DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Claims 1-20, filed on 05/30/2025, are presented for examination.
/ *Claims provisionally filed on 05/30/2024 /
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-4 and 7-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1)/(a)(2) as being Anticipated by “Smith” et al. (US 11,593,302 B2).
Smith discloses claim 1/2. An apparatus comprising: a storage medium; at least one communication interface configured to receive storage data (Abstract; FIGS.1-3); and at least one control circuit configured to perform one or more operations comprising:
transferring, using the at least one communication interface, protection information for the storage data [Smith discloses transfer application/metadata 206, FIG.2 with “At step 206, the enterprise application and associated metadata are transferred. As indicated above, the enterprise application and associated metadata may be logically linked via the unique identifier. For example, metadata 320 and application file data 324 may be transferred from the host CI 302 to target CI 402 via transfer communication 301” (col.11, lines 3-29)]; and
storing, in the storage medium, based on the protection information, the storage data [Smith discloses “In some embodiments, DPPM module 140 may utilize the unique identifier stored in metadata 195 to facilitate the transfer of an enterprise application (e.g., enterprise application 160) and its corresponding metadata (e.g., metadata 195) from CI 100 to another target destination” “In some embodiments, transferred metadata 195 not only includes data protection policy 198 but also location information (e.g., IP address(es)) corresponding to the component(s) responsible for storing backup data files 172 (which are backup data of application file data 170)” (col.7, lines 14-41 with FIG.1)],
wherein the transferring the protection information comprises receiving, using the at least one communication interface, alert information [Smith discloses, “In response to such a determination, DPPM module 140 may be configured to apply the data protection policy via API calls. If DPPM module 140 ascertains that there is inadequate capacity, then an alert signal or message indicating the specific policy that could not be satisfied would be sent/activated” (col.11, line 46 to col.12, line 6 with FIGS.1-2)].
Smith discloses claim 11/13. An apparatus comprising: a device comprising: at least one communication interface configured to use a first data path and a second data path (Abstract; FIGS.1-3); and a control circuit configured to:
transfer, using the first data path, storage data [Smith discloses transfer application/metadata 206, FIG.2 with “At step 206, the enterprise application and associated metadata are transferred. As indicated above, the enterprise application and associated metadata may be logically linked via the unique identifier. For example, metadata 320 and application file data 324 may be transferred from the host CI 302 to target CI 402 via transfer communication 301” (col.11, lines 3-29)]; and
transfer, using the second data path, protection information for the storage data [Smith discloses, “In the event an enterprise application is transferred to a destination computing system, such as CI 100, repository 190 can be provisioned with metadata information linked with said enterprise application from a second repository (e.g., from a sending host CI system). For example, metadata information can be obtained or copied from a second repository over network 175, using secure copy (SCP) protocol…” (col.4, line 61 to col.5, line 16 with FIG.1)], wherein the protection information comprises alert information [Smith discloses, “In response to such a determination, DPPM module 140 may be configured to apply the data protection policy via API calls. If DPPM module 140 ascertains that there is inadequate capacity, then an alert signal or message indicating the specific policy that could not be satisfied would be sent/activated” (col.11, line 46 to col.12, line 6 with FIGS.1-2)].
Smith discloses claim 15/16. A method comprising:
receiving, at a storage network, storage data, wherein the storage network comprises a network fabric [Smith discloses, “DPPM module 140 may also be configured to transfer the enterprise application and the metadata from the host computing system to a target computing system. In such a scenario, the DPPM module on the destination CI may utilize the received metadata to reconstruct a data protection policy for the transferred enterprise application on the receiving target computing system” (col.3, line 58 to col.4, line 16 with FIG.1)];
transferring, to a data protection client, using the network fabric, the storage data [Smith discloses, “In the event an enterprise application is transferred to a destination computing system, such as CI 100, repository 190 can be provisioned with metadata information linked with said enterprise application from a second repository (e.g., from a sending host CI system). For example, metadata information can be obtained or copied from a second repository over network 175, using secure copy (SCP) protocol…” (col.4, line 61 to col.5, line 16 with FIG.1)];
transferring, to a data protection node, using the network fabric, a copy of at least a portion of the storage data [Smith discloses transfer application/metadata 206, FIG.2 with “At step 206, the enterprise application and associated metadata are transferred. As indicated above, the enterprise application and associated metadata may be logically linked via the unique identifier. For example, metadata 320 and application file data 324 may be transferred from the host CI 302 to target CI 402 via transfer communication 301” (col.11, lines 3-29)]; and
transferring, using the network fabric, alert information for the storage data; further comprising performing, by the data protection node, based on the alert information, a data protection operation [Smith discloses, “In response to such a determination, DPPM module 140 may be configured to apply the data protection policy via API calls. If DPPM module 140 ascertains that there is inadequate capacity, then an alert signal or message indicating the specific policy that could not be satisfied would be sent/activated” (col.11, line 46 to col.12, line 6 with FIGS.1-2)].
