Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
DETAILED ACTION
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114 was filed in this application after a decision by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, but before the filing of a Notice of Appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit or the commencement of a civil action. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114 and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the appeal has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114 and prosecution in this application has been reopened pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant’s submission filed on 07/02/26 has been entered.
This office action is in response to correspondence 07/02/26 regarding application 17/713,749, in which claims 1-3, 6, 7, 9, and 11-20 were amended. Claims 1-20 remain pending in the application and have been considered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments on pages 13-15 regarding the 35 U.S.C. 103 rejections of claims 1-8, 13-15, and 18 based on Radebaugh, Tucker, and Moore have been considered but are moot in view of the new grounds for rejection based in part on the newly discovered reference to Lemay et al. (US 10379737), which discloses an alpha-numeric keyboard is displayed with a plurality of emoji objects within an expressive virtual keyboard (see Fig. 11D, Col 38 lines 14-25; the examiner finds it fair to consider “second virtual keyboard 1114” and “third virtual keyboard 1116” to make up an “expressive keyboard” of which both virtual keyboards are fairly considered “within”, similarly to Applicant’s Fig. 2B which shows emojis in a row adjacent to alphanumeric keys). The examiner also notes that newly discovered reference to Patel (US 20170308290), which is cited but not relied upon in the rejection, discloses displaying emojis and alphanumeric keys within the same virtual keyboard: “Graphical keyboard 116B may include keys 118A and suggestion regions 119.”, see Fig. 1A, Fig. 4C element 419A, and [0105].
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-8, 13-15, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Radebaugh (US 20140067397) in view of Tucker et al. (US 20140181229), in further view of Lemay et al. US 10379737).
Consider claim 1, Radebaugh discloses a computer-implemented method (steps and operations performed on a computer, [0009]) for generating expressive content comprising:
receiving textual input and a plurality of expressive operators for selectively applying, to received textual input, an emotional tone or a vocal sound effect associated with each of the plurality of expressive operators (e.g. “Not doing much tonight, you? :(”, [0025], the “:(“ considered “expressive operators” for applying a sad tone when the text is synthesized, Fig 1A);
receiving textual input (e.g. “Not doing much tonight, you? :(”, [0025], Fig 1A);
in response to receiving an expressive operator, identifying a predefined set of one or more prosody attributes or vocal sound effects associated with the expressive operator (“<sad> </sad>” being prosody tags, [0025], [0040], Fig 1A, the “:(“ being expressive operators, the “happy” mood tag associated with increased pitch, tone, speed, etc., [0025] with audible laughs, [0034]);
combining the associated predefined set of the one or more prosody attributes or the vocal sound effects with the received textual input (Tagged text, [0025], [0040], Fig 1A); and
outputting a combined set of the one or more prosody attributes or the vocal sound effect and textual input to a speech generation engine for generating expressive synthesized speech (reading out in a sad voice, [0026], Fig 1A).
Radebaugh does not specifically mention displaying an expressive keyboard, wherein the expressive keyboard includes an alpha-numeric keyboard and a plurality of expressive operators; and receiving, via the alpha-numeric keyboard, textual input and, from the plurality of expressive operators of the expressive keyboard, a selection of an expressive operator; in response to receiving the selection of the expressive operator from the plurality of expressive operators of the expressive keyboard, identifying sound effects associated with the selected expressive operator.
