DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to the application 19/145,276 filed on July 02nd, 2025.
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 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.
Claims 1-6 are pending and herein considered.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS), submitted on 07/02/2025, is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CRR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Priority
Acknowledgement is made of Applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d) to Application No. 2023-002540, the signed copy having been filed on January 11th, 2023.
Claim Objections
Claim 6 objected to because claim 6, lines 1-2 “a communication network system … according to claim 1” is the communication network system claim that refers back to claim 1. The Office considers any claim that refers to another claim as dependent thereon, i.e., a dependent claim. Since claim 1 is an apparatus comprising 2 elements/functions and claim 6 fails to add, delete, or changes any of these functions, claim 6 fails to further limit its parent claim. Applicant is required to cancel the claim(s), or amend the claim(s) to place the claim(s) in proper dependent form, or rewrite the claim(s) in independent form.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
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.
Claims 1-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 as being directed to non-statutory subject matter.
Regarding claim 1; claim 1 calls for a control device; however, the body of the claim does not positively recite any hardware element. As recited in the body of the claim, the claimed system contains “a communication network, a plurality of nodes, a segmentation instruction unit, a first transmission instruction unit.” In light of the specification (pg. [15]), the communication network, the plurality of nodes, the segmentation instruction unit, and the first transmission instruction unit can be all construed as software per se since they do not embody any hardware. Because the elements of claim 1 is interpreted as merely software and the claim lacks any physical device or machine, the claim is directed to non-statutory subject matter. It is suggested that the claim be further amended to positively recite at least one hardware element within the body of the claim to make the claim statutory under 35 U.S.C. 101.
Regarding claims 2-5; claims 2-5 do not recite any hardware element to resolve the issue in the independent claim 1. Therefore, claims 2-5 are also non-statutory under 35 U.S.C. 101.
Regarding claim 6; claim 6 calls for a communication network system; however, the body of the claim does not positively recite any hardware element. As recited in the body of the claim, the claimed system contains “a communication network, a plurality of nodes, a segmentation instruction unit, a first transmission instruction unit.” In light of the specification (pg. [15]), the communication network, the plurality of nodes, the segmentation instruction unit, and the first transmission instruction unit can be all construed as software per se since they do not embody any hardware. Because the elements of claim 1 is interpreted as merely software and the claim lacks any physical device or machine, the claim is directed to non-statutory subject matter. It is suggested that the claim be further amended to positively recite at least one hardware element within the body of the claim to make the claim statutory under 35 U.S.C. 101.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Hirano et al. (Hirano), U.S. Pub. Number 2014/0108894.
Regarding claim 1; Hirano discloses a control device for a communication network including a plurality of nodes (par. 0152; nodes A, B, and C.) and a link connecting two of the nodes (par. 0152; optical path network in which each node is connected with fibers having a wavelength number of 3, an initial state is represented by (a).), wherein a plurality of paths connecting a source node, which is a transmission source of information (par. 0152; transmission using the transmission system is performed between A and C and between B and C.), and a terminal node, which is a destination of the information, through relay nodes, are set so as not to share the same relay node (par. 0152; in the connection between A and C and B and C, it is assumed that three transmission routes are provided in each connection, and data can be accurately corrected in the cutting of one of the three transmission routes.), and the control device includes:
a segmentation instruction unit (par. 0151; the load dispersion in the transmission system 301 to transmission system 303.) configured to instruct the source node to disperse the information into a plurality of pieces of random number data, to encode the random number data by an error correction code to generate codewords, and to order the codewords from the beginning and divide the codewords into a plurality of segments (par. 0151; in transmission routes 1 to 5, encoded data sequence having a code length of 5 bits and allowing 1 bit to be lost and corrected is transmitted; since the transmission route 1 is used in other transmission, the traffic capacity is large, and the load is high; however, on the other hand, the load of the transmission route 6 is low.); and
a first transmission instruction unit configured to instruct the source node to transmit the plurality of segments through the plurality of paths (par. 0151; the transmission to the transmission route 1 is cut, and the transmission route is switched to the transmission route 6, whereby the load dispersion can be realized; even if single transmission route is cut, correction can be accurately performed, and therefore, if power flicker occurs when the transmission route is switched from the transmission route 1 to the transmission route 6, data can be accurately transmitted.).