Smith further disclose claim 3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein: the at least one control circuit is further configured to perform an operation comprising detecting a data protection condition; and the transferring the protection information comprises sending, using the at least one communication interface, based on the detecting, alert information [Smith discloses, “In response to such a determination, DPPM module 140 may be configured to apply the data protection policy via API calls. If DPPM module 140 ascertains that there is inadequate capacity, then an alert signal or message indicating the specific policy that could not be satisfied would be sent/activated” (col.11, line 46 to col.12, line 6 with FIGS.1-2)].
Smith further disclose claim 4, 7 and 8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one control circuit is further configured to perform, based on the protection information, a data protection operation; a backup operation; and wherein the data protection operation is based on a policy [Smith discloses data protection with backup and policy: “In addition to providing information that enables DPPM module 140 to keep track of the resource components that are subject to the data protection policy 198, metadata 195 also maintains a record of the location of the physical resource components (e.g., storage components) that store backup file data (e.g., backup file data 172) associated with the hosted enterprise application” (col.4, lines 17-60 with FIG.1)].
Smith further disclose claim 9-10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one control circuit is further configured to perform, using the storage data, an analysis operation; wherein the at least one control circuit is further configured to manage, based on the analysis operation, at least a portion of the storage medium [Smith discloses analysis operation 200 (FIG.2) with FIGS.1 and 2].
Smith further disclose claim 12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the protection information comprises a copy of at least a portion of the storage data [Smith discloses, “In the event an enterprise application is transferred to a destination computing system, such as CI 100, repository 190 can be provisioned with metadata information linked with said enterprise application from a second repository (e.g., from a sending host CI system). For example, metadata information can be obtained or copied from a second repository over network 175, using secure copy (SCP) protocol…” (col.4, line 61 to col.5, line 16 with FIG.1)].
Smith further disclose claim 14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the control circuit is further configured to receive, using the second data path, recovery information [Smith discloses, “More specifically, central manager 102 can be configured to manage performance, resource utilization levels, application data recovery, and other aspects associated with resource components included in virtualized infrastructure 108 and/or physical infrastructure 118” (col.3, lines 45-57 with FIG.1)].
Smith further disclose claim 17-18. The method of claim 15, wherein the alert information is transferred to/from the data protection node [Smith discloses, “In response to such a determination, DPPM module 140 may be configured to apply the data protection policy via API calls. If DPPM module 140 ascertains that there is inadequate capacity, then an alert signal or message indicating the specific policy that could not be satisfied would be sent/activated” (col.11, line 46 to col.12, line 6 with FIGS.1-2)].
Smith further disclose claim 19. The method of claim 15, further comprising: detecting, by the data protection node, a data protection condition; wherein the alert information is generated, based on the data protection condition, by the data protection node [Smith discloses, “In response to such a determination, DPPM module 140 may be configured to apply the data protection policy via API calls. If DPPM module 140 ascertains that there is inadequate capacity, then an alert signal or message indicating the specific policy that could not be satisfied would be sent/activated” (col.11, line 46 to col.12, line 6 with FIGS.1-2)].
Smith further disclose claim 20. The method of claim 15, wherein: the storage data is transferred to the data protection client using a first path of the network fabric; and the copy of the at least a portion of the storage data is transferred using a second path of the network fabric [Smith discloses, “In the event an enterprise application is transferred to a destination computing system, such as CI 100, repository 190 can be provisioned with metadata information linked with said enterprise application from a second repository (e.g., from a sending host CI system). For example, metadata information can be obtained or copied from a second repository over network 175, using secure copy (SCP) protocol…” (col.4, line 61 to col.5, line 16 with FIG.1)].
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.
Claim(s) 5 & 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over “Smith” et al. (US 11,593,302 B2) in view of “Achillopoulos” et al. (US 11,669,648 B2).
Smith further disclose The apparatus of claim 4. Smith does not; but, Achillopoulos, analogues art, discloses claim 5, wherein the data protection operation comprises a data lock operation [Achillopoulos discloses, “If any of the above steps is missing or the corresponding conditions are violated then the portable storage system locks and the massive storage system cannot be powered up, and, in some scenarios, the portable storage system erases all its data or electrically destructs the operation keys repository which renders the device non-operational” (col.5, lines 6-12)].
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify the system of Smith by incorporating the data lock operation of Achillopoulos for to data logging robots and techniques for data logging of readings and events related to tamper protection and physical handling of portable storage systems of very big data for use in forensic analysis, operational-performance evaluation, and debugging for taking decisions and actions.
Smith in view of Uuu further disclose claim 6. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the data protection operation comprises a data hold operation [Smith discloses data protection with backup and data holding: “In addition to providing information that enables DPPM module 140 to keep track of the resource components that are subject to the data protection policy 198, metadata 195 also maintains a record of the location of the physical resource components (e.g., storage components) that store backup file data (e.g., backup file data 172) associated with the hosted enterprise application” (col.4, lines 17-60 with FIG.1)].
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. (See PTO—892).
For example, US is directed to US 12,147,311 B2 directed to Method And System For Metadata Based Application Item Level Data Protection For Heterogeneous Backup Storages
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AMARE F TABOR whose telephone number is (571) 270-3155. The examiner can normally be reached Mon.—Fri.: 8:00 Am to 5:00 PM.
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/AMARE F TABOR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2434
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