Tucker discloses displaying an expressive keyboard, wherein the expressive keyboard includes an alpha-numeric keyboard and a plurality of expressive operators (screen keyboard, [0035], Fig 24, and pop-up list of emotions, Fig 24, [0102]); and receiving, via the alpha-numeric keyboard, textual input (e.g. “I am so happy”, [0100], Fig. 24), and, from the plurality of expressive operators of the expressive keyboard, a selection of an expressive operator (user selects option 2222 as desired degree of expressiveness, [0103], Fig 24); in response to receiving the selection of the expressive operator from the plurality of expressive operators of the expressive keyboard, identifying sound effects associated with the selected expressive operator (embellishment elements are modified to be consistent with the level of degree of expressiveness selected, [0103], the embellishments including sound effects, [0097]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Radebaugh by displaying an expressive keyboard, wherein the expressive keyboard includes an alpha-numeric keyboard and a plurality of expressive operators; and receiving, via the alpha-numeric keyboard, textual input and, from the plurality of expressive operators of the expressive keyboard, a selection of an expressive operator; in response to receiving the selection of the expressive operator from the plurality of expressive operators of the expressive keyboard, identifying sound effects associated with the selected expressive operator in order to aid in expressing states of mind, the difference between joking and seriousness, and short-hand for various types of common expressions, as suggested by Tucker ([0006]), predictably overcoming the limitations inherent in conventional text transmission, as suggested by Tucker ([0005-0006]). The cited references are analogous art in the same field of expressive input.
Radebaugh and Tucker do not specifically mention displaying, prior to receiving textual input, an expressive keyboard, wherein the expressive keyboard includes:
an alpha-numeric keyboard for receiving textual input; and
a plurality of expressive operators;
wherein the plurality of expressive operators are a plurality of emoji objects, and the alpha-numeric keyboard is displayed with the plurality of expressive operators within the expressive keyboard.
Lemay discloses displaying, prior to receiving textual input, an expressive keyboard (when creating a new note, no textual input has yet been received, Fig. 11D, Col 38 lines 14-25), wherein the expressive keyboard includes:
an alpha-numeric keyboard for receiving textual input (Fig. 11D, area 1114, Col 38 lines 14-25); and
a plurality of expressive operators (Fig. 11D, area 1116, Col 38 lines 14-25);
wherein the plurality of expressive operators are a plurality of emoji objects (emoji characters, Fig. 11D, area 1116, Col 38 lines 14-25); and the alpha-numeric keyboard is displayed with the plurality of expressive operators within the expressive keyboard (Fig. 11D, Col 38 lines 14-25; the examiner finds it fair to consider “second virtual keyboard 1114” and “third virtual keyboard 1116” to make up an “expressive keyboard” of which both virtual keyboards are fairly considered “within”, similarly to Applicant’s Fig. 2B which shows emojis in a row adjacent to alphanumeric keys).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Radebaugh and Tucker by displaying, prior to receiving textual input, an expressive keyboard, wherein the expressive keyboard includes: an alpha-numeric keyboard for receiving textual input; and a plurality of expressive operators; wherein the plurality of expressive operators are a plurality of emoji objects, and the alpha-numeric keyboard is displayed with the plurality of expressive operators within the expressive keyboard in order to alleviate the need for complicated key sequences and menu hierarchies to achieve certain user interface functionalities, as identified by Lemay (Col 1 lines 20-37), which predictably would result in faster and more efficient interfaces for keyboard functionalities, as suggested by Lemay (Col 1 lines 38-40). The cited references are analogous art in the same field of expressive input.
Consider claim 13, Radebaugh discloses a system for generating expressive content, comprising: at least one processing device (processor 142, Fig 5, [0061]); and at least one computer readable data storage device storing instructions (memory 141, Fig 5, [0062]) that, when executed by the at least one processing device, cause the system to provide an expressive synthesized speech system (TSS engine reads out text with expressivity, [0025]), the expressive synthesized speech system operative to:
receive textual input and a plurality of expressive operators for selectively applying, to received textual input, an emotional tone or a vocal sound effect associated with each of the plurality of expressive operators (e.g. “Not doing much tonight, you? :(”, [0025], the “:(“ considered “expressive operators” for applying a sad tone when the text is synthesized, Fig 1A);
receive textual input (e.g. “Not doing much tonight, you? :(”, [0025], Fig 1A);
in response to receiving an expressive operator, identify a predefined set of one or more prosody attributes or vocal sound effects associated with the selected expressive operator (“<sad> </sad>” being prosody tags, [0025], [0040], Fig 1A, the “:(“ being expressive operators, the “happy” mood tag associated with increased pitch, tone, speed, etc., [0025] with audible laughs, [0034]);
combine the associated predefined set of one or more prosody attributes or the vocal sound effect with the received textual input (Tagged text, [0025], [0040], Fig 1A); and
output the combined set of prosody attributes or the vocal sound effect and textual input to a speech generation engine for generating expressive synthesized speech (reading out in a sad voice, [0026], Fig 1A).
