Prosecution Insights
Last updated: August 30, 2026
Application No. 19/065,597

MICROSERVICE-AWARE FRAMEWORK FOR NETWORK-APPLICATION COLLABORATION

Non-Final OA §101§112
Filed
Feb 27, 2025
Priority
Mar 01, 2024 — FI 20245259
Examiner
JOO, JOSHUA
Art Unit
Tech Center
Assignee
Nokia Corporation
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
78%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
1y 7m
Est. Remaining
99%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 78% — above average
78%
Career Allowance Rate
777 granted / 991 resolved
+18.4% vs TC avg
Strong +23% interview lift
Without
With
+23.4%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
3y 1m
Avg Prosecution
30 currently pending
Career history
1019
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
10.6%
-29.4% vs TC avg
§103
40.5%
+0.5% vs TC avg
§102
11.0%
-29.0% vs TC avg
§112
30.1%
-9.9% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 991 resolved cases

Office Action

§101 §112
CTNF 19/065,597 CTNF 80463 Detailed Action 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 1-16 are pending in the application. Information Disclosure Statement The information disclosure statement (IDS) filed June 30, 2025 fails to comply with 37 CFR 1.98(a)(2), which requires a legible copy of each cited foreign patent document; each non-patent literature publication or that portion which caused it to be listed; and all other information or that portion which caused it to be listed. The IDS does not include copies of Cite No. 8 and 9 as identified in the IDS, and thus the information referred to therein has not been considered. The rest of the IDS has been considered by the examiner. The IDS submitted on September 22, 2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97, and accordingly, the IDS has been considered by the examiner. Specification 06-14 AIA Applicant is reminded of the proper content of an abstract of the disclosure. A patent abstract is a concise statement of the technical disclosure of the patent and should include that which is new in the art to which the invention pertains. The abstract should not refer to purported merits or speculative applications of the invention and should not compare the invention with the prior art. If the patent is of a basic nature, the entire technical disclosure may be new in the art, and the abstract should be directed to the entire disclosure. If the patent is in the nature of an improvement in an old apparatus, process, product, or composition, the abstract should include the technical disclosure of the improvement. The abstract should also mention by way of example any preferred modifications or alternatives. Where applicable, the abstract should include the following: (1) if a machine or apparatus, its organization and operation; (2) if an article, its method of making; (3) if a chemical compound, its identity and use; (4) if a mixture, its ingredients; (5) if a process, the steps. Extensive mechanical and design details of an apparatus should not be included in the abstract. The abstract should be in narrative form and generally limited to a single paragraph within the range of 50 to 150 words in length. See MPEP § 608.01(b) for guidelines for the preparation of patent abstracts. 06-16 AIA Applicant is reminded of the proper language and format for an abstract of the disclosure. The abstract should be in narrative form and generally limited to a single paragraph on a separate sheet within the range of 50 to 150 words in length. The abstract should describe the disclosure sufficiently to assist readers in deciding whether there is a need for consulting the full patent text for details. The language should be clear and concise and should not repeat information given in the title. It should avoid using phrases which can be implied, such as, “The disclosure concerns,” “The disclosure defined by this invention,” “The disclosure describes,” etc. In addition, the form and legal phraseology often used in patent claims, such as “means” and “said,” should be avoided. The abstract of the disclosure is objected to because the abstract does not comply with MPEP 608.01(b). The abstract is not written as a single paragraph and is not in narrative form. The abstract is in the form of a claim. A corrected abstract of the disclosure is required and must be presented on a separate sheet, apart from any other text. See MPEP § 608.01(b). Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101 07-04-01 AIA 07-04 35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows: Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title. Claim 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. Regarding claim 16, Applicant is seeking to patent a “computer readable medium comprising a set of instructions.” The term “computer readable medium” could include signals in transmission which have been held to be non-statutory. See MPEP 2106.03(I), Non-limiting examples of claims that are not directed to any of the statutory categories include: • Products that do not have a physical or tangible form, such as information (often referred to as "data per se") or a computer program per se (often referred to as "software per se") when claimed as a product without any structural recitations; • Transitory forms of signal transmission (often referred to as "signals per se"), such as a propagating electrical or electromagnetic signal or carrier wave. MPEP 2106.02(II) For example, the BRI of machine readable media can encompass non-statutory transitory forms of signal transmission, such as a propagating electrical or electromagnetic signal per se. See In re Nuijten, 500 F.3d 1346, 84 USPQ2d 1495 (Fed. Cir. 2007). It is suggested that Applicant amend the claims to recite “non-transitory computer readable storage medium” to overcome the rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 101. The suggested amendment will not be considered as "new matter". Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112 07-30-02 AIA 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. 07-34-01 Claims 6-8 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. Regarding claim 6, the language, “adapting the determining by the means for determining based on the first label” is not clear. Claims 1 and 6 do not comprise a feature of “means for determining,” and it is not clear what is meant by “the determining by the means for determining.” Allowable Subject Matter 12-151-07 AIA 07-97 12-51-07 Claim s 1-5, 9-15 are allowed. 