Action Details
Claims 1-8 are pending.
Claims 1-8 are rejected.
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper time wise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory obviousness-type double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); and In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual rejection based on a nonstatutory double patenting ground provided the conflicting application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with this application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement.
Effective January 1, 1994, a registered attorney or agent of record may sign a terminal disclaimer. A terminal disclaimer signed by the assignee must fully comply with 37 CFR 3.73(b).
Claims 1-8 of instant application rejected on the ground of nonstatutory obviousness-type double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-8 of Patent No. 10250555. Although the conflicting claims are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because they are directed to the following same subject matter or similar context for the invention as recited below:
Instant Application
15616846 (10250555)
1.A method of registering DNS hostnames of Internet host devices for very large domain zones (VLZ) stored on a DNS server on a network, comprising:
setting a pseudo-zone as the VLZ;
intercepting DNS updates to the pseudo-zone;
mapping the entries in the pseudo-zone into a hierarchy of real parent zones and sub- zones using a mapping formula; and translating DNS updates to the pseudo-zone from an original fully qualified domain name (FQDN) into at least one new FQDNs and adding the at least one new FQDNs to an authoritative DNS Server.
1.A method of registering DNS hostnames of Internet host devices for a very large domain zone wherein the Internet host devices collectively define a load of the VLZ and further wherein each Internet host device has an original fully qualified domain name (FQDN), comprising: instructions stored in non-transitory memory that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform steps including: defining a pseudo-zone that represents as the VLZ, wherein the pseudo-zone is a unique map from each original FQDN into a hierarchy of a plurality of subzones, each containing a pre-determined number of the Internet host devices such that the load of the VLZ is effectively distributed across multiple servers that are separate but operatively connected to the Internet; intercepting DNS updates to the pseudo-zone; mapping the entries in the pseudo-zone into a hierarchy of real parent zones and subzones using a mapping formula, wherein the mapping formula includes a hash function used to establish the plurality of subzones in the pseudo-zone; and translating DNS updates to the pseudo-zone from the original FQDN into at least one new FQDNs and adding the at least one new FQDNs to an authoritative DNS Server.
Further, the instant claims obviously encompass the claimed invention of U.S. Patent No. 10250555 and differ only in terminology. To the extent that the instant claims are broaden and therefore generic to the claimed invention of U.S. Patent No. 10250555, in re Goodman 29 USPQ 2d 2010 CAFC 1993, states that a generic claim cannot be issued without a terminal disclaimer, if a species claim has been previously been claimed in a pending application. Nonetheless, the removal of said limitations from claim 1 of the present application made claim 1 a broader version of claim 1. (In re Karlson (CCPA) 136 USPQ 184 (1963)), claim 1 is not patentably distinct from claim 1.
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 1-8 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.
The term “very large” in claim 1 is a relative term which renders the claim indefinite. The term “very large]” is not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention. Therefore, the limitation “very large domain zone” is rendered indefinite.
Claims 2-8 depend on claim 1 and are rejected under the same rationale.
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.
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 1,2,6-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Balasubramanina (U.S. 2014/0280916) and further in view of Mclntosh (U.S. 2009/0013210).
As per claim 1 Balasubramania disclosed a method of registering DNS hostnames of Internet host devices for very large domain zones (VLZ) stored on a DNS server on a network, comprising: - setting a pseudo-zone [Zone File] as the VLZ (Balasubramania , Paragraph. 0022, 0032, [FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a difference object structure according to some embodiments. As discussed herein, some embodiments generate custom difference objects, each referred to as a "RZDiffRecord", representing differences between a newly-generated zone file and a last-published zone file. These custom difference objects may be formatted as, e.g., org.xbill.DNS.record object.); - intercepting DNS updates to the pseudo-zone (Balasubramania , Paragraph. 0030-0031, At block 502, the process obtains zone change requests. For embodiments practiced by a register, this block may be performed by electronically accessing electronically stored change requests transmitted to the register. The change requests may be in EPP format, for example. At block 504, the process parses the change requests into change request units); - mapping ([Added to or delete from] )the entries in the pseudo-zone into a hierarchy of real parent zones [Newly Generated zone] and sub- zones [Root Zone] using a mapping formula [Added to or delete from] (Paragraph. 0022, [FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a difference object structure according to some embodiments. As discussed herein, some embodiments generate custom difference objects, each referred to as a "RZDiffRecord", representing differences between a newly-generated zone file and a last-published zone file. These custom difference objects may be formatted as, e.g., org.xbill.DNS.record object. As shown in FIG. 2, each difference object may include a field representing a DNS record type for which the difference is identified, e.g., NS, DS, A, or AAAA. Each difference object further includes a field that includes a copy of, or at least identifies, the relevant zone file record that got added to or deleted from.]). Balasubramania failed to disclose in detail translating DNS updates to the pseudo-zone from an original fully qualified domain name (FQDN) into at least one new FQDNs and adding the at least one new FQDNs to an authoritative DNS Server. However, in the same field of endeavor Mclntosh disclosed A client NPR or RSI wishing to connect with a NMCS server must know the server's IP address or addresses and the appropriate listening port number or numbers. The IP address may be a numeric, four-octet (32-bit) IP address (e.g. 64.105.4.130), or it may be specified as a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) such as www.google.com. An FQDN will be resolved [Translating] into a routable, numeric IP address by a DNS (Domain Name System) server. [translating DNS updates to the pseudo-zone from an original fully qualified domain name (FQDN) into at least one new FQDNs and adding the at least one new FQDNs to an authoritative DNS Server]. A person having ordinary skill in the art will understood that a six-octet, IPv6 address would be used in networks utilizing the IPv6 standard. IP port numbers are designated by 16-bit numbers and are typically expressed as a decimal integer between 0 and 65,535. A port number is essentially a demux key for the server's IP address, routing incoming traffic to the appropriate socket and software thread (Paragraph. 0260).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to incorporate A client NPR or RSI wishing to connect with a NMCS server must know the server's IP address or addresses and the appropriate listening port number or numbers. The IP address may be a numeric, four-octet (32-bit) IP address (e.g. 64.105.4.130), or it may be specified as a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) such as www.google.com. An FQDN will be resolved into a routable, numeric IP address by a DNS (Domain Name System) server. A person having ordinary skill in the art will understood that a six-octet, IPv6 address would be used in networks utilizing the IPv6 standard. IP port numbers are designated by 16-bit numbers and are typically expressed as a decimal integer between 0 and 65,535. A port number is essentially a demux key for the server's IP address, routing incoming traffic to the appropriate socket and software thread as taught by Balasubramania in the method and system Mclntosh to increase productivity and reduce latency.