Radebaugh does not specifically mention displaying an expressive keyboard, wherein the expressive keyboard includes an alpha-numeric keyboard and a plurality of expressive operators; and receiving, via the alpha-numeric keyboard, textual input and, from the plurality of expressive operators of the expressive keyboard, a selection of an expressive operator; in response to receiving the selection of the expressive operator from the plurality of expressive operators of the expressive keyboard, identifying sound effects associated with the selected expressive operator.
Tucker discloses displaying an expressive keyboard, wherein the expressive keyboard includes an alpha-numeric keyboard and a plurality of expressive operators (screen keyboard, [0035], Fig 24, and pop-up list of emotions, Fig 24, [0102]); and receiving, via the alpha-numeric keyboard, textual input (e.g. “I am so happy”, [0100], Fig. 24), and, from the plurality of expressive operators of the expressive keyboard, a selection of an expressive operator (user selects option 2222 as desired degree of expressiveness, [0103], Fig 24); in response to receiving the selection of the expressive operator from the plurality of expressive operators of the expressive keyboard, identifying sound effects associated with the selected expressive operator (embellishment elements are modified to be consistent with the level of degree of expressiveness selected, [0103], the embellishments including sound effects, [0097]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Radebaugh by displaying an expressive keyboard, wherein the expressive keyboard includes an alpha-numeric keyboard and a plurality of expressive operators; and receiving, via the alpha-numeric keyboard, textual input and, from the plurality of expressive operators of the expressive keyboard, a selection of an expressive operator; in response to receiving the selection of the expressive operator from the plurality of expressive operators of the expressive keyboard, identifying sound effects associated with the selected expressive operator for reasons similar to those for claim 1.
Radebaugh and Tucker do not specifically mention displaying, prior to receiving textual input, an expressive keyboard, wherein the expressive keyboard includes:
an alpha-numeric keyboard for receiving textual input; and
a plurality of expressive operators;
wherein the plurality of expressive operators are a plurality of emoji objects, and the alpha-numeric keyboard is displayed with the plurality of expressive operators within the expressive keyboard.
Lemay discloses displaying, prior to receiving textual input, an expressive keyboard (when creating a new note, no textual input has yet been received, Fig. 11D, Col 38 lines 14-25), wherein the expressive keyboard includes:
an alpha-numeric keyboard for receiving textual input (Fig. 11D, area 1114, Col 38 lines 14-25); and
a plurality of expressive operators (Fig. 11D, area 1116, Col 38 lines 14-25);
wherein the plurality of expressive operators are a plurality of emoji objects (emoji characters, Fig. 11D, area 1116, Col 38 lines 14-25); and the alpha-numeric keyboard is displayed with the plurality of expressive operators within the expressive keyboard (Fig. 11D, Col 38 lines 14-25; the examiner finds it fair to consider “second virtual keyboard 1114” and “third virtual keyboard 1116” to make up an “expressive keyboard” of which both virtual keyboards are fairly considered “within”, similarly to Applicant’s Fig. 2B which shows emojis in a row adjacent to alphanumeric keys).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Radebaugh and Tucker by displaying, prior to receiving textual input, an expressive keyboard, wherein the expressive keyboard includes: an alpha-numeric keyboard for receiving textual input; and a plurality of expressive operators; wherein the plurality of expressive operators are a plurality of emoji objects, and the alpha-numeric keyboard is displayed with the plurality of expressive operators within the expressive keyboard for reasons similar to those for claim 1.
