The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
This Office action is in response to communications filed on 5/20/2025.
Claims 1-35 are pending.
DETAILED ACTION
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.
Claim 1-35 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 1, the limitations recite the term "consistent service."
The term “consistent” in claim 1 is a relative term which renders the claim indefinite. The term “consistent” 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.
For examination purposes, the term “consistent service” has been interpreted as “service”.
Regarding claims 2-16, the limitations invoke, by reference, all of the limitations of claim 1. Therefore, claims 2-16 are rejected for the same reasons as set forth in claim 1, above.
Further, claim 4 recites the term "unified and consistent manner."
The term “consistent” in claim 4 is a relative term which renders the claim indefinite. The term “consistent” 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.
For examination purposes, the term “unified and consistent manner” has been interpreted as “unified manner”.
Regarding claims 17 and 35, the limitations recite features similar in scope to those of claim 1. Therefore, claims 17 and 35 are rejected for similar reasons as those set forth in the rejection of claim 1, above.
Regarding claims 18-32, the limitations invoke, by reference, all of the limitations of claim 17. Therefore, claims 18-32 are rejected for the same reasons as set forth in claim 17, above.
Further, claim 20 recites the term "unified and consistent manner."
The term “consistent” in claim 20 is a relative term which renders the claim indefinite. The term “consistent” 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.
For examination purposes, the term “unified and consistent manner” has been interpreted as “unified manner”.
Regarding claim 33, the limitations recite the term "service is consistent."
The term “consistent” in claim 1 is a relative term which renders the claim indefinite. The term “consistent” 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.
For examination purposes, the term “service is consistent” has been interpreted as “service”.
Regarding claim 34, the limitations recite features similar in scope to those of claim 33. Therefore, claim 34 is rejected for similar reasons as those set forth in the rejection of claim 33, above.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
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.
Claim(s) 1-4, 17-20, and 33-35 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Johns (US 20200236083 A1) in view of Gao et al. (US 20210274017 A1, hereinafter Gao).
Regarding claim 1, Johns discloses a system for enabling a Multi-Content-Delivery-Network (Multi-CDN) to provide one or more unified services (¶[0032], "network 118 may utilize more than one CDN for providing content to requesting devices"),
the Multi-CDN comprising multiple different Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) provided by multiple different CDN providers (¶[0032], "network 118 may utilize more than one CDN for providing content to requesting devices"),
wherein at least one CDN of the multiple different CDNs of the Multi-CDN employs edge computing technology (¶[0031], "CDN 102 may include one or more edge servers 112, which may cache content from another server to make it available in a more geographically or logically proximate location to the client device 104"),
the system comprising: at least one hardware processor; at least one computer readable storage device storing instructions for execution by the at least one hardware processor, the instructions, when executed (¶[0064], "According to one embodiment, the above techniques may be performed by computer system 500 in response to processor 504 executing one or more sequences of one or more instructions contained in main memory 516"), cause the system to
enable the Multi-CDN to provide one or more unified services across the multiple different CDNs by utilizing the edge computing technology employed by the at least one CDN (¶[0032], "network 118 may utilize more than one CDN for providing content to requesting devices"; ¶[0031], "CDN 102 may include one or more edge servers 112, which may cache content from another server to make it available in a more geographically or logically proximate location to the client device 104"),
wherein each unified service of the one or more unified services provides a consistent service across the multiple different CDNs (¶[0031], "CDN 102 may include one or more edge servers 112, which may cache content"; ¶[0034], " receive content from one or more content delivery networks (CDNs)"; ¶[0036], "CMS 124 may select, based on one or more business logic rules, to direct the client device 104 to CDN-A 102 from a plurality of available CDNs to provide the content"; ¶[0039], "determining which servers 202-208 of the CDN-A in the geographic location of the client device 104 may provide the requested content, either from cache or from the content provider network"; ¶[0044], "The client device 104 may then initiate a session (e.g., a hypertext terminal protocol (http) or similar session) with server A 204 to retrieve the requested content. In cases where the content is cached or otherwise stored at server A 204, server A may begin transmitting the content to the client device 104. If, on the other hand, server A 204 does not currently store the requested content, server A may retrieve and cache the content consistent with the particular content distribution and caching techniques implemented in the CDN 102 as described above").
