Ex Parte BellamkondaDownload PDFPatent Trial and Appeal BoardSep 21, 201511862158 (P.T.A.B. Sep. 21, 2015) 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. 11/862,158 09/26/2007 Srikanth Bellamkonda 50277-3341 9561 42425 7590 09/21/2015 HICKMAN PALERMO BECKER BINGHAM/ORACLE 1 Almaden Boulevard Floor 12 SAN JOSE, CA 95113 EXAMINER TRAN, ANHTAI V ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER 2168 MAIL DATE DELIVERY MODE 09/21/2015 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 SRIKANTH BELLAMKONDA _____________ Appeal 2013-004804 Application 11/862,158 Technology Center 2100 ______________ Before ROBERT E. NAPPI, LINZY T. McCARTNEY, and JOHN A. HUDALLA, Administrative Patent Judges. NAPPI, Administrative Patent Judge DECISION ON APPEAL This is a decision on appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) of the Examiner’s Final Rejection of claims 1, 3 through 7, 10, 13 through 17, and 20 through 22. We reverse. INVENTION The invention is directed to efficiently evaluating database queries that include hierarchical cube computations. During second and subsequent evaluation phases, a database server does not re-determine groups (nor re- aggregate within such groups) that have already been determined in a previous evaluation phase. See Abstract of Appellants’ Specification. Appeal 2013-004804 Application 11/862,158 2 Claim 1 is illustrative of the invention and reproduced below: 1. A method comprising: generating two or more different first phase grouping column sets based at least in part on grouping keys that are specified in a first rollup operator of two or more rollup operators that are included in a database query; based on the two or more first phase grouping column sets, generating a plurality of first phase groups of records; wherein generating the plurality of first phase groups of records comprises grouping records into one or more first phase groups of records for each first phase grouping column set of the two or more first phase grouping column sets, after generating the plurality of first phase groups of records, generating a separate first phase rollup result record for each first phase group of records of the plurality of first phase groups of records; generating, in a manner that avoids duplicating any of the first phase grouping column sets, two or more different second phase grouping column sets based at least in part on grouping keys that are specified in a second rollup operator of the two or more rollup operators; based on the two or more second phase grouping column sets, generating a plurality of second phase groups of records; wherein generating the plurality of second phase groups of records comprises grouping first phase rollup result records into one or more separate second phase groups of records for each second phase grouping column set; and after generating the plurality of second phase groups of records, generating a separate second phase rollup result record for each second phase group of records of the plurality of second phase groups of records; wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices. Appeal 2013-004804 Application 11/862,158 3 REJECTION AT ISSUE The Examiner has rejected claims 1, 3 through 7, 10, 13 through 17, and 20 through 22 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable over Cochrane (US 5,963,936; issued Oct. 5, 1999) and Ballamkonda (US 6,775,681; issued Aug. 10, 2004).1 Answer 3–23.2 ANALYSIS We have reviewed Appellants’ arguments in the Briefs, the Examiner’s rejection, and the Examiner’s response to the Appellants’ arguments. Appellants’ arguments have persuaded us of error in the Examiner’s rejection of claims 1, 3 through 7, 10, 13 through 17, and 20 through 22 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a). Appellant argues: Claims 1 and 11 recite that generating the plurality of second phase groups of records comprises grouping first phase rollup result records into one or more separate second phase groups of records for each second phase grouping column set. Thus, the result records for a first rollup operator are used in generating the second phase groups of 1 We note, as identified by Appellant on page 3 of the Reply Brief, this rejection differs from the rejection in the Final Office Action dated March 26, 2012. The rejection in the Final Action relied upon US patent 6,775,682 also issued to Ballamkonda, which contains a different disclosure. This decision is based upon the rejection set forth in the Examiner’s Response to Arguments in the Answer, which relies upon Ballamkonda, US patent 6,775,681. 2 Throughout this opinion we refer to the Appeal Brief filed October 19, 2012, the Reply Brief filed February 19, 2013, Final Office Action dated March 26, 2012, and the Examiner’s Answer mailed on December 18, 2012. Appeal 2013-004804 Application 11/862,158 4 records, which are subsequently used to generate a second phase rollup result record. By contrast, the '681 patent does not use result records for one rollup operator to generate groups for a second rollup operator. Reply Br. 4. We are persuaded by this argument. We have reviewed the Examiner’s rejection and the response to arguments and do not find that the Examiner has cited sufficient evidence to show that the combination Cochrane and Ballamkonda render obvious of the features of independent claims 1 and 11. We therefore do not sustain the Examiner’s rejection of these independent claims, or of the remaining claims, which depend from these independent claims DECISION The decision of the Examiner to reject claims 1, 3 through 7, 10, 13 through 17, and 20 through 22 is reversed. REVERSED lv Copy with citationCopy as parenthetical citation