Consider claim 18, Radebaugh discloses a computer readable storage device including computer readable instructions (memory 141, Fig 5, storing logic instructions, [0061]), which when executed by a processing unit (processor 142, Fig 5, [0061]) is operative to:
receive textual input and a plurality of expressive operators for selectively applying, to received textual input, an emotional tone or a vocal sound effect associated with each of the plurality of expressive operators (e.g. “Not doing much tonight, you? :(”, [0025], the “:(“ considered “expressive operators” for applying a sad tone when the text is synthesized, Fig 1A);
receive textual input (e.g. “Not doing much tonight, you? :(”, [0025], Fig 1A);
in response to receiving an expressive operator, identify a predefined set of one or more prosody attributes or vocal sound effects associated with the selected expressive operator (“<sad> </sad>” being prosody tags, [0025], [0040], Fig 1A, the “:(“ being expressive operators, the “happy” mood tag associated with increased pitch, tone, speed, etc., [0025] with audible laughs, [0034]);
combine the associated predefined set of the one or more prosody attributes or the vocal sound effects with the received textual input (Tagged text, [0025], [0040], Fig 1A); and
output the combined set of one or more prosody attributes or the vocal sound effect and textual input to a speech generation engine for generating expressive synthesized speech (reading out in a sad voice, [0026], Fig 1A).
Radebaugh does not specifically mention displaying an expressive virtual keyboard, wherein the expressive virtual keyboard includes an alpha-numeric keyboard and a plurality of expressive operators; and receiving, via the alpha-numeric keyboard, textual input and, from the plurality of expressive operators of the expressive keyboard, a selection of an expressive operator; in response to receiving the selection of the expressive operator from the plurality of expressive operators of the expressive keyboard, identifying sound effects associated with the selected expressive operator.
Tucker discloses displaying an expressive virtual keyboard, wherein the expressive virtual keyboard includes an alpha-numeric keyboard and a plurality of expressive operators (screen keyboard, [0035], Fig 24, and pop-up list of emotions, Fig 24, [0102]); and receiving, via the alpha-numeric keyboard, textual input (e.g. “I am so happy”, [0100], Fig. 24), and, from the plurality of expressive operators of the expressive keyboard, a selection of an expressive operator (user selects option 2222 as desired degree of expressiveness, [0103], Fig 24); in response to receiving the selection of the expressive operator from the plurality of expressive operators of the expressive keyboard, identifying sound effects associated with the selected expressive operator (embellishment elements are modified to be consistent with the level of degree of expressiveness selected, [0103], the embellishments including sound effects, [0097]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Radebaugh by displaying an expressive keyboard, wherein the expressive keyboard includes an alpha-numeric keyboard and a plurality of expressive operators; and receiving, via the alpha-numeric keyboard, textual input and, from the plurality of expressive operators of the expressive keyboard, a selection of an expressive operator; in response to receiving the selection of the expressive operator from the plurality of expressive operators of the expressive keyboard, identifying sound effects associated with the selected expressive operator for reasons similar to those for claim 1.
Radebaugh and Tucker do not specifically mention displaying, prior to receiving textual input, an expressive keyboard, wherein the expressive keyboard includes:
an alpha-numeric keyboard for receiving textual input; and
a plurality of expressive operators;
wherein the alpha-numeric keyboard is displayed with the plurality of emoji objects within the expressive virtual keyboard.
