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 .
This action is in response to the communication filed on August 13, 2025.
Claims 1-20 are examined and are pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 08/13/2025. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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 10 and 13-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter.
Claims 6 and 13-16 are directed towards a database system. However, it is noted that the use of the word “system” does not inherently mean that the claim is directed towards a machine or article of manufacture. Each means of the claimed system can be interpreted as comprising entirely of software per se according to one of ordinary skill in the art. Therefore, the claim language fails to provide the necessary hardware required for the claim to fall within the statutory category of a system.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang et al (US 2017/0220606 A1), in view of Petropoulos et al (US 2018/0285418 A1).
As per claim 1, Wang discloses:
- a data query method, comprising (Abstract, line 11-15, A user may submit a query based on the unified data model to obtain results from both databases”),
- obtaining a query request, wherein data of target data source corresponding to the query request is stored in a non-fixed schema (Para [0016], [0025], Fig. 1, item 102, a user submits a query to schema-less database (i.e., target data source where query data is stored in a non-fixed schema),
- constructing, based on the query request, a data schema of data to be queried target data corresponding to the query request (Abstract, line 5-10, Fig. 5, Para [0057] – [0060], The schema analyzer analyze the query and then creates a schema (i.e., constructing a data schema based on the query request)),
- reading, from the target data source, the target data (Fig. 4, item 402, Para [0020], reading data from a schema-less database (i.e., reading data from the target data source),
Wang does not explicitly disclose assembling, according to the data schema, the data to be queried target data to obtain structured data stored according to the data schema; and performing, based on the data schema and the query request, a computing operation on the structured data stored according to the data schema to obtain a query result. However, in the same field of endeavor Petropoulos in an analogous art disclose assembling, according to the data schema, the data to be queried target data to obtain structured data stored according to the data schema (Fig. 12, item 1210-1230, Para [0089] – [0090], store the extracted schema information in a separate metadata store (i.e., assembling data to be queried according to the schema), and performing, based on the data schema and the query request, a computing operation on the structured data stored according to the data schema to obtain a query result (Fig. 11, item 1130, Para [0013], [0087], query result based on query request and schema operation on the structured data).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the assembling schema-less data (i.e., source data or non-fixed schema) and performing a query result taught by Petropoulos as the means to process a query in a non-fixed schema data store in Wang, (Wang, Para [0016], [0025], Fig. 1, item 102, Petropoulos Fig. 12, item 1210-1230. Para [0089] - [0090]). Wang and Petropoulos are analogous prior art since they both deal with querying structured and non-structured or schema-less database or storage. A person of the ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to query structured and non-structured data in a flexible way, (Wang, Para [0002]).
As per claim 2, rejection of claim 1 is incorporated, and further Petropoulos discloses:
- parsing the query request to obtain an abstract syntax tree (Fig. 7, item 710, Para [0068], parser 710 may generate a query tree (i.e., abstract syntax tree) for a given query input string to separate out the various query clauses, fields, predicates, conditions, commands, or other query information for planning and optimization),
- constructing the data schema based on the abstract syntax tree (Fig. 4, item 424, Para [0048] – [0049], [0056], [0068], generating data schema based on query processing and query tree (i.e., abstract syntax tree)).
As per claim 3, rejection of claim 2 is incorporated, and further Wang discloses:
- the target data source and an attribute of a target column, wherein data stored in the target column comprises the target data (Fig. 5-6, Para [0014], [0024], field or attribute of a column of a schema-less database (i.e., target database)),
- determining a data type of the column to be queried target column (Para [0014], [0022], [0032], data type of the column).
- constructing the data schema based on storage distribution information of the target data source, the attribute of the target column, and the data type of the target column (Para [0023], [0031], [0046], [067], data schema based on data source, field value of a column and data type).
Wang does not explicitly disclose determining, based on the abstract syntax tree. However, in the same field of endeavor Petropoulos in an analogous art disclose determining, based on the abstract syntax tree (Fig. 7, item 710, Para [0068], parser 710 may generate a query tree (i.e., abstract syntax tree) for a given query input string to separate out the various query clauses, fields, predicates, conditions, commands, or other query information for planning and optimization),
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the assembling schema-less data (i.e., source data or non-fixed schema) and performing a query result taught by Petropoulos as the means to process a query in a non-fixed schema data store in Wang, (Wang, Para [0016], [0025], Fig. 1, item 102, Petropoulos Fig. 12, item 1210-1230. Para [0089] - [0090]). Wang and Petropoulos are analogous prior art since they both deal with querying structured and non-structured or schema-less database or storage. A person of the ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to query structured and non-structured data in a flexible way, (Wang, Para [0002]).
