Ex Parte Barnes et al

Patent Trial and Appeal BoardOct 31, 2012

09999881 (P.T.A.B. Oct. 31, 2012)

UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARKOFFICE 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. 09/999,881 10/31/2001 Brian C. Barnes 2162.056800/TT4088 8630 10742 7590 10/31/2012 GLOBALFOUNDRIES INC. c/o Williams, Morgan & Amerson 10333 Richmond , Suite 1100 Houston, TX 77042 EXAMINER DADA, BEEMNET W ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER 2435 MAIL DATE DELIVERY MODE 10/31/2012 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 BRIAN C. BARNES, GEOFFREY S. STRONGIN, and RODNEY W. SCHMIDT ____________________ Appeal 2011-000332 Application 09/999,881 Technology Center 2400 ____________________ Before: KALYAN K. DESHPANDE, JASON V. MORGAN, and TREVOR JEFFERSON, Administrative Patent Judges. JEFFERSON, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON APPEAL Appeal 2011-000332 Application 09/999,881 2 STATEMENT OF CASE Appellants appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134 from a rejection of claims 1- 20. We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b). We affirm. INVENTION The invention is directed to a method and apparatus for physical address-based security to provide secure memory access in computer systems by performing a virtual memory access. Spec. 2:6-9; 4:22 - 5:5. Claims 1 and 8, reproduced below with disputed limitations in italics, are illustrative of the claimed subject matter: 1. A method, comprising: executing a software object; establishing a security level for said software object; performing a multi-table memory access using at least one of said security levels; and executing a function of said object. 8. A method, comprising: executing a software object; establishing a security level for said software object; establishing a secondary table; receiving a memory access request based upon said executing of said software object; determining at least one security level that corresponds to a segment in said secondary table; verifying a match between an execution security level to a security level associated with a segment being accessed in response to an execution of said software object; determining a virtual memory address based upon said secondary table in response to a match between said execution security level and said security level associated with said segment being accessed; locating a physical memory location corresponding to said virtual memory address; and Appeal 2011-000332 Application 09/999,881 3 accessing a portion of a memory based upon locating said physical memory location. REJECTIONS Claims 1-3, 12-14 and 16 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C §102(b) as being anticipated by Covey (US 4,926,476; May 15, 1990). Ans. 3. Claims 4-11, 15 and 17-20 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C §103(a) as being unpatentable over Covey and Clifton (US 5,469,556, Nov. 21, 1995). Ans. 4. ISSUES Did the Examiner err in finding that Covey discloses “executing a software object” and “performing a multi-table memory access using at least one of said security levels” as recited in claim 1? Did the Examiner err in finding that the combination of Covey and Clifton teaches or suggests “establishing a secondary table” as recited in claim 8? Did the Examiner err in concluding that it would have been obvious to combine the teachings and suggestions of Covey and Clifton? CLAIM GROUPING Appellants argue independent claim 1 as representative of claims 1-3, 12-14 and 16 (App. Br. 6-10), and independent claim 8 as representative of claims 8-11 and 17-20 (App. Br. 10-13). Appellants make no separate arguments, however, for dependent claims 4-7 (App. Br. 13-14), which stand or fall with their respective independent claims. We select claim 1 as Appeal 2011-000332 Application 09/999,881 4 representative of claims 1-7, 12-14 and 16 and claim 8 as representative of claims 8-11 and 17-20. ANALYSIS Claim 1 Appellants contend that Covey fails to anticipate claim 1 because Covey teaches source operands and not software objects as recited in claim 1. App. Br. 7. Appellants also contend that sensitivity levels or associating a label with data that software is given access to in Covey are not equivalent to establishing a security level for a software object. App. Br. 8. According to Appellants, “Covey merely discloses providing security levels for data, there is no teaching or suggestion in Covey that relates to establishing a security level for a software object, as called for in claim 1.” App. Br. 8. Appellants also argue that Covey fails to teach or disclose multi-table memory access as recited in claim 1. App. Br. 9. The Examiner found that “Covey teaches executing a software object (i.e., executing a software program/process/instruction, column 5, line 9), and establishing a security level for the software object (i.e., the executed software objected is provided a security level by computing sensitivity level for all its operands thereby the instant runtime software object/program/process/instruction is provided with a security level) [column 5, line 9-19 and column 6, lines 4-10].” Ans. 7. We agree with the Examiner’s findings. The Examiner found that a software object is an instance of a software process or execution. Ans. 7-8. Covey discloses that a security level is established for “[e]ach program which is allowed to execute on the CPU.” Covey col. 6, ll. 4-5; see also Ans. Appeal 2011-000332 Application 09/999,881 5 7. Such programs are the instance of a software process that are executed to access memory at various security levels. See