Lemay discloses displaying, prior to receiving textual input, an expressive keyboard (when creating a new note, no textual input has yet been received, Fig. 11D, Col 38 lines 14-25), wherein the expressive keyboard includes:
an alpha-numeric keyboard for receiving textual input (Fig. 11D, area 1114, Col 38 lines 14-25); and
a plurality of expressive operators (Fig. 11D, area 1116, Col 38 lines 14-25);
wherein the alpha-numeric keyboard is displayed with the plurality of emoji objects within the expressive virtual keyboard (Fig. 11D, Col 38 lines 14-25; the examiner finds it fair to consider “second virtual keyboard 1114” and “third virtual keyboard 1116” to make up an “expressive keyboard” of which both virtual keyboards are fairly considered “within”, similarly to Applicant’s Fig. 2B which shows emojis in a row adjacent to alphanumeric keys).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Radebaugh and Tucker by displaying, prior to receiving textual input, an expressive keyboard, wherein the expressive keyboard includes: an alpha-numeric keyboard for receiving textual input; and a plurality of expressive operators; wherein the alpha-numeric keyboard is displayed with the plurality of emoji objects within the expressive virtual keyboard for reasons similar to those for claim 1.
Consider claim 2, Radebaugh does not, but Tucker discloses displaying the expressive keyboard including the plurality of expressive operators comprises displaying the plurality of emoji objects, wherein each emoji object is illustrative of an emotion (pop-up list of emotions, Fig 24, [0102]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Radebaugh such that displaying the expressive keyboard including the plurality of expressive operators comprises displaying the plurality of emoji objects, wherein each emoji object is illustrative of an emotion for reasons similar to those for claim 1.
Consider claim 3, Radebaugh does not, but Tucker discloses displaying the plurality of emoji objects for selectively providing a visual effect associated with a selected emoji object as output (the modified embellishment element is displayed, e.g. the smiling element 2205 in Fig 25, according to the emotion selected, [0102-0105]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Radebaugh by displaying the plurality of emoji objects for selectively providing a visual effect associated with a selected emoji object as output for reasons similar to those for claim 1.
Consider claim 4, Radebaugh does not, but Tucker discloses in response to a selection of an emoji object: identifying a visual effect associated with the selected emoji object (a degree of emotion for the displayed embellishment, [0102-0105]); and outputting the visual effect to a visualization generation engine for generating an expressive display of the visual effect (the modified embellishment element is displayed, e.g. the smiling element 2205 in Fig 25, according to the emotion selected, [0102-0105]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Radebaugh by in response to a selection of an emoji object: identifying a visual effect associated with the selected emoji object; and outputting the visual effect to a visualization generation engine for generating an expressive display of the visual effect for reasons similar to those for claim 1.
Consider claim 5, Radebaugh does not, but Tucker discloses displaying the plurality of emoji objects comprises: determining a set of emoji objects to display based on data associated with a user's emotional state, wherein the set includes emoji objects associated with an emotion corresponding to the user's emotional state (identifying the word “happy” as expressiveness keyword and generating popup list with emotions, [0101-0102], Fig. 25); and displaying the set of emoji objects (displaying emojis, Fig 25).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Radebaugh by determining a set of emoji objects to display based on data associated with a user's emotional state, wherein the set includes emoji objects associated with an emotion corresponding to the user's emotional state; and displaying the set of emoji objects for reasons similar to those for claim 1.
Consider claim 6, Radebaugh discloses combining the associated predefined set of the one or more prosody attributes with the received textual input comprises applying at least one of pause length, pitch, speed, and emphasis properties to the textual input (tagging the text as in Fig. 1A with “<sad>” to form a combined string, which is output with a certain pitch, [0025]).
Consider claim 7, Radebaugh discloses combining the vocal sound effect with the received textual input comprises combining at least one vocal sound effect selected from the group of: a laugh; a sarcastic scoff; a sharp breath in; a disgusted "ugh" sound; an angry "argh" sound; and one or more user-provided sound effects (laughs, [0034]).
Consider claim 8, Radebaugh does not, but Tucker discloses displaying the expressive keyboard including the plurality of expressive operators comprises displaying a plurality of punctuation objects (Fig 25, “.” and “@” being considered punctuation “objects”, since “@” once selected brings up more punctuation options, ).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Radebaugh such that displaying the expressive keyboard including the plurality of expressive operators comprises displaying a plurality of punctuation objects for reasons similar to those for claim 1.
