DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-20 are pending in the Instant Application.
Claims 1-10 are rejected.
Claims 11-20 are withdrawn from consideration as being nonelected.
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 .
Priority
The Instant Application, filed 06/03/2025, is a divisional of 18/083,839, filed 12/19/2022. Thus, the earliest effective filing date is 12/19/2022 for what is recited therein.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election with traverse of Group I, claims 1-10 in the reply filed on 08/17/2026 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the grounds that Groups I and II are closely related, have a common utility, and do not present a serious burden because separate searches allegedly are not required. This is not found persuasive. Group I and Group 2 are related as combination and subcombination inventions. This does not require that the subcombination has utility by itself or in another materially different combination. However, examination of the inventions would impose a serious search burden because Group 1 is directed to decrypting individual records from an external vendor, while Group II is directed to maintaining a production schema and a developer schema separately to validate changes before putting change into production. The fact that the inventions share a common utility or relate to the same overall system does not eliminate the separate search burden. Thus, the requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
Claims 11-20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected Group 2, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Applicant timely traversed the restriction (election) requirement in the reply filed on 08/17/2026.
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.
Claims 1-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor regards as the invention.
Claim 1 contains the trademark/trade name Linux. Where a trademark or trade name is used in a claim as a limitation to identify or describe a particular material. See Ex parte Simpson, 218 USPQ 1020 (Bd. App. 1982). The claim scope is uncertain since the trademark or trade name cannot be used properly to identify any particular material or product. A trademark or trade name is used to identify a source of goods, and not the goods themselves. Thus, a trademark or trade name does not identify or describe the goods associated with the trademark or trade name. In the present case, the trademark is used to identify the operating system rather than describing it generically and, accordingly, the identification is indefinite. The dependent claims are rejected based on their dependence on a rejected claim.
*After extensive search, there is no prior art rejection for claims 1-10 at this time.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KANNAN SHANMUGASUNDARAM whose telephone number is (571)270-7763. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00 AM -6:00 PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Charles Rones can be reached at (571) 272-4085. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/KANNAN SHANMUGASUNDARAM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2168
