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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 08/13/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is 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 1-20 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-20 of U.S. Patent No. 12,432,220. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because the claims of the instant application are anticipated by the claims of the patent.
Independent claims 1, 9 & 13 of the instant application are mapped to claims 1, 9 & 17 of the patent. Claims 2 & 14 of the instant application are mapped to claims 2 & 18 of the patent. Claims 3 & 18 of the instant application are mapped to claim 3 of the patent. Claims 4 & 15 of the instant application are mapped to claims 4 & 19 of the patent. Claims 5 & 19 of the instant application are mapped to claims 5 & 13 of the patent. Claims 6 & 20 of the instant application are mapped to claims 6 & 14 of the patent. Claims 7 & 16 of the instant application are mapped to claims 7, 15 & 20 of the patent. Claims 8 & 17 of the instant application are mapped to claims 8 & 16 of the patent. Claims 10-12 of the instant application are mapped to claims 10-12 of the patent.
Instant Application No. 19/299,288
U.S. Patent No. 12,432,220
9. A method comprising: monitoring, continuously by service account monitoring engine, event activities of a plurality of service accounts from one or more directory service server, wherein each service account comprises a machine user account in a user management system that enables autonomous operation of an autonomous job within an enterprise network and wherein operation of the autonomous job fails without a valid service account;
1. A method comprising: aggregating, automatically by service account monitoring engine, event activities of a plurality of service accounts on an enterprise network, wherein each service account comprises a machine user account in a user management system that enables autonomous operation of an autonomous job within the enterprise network and wherein operation of the autonomous job fails without a valid service account;
identifying, based on the event activities of the plurality of service accounts, a group of potentially dormant service accounts;
determining, based on aggregated information associated with the event activities of the plurality of service accounts, an identity of a plurality of potentially dormant service accounts;
verifying, automatically in response to generation of a batch of potentially dormant service accounts, a status of each potentially dormant service account of the batch of potentially dormant service accounts;
verifying, automatically in response to generation of a listing of the plurality of potentially dormant service accounts, whether each potentially dormant service account is dormant or active;
disabling, automatically based on received confirmation input confirming dormancy of each potentially dormant service account of the batch of potentially dormant service accounts, monitoring of each potentially dormant service account;
disabling, automatically based on a received confirmation input confirming dormancy of a first potentially dormant service account, monitoring of the first potentially dormant service account; disabling the first potentially dormant service account;
re-enabling, based on failure of an autonomous job whose operation is reliant upon a first disabled service account of a plurality of disabled potentially dormant service accounts, the first disabled service account;
re-enabling, based on failure of an autonomous job whose operation is reliant upon the first potentially dormant service account, the first potentially dormant service account;
And decommissioning, automatically based on expiration of a disablement time threshold, each disabled service account of the plurality of disabled potentially dormant service accounts.
and decommissioning, at a directory service server and automatically based on expiration of a disablement time threshold, the first potentially dormant service account.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-20 would be allowed if the Double Patenting Rejection is overcome.
