Ex Parte Arndt et al

Patent Trials and Appeals Board

Mar 16, 2016

12414441 - (D) (P.T.A.B. Mar. 16, 2016)

UNITED STA TES p A TENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE
12/414,441 0313012009
70748 7590
IBM Corp, (AUS/RCR)
c/o Rolnik Law Firm, P.C.
24 N. Main St.
Kingwood, TX 77339
03/18/2016
FIRST NAMED INVENTOR
Richard L. Arndt
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
ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO.
A US920090026US 1 1951
EXAMINER
MACKALL, LARRY T
ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER
2131
NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE
03/18/2016 ELECTRONIC
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.
Notice of the Office communication was sent electronically on above-indicated "Notification Date" to the
following e-mail address( es):
notices@rolnikiplaw.com
PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07)
UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
Ex parte RICHARD L. ARNDT, CAROL B. HERNANDEZ,
KYLE A.LUCKE, TIMOTHY R. MARCHINI,
NARESHNAYARand JAMES A. PAFUMI
Appeal2014-003464
Application 12/414,441
Technology Center 2100
Before CATHERINE SHIANG, MELISSA A. HAAPALA, and
KAMRAN JIVANI, Administrative Patent Judges.
RAAP ALA, Administrative Patent Judge.
DECISION ON APPEAL
This is a decision on appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) from a final
rejection of claims 14, 15, and 17-25. 1 We have jurisdiction under
35 U.S.C. § 6(b).
We affirm.
1 Claims 1-13 and 16 have been canceled. App. Br. 11-12.
Appeal2014-003464
Application 12/414,441
INVENTION
Appellants' invention is directed to virtual memory sharing. Spec.
i-f 1. Claim 14 is exemplary of the subject matter on appeal:
14. A computer program product for establishing at least
one paging partition in a data processing system, the computer
program product comprising: a computer readable storage device
having computer usable program code stored thereon, the
computer program product comprising:
computer usable program code configured to receive a
user selection to allocate a subset of physical memory to a shared
memory pool;
computer usable program code configured to reserve up to
the subset of physical memory for use in the shared memory
pool;
computer usable program code configured to configure at
least one logical partition as a shared memory partition;
computer usable program code configured to assign a
paging partition to the shared memory pool;
computer usable program code configured to determine
whether a user requests a redundant assignment of the paging
partition to the shared memory pool;
computer usable program code configured to assign a
redundant paging partition to the shared memory pool,
responsive to a determination that the user requests a redundant
assignment;
computer usable program code configured to assign a
paging device to the shared memory pool, wherein computer
usable program code configured to assign the paging device to
the shared memory pool comprises computer usable program
code configured to assign at least one stream identifier to the
paging device, wherein the paging device is assigned to the
shared memory partition; and
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Appeal2014-003464
Application 12/414,441
computer usable program code configured to transmit at
least one paging request to a virtual asynchronous services
interface configured to support a paging device stream.
REJECTIONS ON APPEAL 2
Claims 14, 15, and 17-20, 24, and 25 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C.
§ 103(a) as being obvious over the combination ofUchishiba (US
2002/0016812 Al; published Feb. 7, 2002), McBrearty (US 6,526,492 Bl;
issued Feb. 25, 2003), and Iyer (US 2003/0177313 Al; published Sept. 18,
2003).
Claims 21 and 22 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being
obvious over the combination ofUchishiba, McBrearty, Iyer, and Rooney
(US 6,519,660 Bl; issued Feb. 11, 2003).
Claim 23 stands rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being obvious
over the combination ofUchishiba, McBrearty, Iyer, and Maddalozzo (US
6,041,366; issued Mar. 21, 2000).
ISSUE
Appellants' contentions present us with the following issue: Did the
Examiner err in finding the combined teachings ofUchishiba, McBrearty,
and Iyer teach or suggest "wherein the paging device is assigned to the
shared memory partition" ("paging device" limitation), as recited in
independent claim 14?
ANALYSIS
Appellants contend the combination of Iyer, Uchishiba, and
McBrearty does not teach or suggest the "paging device" limitation recited
2 The Examiner has withdrawn the 35 U.S.C. § 101 rejection. Ans. 2.
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Appeal2014-003464
Application 12/414,441
in claim 14. App. Br. 6-8; Reply Br. 1-3. In particular, Appellants argue
"rather than teach the [paging device limitation], Uchishiba merely teaches
to covert an external resource (alleged paging device) to an Uchishiba
reserve resource" and the only explanation further provided in Uchishiba of
what is done is that the "'reserve resource' (also alleged paging device?) can
now be managed (or secured) by the hypervisor." App. Br. 3. We disagree.
The Examiner finds, and we agree, that U chishiba teaches an external
resource (paging device) that is assigned to a shared memory pool and
shared among the shared memory partitions. Ans. 3. The cited sections of
Uchishiba teach the external resource (paging device) is installed as a
reserve resource and that if a shortage occurs, the reserve resource 802 is
assigned to the storage space 806 in the logical partition 3 (shared memory
partition). Uchishiba i-fi-167, 83. Thus, we agree with the Examiner that
Uchishiba teaches the "paging device" limitation.
AppeUants fail to persuade us of error in the rejection of claim 14.
Accordingly, we sustain the 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) rejections of: (1) claim 14;
(2) independent claim 24, for which Appellants rely on the same arguments
made for claim 1 (App. Br. 8); and (3) dependent claims 15, 17-23, and 25,
for which Appellants do not present separate arguments for patentability
(App. Br. 10).
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Appeal2014-003464
Application 12/414,441
DECISION
We affirm the Examiner's decision to reject claims 14, 15, and 17-25.
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.
§ 41.50(±).
AFFIRMED
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