a contact center (Figs. 3-4; [0038], [0055], The prefix trees represent workflows corresponding to customer interactions with agents, either agents as people or self-service website, i.e. an automated agent.);
obtaining, by the computing system, the trie data structure in which each node of multiple nodes of the trie data structure has an associated prefix key that defines a path from a root to the corresponding node (Fig. 4; [0055], [0061], Selected prefix trees are obtained as in Fig. 4.);
transmitting, by the computing system, a response to the API request based on the trie data structure (Fig. 4; [0041], [0061], Selected prefix trees are obtained and transmitted to the user interfaces in Fig. 4 to enable user selection for analysis.) .
Ho does not disclose encoding, by the computing system, the nodes of the trie data structure in a transmission format having a dictionary data structure, in which an identifier of each node is defined as a key of the corresponding node and a parent node identifier for each node is defined as a value of the corresponding node, wherein the nodes in the transmission format do not have the prefix key that defines the path from the root to the corresponding node; and
transmitting, by the computing system, a response to the API request based on the trie data structure encoded in the transmission format.
However, Shadmon discloses encoding, by the computing system, the nodes of the trie data structure in a transmission format having a dictionary data structure, in which an identifier of each node is defined as a key of the corresponding node and a parent node identifier for each node is defined as a value of the corresponding node, wherein the nodes in the transmission format do not have the prefix key that defines the path from the root to the corresponding node (Figs. 2-4, 6, 8; [0161], [0183], [0203]-[0206]; A tree data structure (e.g. Fig. 2) is encoded using a dictionary (Fig. 4) into a trie data structure (e.g. Fig. 3) forming a prefix path of the node values from a root to a leaf node (e.g. as in the Path Strings in Fig. 6). This trie structure is encoded into an analogous ‘transmission format’ (E.g. Fig. 8) where the nodes do not have the prefix from the root to the corresponding node, but rather the parent value and the identifier for the given node. E.g. #88 includes only the parent node value ‘F’ with the value ‘ABC Corp.’ for the given node.).
Shadmon does not specifically disclose transmitting, by the computing system, a response to the API request based on the trie data structure encoded in the transmission format.
However, Prilepov discloses receiving, by a computing system, an application programming interface (API) request pertaining to the trie data structure (Fig. 14; [0086] A request for a prefix tree, i.e. a trie data structure, is made via a user application, i.e. using a required API to communicate requests and information to/from the client application and server application.);
encoding, by the computing system, the nodes of the trie data structure in a transmission format, and transmitting, by the computing system, a response to the API request based on the trie data structure encoded in the transmission format (Fig. 14; [0067]-[0068], Lines 1-4; [0087], The prefix tree is encoded to reduce transmission criteria and sent from the server to the client application in response to the request.).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to combine the teachings of Ho with the teachings of Shadmon and Prilepov by modifying Ho such that the requests for prefix trees of Ho result in the returned prefix trees being encoded for transmission back to the user’s application of Ho by encoding the prefix trees of Ho using Patricia trie with a dictionary format with reduced path prefixes like is done with the node prefixes in Shadmon. Said artisan would have been motivated to do so in order to compress the trie data structures of Ho (Shadmon, [0196], [0204]) so as to reduce the network transfer size, the memory footprint, and the workload on the client requesting and receiving the trie data structures (Prilepov, [0067]).
As to claim 10, Ho discloses a system for efficiently encoding a trie data structure for transmission, the system comprising:
at least one processor (Fig. 1; [0034]); and
at least one memory comprising a plurality of instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by the at least one processor, causes the system to (Fig. 1; [0034]):
receive an application programming interface (API) request pertaining to the trie data structure ([0032], Lines 1-6, [0041], [0061], Lines 11-14; A user initiates a request to select desired stored prefix trees, i.e. trie data structures, via a user interface. The desired trees must be provided to enable selection. The user interface thus being a program interacting with a storage program via software “input/output interfaces” analogous to the claimed API request.), wherein the trie data structure is indicative of flows of customer interactions with automated agents of a contact center (Figs. 3-4; [0038], [0055], The prefix trees represent workflows corresponding to customer interactions with agents, either agents as people or self-service website, i.e. an automated agent.);
obtain the trie data structure in which each node of multiple nodes of the trie data structure has an associated prefix key that defines a path from a root to the corresponding node (Fig. 4; [0055], [0061], Selected prefix trees are obtained as in Fig. 4.);
and
transmit a response to the API request based on the trie data structure (Fig. 4; [0041], [0061], Selected prefix trees are obtained and transmitted to the user interfaces in Fig. 4 to enable user selection for analysis.) .