Examiner’s Statement of Reason for Allowance
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: After a fully conducted search and consideration, the prior art either taken alone or in combination neither anticipates nor render obvious to the claimed subject matter of the instant application. The prior art Jain et al. (US Pub No. 2022/0391927) discloses an end-user computing apparatus, including a hardware platform, having a processor and a memory; and instructions encoded within the memory to provide two or more network activity scanners for a user's network activity; operate the two or more network activity scanners to locally analyze the user's network activity, identify a plurality of online accounts associated with the user, and compute respective account identities and usage contexts for the accounts; and send the account identities and usage contexts to an analysis service for identification of accounts to modify. (Jain, Abstract), Kruse et al. (US Patent No. 10,567,388) discloses a policy/resource decommissioning service determines whether a resource has been inactive for a period of time greater than at least one period of time threshold for decommissioning. If the resource has been inactive greater than a first period of time threshold, the service disables the resource such that requests to access the resource are denied. If the resource has been inactive for a period of time greater than a second threshold, longer than the first period of time threshold, the service archives the resource. The service deletes the resource if the inactivity period of the resource is greater than a third period of time threshold, where the third period of time threshold is longer than the first and the second period of time thresholds. (Kruse, Abstract), Mannar (US Patent No. 11,526,385) discloses leveraging inactive computing resources. An example system may include one or more computing nodes having an active state and an inactive state, one or more processors, and a memory. The memory may contain instructions therein that, when executed, cause the one or more processors to identify a task to be performed by the one or more computing nodes based upon a received request. The instructions may further cause the one or more processors to create one or more sub-tasks based upon the task and schedule the one or more sub-tasks for execution on the one or more computing nodes during the inactive state. The instructions may further cause the one or more processors to collate the one or more sub-tasks into a completed task, and generate a completed task notification based upon the completed task. (Mannar, Abstract), Hidden et al. (US Pub No. 2017/0063873) discloses an identity management system is augmented to provide for automated suspension of all dormant accounts before launching a re-certification campaign (pass). In one implementation, prior to receiving a recertification notice from the system, the affected user's account is already suspended and thus cannot be accessed. Once the recertification succeeds, however, the account is restored. Preferably, the technique is exposed to an IAM system administrator through a simple interface, e.g., a one-click “suspend and re-certify” button in an administrative menu. When the administrator initiates the re-certification process, he or she may select the button for a particular account or user. (Hidden, Abstract), Argoety et al. (US Pub No. 2021/0157907) discloses a dormant account identifier is disclosed. An inactive account can be determined based on whether a user activity of the account is outside a threshold amount. A determination can be made as to whether the inactive account is a dormant account based on account activity of a peer account to the inactive account. (Argoety, Abstract), Townsend, III et al. (US Patent No. 8,503,634) discloses treating inactive accounts by designating certain accounts for either unclaimed or escheats treatment. In the unclaimed treatment the remaining balance of funds associated with the account is assigned to a prepaid phone card, whereas in the escheats treatment the remaining balance of funds is remitted to an appropriate authority. In each case the account is declared inactive, and processes are made available to reactivate the account. (Townsend, Abstract), Parkinson et al. (US Patent No. 11,374,889) discloses assisting a consumer in unsubscribing from unwanted mailing list traffic and email based relationships. A consumer's discovered accounts and subscriptions may be listed and displayed to the consumer. For each identified account or subscription, an unsubscribe and deletion action may be determined and automated for the consumer. (Parkinson, Abstract) and Terry (US Patent No. 12,093,916) discloses define a first set of account controls for a first user of a customer account based on customer information where the first set of account controls comprise first permissions and first restrictions, define a second set of account controls for a second user of the customer account where the second set of account controls comprise second permissions and second restrictions, determine that a control criteria has met a threshold, automatically adjust the first set of account controls to increase the first permissions and decrease the first restrictions, and transmit a notification to a first user device associated with the first user and to a second user device associated with the second user, the notification indicating that the first set of account controls have been adjusted. (Terry, Abstract), however, the prior art taken alone or in combination fails to teach or suggest “wherein each service account comprises a machine user account in a user management system that enables autonomous operation of an autonomous job within an enterprise network and wherein operation of the autonomous job fails without a valid service account; identifying, based on the event activities of the plurality of service accounts, a group of potentially dormant service accounts; verifying, automatically in response to generation of a batch of potentially dormant service accounts, a status of each potentially dormant service account of the batch of potentially dormant service accounts; disabling, automatically based on received confirmation input confirming dormancy of each potentially dormant service account of the batch of potentially dormant service accounts, monitoring of each potentially dormant service account; re-enabling, based on failure of an autonomous job whose operation is reliant upon a first disabled service account of a plurality of disabled potentially dormant service accounts, the first disabled service account; and decommissioning, automatically based on expiration of a disablement time threshold, each disabled service account of the plurality of disabled potentially dormant service accounts” (as recited in claims 1, 9 & 13). Claims are allowed in light of the above claim limitations when in combination with the remaining claim limitations.
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Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHAQUEAL D WADE whose telephone number is (571)270-0357. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00-5:00.
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/SHAQUEAL D WADE-WRIGHT/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2407
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