Detailed Action
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claims 1-20 are pending in the application.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on June 6, 2026 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97, and accordingly, the IDS has been considered by the examiner.
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 timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory 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); 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 or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP § 2146 et seq. for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
The filing of a terminal disclaimer by itself is not a complete reply to a nonstatutory double patenting (NSDP) rejection. A complete reply requires that the terminal disclaimer be accompanied by a reply requesting reconsideration of the prior Office action. Even where the NSDP rejection is provisional the reply must be complete. See MPEP § 804, subsection I.B.1. For a reply to a non-final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.111(a). For a reply to final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.113(c). A request for reconsideration while not provided for in 37 CFR 1.113(c) may be filed after final for consideration. See MPEP §§ 706.07(e) and 714.13.
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Claims 1-6, 8-13, 15-20 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-2, 6-10, 12-15, 17-18, and 20 of U.S. Patent No. 12,425,300 (“Patent ‘300”).
As shown below, the claims of Patent ‘300 substantially disclose the subject matter in the claims of the application with the differences being obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art.
Instant Application
Patent ‘300
1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
receiving, by an identities service from a client node within a region network of a distributed computing system, a first request for a first identifier of a software resource within the region network, the first request comprising first attributes associated with the software resource;
generating, by the identities service, the first identifier based at least in part on the first attributes; sending, by the identities service to the client node, the first identifier and a first caching instruction, the first caching instruction usable by the client node to not store the first identifier in a cache associated with the client node;
receiving, by an identities service from a manager service, an identity rotation instruction comprising information usable by the identities service to provide a caching instruction in response to requests for software resource identifiers;
receiving, by the identities service from a manager service, an identity rotation instruction comprising information usable by the identities service to provide a second caching instruction in response to requests for software resource identifiers;
receiving, by the identities service from a client node, a request for an identifier of the software resource, the request comprising attributes associated with the software resource;
receiving, by the identities service from the client node, a second request for a second identifier of the software resource, the second request comprising second attributes associated with the software resource;
generating, by the identities service, the identifier based at least in part on the attributes, the identifier replacing an existing identifier for the software resource; and
generating, by the identities service, the second identifier based at least in part on the second attributes; and
sending, by the identities service to the client node, the identifier and the caching instruction, the caching instruction usable by the client node to store the identifier in a cache associated with the client node.
sending, by the identities service to the client node, the second identifier and the second caching instruction, the second caching instruction usable by the client node to store the second identifier in the cache.
Claims of Patent ‘300 does not explicitly disclose, “the identifier replacing an existing identifier for the software resource.” However, the claim of the application does not specify the manner in which the identifier replaces the existing identifier. Claims 1 and 2 of Patent ‘300 disclose that the first identifier of the software resource is not stored in the cache associated with the client node, and the second identifier of the software resource, sent to the client device, is to be stored in the cache. One of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that a second identifier, to be stored, replaces a first identifier.
Claims 2-6 are unpatentable over claims 1-2, 6-8 of Patent ’300.
Claims 8-13 are unpatentable over claims 9-10, 12-14 of Patent ’300.
Claims 15-20 are unpatentable over claims 14-15, 17-18, 20 of Patent ’300.
Claims 7 and 14 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claim 1 of U.S. Patent No. 12,425,300 (“Patent ‘300”) in view of Prabhakaran et al. US Patent Publication No. 2023/0370418 (“Prabhakaran”).
Regarding claim 7, claims of Patent ‘300 does not disclose, “wherein the client node is configured to provide the identifier stored in the cache in response to a second request for the identifier of the software resource.” However, the concept of first checking a cache for data in response to a request for the data is well-known in the art. Prabhakaran discloses a client node configured to provide a identifier stored in a cache in response to a request for the identifier (para. [0030] when the application 120 requests an IP address for a domain name, the DNS client 125 may first query the cache 135A to determine whether the IP address for the domain name is already resolved in the cache 135A. doing so can help reduce network traffic as well as speed up the process for resolving the domain name) It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have applied Prabhakaran’s disclosure of checking a cache because it would have reduced network traffic (para. [0030]).
Regarding claim 14, claims of Patent ‘300 does not disclose, “wherein the client node is configured to provide the identifier stored in the cache in response to a second request for the identifier of the software resource.” However, the concept of first checking a cache for data in response to a request for the data is well-known in the art. Prabhakaran discloses a client node configured to provide a identifier stored in the cache in response to a second request for the identifier (para. [0030] when the application 120 requests an IP address for a domain name, the DNS client 125 may first query the cache 135A to determine whether the IP address for the domain name is already resolved in the cache 135A. doing so can help reduce network traffic as well as speed up the process for resolving the domain name) It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have applied Prabhakaran’s disclosure of checking a cache because it would have reduced network traffic (para. [0030]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-20 would be allowable if the double patenting rejection, set forth in this Office action, is overcome by amendment and/or the filing of a terminal disclaimer.
Ahmavaara US Patent Publication No. 2012/0317261 discloses receiving, by an identities service from a client node within a network of a computing system, a first request for a first identifier of a software resource within the network, the first request; generating, by the identities service, the first identifier; sending, by the identities service to the client node, the first identifier (para. [0165] request for an application specific identifier corresponding to an application service provider. component 1906 for generating the application specific identifier).
Sinha et al. US Patent Publication No. 2021/0119960 discloses receiving, by an identities service from a client node within a network of a computing system, a first request for a first identifier of a software resource within the network, the first request; generating, by the identities service, the first identifier; sending, by the identities service to the client node, the first identifier (para. [0054] receive a request for a resource address. send the changed resource address to the second computing device).
Siemssen US Patent Publication No.2017/0163560 discloses receiving, by an identities service from a client node within a network of a computing system, a first request for a software resource within the network, the first request; generating, by the identities service, the first identifier; sending, by the identities service to the client node, the first identifier (para. [0042] receive a request for creation of a new resource… any creation of information or addressable object on a resource space. assign a unique resource identifier to the resource. generated resource identifier may be returned to the requesting client device).
Brecl et al. US Patent Publication No. 2022/0158975 discloses generating an identifier; and sending the identifier and caching instruction, the caching instruction usable by a client node to store the identifier in a cache (para. [0072] each returned network address may include or be associated with a cache instruction for caching the returned network address at a requesting device).
Oliver et al. US Patent Publication No. 2019/0339962 discloses generating an identifier and providing the identifier to a client node (para. [0123] search the database and find that the received application identifier does not exist in the database. server may compute a new application identifier, determine that the new identifier is different from the application identifier received from the client machine)
The prior art of record does not teach, individually or in combination, receiving, by an identities service from a manager service, an identity rotation instruction comprising information usable by the identities service to provide a caching instruction in response to requests for software resource identifiers; receiving, by the identities service from a client node, a request for an identifier of the software resource, the request comprising attributes associated with the software resource; generating, by the identities service, the identifier based at least in part on the attributes, the identifier replacing an existing identifier for the software resource; and sending, by the identities service to the client node, the identifier and the caching instruction, the caching instruction usable by the client node to store the identifier in a cache associated with the client node.
Conclusion
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/JOSHUA JOO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2445
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