Ans. 7-8. Appellants also assert that multipage table and storage blocks are not the same as teaching multi-table memory access as claimed. Appellants contend that “[w]hile Covey may show more than one page table 40, Covey simply discloses a single-table memory access through one of the page tables 40.” App. Br. 10. Thus, Covey is unlike the multi-table memory access found in Appellants’ Specification, col. 13, ll. 4-13. The Examiner interpreted “multi-table memory access…as access to portions of a memory that are divided in blocks/sections (i.e., one divided section of a memory would be equivalent to a table and multiple sections would be equivalent to multiple tables).” Ans. 8. We agree with the Examiner that Covey discloses a multi-table memory access as each memory is divided in multiple labeled storage blocks, where a “labeled storage block is defined as an area of data storage with which a single sensitivity level is associated.” Covey, col. 4, ll. 25-46; see also Ans. 8. We find that a labeled storage block constitutes a table and Covey discloses multiple storage blocks defined by their sensitivity levels. Appellants’ citations to “non-limiting” examples of multi-table memory in Appellants’ specification (App. Br. 5, 6) are not commensurate in scope with the claim language, which broadly recites “a multi-table memory access” and is not limited to the examples in Appellants’ specification. See In re Am. Acad. Of Sci Tech. Ctr., 367 F.3d 1359, 1369 (Fed. Cir. 2004). In light of the foregoing, the Examiner did not err in finding that Covey discloses “executing a software object” and “performing a multi-table memory access using at least one of said security levels” as recited in claim 1. Accordingly, we sustain the Examiner’s 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) rejection of Appeal 2011-000332 Application 09/999,881 6 claim 1. We also sustain the Examiner’s 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) rejection of independent claims 12, 13 and dependent claims 2-7 and 14 and 16, which Appellants do not argue separately. See App. Br. 6-10. Claim 8 Appellants contends that Covey and Clifton fail to teach “establishing a secondary table” as recited in claim 8. App. Br. 12, 15. Appellants argue that “a secondary table is distinct from multiple tables of the same type” and cite example references to secondary tables found in the Specification. App. Br. 12. With respect to the secondary table limitation, Appellants non- limiting illustrative descriptions of “a secondary table” as being hierarchical are not persuasive. See App. Br. 12. The Examiner correctly found that Covey teaches multiple tables that are associated with different sensitivity levels. Ans. 9; Covey, col. 4, ll. 25-46. We agree with the Examiner’s findings that secondary table includes having more than one table. See Ans. 9. Furthermore, the different security levels for storage blocks disclosed in Covey, col. 4, ll. 25-46, that serve as the first and second tables, fall within the “non-limiting” illustrative example found in Appellants’ specification that describe secondary tables as those stored at high security levels. Spec. 11:19-20; see App. Br. 11-12 (describing illustrative examples of secondary tables found in Appellants’ specification). Appellants also contend that the Examiner failed to specify the relevant teachings in the prior art to maintain a prima facie case of obviousness for claim 8. App. Br. 12 (stating that the Examiner failed to identify each limitation of claim 8 in Covey and merely cites the same passage for each limitation). Appeal 2011-000332 Application 09/999,881 7 We disagree with Appellants’ argument. The Examiner has pointed to specific portions of Covey and has made findings with respect to claim 8 limitations. Ans. 4-6 (citing elements of Covey for each claim 8 limitation), 8-9 (discussing same). Appellants have not shown error with respect to those findings. Indeed, Appellants’ Reply Brief fails to respond to the Examiner’s findings and merely repeats the argument presented for claim 1 that Covey fails to teach multi-table memory. Reply 6. Finally, we do not agree with Appellants’ contention that Covey and Clifton would not be combined by one of ordinary skill in the art. App. Br. 14-15, Reply 6-7. The Supreme Court in KSR Int’l Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 550 U.S. 398 (2007), rejected the rigid requirement of a teaching or suggestion or motivation to combine known elements in order to show obviousness. Id. at 415. We find that the Examiner has provided an articulated line of reasoning with a rational underpinning to support the conclusion of obviousness with respect to the proposed combination of Covey and Clifton. See Ans. 10 (stating that “both Covey and Clifton teach controlling access to memory” and that “one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the applicant’s invention” would combine Clifton and Covey for “efficient execution of instructions by using a virtual memory space”). For the foregoing reasons, the Examiner did not err in combining the teachings and suggestions of Covey and Clifton and finding that they disclose establishing “a secondary table” as recited in claim 8. Accordingly, we sustain the Examiner’s 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) rejection of claims 4-11, 15 and 17-20. Appeal 2011-000332 Application 09/999,881 8 DECISION For the above reasons, the Examiner’s rejection of claims 1-20 is affirmed. No time period for taking any subsequent action in connection with this appeal may be extended under 37 C.F.R. § 1.136(a)(1)(iv). AFFIRMED tj