DETAILED ACTION
The current Office Action is in response to the papers submitted 04/14/2025. Claims 1 - 20 are pending.
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 .
Specification
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
The specification is objected to as failing to provide proper antecedent basis for the claimed subject matter. See 37 CFR 1.75(d)(1) and MPEP § 608.01(o). Correction of the following is required:
Claims 1 – 18 discloses computer-readable media in line 1 of each claim. There is no mention of any computer-readable media in the specification. The specification does disclose a storage media but fails to disclose computer-readable media from the claims.
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 1 - 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.
Claims 1 – 18 recite “computer-readable media” in line 1 of each claim. There is no previous mention of a computer-readable media in the specification. The specification discloses a storage media but not a computer-readable media as recited in the claims. It is unclear if the storage media from the specification is meant to be the claimed computer-readable media or if the computer-readable media is some other media separate from the storage media. This makes the scope of what the computer-readable media is indefinite since it is not disclosed in the specification.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1 - 18 would be allowable if rewritten or amended 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.
Claims 19 - 20 are allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
The prior art teaches the use of threads in garbage collection and sharing objects in computer memory. However, the prior art fails to teach individually or in combination the limitations of…
(Claim 19) “…detecting termination of the thread;
subsequent to detecting termination of the thread: determining that the thread did not encounter any shared objects, in the first private memory region, accessible by one or more additional threads;
based on determining that the thread did not encounter any shared objects, in the first private memory region, accessible by one or more additional threads:
executing a sweeping thread-local garbage collection process comprising reclaiming the first private memory region…”
The claim requires detecting that a thread has terminated or finished processing. After the detecting of the thread termination the system determines that the thread did no encounter any shared objects. This is not to be construed as saying the system determines whether the thread encountered a shared object. The claimed system always determines the thread did not encounter any shared objects. There is no determining if a shared object was encountered, the system always determines the thread did not encounter a shared object. Based on the determination, which is always performed and is always determined as not accessing a shared object, a sweeping thread-local garbage collection process is performed. The prior teaches using threads in garbage collection but fails to teach always determining a thread never accesses a shared object and then performing garbage collection based on the determination.
Claim 20 is a system claim corresponding to claim 19 with similar language and is thus allowable for similar reasons as claim 19.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHRISTOPHER D BIRKHIMER whose telephone number is (571)270-1178. The examiner can normally be reached 8-5 Hoteling.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Tim Vo can be reached at 571-272-3642. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Christopher D Birkhimer/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2138
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