Regarding claim 2; Hirano discloses the control device according to claim 1, wherein the first transmission instruction unit further instructs the source node to transmit a plurality of segments having the same segment index through different ones of the paths (par. 0094; in the transmission system in which the availability of each of the transmission routes 30 is y, for a certain input data sequence, when the required availability of the entire transmission system is X, the error-corrected continuous bit number b and the number of split paths n are selected so that the availability of the entire transmission system obtained by the above formula exceeds or is near X, whereby required reliability can be realized; even when the values of the availability y of the transmission routes 30 are different from each other, the availability o of the entire transmission system of the input data sequence can be calculated; a high o can be obtained by preferentially selecting one of the transmission routes, which has a high availability.).
Regarding claim 3; Hirano discloses the control device according to claim 1, wherein the error correction code is an error correction code having an erasure correction function (par. 0092; the error correction encoding agent 10 and the error correction decoding agent 50 perform the error correction set according to the redundancy of error correction set in the agent for configuration 60; the data distribution agent 20 divides encoded data sequence into the number or more than the number of the error intervals set in the agent for configuration 60.).
Regarding claim 4; Hirano discloses the control device according to claim 1, further comprising: a second transmission instruction unit configured to instruct each of the relay nodes to receive a corresponding one of the segments through an upstream link on a corresponding one of the paths and to transmit the segment toward a downstream link on the path (par. 0093; when an availability of each of the transmission routes 30 is represented by y, the error correction performance in the error correction encoding agent 10, that is, a continuous bit number capable of error correction is represented by B, and the number of split paths is represented by n, an availability o of the entire transmission system of the input data sequence decentralized to the transmission routes.); and a restoration instruction unit configured to instruct the terminal node to receive the plurality of segments through upstream links on the plurality of paths, to reconstruct the plurality of codewords from the plurality of segments, to perform error correction decoding on the plurality of codewords to acquire the plurality of pieces of random number data, and to restore the information from the plurality of pieces of random number data (par. 0128; in the transmission system 302’, the data combining agent 40 collects outputs from the intervals of the transmission route 30, the separation agent 80 separates the multiplexed coded data sequence, and the error correction decoding agent 50 restores the separated coded data sequences to the original input data sequence from the client.).
Regarding claim 5; Hirano discloses the control device according to claim 4, wherein the first transmission instruction unit instructs the source node to transmit OTP-encrypted data of the plurality of segments through the plurality of paths, the second transmission instruction unit instructs each of the relay nodes to decrypt the OTP-encrypted data received through an upstream link on a corresponding one of the paths to acquire a corresponding one of the segments, and to transmit OTP-encrypted data of the segment toward a downstream link on the path, and the restoration instruction unit instructs the terminal node to receive the plurality of pieces of OTP-encrypted data through upstream links on the plurality of paths, to decrypt the plurality of pieces of OTP-encrypted data to acquire the plurality of segments, to reconstruct the plurality of codewords from the plurality of segments, to perform error correction decoding on the plurality of codewords to acquire the plurality of pieces of random number data, and to restore the information from the plurality of pieces of random number data (par. 0078; the data distribution agent 20 decentralizes encoded data sequence in a predetermined processing unit; the predetermined processing unit referred to a bit number not less than a bit number that is correctable if the error correction code is the convolution code and is a length of a data sequence not less than a code word length (data sequence length+redundancy) used in the error correction code if the error correction code is in the block code; when the error correction code is the convolution code, the predetermined processing unit is a bit number not less than a correctable error interval or a bit number not more than burst error proof stress, and the data distribution agent 20 decentralizes encoded data sequence using the bit number as the predetermined processing unit.).
Regarding claim 6; Claim 6 is directed to a communication network system which has similar scope as claim 1. Therefore, claim 6 remains un-patentable for the same reasons.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KHOI V LE whose telephone number is (571)270-5087. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM EST.
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/KHOI V LE/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2436
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