International Business Machines Corporaiton

Patent Trials and Appeals Board

Jul 29, 2020

2019002957 (P.T.A.B. Jul. 29, 2020)

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.
14/591,963 01/08/2015 Michael Karl Gschwind YOR920140466US1 5469
105995 7590 07/29/2020
IBM CORP. - Fishkill Drafting Center
IP Law Dept - T.J. Watson Research Center
1101 Kitchawan Road, Route 134
P.O. Box 218
Yorktown, NY 10589
EXAMINER
HEADLY, MELISSA A
ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER
2199
NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE
07/29/2020 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):
fdciplaw@us.ibm.com
PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07)
UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
Ex parte MICHAEL KARL GSCHWIND,
RICHARD E. HARPER, VALENTINA SALAPURA, and
GERHARD WIDMAYER
Appeal 2019-002957
Application 14/591,963
Technology Center 2100
Before JAMES B. ARPIN, NABEEL U. KHAN, and MICHAEL J. ENGLE,
Administrative Patent Judges.
ENGLE, Administrative Patent Judge.
DECISION ON APPEAL
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Appellant1 appeals under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) from the Examiner’s
rejection of claims 1–21. We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b).
We affirm.

1 We use the word “Appellant” to refer to “applicant” as defined in 37
C.F.R. § 1.42(a). Appellant identifies International Business Machines
Corp. as the real party-in-interest. Appeal Br. 2.
Appeal 2019-002957
Application 14/591,963

2
TECHNOLOGY
The application relates to “managing virtual machines (VMs).” Spec.
¶ 1. In particular, the application relates to “assigning a globally unique
persistent identifier at creation of a VM that may be used by all management
tools for the duration of the VM’s lifetime” regardless of whether the
“virtual machine is moved or migrated from one host (i.e., physical
machine) to another.” Id. ¶¶ 14–15.
ILLUSTRATIVE CLAIM
Claim 1 is illustrative and reproduced below with the limitation at
issue emphasized:
1. A method for identifying and managing a plurality of virtual
machines, the method comprising:
creating a virtual machine within the plurality of virtual
machines;
creating a plurality of domain-independent globally
unique IDs for each virtual machine within the plurality of virtual
machines, wherein the plurality of globally unique IDs is created
by being randomly generated, by combining a plurality of server
IDs, or by using a hostname, and wherein the plurality of globally
unique IDs is independent of a data center, a cluster, and a server;
assigning each of the globally unique IDs within the
plurality of globally unique IDs to each of the virtual machines
within the plurality of virtual machines, wherein the assigned
globally unique ID is assigned to only one virtual machine;
recording each globally unique ID into at least one
database; and
associating the recorded globally unique ID with a
management domain corresponding to the virtual machine
assigned the globally unique ID, and a domain ID corresponding
to the virtual machine.
Appeal 2019-002957
Application 14/591,963

3
REFERENCES & REJECTIONS
The Examiner relies on the following prior art references:
Name Number Date
Cartales US 2010/0269109 Al Oct. 21, 2010
Ueda US 2012/0144391 Al June 7, 2012
Warton US 2010/0313201 Al Dec. 9, 2010
Yoshizawa US 2014/0281760 Al Sept. 18, 2014
REJECTIONS
Claims 1–7, 9–17, and 19–21 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a)
as obvious over the combined teachings of Ueda, Yoshizawa, and Warton.
Final Act. 3.
Claims 8 and 18 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as obvious
over the combined teachings of Ueda, Yoshizawa, Warton, and Cartales.
Final Act. 17.
ISSUE
Did the Examiner err in finding Ueda teaches or suggests “domain-
independent globally unique IDs,” as recited in claim 1?
ANALYSIS
Claim 1 recites “creating a plurality of domain-independent globally
unique IDs for each virtual machine within the plurality of virtual machines”
and “the plurality of globally unique IDs is independent of a data center, a
cluster, and a server.”
Ueda discloses creating a “unique” identifier for each virtual machine.
Ueda ¶¶ 93, 75. However, Appellant argues that Ueda’s identifiers are
unique only within that virtual machine’s domain, not globally across all
domains as claimed. Appeal Br. 12–15.
Appeal 2019-002957
Application 14/591,963

4
We are not persuaded by Appellant’s argument. Ueda discloses
“virtual machine unique information” includes “a VMID (Virtual Machine
Identifier), which identifies a virtual machine.” Ueda ¶ 75. Ueda further
discloses “a fixed-length UUID (Universally Unique IDentifier) character
string can be used as a VMID” and “a random and fixed-length identifier
unique to a virtual machine can be created by . . . using a library such as
uuidgen program.” Id. ¶ 93. By disclosing that each identifier is
“Universally Unique” and created using a Universally Unique ID generator,
Ueda teaches or suggests that each identifier is globally unique.
Appellant’s reliance on paragraph 105 of Ueda is misplaced because
even if that paragraph is read to apply to Ueda as a whole rather than merely
one embodiment (e.g., the “Comparison Example”), the cited sentence
merely states that Ueda’s embodiment enables multiple virtual machines to
run on the same host machine, which does not address identifiers or their
uniqueness and has no effect on Ueda’s disclosure elsewhere that its
identifiers are universally unique.
Appellant states that “claim 1 is representative of independent claims
11 and 19” and “claims 8 and 18 stand or fall together with independent
claims 1, 11, and 19.” Appeal Br. 11, 10.
Accordingly, we sustain the Examiner’s rejections of claims 1–21.
37 C.F.R. § 41.37(c)(1)(iv).
Appeal 2019-002957
Application 14/591,963

5
OUTCOME
The following table summarizes the outcome of each rejection:
Claims Rejected 35 U.S.C. § References Affirmed Reversed
1–7, 9–17, 19–21 103 Ueda, Yoshizawa,
Warton
1–7, 9–17,
19–21

8, 18 103 Ueda, Yoshizawa,
Warton, Cartales
8, 18
Overall Outcome 1–21
TIME TO RESPOND
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.
§ 1.36(a)(1)(iv).
AFFIRMED