Johns does not disclose that the edge computing technology enables a user of the Multi-CDN to execute custom code on platforms of the at least one respective CDN.
Gao discloses that edge computing technology enables a user of a Multi-CDN to execute custom code on platforms of the at least one respective CDN (¶[0037], "CDN request may be a request sent by a user to a CDN edge node, for deploying CDN codes"; ¶[0038], "the request of the user is executed through the dynamic code"; ¶[0043], "so that the user may customize a deployed code of the CDN system").
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the teachings of Johns and Gao to arrive at a system in which the edge computing technology enables a user of the Multi-CDN to execute custom code on platforms of the at least one respective CDN.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated because it would provide "a general-purpose flexible CDN edge system control capability" (Gao, ¶[0038]) and allow the user to "set some parameters according to his own needs" (Gao, ¶[0043]).
Regarding claim 2, the combined teachings of Johns and Gao disclose the invention substantially as applied to claim 1, above, wherein the at least one CDN of the multiple different CDNs employing edge computing technology comprises the multiple different CDNs of the Multi-CDN (Johns, ¶[0031], "CDN 102 may include one or more edge servers 112, which may cache content from another server to make it available in a more geographically or logically proximate location to the client device 104"; ¶[0032], "network 118 may utilize more than one CDN for providing content to requesting devices" ), and
the one or more unified services comprise one or more unified application services (Johns, ¶[0032], "network 118 may utilize more than one CDN for providing content to requesting devices"), and
wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the system to provide the one or more unified application services via the edge computing technology (Johns, ¶[0031], "In one implementation, the edge server 112 provides the requested content that is locally stored in cache. In another implementation, the edge server 112 retrieves the requested content from another source, such as a media access server (MAS) (e.g., a content distribution server 114 or a content origin server 116 of a content provider network 118). The content is then served to the client device 104 in response to the requests).
Regarding claim 3, the combined teachings of Johns and Gao disclose the invention substantially as applied to claim 1, above, wherein the one or more unified services comprise one or more unified CDN services (Johns, ¶[0032], "network 118 may utilize more than one CDN for providing content to requesting devices"), and
wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the system to unify one or more CDN services via the edge computing technology (Johns, ¶[0064], "According to one embodiment, the above techniques may be performed by computer system 500 in response to processor 504 executing one or more sequences of one or more instructions contained in main memory 516"; ¶[0031], "In one implementation, the edge server 112 provides the requested content that is locally stored in cache. In another implementation, the edge server 112 retrieves the requested content from another source, such as a media access server (MAS) (e.g., a content distribution server 114 or a content origin server 116 of a content provider network 118). The content is then served to the client device 104 in response to the requests),
to enable the one or more unified CDN services, respectively (Johns, ¶[0032], "network 118 may utilize more than one CDN for providing content to requesting devices"), and
wherein each CDN service of the one or more CDN services is provided by at least one CDN of the Multi-CDN (Johns, ¶[0064], "According to one embodiment, the above techniques may be performed by computer system 500 in response to processor 504 executing one or more sequences of one or more instructions contained in main memory 516"; ¶[0031], "In one implementation, the edge server 112 provides the requested content that is locally stored in cache. In another implementation, the edge server 112 retrieves the requested content from another source, such as a media access server (MAS) (e.g., a content distribution server 114 or a content origin server 116 of a content provider network 118). The content is then served to the client device 104 in response to the requests).
