Ex Parte Borthakur et al

Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences

Aug 24, 2010

10862521 (B.P.A.I. Aug. 24, 2010)

UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
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BEFORE THE BOARD OF PATENT APPEALS
AND INTERFERENCES
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Ex parte DHRUBAJYOTI BORTHAKUR,
NUR PREMO, and JOSEPH PASQUA
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Appeal 2009-006245
Application 10/862,521
Technology Center 2100
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Before JAMES D. THOMAS, ST. JOHN COURTENAY III, and
JAMES R. HUGHES, Administrative Patent Judges.

THOMAS, Administrative Patent Judge.

DECISION ON APPEAL1

1 The two-month time period for filing an appeal or commencing a civil
action, as recited in 37 C.F.R. § 1.304, or for filing a request for rehearing,
as recited in 37 C.F.R. § 41.52, begins to run from the “MAIL DATE”
(paper delivery mode) or the “NOTIFICATION DATE” (electronic delivery
mode) shown on the PTOL-90A cover letter attached to this decision.
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Application 10/862,521

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STATEMENT OF THE CASE
This is an appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) from the Examiner’s final
rejection of claims 1 through 21. We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C.
§ 6(b).
We reverse.

Invention
A system and method for querying file system content are disclosed.
In one embodiment, the system may include a storage device configured to
store a plurality of files and a file system configured to manage access to the
storage device. The file system may be further configured to perform in-
band detection of a file system content access event and to responsively
generate a given metadata record. The system may further include a query
system configured to query the given metadata record. (Spec. 49, Abstract;
Fig. 9.)

Representative Claim
1. A system, comprising:

a storage device configured to store file system content
including a plurality of files;

a host device configured to implement a file system,
wherein the file system is configured to manage access to said
storage device and to store file system content on said storage
device, wherein said file system is further configured to
perform in-band detection of file system content access events
and to responsively generate respective metadata records
indicative of said file system content access events; and
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Application 10/862,521

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a query system configured to evaluate a query specifying
one or more conditions for selecting one or more of said
respective metadata records, wherein said query is formulated
in a query language.

Prior Art and Examiner’s Rejections
The Examiner relies on the following references as evidence of
anticipation and unpatentability:
Yeung 2003/0093556 A1 May 15, 2003
George 2003/0151633 A1 Aug. 14, 2003

Claims 1 through 4, 8 through 11, and 15 through 18 stand rejected
under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) as being anticipated by Yeung. This reference is
also utilized to reject the remaining claims on appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 103.
Thus, the Examiner rejects claims 5 through 7, 12 through 14, and 19
through 21 in view of Yeung and George.

ANALYSIS
For purposes of simplifying the rendering of a decision in this appeal,
we note that independent claim 1 in part recites a file system recited to in
part “responsively generate respective metadata records indicative of said
file system content access events.” These responsively generated respective
metadata records are further recited to be selectable within a query system
by a query language. Corresponding features are recited in independent
claims 8 and 15 as well.
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Application 10/862,521

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Yeung discloses in part a Document Server Application (DSA) that
provides access to network-based documents. The Examiner relies upon
paragraph [0079] in part. We reproduce this paragraph here:
When a user invokes the Windows Explorer file manager, a
document repository managed by the DSA is represented as another
folder within the Explorer folder pane. A user can perform the
following operations on the repository folder insofar as he or she has
the appropriate access rights (these operations may be challenged via
an account username/password request: expand the folder tree
structure, view folder properties, delete a folder, rename the folder,
copy the folder, move the folder, drag-and-drop a document, delete
the document, rename the document, copy the document, move the
document, view document properties, and view the document content
as read-only. When the document is moved or copied within the DSA
repository file structure, the document, as well as its meta data, are
“moved” or “copied”. When the document is moved or copied to a
folder that is located outside the DSA repository, only the document
content is moved or copied (this operation is equivalent to a download
operation).

(Yeung, ¶ [0079].)
Various functionalities are recited in this paragraph that may be made
to correspond to access events to the extent recited in the claims on appeal.
On the other hand, this paragraph teaches that when a document is moved or
copied within the file repository of the DSA, only the document as well as
its metadata corresponding to it are moved or otherwise copied. It appears
that a corresponding teaching is also found in paragraph [0199]. Thus, there
appears to be no teaching that the metadata associated with the move and
copy functions themselves are generated, thus indicating the absence of the
responsive generation of respective metadata records indicative of the file
system content access event themselves to the extent recited in independent
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Application 10/862,521

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claims 1, 8, and 15 on appeal. The Examiner has not pointed out to us and
we are not aware of any other teaching in Yeung that addresses this claim
limitation.
Thus, we must reverse the Examiner’s rejection of independent claims
1, 8, and 15 under 35 U.S.C. § 102 as well as the rejection of their respective
dependent claims. Correspondingly, with this noted deficiency in Yeung,
we also must reverse the rejection of the remaining dependent claims under
35 U.S.C. § 103.

CONCLUSION AND DECISION
The decision of the Examiner rejecting various claims under
35 U.S.C. §§ 102 and 103 is reversed.

REVERSED

msc

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