Ho does not disclose encode the nodes of the trie data structure in a transmission format having a dictionary data structure, in which an identifier of each node is defined as a key of the corresponding node and a parent node identifier for each node is defined as a value of the corresponding node, wherein the nodes in the transmission format do not have the prefix key that defines the path from the root to the corresponding node; and
transmit a response to the API request based on the trie data structure encoded in the transmission format.
However, Shadmon discloses encoding, by the computing system, the nodes of the trie data structure in a transmission format having a dictionary data structure, in which an identifier of each node is defined as a key of the corresponding node and a parent node identifier for each node is defined as a value of the corresponding node, wherein the nodes in the transmission format do not have the prefix key that defines the path from the root to the corresponding node (Figs. 2-4, 6, 8; [0161], [0183], [0203]-[0206]; A tree data structure (e.g. Fig. 2) is encoded using a dictionary (Fig. 4) into a trie data structure (e.g. Fig. 3) forming a prefix path of the node values from a root to a leaf node (e.g. as in the Path Strings in Fig. 6). This trie structure is encoded into an analogous ‘transmission format’ (E.g. Fig. 8) where the nodes do not have the prefix from the root to the corresponding node, but rather the parent value and the identifier for the given node. E.g. #88 includes only the parent node value ‘F’ with the value ‘ABC Corp.’ for the given node.).
Shadmon does not specifically disclose transmitting, by the computing system, a response to the API request based on the trie data structure encoded in the transmission format.
However, Prilepov discloses receiving, by a computing system, an application programming interface (API) request pertaining to the trie data structure (Fig. 14; [0086] A request for a prefix tree, i.e. a trie data structure, is made via a user application, i.e. using a required API to communicate requests and information to/from the client application and server application.);
encoding, by the computing system, the nodes of the trie data structure in a transmission format, and transmitting, by the computing system, a response to the API request based on the trie data structure encoded in the transmission format (Fig. 14; [0067]-[0068], Lines 1-4; [0087], The prefix tree is encoded to reduce transmission criteria and sent from the server to the client application in response to the request.).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to combine the teachings of Ho with the teachings of Shadmon and Prilepov by modifying Ho such that the requests for prefix trees of Ho result in the returned prefix trees being encoded for transmission back to the user’s application of Ho by encoding the prefix trees of Ho using Patricia trie with a dictionary format with reduced path prefixes like is done with the node prefixes in Shadmon. Said artisan would have been motivated to do so in order to compress the trie data structures of Ho (Shadmon, [0196], [0204]) so as to reduce the network transfer size, the memory footprint, and the workload on the client requesting and receiving the trie data structures (Prilepov, [0067]).
As to claim 19, Ho discloses one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media comprising a plurality of instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by a computing system, causes the computing system to (Fig. 1; [0034]):
receive an application programming interface (API) request pertaining to the trie data structure ([0032], Lines 1-6, [0041], [0061], Lines 11-14; A user initiates a request to select desired stored prefix trees, i.e. trie data structures, via a user interface. The desired trees must be provided to enable selection. The user interface thus being a program interacting with a storage program via software “input/output interfaces” analogous to the claimed API request.), wherein the trie data structure is indicative of flows of customer interactions with automated agents of a contact center (Figs. 3-4; [0038], [0055], The prefix trees represent workflows corresponding to customer interactions with agents, either agents as people or self-service website, i.e. an automated agent.);
obtain the trie data structure in which each node of multiple nodes of the trie data structure has an associated prefix key that defines a path from a root to the corresponding node (Fig. 4; [0055], [0061], Selected prefix trees are obtained as in Fig. 4.);
and
transmit a response to the API request based on the trie data structure (Fig. 4; [0041], [0061], Selected prefix trees are obtained and transmitted to the user interfaces in Fig. 4 to enable user selection for analysis.) .
