Prior art

The following prior art references are identified as relevant to US patent 7,669,081, based on citations within the patent itself. The analysis focuses on how these references potentially anticipate elements of US7669081, particularly its method claims as exemplified by Claim 1.

The core innovative aspects of US7669081, as summarized in its abstract and further detailed in its description, include:

• Application-level task scheduling with priority queues.
• The use of "checkpoints" (also referred to as processor functions) that include state data and governing rules.
• Rule-based determination of the next task and checkpoint in a process flow.
• Saving and updating checkpoint state data for recovery purposes.
• Recovery mechanisms for failed tasks/processes.

Here are some of the most relevant prior art references:

1. US6546401B1 - Methods and systems for performing a recoverable, persistent process

• Full Citation: US6546401B1, "Methods and systems for performing a recoverable, persistent process," invented by Michael T. Gering et al., assigned to Objectware, Inc., published April 8, 2003.
• Publication/Filing Date: Filed October 30, 2000; Published April 8, 2003.
• Brief Description: This patent describes methods and systems for executing a recoverable, persistent process. It involves dividing a process into a sequence of recoverable units, defining intermediate states for these units, and persisting data related to these states to allow recovery from failure. The system ensures that a process can resume from a last known good state, typically through a persistence mechanism.
• Potential Anticipation (35 U.S.C. § 102): This reference potentially anticipates elements of Claim 1 of US7669081, particularly steps (b), (e), (f), and (i), which relate to receiving checkpoints (recoverable units), creating and saving checkpoint state data, and updating this data. The concept of a "recoverable, persistent process" directly aligns with the checkpointing and recovery features of US7669081.

2. US6041355A - Method and apparatus for processing events and tasks in a transaction-oriented system

• Full Citation: US6041355A, "Method and apparatus for processing events and tasks in a transaction-oriented system," invented by Peter R. Broadbent et al., assigned to Tandem Computers Incorporated, published March 21, 2000.
• Publication/Filing Date: Filed December 18, 1996; Published March 21, 2000.
• Brief Description: This patent details a transaction-oriented system that processes events and tasks. It includes a task scheduler and a task dispatcher that manage tasks in a queue, allowing for concurrent processing. The system focuses on maintaining data consistency in a distributed environment through transactional integrity.
• Potential Anticipation (35 U.S.C. § 102): This reference potentially anticipates aspects of Claim 1 of US7669081, specifically steps (a) and (c) regarding receiving requests (events) and scheduling tasks into a queue for processing. While it focuses on transaction-oriented systems, the underlying mechanism of task processing and scheduling in queues presents similar foundational concepts.

3. US6854108B1 - Application checkpoint/restart for highly available systems

• Full Citation: US6854108B1, "Application checkpoint/restart for highly available systems," invented by Madhusudan T. Talluri et al., assigned to BEA Systems, Inc., published February 8, 2005.
• Publication/Filing Date: Filed May 2, 2002; Published February 8, 2005.
• Brief Description: This patent describes a system and method for providing application checkpoint/restart capabilities in highly available systems. It involves saving the state of an application at various points (checkpoints) to persistent storage, enabling the application to be restarted from a recent checkpoint in case of failure. The checkpoints allow for rollback and recovery of application execution.
• Potential Anticipation (35 U.S.C. § 102): This patent directly addresses "application checkpoint/restart," which is a central theme in US7669081. It potentially anticipates Claim 1, particularly steps (b), (e), (f), and (i) concerning the establishment, creation, saving, and updating of checkpoint state data for recovery. The emphasis on application-level recovery is particularly relevant.

4. US6718544B1 - Application-level system and method for recovering from application failures

• Full Citation: US6718544B1, "Application-level system and method for recovering from application failures," invented by Robert J. Collingbourne et al., assigned to Electronic Data Systems Corporation, published April 6, 2004.
• Publication/Filing Date: Filed October 31, 2000; Published April 6, 2004.
• Brief Description: This patent describes a system and method for recovering from application failures by maintaining and updating application state information. It enables an application to be restarted from a previous valid state, preventing loss of work. The recovery is handled at the application level, providing more granular control than traditional operating system-level recovery.
• Potential Anticipation (35 U.S.C. § 102): Similar to US6854108B1, this patent explicitly focuses on "application-level" recovery from failures, a key distinction highlighted by US7669081 over prior OS-level schedulers. It potentially anticipates Claim 1, specifically steps (b), (e), (f), and (i) by disclosing mechanisms for saving and using application state for recovery, and the underlying concept of structured recovery points.

5. US6877148B1 - Method and system for dynamically generating a process flow

• Full Citation: US6877148B1, "Method and system for dynamically generating a process flow," invented by David F. Hemsath et al., assigned to International Business Machines Corporation, published April 5, 2005.
• Publication/Filing Date: Filed June 28, 2001; Published April 5, 2005.
• Brief Description: This patent describes a method and system for dynamically generating a process flow based on user-defined rules. It allows for flexible and adaptive process execution where the sequence of steps can be determined at runtime based on various conditions.
• Potential Anticipation (35 U.S.C. § 102): This reference is relevant to US7669081's emphasis on rule-based execution flow. It potentially anticipates Claim 1, specifically steps (a), (d), and (h), which involve using scheduler rules and checkpoint rules to determine tasks to be scheduled and the next steps in the process. The "dynamically generating a process flow" based on rules aligns with the decision-making logic embedded in the rules of US7669081's checkpoints.