As per claim 3, rejection of claim 3 is incorporated, and further Wang discloses:
- determining, based on the attribute of the column to be queried target column, the data type of the column to be queried target column (Para [0050], [0055], determining filed to be queried form target column),
Wang does not explicitly disclose performing semantic analysis on the query request to obtain a clause comprised in the query request; determining, based on the clause comprised in the query request, a function and/or an operation expression operating on the target column; and determining, based on the function and/or the operation expression operating on the target column, the data type of the target column However, in the same field of endeavor Petropoulos in an analogous art disclose performing semantic analysis on the query request to obtain a clause comprised in the query request; determining, based on the clause comprised in the query request, a function and/or an operation expression operating on the target column; and determining, based on the function and/or the operation expression operating on the target column, the data type of the target column (Para [0021], [0068], performing structured operations such as join, merge on target column).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the assembling schema-less data (i.e., source data or non-fixed schema) and performing a query result taught by Petropoulos as the means to process a query in a non-fixed schema data store in Wang, (Wang, Para [0016], [0025], Fig. 1, item 102, Petropoulos Fig. 12, item 1210-1230. Para [0089] - [0090]). Wang and Petropoulos are analogous prior art since they both deal with querying structured and non-structured or schema-less database or storage. A person of the ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to query structured and non-structured data in a flexible way, (Wang, Para [0002]).
As per claim 5, rejection of claim 3 is incorporated, and further Wang discloses:
- reading, from the scanned data row, data whose attribute matches the attribute of the column to be queried target column, as the data to be queried target data (Fig. 4, item 402, Para [0020], reading data from a schema-less database (i.e., reading data from the target data source)
Wang does not explicitly disclose scanning, in a row scanning manner and based on the attribute of the column to be queried target column, the data of the target data source However, in the same field of endeavor Petropoulos in an analogous art disclose scanning, in a row scanning manner and based on the attribute of the column to be queried target column, the data of the target data source (Para [0021], [0022], [0062], scanning the target data in a row scanning manner).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the assembling schema-less data (i.e., source data or non-fixed schema) and performing a query result taught by Petropoulos as the means to process a query in a non-fixed schema data store in Wang, (Wang, Para [0016], [0025], Fig. 1, item 102, Petropoulos Fig. 12, item 1210-1230. Para [0089] - [0090]). Wang and Petropoulos are analogous prior art since they both deal with querying structured and non-structured or schema-less database or storage. A person of the ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to query structured and non-structured data in a flexible way, (Wang, Para [0002]).
As per claim 6, rejection of claim 2 is incorporated, and further Petropoulos disclose:
- generating an execution plan based on the data schema and the abstract syntax tree corresponding to the query request (Abstract, Fig. 9, item 902, Fi. 10, Para [0012], [0020], a query execution plan may be generated for the query that includes stateless operations to apply the query to the not-structured data at remote query processing engines),
- performing, based on the execution plan, a computing operation computation on the structured data stored according to the data schema, to obtain the query result (Fig. 1, item 134, 130, Fig 9-10, Para [0020], query operation according to query execution plan).
As per claim 7, rejection of claim 6 is incorporated, and further Petropoulos discloses:
- wherein the execution plan comprises: a logic execution plan and a physical execution plan; the generating an execution plan based on the data schema and the abstract syntax tree corresponding to the query request comprises (Para [0020], [0039], execution plan based on merge, join (i.e., logical plan and physical plan),
- binding, based on the data schema, nodes of the abstract syntax tree to metadata of a table described by the data schema, to obtain a logic execution plan (Para [0054], [0066], [0071], combining node to perform join (i.e., binding) to metadata of a table),
- generating the physical execution plan based on storage distribution information of the target data source and the logic execution plan (Para [0026], [0058], [0063], execution plan distributed across several noes).
As per claim 8, rejection of claim 7 is incorporated, and further Petropoulos discloses:
- performing, based on the physical execution plan, a computing operation corresponding to the physical execution plan on the structured data to obtain the query result (Fig. 1, item 130, 162, Para [0039], Fig. 9, item 940, Para [0082], execution plan performs on structured and nonstructured data to obtain query result).
As per claim 9, rejection of claim 1 is incorporated, and further Petropoulos discloses:
- destroying the data schema after the query result is obtained (Para [0056], removing schema (i.e., destroying schema) after the query result).
As per claim 10 and 13-16,
Claims 10, and 13-16 are system claims corresponding to method claims 1-5 respectively and rejected under the same reason set forth to the rejection of claims 1-5 above, and further Petropoulos discloses: a query engine in abstract line 1-10, Fig. 1, item 110.
As per claim 11 and 17-20,
Claims 11, and 17-20 are computing device claims corresponding to method claims 1-5 respectively and rejected under the same reason set forth to the rejection of claims 1-5 above.
As per claim 12,
Claim 12 is a computer readable medium claim corresponding to method claim 1 respectively and rejected under the same reason set forth to the rejection of claim 1 above.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MOHAMMED R UDDIN whose telephone number is (571)270-3138. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 9:00 AM-5:00 PM.
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/MOHAMMED R UDDIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2161
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