07-43-02 AIA Claim s 6-8 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. Chen et al. US Patent Publication No. 2019/0068517 discloses receiving a respective requirement of a quality of service; receiving a policy status of a communication system conveying data packets; receiving an indication of a first quality of experience (para. [0054] traffic analyzer 302 may recognize traffic sessions based on data rate, packet size, packet sequences, bandwidth behavior. para. [0055] traffic analyzer 302 may provide session-based routing services that ensure the desired QOS of the traffic session. para. [0064] provides a set of rules to identify traffic sessions having a desired QOS and forwarding information that are to be recognized by the real-time traffic analyzer 302. para. [0084] if congestion is present, then the router 106 may employ real-time traffic analyzer 302 for session-based analysis of the packets first); determining an importance level based on the requirement of the quality of service, the policy, and the first quality of experience; marking a data packet originated from or designated and to be conveyed by the communication system by the importance level; providing the data packet marked by the importance level to the communication system for conveying the data packet (para. [0086] real-time traffic analyzer 302 will determine a priority for the packet. para. [0087] one or more fields in the classification rules 308 may indicate the priority for the packet. alternatively, the real-time traffic analyzer 302 may assign a priority to the packet based on characteristics of the traffic session). Guim Bernat et al. US Patent Publication No. 2022/0206849 discloses receiving, for each of plural microservices, a respective requirement of a quality of service, wherein the plural microservices jointly build an application (para. [0003] microservices. microservices—also known as the microservice architecture—is an architectural style that structures an application as a collection of services that are independently deployable and maintainable. para. [0081] each microservice will have set of attributes including implementation attributes, an optional SLA. microservice column 702, a performance column 708, a network requirements column 710, and an SLA column 716. para. [0121] If applicable performance criteria and/or SLA requirements are not being met, the microservice deployment is adjusted to meet the performance criteria and/or SLA requirements). Gunjal et al. US Patent Publication No. 2020/0296172 discloses receiving, for each of plural microservices, a respective requirement of a quality of service, wherein the plural microservices jointly build an application (para. [0004] analyzing the set of performance metrics against a set of application requirements corresponding to the set of microservices. para. [0033] an application may have more than one version of microservices running simultaneously to cater to different user) Doken US Patent Publication No. 2022/0225065 discloses receiving, for each of plural microservices, a respective requirement of a quality of service, wherein the plural microservices jointly build an application and receiving an indication of a first quality of experience of the application (para. [0065] may monitor microservices deployed in MEC device 145 and may determine whether the performance of an instance of a microservice deployed in MEC device 145 satisfies a performance criterion. performance criterion may include a requirement associated with the microservice). Nomura et al. US Patent Publication No. 2023/0319131 discloses receiving, for each of plural microservices, a respective requirement of a quality of service (para. [0092] name of the microservice is stored in the application name 57a. QoS setting 57d describes the level of QoS set for the microservice described in the application name 57a). Maciocco et al. US Patent Publication No. 2021/0014133 discloses receiving, for each of plural microservices, a respective requirement of a quality of service (para. [0032] SLA can include Quality of Service (QoS), bandwidth and/or latency requirements. para. [0034] first and second performance requirements of the first and second microservices, respectively, thereby enabling the requirements of the SLA to be met. para. [0113] orchestrator analyzer 904 can determine performance requirements of microservices of the application). Chen et al. US Patent Publication No. 2014/0341027 discloses marking a data packet originated from or designated and to be conveyed by a communication system by an importance level; and providing the data packet marked by the importance level to the communication system for conveying the data packet (para. [0038] traffic classified as real-time (RT) traffic, associated with a particular packet loss probability (e.g., a low threshold, a high threshold, etc.), may be marked and/or forwarded, by node 110, based on QoS model 500. para. [0059] node 110 may, for example, mark the packets based on a forwarding priority marking. para. [0064] based on the determination of the particular class of service and/or packet loss probability, node 110 may mark the packets (e.g., with forwarding priority marking 46) based on QoS provisioning policy 550. transmit the traffic to client device 120 based on a class of service (e.g., Silver Data) and/or a packet loss probability (e.g., Out of Profil--High) that corresponds to the forwarding priority marking). Fan US Patent Publication No. 2023/0345449 discloses marking a data packet by an important level (para. [0146] data packet type information, QoS parameter information corresponding to the data packet, importance level information corresponding to the data packet). Chun et al. US Patent Publication No. 2026/0046682 discloses marking a data packet by an important level (para. [0359] This may be an identifier (e.g., 1, 2, 3, high, low) indicating an importance level. [0363] Importance level QoS parameter). Zhuo et al. US Patent Publication No. 2025/0031093 discloses marking a data packet by an important level (para. [0037] for an XR IP packet within a quality of service (QOS) flow, a parameter named “importance” may be employed to indicate the importance level of the packet. para. [0099] UL packets within the same QoS flow may have different importance levels). However, the prior art of record does not teach, individually or in combination, the invention as whole including receiving a first label, wherein the first label indicates a policy status of a communication system conveying data packets from the microservices for the application; receiving an indication of a first quality of experience of the application; determining, for a first one of the microservices, an importance level based on the requirement of the quality of service of the first one of the microservices, the first label, and the first quality of experience, marking a data packet originated from or designated to the first one of the microservices and to be conveyed by the communication system by the importance level determined for the first one of the microservices. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Joshua Joo whose telephone number is (571)272-3966. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 7am-3pm. 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, Oscar Louie can be reached at 571-270-1684. 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. /JOSHUA JOO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2445 Application/Control Number: 19/065,597 Page 2 Art Unit: 2445 Application/Control Number: 19/065,597 Page 3 Art Unit: 2445 Application/Control Number: 19/065,597 Page 4 Art Unit: 2445 Application/Control Number: 19/065,597 Page 5 Art Unit: 2445 Application/Control Number: 19/065,597 Page 6 Art Unit: 2445
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Feb 27, 2025
Application Filed
May 28, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §101, §112 (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

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
78%
Grant Probability
99%
With Interview (+23.4%)
3y 1m (~1y 7m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 991 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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