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 1-12 have been examined.
Priority
Acknowledgement is made of the applicant’s claim to priority as a continuation of parent application 18/584531, now, U.S Patent No. 12368757.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDSs) submitted on 08/15/2025, 12/02/2025, and 05/18/2026 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being 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 1-12 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-20 of U.S. Patent No. 12095817. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because:
Instant application
U.S. Patent No. 12095817
1. A method comprising: translating, by a service orchestrator, an intent-based policy to a policy for a first site of a network system, the policy for the first site specifying a segment-specific queryable resource associated with a second site of the network system;
storing network segment prefixes associated with one or more network segments at the second site, the network segment prefixes learned at the second site via a routing protocol; and
configuring, by the service orchestrator and based on the policy for the first site, a first device associated with the first site to query the segment-specific queryable resource associated with the second site to obtain, in response to the query, the network segment prefixes.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: managing, by the service orchestrator, a plurality of segment-specific queryable resources, each associated with a different one of a plurality of sites in the network system; and transmitting, in response to a query to one of the plurality of segment-specific queryable resources, network segment prefixes associated with one or more network segments at a site corresponding to a queried segment-specific queryable resource, to one of a plurality of devices that issued the query.
Claim 4. (New): The method of claim 1, wherein the network system comprises a plurality of sites comprising the first site and the second site, the method further comprising: receiving notifications from one or more virtual route reflectors indicative of changes to network segment prefixes at one or more sites of the plurality of sites in the network system; and storing data indicative of the changes to the network segment prefixes at the one or more sites.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the intent-based policy specifies a workgroup corresponding to at least one of the one or more network segments at the second site.
7. A method comprising: storing, by a computing system associated with a first site in a network system, a policy that specifies a segment-specific queryable resource associated with a second site in the network system, wherein the policy is translated from an intent-based policy specifying the segment- specific queryable resource associated with the second site;
querying, by the computing system in implementing the policy, the segment-specific queryable resource associated with the second site;
receiving, in response to the query, network segment prefixes associated with one or more network segments at the second site; updating a forwarding table with the network segment prefixes received in response to the query; and
controlling, based on the updated forwarding table, network traffic between the first site and the second site.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein the policy comprises a security policy, and wherein the segment-specific queryable resource associated with the second site is queryable via a segment-specific Uniform Resource Locator specified by the security policy.
9. The method of claim 7, wherein the computing system is a first computing system, and wherein the intent-based policy is received by the first computing system based on input received from at least one of: the first computing system which is associated with the first site, a second computing system associated with the second site, a management interface associated with a network service orchestrator, or a combination thereof.
10. The method of claim 7, wherein the intent-based policy specifies a user group corresponding to at least one of the one or more network segments at the second site.
11. The method of claim 7, wherein querying the segment-specific queryable resource associated with the second site further comprises periodically querying the segment- specific queryable resource for the second site at a configurable frequency.
17. A method comprising: translating, by a service orchestrator of a network system including a first site and a second site, an intent-based security policy to a security policy for the first site specifying a segment-specific queryable resource associated with the second site;
storing, in a database associated with the service orchestrator, network segment prefixes associated with one or more network segments at the second site, the network segment prefixes having been dynamically learned at the second site via a routing protocol; and
configuring, by the service orchestrator, a first device associated with the first site based on the security policy to query the segment-specific queryable resource associated with the second site to obtain, in response to the query, the network segment prefixes associated with the one or more network segments at the second site.
18. The method of claim 17, further comprising: managing, by the service orchestrator, a plurality of segment-specific queryable resources, each associated with a different one of a plurality of sites in the network; and transmitting, by the service orchestrator and in response to a query to one of the plurality of segment-specific queryable resources, network segment prefixes associated with one or more network segments at the site corresponding to the queried segment-specific queryable resource from the database to one of a plurality of devices that issued the query.
19. The method of claim 17, further comprising: receiving, by a routing manager of the service orchestrator, notifications from one or more virtual route reflectors indicative of changes to network segment prefixes at one or more sites in the network system.
20. The method of claim 17, wherein the intent-based security policy specifies a workgroup corresponding to at least one of the one or more network segments at the second site.
12. A method comprising: storing, by a device associated with a first site in a network system, a security policy that specifies a segment-specific queryable resource associated with a second site in the network system, wherein the security policy is translated from an intent-based security policy specifying the segment-specific queryable resource associated with the second site;
querying, by the device in implementing the security policy, the segment-specific queryable resource associated with the second site;
receiving, by the device in response to the query, network segment prefixes associated with one or more network segments at the second site; updating, by the device, a forwarding table of the device with the network segment prefixes associated with the one or more network segments at the second site received in response to the query; and controlling, by the device and based on the updated forwarding tables, network traffic between the first site and the second site.
13. The method of claim 12, wherein the segment-specific queryable resource associated with the second site is queryable via a segment-specific Uniform Resource Locator specified by the security policy.
14. The method of claim 12, wherein the device is a first device, and wherein the intent-based security policy is received by the first device based on input by a user at one of the first device associated with the first site, a second device associated with the second site, or a management interface associated with a network service orchestrator.
15. The method of claim 12, wherein the intent-based security policy specifies a user group corresponding to at least one of the one or more network segments at the second site.
16. The method of claim 12, wherein querying the segment-specific queryable resource associated with the second site further comprises periodically querying the segment-specific queryable resource for the second site at a user-configurable frequency.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
US 20190007453 to Nimmagadda et al: A device may receive first information associated with a set of security rules. The first information may identify a set of security actions a device is to implement when the set of security rules applies to traffic. The device may determine a manner in which the set of security rules is to apply using the first information. The device may determine whether the manner in which the set of security rules is to apply and an intent of a network security policy or a manner in which a set of previously defined security rules is to apply match to determine whether the set of security rules conflicts with the network security policy or whether the set of security rules and the set of previously defined security rules are related. The device may perform an action.
US 20220179750 to Saad et al: A system for providing data protection services for data stored by control plane applications hosted by composed information handling systems includes persistent storage and a system control processor manager. The system control processor manager obtains an intent based data protection request; identifies allocable computing resources of information handling systems; obtains a data protection policy based on the allocable computing resources and the intent based data protection request; obtains a data protection architecture based on the allocable computing resources, the data protection policy, and the intent based data protection request; and instantiates the data protection architecture to obtain a composed information handling system of the composed information handling systems to service the intent based data protection request.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MADHURI R HERZOG whose telephone number is (571)270-3359. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30AM-4:30PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Taghi Arani can be reached at (571)272-3787. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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MADHURI R. HERZOG
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2438
/MADHURI R HERZOG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2438
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