Regarding claim 4, the combined teachings of Johns and Gao disclose the invention substantially as applied to claim 1, above, further comprising a unified management system, wherein the unified management system allows the management of the multiple different CDNs in a unified and consistent manner and as a single CDN (Johns, ¶[0032], "Client device 104 may also contact content management system (CMS) 124 of the content provider network 118 to receive further instructions or commands on accessing content from the CDN 102. For example, content provider network 118 may utilize more than one CDN for providing content to requesting devices [...] CMS 124 may select a CDN from available CDNs to provide the requested content to the client device 104"), and
wherein the unified management system allows management of services executed on the multiple different CDNs (Johns, ¶[0032], "Client device 104 may also contact content management system (CMS) 124 of the content provider network 118 to receive further instructions or commands on accessing content from the CDN 102. For example, content provider network 118 may utilize more than one CDN for providing content to requesting devices [...] CMS 124 may select a CDN from available CDNs to provide the requested content to the client device 104"),
the services are selected from: CDN services, unified services, or a combination thereof (Johns, ¶[0032], "Client device 104 may also contact content management system (CMS) 124 of the content provider network 118 to receive further instructions or commands on accessing content from the CDN 102. For example, content provider network 118 may utilize more than one CDN for providing content to requesting devices [...] CMS 124 may select a CDN from available CDNs to provide the requested content to the client device 104").
Regarding claims 17-19, Johns discloses a computerized method for enabling a Multi-Content-Delivery-Network (Multi-CDN) to provide one or more unified services (¶[0064], "techniques may be performed by computer system"; ¶[0032], "network 118 may utilize more than one CDN for providing content to requesting devices").
The remaining limitations of claims 17-19 are similar in scope to those of claims 1-3. Therefore, claims 17-19 are rejected for the same reasons as set forth in the rejection of claims 1-3, above.
Regarding claim 20, the combined teachings of Johns and Gao disclose the invention substantially as applied to claim 17, above, further comprising allowing the management of the multiple different CDNs in a unified and consistent manner via a unified management system, and wherein allowing management of the multiple different CDNs comprises allowing the management of the multiple different CDNs as a single CDN (Johns, ¶[0032], "Client device 104 may also contact content management system (CMS) 124 of the content provider network 118 to receive further instructions or commands on accessing content from the CDN 102. For example, content provider network 118 may utilize more than one CDN for providing content to requesting devices [...] CMS 124 may select a CDN from available CDNs to provide the requested content to the client device 104").
Regarding claim 33, Johns discloses a system for providing unified application services on top of multiple different Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) provided by multiple different CDN providers (¶[0032], "network 118 may utilize more than one CDN for providing content to requesting devices"),
wherein each CDN of the multiple different CDNs employs edge computing technology (¶[0031], "CDN 102 may include one or more edge servers 112, which may cache content from another server to make it available in a more geographically or logically proximate location to the client device 104"), the system comprising:
at least one hardware processor; at least one computer readable storage device storing instructions for execution by the at least one hardware processor, the instructions, when executed (¶[0064], "According to one embodiment, the above techniques may be performed by computer system 500 in response to processor 504 executing one or more sequences of one or more instructions contained in main memory 516"), cause the system to
implement one or more unified application services to be executed on the platforms of the multiple different CDNs by employing the edge computing technology (¶[0032], "network 118 may utilize more than one CDN for providing content to requesting devices"; ¶[0031], "CDN 102 may include one or more edge servers 112, which may cache content from another server to make it available in a more geographically or logically proximate location to the client device 104"),
wherein each service provided by each unified application service of the one or more unified application services is consistent across the multiple different CDNs (¶[0031], "CDN 102 may include one or more edge servers 112, which may cache content"; ¶[0034], " receive content from one or more content delivery networks (CDNs)"; ¶[0036], "CMS 124 may select, based on one or more business logic rules, to direct the client device 104 to CDN-A 102 from a plurality of available CDNs to provide the content"; ¶[0039], "determining which servers 202-208 of the CDN-A in the geographic location of the client device 104 may provide the requested content, either from cache or from the content provider network"; ¶[0044], "The client device 104 may then initiate a session (e.g., a hypertext terminal protocol (http) or similar session) with server A 204 to retrieve the requested content. In cases where the content is cached or otherwise stored at server A 204, server A may begin transmitting the content to the client device 104. If, on the other hand, server A 204 does not currently store the requested content, server A may retrieve and cache the content consistent with the particular content distribution and caching techniques implemented in the CDN 102 as described above").