Ho does not disclose encode the nodes of the trie data structure in a transmission format having a dictionary data structure, in which an identifier of each node is defined as a key of the corresponding node and a parent node identifier for each node is defined as a value of the corresponding node, wherein the nodes in the transmission format do not have the prefix key that defines the path from the root to the corresponding node; and
transmit a response to the API request based on the trie data structure encoded in the transmission format.
However, Shadmon discloses encoding, by the computing system, the nodes of the trie data structure in a transmission format having a dictionary data structure, in which an identifier of each node is defined as a key of the corresponding node and a parent node identifier for each node is defined as a value of the corresponding node, wherein the nodes in the transmission format do not have the prefix key that defines the path from the root to the corresponding node (Figs. 2-4, 6, 8; [0161], [0183], [0203]-[0206]; A tree data structure (e.g. Fig. 2) is encoded using a dictionary (Fig. 4) into a trie data structure (e.g. Fig. 3) forming a prefix path of the node values from a root to a leaf node (e.g. as in the Path Strings in Fig. 6). This trie structure is encoded into an analogous ‘transmission format’ (E.g. Fig. 8) where the nodes do not have the prefix from the root to the corresponding node, but rather the parent value and the identifier for the given node. E.g. #88 includes only the parent node value ‘F’ with the value ‘ABC Corp.’ for the given node.).
Shadmon does not specifically disclose transmitting, by the computing system, a response to the API request based on the trie data structure encoded in the transmission format.
However, Prilepov discloses receiving, by a computing system, an application programming interface (API) request pertaining to the trie data structure (Fig. 14; [0086] A request for a prefix tree, i.e. a trie data structure, is made via a user application, i.e. using a required API to communicate requests and information to/from the client application and server application.);
encoding, by the computing system, the nodes of the trie data structure in a transmission format, and transmitting, by the computing system, a response to the API request based on the trie data structure encoded in the transmission format (Fig. 14; [0067]-[0068], Lines 1-4; [0087], The prefix tree is encoded to reduce transmission criteria and sent from the server to the client application in response to the request.).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to combine the teachings of Ho with the teachings of Shadmon and Prilepov by modifying Ho such that the requests for prefix trees of Ho result in the returned prefix trees being encoded for transmission back to the user’s application of Ho by encoding the prefix trees of Ho using Patricia trie with a dictionary format with reduced path prefixes like is done with the node prefixes in Shadmon. Said artisan would have been motivated to do so in order to compress the trie data structures of Ho (Shadmon, [0196], [0204]) so as to reduce the network transfer size, the memory footprint, and the workload on the client requesting and receiving the trie data structures (Prilepov, [0067]).
As to claims 2, 11, and 20, the claims are rejected for the same reasons as claims 1, 10, and 19 above. In addition, Ho, as previously modified with Shadmon and Prilepov, discloses wherein encoding the nodes of the trie data structure in the transmission format comprises:
stripping away an identifier of each node from the prefix key of the corresponding node (Shadmon, Figs. 3, 6, and 8; [0204], [0206], The trie is encoded by compressing as a Patricia trie such that the identifier from the ancestor are stripped away, and the parent node identifier is set in the prefix key. E.g. F as the parent in F ABC Corp for the prefix key of node 88.); and
setting the parent node identifier for the corresponding node as a node identifier immediately preceding the identifier of the corresponding node in the prefix key (Shadmon, Figs. 3, 6, and 8; [0204], [0206], The trie is encoded by compressing as a Patricia trie such that the identifier from the ancestor are stripped away, and the parent node identifier is set in the prefix key. E.g. F as the parent in F ABC Corp for the prefix key of node 88.).
As to claims 5 and 14, the claims are rejected for the same reasons as claims 1 and 10 above. In addition, Ho, as previously modified with Shadmon and Prilepov, discloses wherein transmitting the response to the API request comprises transmitting flow count data only for leaf nodes represented in the trie data structure (Ho, [0044], “counts, from a collection of execution logs, the number of sessions ever reaching the particular node J”).