As per claim 2, claim 1 is incorporated and Balasubramania-Mclntosh disclosed further comprising: responding to a DNS query request for one of the registered domain names in the VLZ from a requestor, including: intercepting the DNS query request to the pseudo-zone; converting the DNS query request to at least one modified DNS query requests; sending the at least one modified DNS query requests to a DNS service that is operable to resolve the new FQDN; and conveying a DNS response to the requestor (Balasubramania, Paragraph. 0013, The Domain Name System (DNS) provides, among other things, internet protocol (IP) addresses corresponding to domains. To that end, DNS includes a distributed hierarchal arrangement of databases, such as zone files, reflecting this correspondence. Root zone files, in particular, include the names and IP addresses of authoritative DNS servers for all top-level domains (TLD), such as ORG, COM, and NET. Other DNS servers forward received queries for which they do not have any information about authoritative servers to a root name server. Root name servers answer such queries with a referral to the authoritative servers for the appropriate TLD, or with an indication that no such TLD exists).
As per claim 6, claim 1 is incorporated and Balasubramania-Mclntosh disclosed further comprising: creating, for each DNS hostname registration in the DNS server, a parent zone if it does not already exist and a sub-zone if it does not already exist (Balasubramania, Paragraph. 0025, n embodiment then filters, sorts, and parses difference records 406 to produce root zone change request difference records 408, 410, 412. In particular, the records are parsed to generate EPPCRUnits, as illustrated here, for example, records 408 (add name server), 410 (add name server) and 412 (add A record). Also, the difference records 406 are filtered e.g., to remove domain name system security (DNSSEC) records such as NSEC, RRSIG, DNSKEY and SOA. The remaining records are sorted, e.g., by type and timestamp).
As per claim 7, claim 2 is incorporated and Balasubramania-Mclntosh disclosed wherein conveying the DNS response further comprises: intercepting the DNS response to the requestor; mapping the new FQDN to the old FQDN; replacing the new FQDN with the old FQDN in a modified DNS response; and sending the modified DNS response to the requestor (Mclntosh, Paragraph. 0260, A client NPR or RSI wishing to connect with a NMCS server must know the server's IP address or addresses and the appropriate listening port number or numbers. The IP address may be a numeric, four-octet (32-bit) IP address (e.g. 64.105.4.130), or it may be specified as a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) such as www.google.com. An FQDN will be resolved into a routable, numeric IP address by a DNS (Domain Name System) server. A person having ordinary skill in the art will understood that a six-octet, IPv6 address would be used in networks utilizing the IPv6 standard. IP port numbers are designated by 16-bit numbers and are typically expressed as a decimal integer between 0 and 65,535. A port number is essentially a demux key for the server's IP address, routing incoming traffic to the appropriate socket and software thread).
As per claim 8, claim 1 is incorporated and Balasubramania-Mclntosh disclosed further comprising: responding to a DNS query request for one of the registered domain names in the VLZ, including: intercepting the DNS query request; mapping the DNS query request to the new FQDN; creating a temporary DNS CNAME response including the new FQDN; and sending the DNS CNAME response to the requestor (Mclntosh, Paragraph. 0086, he NPR transmits a series of pings, i.e. Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) echo requests, to a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) on the Internet. This is figuratively illustrated in FIG. 12B, Ping to an FQDN and FIG. 12F, Ping Echo. What really happens is shown in FIG. 12C, DNS Lookup. The DNS (domain name server) client thread in the NPR passes the FQDN to its assigned DNS servers for resolution into a routable, numeric IP address, either contacting an assigned DNS server directly, or passing the DNS request to the local gateway, generally 192.168.1.1, which proxies the request to its assigned DNS servers at the local ISP or on the Internet. Once the FQDN is resolved into a routable, numeric IP address, a ping is sent to that numeric IP address, as shown in red in FIG. 3C, Ping Echo Request Communications Flow. The NPR listens for an ICMP echo response from the pinged site, as shown in green in FIG. 3D, Ping Echo Response Communications Flow. If ping to an FQDN is successful, this demonstrates that the DNS servers currently in use by the NPR are functional. By inference, DNS is functional for other clients on the local network, because all clients on a given network use the same DNS servers. Upon receipt of the ping response from the numeric IP address mapped via DNS to the original FQDN, confirmation is made of DNS, local network/Internet connectivity and network functionality. This confirms operability of the Physical Layer 1, Data Link Layer 2, Network Layer 3, Transport Layer 4, and Session Layer 5, all of the layers essential for normal network function. Once every 5 minutes, an "all okay" status message is transmitted to the Network Monitor & Control Server as shown in FIG. 12G, NPR Status Delivery. TCP/IP is used to ensure status-message delivery).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HAMZA N ALGIBHAH whose telephone number is (571)270-7212. The examiner can normally be reached 7:30 am - 3:30 pm.
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/HAMZA N ALGIBHAH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2457
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