Johns does not disclose that edge computing technology enables a user of the multiple different CDNs to execute custom code on the platform of the respective CDN.
Gao discloses that edge computing technology enables a user of the multiple different CDNs to execute custom code on the platform of the respective CDN (¶[0037], "CDN request may be a request sent by a user to a CDN edge node, for deploying CDN codes"; ¶[0038], "the request of the user is executed through the dynamic code"; ¶[0043], "so that the user may customize a deployed code of the CDN system").
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the teachings of Johns and Gao to arrive at a system in which the edge computing technology enables a user of the Multi-CDN to execute custom code on platforms of the at least one respective CDN.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated because it would provide "a general-purpose flexible CDN edge system control capability" (Gao, ¶[0038]) and allow the user to "set some parameters according to his own needs" (Gao, ¶[0043]).
Regarding claim 34, Johns discloses a computerized method for providing unified application services on top of multiple different Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) provided by multiple different CDN providers (¶[0064], "techniques may be performed by computer system"; ¶[0032], "network 118 may utilize more than one CDN for providing content to requesting devices").
The remaining limitations of claim 34 are similar in scope to those of claim 33. Therefore, claim 34 is rejected for the same reasons as set forth in the rejection of claim 33, above.
Regarding claim 35, Johns discloses a computer program product for enabling a Multi-Content-Delivery-Network (Multi-CDN) to provide one or more unified services (¶[0064], "According to one embodiment, the above techniques may be performed by computer system 500 in response to processor 504 executing one or more sequences of one or more instructions contained in main memory 516"; ¶[0032], "network 118 may utilize more than one CDN for providing content to requesting devices").
The remaining limitations of claim 35 are similar in scope to those of claim 1. Therefore, claim 35 is rejected for the same reasons as set forth in the rejection of claim 1, above.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-16 and 21-32 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims and by overcoming all 35 USC 112 rejections set forth above.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
US 20230015423 A1, which discloses "the CDN providers may be managed as a collective resource pool and user traffic may be dynamically routed to one or more CDN providers simultaneously based on the service provider's performance, capacity, cost, and availability" (¶[0004]).
US 20160226992 A1, which discloses "The request is communicated using a content delivery network protocol where the content delivery network protocol supports a unified content delivery network profile between content devices, local off-net cache devices, and content delivery network platform servers. The unified content delivery network profile comprises an indication of content items, content providers, and corresponding discovered content devices that share a local area network having the local off-net cache. Content items, content providers, and content devices are also tracked therein for logically retrieving requested content items and prefetching anticipated content items using a local off-net cache device. The unified content delivery network profile is configurable with configuration settings for managing attributes of the unified content delivery profile" (¶[0003]).
US 20200380050 A1, which discloses "A method for acquiring service data, wherein, the method is applied to a converged CDN system, the converged CDN system comprises edge nodes of a plurality of CDN vendors and an IPFS cluster, the IPFS cluster is constituted by an IPFS management apparatus and an IPFS node configured in each of the edge nodes, and the method comprises: receiving, by a target edge node, a target service request, and detecting whether target service data to which the target service request points is already stored locally; if the target service data is not stored, sending, by the target edge node, a data query request of the target service data to the IPFS management apparatus; querying, by the IPFS management apparatus, whether the target service data is already stored in the IPFS cluster, and sending a query result to the target edge node; acquiring, by the target edge node, the target service data from the IPFS cluster or a source station of the target service data according to the query result" (Claim 1).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BORIS D GRIJALVA LOBOS whose telephone number is (571)272-0767. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10:30AM to 6:30PM EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jorge L Ortiz-Criado can be reached at 571-272-7624. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/BORIS D GRIJALVA LOBOS/ Primary Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2496
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