As to claims 6 and 15, the claims are rejected for the same reasons as claims 1 and 10 above. In addition, Ho, as previously modified with Shadmon and Prilepov, discloses receiving, by the computing system, the response to the API request pertaining to the trie data structure (Prilepov, Fig. 14; [0068]; [0087], The compressed/encoded prefix tree is received.);
reconstructing, by the computing system, the prefix keys for nodes of the trie data structure based on parent node identifier data associated with each node (Prilepov, [0068], [0088], The compressed/encoded prefix tree is decoded to rebuild the prefix tree.);
storing, by the computing system, the trie data structure in a storage format based on the reconstructed prefix keys for the nodes (Prilepov, Fig. 10; [0068], The trie is stored on the client.).
Claims 3, 4, 12, and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ho, Shadmon, and Prilepov as applied above, and further in view of Cobb et al. (US 2011/0043626 A1), hereinafter Cobb.
As to claims 3 and 12, the claims are rejected for the same reasons as claims 1 and 10 above. In addition, Ho, as previously modified with Shadmon and Prilepov, discloses does not explicitly disclose transmitting the response to the API request comprises excluding, from the response, redundant data pertaining to flows for each node.
However, Cobb discloses transmitting the response to the API request comprises excluding, from the response, redundant data pertaining to flows for each node (Fig. 5D, [0053] [0066], Nodes along a flow which contain the same data, i.e. are redundant, have the redundant data removed.).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to combine the teachings of Ho, as previously modified with Shadmon and Prilepov, with the teachings of Cobb by further modifying Ho such that nodes in an interaction flow of Ho which are repetitive, can have redundant elements removed like in Cobb. Said artisan would have been motivated to do so in order to further compress the trie structure in order to further reduce transmission requirements of Ho, as previously modified with Shadmon and Prilepov (Prilepov, [0072]).
As to claims 4 and 13, the claims are rejected for the same reasons as claims 3 and 12 above. In addition, Ho, as previously modified with Shadmon, Prilepov, and Cobb, discloses wherein excluding redundant data comprises excluding, from the response, redundant identifier data values for each flow associated with each node (Cobb, Fig. 5D, [0053] [0066], E.g. the symbols.).
Ho, as previously modified with Shadmon, Prilepov, and Cobb, does not explicitly disclose wherein excluding redundant data comprises excluding, from the response, redundant version, and type data values for each flow associated with each node.
However, Cobb discloses excluding redundant data corresponding to flows in a trie. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to recognize that any redundant data stored in the nodes in the flows of Ho could be excluded if present. As such, specifying any specific type of data, e.g. redundant identifier, version, and type data values, and any other redundant data values would obviously be excluded when detected. Accordingly, it would have been obvious to said artisan to further modify Ho to more explicitly also exclude redundant version, and type data values for each flow associated with each node like is done with identifiers. Said artisan would have been motivated to do so in order to better ensure all redundant data is removed to maintain an efficiently compressed trie (version, and type data values for each flow associated with each node (Prilepov, [0072]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7-9 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Wu et al. (US 10,838,940 B1) discloses compressing a tree by collapsing repeated node names and array nodes (Figs. 3, 4B, 4C, 4E; Col. 24, Lines 35-54; Col. 25, Lines 34-44).
Orkin et al. (US 11,252,113 B1) discloses using a graph to represent interactions bot-human interactions (Figs. 3, 5-7; Col. 2, Lines 1-38).
Clements et al. (US 2015/0317069 A1) discloses compressing a trie by concatenating adjacent non-branching nodes to increase memory efficiency (Figs. 4A-4C; [0127]).
Eatherton et al. (US 6,728,732 B1) discloses compressing a trie by removing redundant values (Figs. 2B-2C; Col. 3, Lines 22-36).
Sharma et al. (US 12,147,388 B1) discloses determining paths between nodes of a tree, collapsing all nodes below the highest-level ancestor node and the child node; this results in a visualization in which the entry point node to the query results is shown, and the child node containing the query results is shown, with no intervening nodes shown; reconstructing the tree after the elimination of nodes and collapsing of nodes; for each indirect path between a first and a second node, if more than a single path has a common ancestor, then collapse the paths below the last (the highest level) ancestor (Col. 3, Lines 1-33)
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/James E Richardson/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2167