Consider claim 14, Radebaugh does not, but Tucker discloses the plurality of expressive operators comprises the plurality of emoji objects, each emoji object illustrating an emotion (pop-up list of emotions, Fig 24, [0102]); one or more of the plurality of emoji objects has an associated visual effect (the modified embellishment element is displayed, e.g. the smiling element 2205 in Fig 25, according to the emotion selected, [0102-0105]); and in response to a selection of an emoji object, the expressive synthesized speech system is further operative to: identify a visual effect associated with the selected emoji object (a degree of emotion for the displayed embellishment, [0102-0105]); and output the visual effect to a visualization generation engine for generating an expressive display of the visual effect (the modified embellishment element is displayed, e.g. the smiling element 2205 in Fig 25, according to the emotion selected, [0102-0105]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Radebaugh such that the plurality of expressive operators comprises the plurality of emoji objects, each emoji object illustrating an emotion; one or more of the plurality of emoji objects has an associated visual effect; and in response to a selection of an emoji object, the expressive synthesized speech system is further operative to: identify a visual effect associated with the selected emoji object; and output the visual effect to a visualization generation engine for generating an expressive display of the visual effect for reasons similar to those for claim 1.
Consider claim 15, Radebaugh discloses in combining the associated predefined set of the one or more prosody attributes with the received textual input, the expressive synthesized speech system is operative to apply at least one of pause length, pitch, speed, and emphasis properties to the textual input (tagging the text as in Fig. 1A with “<sad>” to form a combined string, which is output with a certain pitch, [0025]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 9-12, 16, 17, 19, and 20 would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all limitations of the base and any intervening claims.
The following is the examiner’s statement of reasons for indicating subject matter allowable over the prior art of record:
With regard to claim 9, the prior art does not teach or suggest: “…providing a voicesetting editor interface; in response to receiving a selection to launch the voicesetting editor interface: parsing the textual input and any received expressive operator selections; displaying the parsed textual input and any received expressive operator selections as selectable tokens; in response to receiving a selection of a token, displaying a set of prosodic properties that can be applied to the selected token; and in response to receiving a selection of a prosodic property, displaying a value associated with the selected prosodic property for allowing a user to adjust the value for controlling expressivity of the textual input when rendered”.
While graphical prosody editors were known in the art (see Meredith et al. (5,796,916) at Col 13 lines 56-65, as well as Lumelsky et al. (6,081,780) at Col 14 lines 15-28), the specific voicesetting editor claimed was not known.
Dependent claim 10 depends on claim 9, and further limits the allowable subject matter of claim 9.
With regard to claim 11, the prior art does not teach or suggest: “…providing an active listening mode; and in response to receiving a selection to launch the active listening mode, displaying a plurality of selectable active listening mode effect options, wherein each active listening mode effect option has an associated sound effect; in response to receiving a selection of an active listening mode effect option: identifying the associated sound effect; and outputting the associated sound effect to a speech generation engine for playing the associated sound effect on a conversation partner's audio output device.”
While generating sound effects interactively was known in the art (see Shen et al. (2007/0233494), the specific active listening mode effect options for selection were not known.
Dependent claim 12 depends on claim 9, and further limits the allowable subject matter of claim 9.
The subject matter of claims 16 and 19 corresponds to that discussed above in claim 9, and these claims contain allowable subject matter for similar reasons.
The subject matter of claims 17 and 20 corresponds to that discussed above in claim 11, and these claims contain allowable subject matter for similar reasons.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
US 20170308290 Patel discloses displaying emojis and alphanumeric keys within the same virtual keyboard: “Graphical keyboard 116B may include keys 118A and suggestion regions 119.”, see Fig. 1A, Fig. 4C element 419A, and [0105].
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jesse Pullias whose telephone number is 571/270-5135. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM. The examiner’s fax number is 571/270-6135.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Andrew Flanders can be reached on 571/272-7516.
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/Jesse S Pullias/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2655 08/20/26
Prosecution Insights