Ex Parte Koning et alDownload PDFPatent Trials and Appeals BoardFeb 20, 201310762984 - (D) (P.T.A.B. Feb. 20, 2013) Copy Citation UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE United States Patent and Trademark Office Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS P.O. Box 1450 Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450 www.uspto.gov APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE FIRST NAMED INVENTOR ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO. 10/762,984 01/21/2004 G. Paul Koning 3721.1004-004 (EQLC-P01-0 5998 21005 7590 02/20/2013 HAMILTON, BROOK, SMITH & REYNOLDS, P.C. 530 VIRGINIA ROAD P.O. BOX 9133 CONCORD, MA 01742-9133 EXAMINER DOAN, DUC T ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER 2185 MAIL DATE DELIVERY MODE 02/20/2013 PAPER Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding. The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication. PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07) UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE ____________ BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD ____________ Ex parte G. PAUL KONING, PETER C. HAYDEN, and PAULA LONG ____________ Appeal 2010-008914 Application 10/762,984 Technology Center 2100 ____________ Before ALLEN R. MacDONALD, JUSTIN BUSCH, and BARBARA A. PARVIS, Administrative Patent Judges. PARVIS, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON APPEAL Appellants appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) from the Examiner’s decision finally rejecting claims 1-10, 12, 14-21 and 231. We have jurisdiction over the appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b). We AFFIRM. 1 Claims 11, 13, 22 and 24 have been cancelled and are not on appeal. Appeal 2010-008914 Application 10/762,984 2 STATEMENT OF THE CASE Appellants’ invention relates to systems for managing responses to requests from a plurality of clients for access to a set of resources and for providing a storage area network (SAN) that more efficiently responds to client load changes by migrating data blocks while providing continuous data access. (Abstract.) CLAIMED SUBJECT MATTER Claims 1 and 14 are the independent claims on appeal. Claim 1 is representative of the subject matter on appeal, and recites: 1. An apparatus for resource migration, comprising a storage system having a plurality of storage servers with a set of resources partitioned thereon, said storage servers having a load monitor process capable of communicating with other load monitor processes for generating a measure of loading on respective ones of the plurality of servers; a resource migration process for transferring a resource from one of said plurality of servers to another of said plurality of servers in response to said measure of loading; a write-detect process which: (i) detects when a resource write request applies to a resource that is in the process of being moved from a first server to a second server, and which in response to such resource write request writes copies of the resource of both of said first and second server; and (ii) in response to a write failure on the second server, restarts the migration process for the resource to ensure that the write request is propagated to the second server. Appeal 2010-008914 Application 10/762,984 3 REJECTIONS Claims 1-4, 6-10, 12, 14-21 and 23 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over Blumenau et al. (U.S. 2004/0080558, Apr. 29, 2004; “Blumenau”). (Ans. 3-8.)2 Claims 5 stands rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over Blumenau in view of Applicants’ admitted prior art (“APA”) (Spec. 3, ll. 16-28). (Ans. 8-9.) ISSUES Appellants argue on pages 7 through 9 of the Appeal Brief that the Examiner’s rejection of independent claim 1 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) is in error.3 These arguments present us with the following issues: 1) Did the Examiner err in finding that Blumenau teaches “a resource migration process for transferring a resource from one of said plurality of servers to another of said plurality of servers in response to said measure of loading,” as recited in claim 1? 2) Did the Examiner err in finding that Blumenau teaches “a write- detect process which: . . . in response to a write failure on the second server, restarts the migration process for the resource to ensure that the write request is propagated to the second server,” as recited in claim 1? 2 Throughout this opinion we refer to the Examiner’s Answer mailed on Feb. 22, 2010. 3 Throughout this opinion were refer to Appellants’ Appeal Brief filed on Dec. 17, 2009. Appeal 2010-008914 Application 10/762,984 4 Appellants argue on pages 9 through 10 of the Appeal Brief that the Examiner’s rejection of claim 8 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) is in error. These arguments present us with the following issue: 3) Did the Examiner err in finding that Blumenau teaches “a routing table for tracking resources maintained on the system,” as recited in claim 8? ANALYSIS We have reviewed the Examiner’s rejections in light of Appellants’ arguments that the Examiner has erred. We disagree with Appellants’ conclusion. We adopt as our own the findings and reasons set forth by the Examiner in the action from which this appeal is taken and the reasons set forth by the Examiner in the Examiner’s Answer in response to Appellants’ Appeal Brief. However we highlight and address specific findings and arguments regarding claims 1 and 8 for emphasis as follows. The rejection of claim 1 under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) 1) First Issue Appellants contend that Blumenau does not disclose “that the server processes communicate with each other to generate a measure of loading on the respective servers . . . ,” as Appellants contend is required by claim 1, because a state table pointed to by the Examiner does not maintain “data indicative of load.” (App. Br. 8.) Claim 1 does not recite “to generate a measure of loading” as Appellants contend. Instead, claim 1 recites “a resource migration process for transferring a resource from one of said plurality of servers to another of said plurality of servers in response to said Appeal 2010-008914 Application 10/762,984 5 measure of loading” (emphasis added). We agree with the Examiner that Blumenau’s disclosure of, for example, migrating data because a system is “approaching its performance limit . . . or for storage capacity reasons” (Ans. 4, 13 citing Blumenau ¶ 64) satisfies the limitation of “in response to said measure of loading” as recited in claim 1. Accordingly, we are not persuaded by Appellants’ arguments and agree with the Examiner that this limitation is met by Blumenau. 2) Second Issue Appellants contend that Blumenau discloses “checking to see whether each specific data write operation was actually successful,” but does not disclose “restarting an entire migration process.” (App. Br. 8.) We agree with the Examiner (Ans. 5, 11) that Blumenau’s disclosure that “the DBMS will reissue the [write] request[]” (Blumenau ¶42) is not merely “checking” as Appellants’ contend, but instead satisfies “a write-detect process which: . . . restarts the migration process for the resource” as is recited in claim 1. Appellants further contend that the DBMS reissuing the write request does not satisfy the “restarts the migration process” requirement of claim 1 because “Applicants’ restart of a migration process is transparent at the DBMS or other application level.” (App. Br. 7.) However, as correctly noted by the Examiner, claim 1 does not require transparency. (Ans. 11-12.) Here, the Appellants’ argument is not commensurate with the scope of representative claim 1. Nonetheless, as additional supporting evidence that this limitation is satisfied, Blumenau states, “[b]ecause the migration is transparent to the application . . .” (Blumenau ¶47.) With respect to Appellants’ other contentions regarding this limitation of claim 1, we agree with the Examiner’s analysis and determination that Appeal 2010-008914 Application 10/762,984 6 these other contentions are not persuasive. (Ans. 5, 10-14.) Thus, we agree with the Examiner that this limitation is met by Blumenau. As explained supra with respect to highlighted findings and arguments regarding issues 1 and 2 presented for claim 1, we are not persuaded of error in the Examiner’s rejection of claim 1 under 35 U.S.C. §103(a). Accordingly, we sustain the rejection. 3) Third Issue Appellants contend that Blumenau does not disclose the limitations of claim 8 because “there is no mention, suggestion, or teaching in Blumenau that this state table is used to perform any routing function . . . .” (App. Br. 10 (emphasis omitted).) However, claim 8 recites “a routing table for tracking resources maintained on the system,” not a “routing function” as Appellants’ contend (App. Br. 10). We agree with the Examiner’s explanation and analysis (Ans. 6, 16-17) supporting the determination that the limitations of claim 8 are met by Blumenau. Additional supporting evidence is found in Blumenau’s disclosure that “disk/logical volume 201” maintained by the state table “can correspond to a physical storage device (e.g., a disk drive) within the storage system, or may correspond to a virtual storage location . . . .” (Blumenau ¶¶35.) Accordingly, we are not persuaded of error in the Examiner’s rejection of claim 8 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) and, therefore, we sustain that rejection. The rejection of claim 5 under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) Regarding Appellants’ contentions with respect to claim 5, Appellants do not provide additional arguments with sufficient specificity so claim 5 Appeal 2010-008914 Application 10/762,984 7 falls with claim 1. (App. Br. 11.) For the same reasons as provided for claim 1, we agree with the Examiner’s findings and stated conclusions and, therefore, we sustain the rejection of claim 5. The rejection of claim 6 under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) Regarding Appellants’ contentions with respect to claim 6, Appellants do not provide additional arguments with sufficient specificity so claim 6 falls with claim 1. (App. Br. 9.) For the same reasons as provided for claim 1, we agree with the Examiner’s findings and stated conclusions and, therefore, we sustain the rejection of claim 6. The rejection of claims 2-4, 7, 9, 10, 12, 14-21 and 23 under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) With respect to the rejection of claims 2-4, 7, 9, 10, 12, 14-21 and 23 Appellants allow those claims to fall with claim 1 by relying on the same arguments presented for the patentability of claim 1. (App. Br. 9, 10.) Accordingly, we sustain the Examiner’s rejection of claims 2-4, 7, 9, 10, 12, 14-21 and 23 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a). CONCLUSION Based on the record before us, we conclude that the Examiner did not err in rejecting claims 1 and 8 as being unpatentable under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) over Blumenau. Additionally, we conclude that the Examiner did not err in rejecting claim 5 as being unpatentable under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) over Blumenau in view of APA. Therefore, we sustain the 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) Appeal 2010-008914 Application 10/762,984 8 rejection of claims 1, 5 and 8 and of claims 2-4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 14-21 and 23, falling therewith. DECISION We affirm the Examiner’s rejection of claims 1-10, 12, 14-21 and 23. No time period for taking any subsequent action in connection with this appeal may be extended under 37 C.F.R. § 1.136(a). See 37 C.F.R. § 1.136(a)(1)(iv). AFFIRMED ke Copy with citationCopy as parenthetical citation