DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 1-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the enablement requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to enable one skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and/or use the invention.
Claims 1 and 7 include the limitations “setting a determination grace period during which a plurality of operations on an electronic musical instrument by a user are determined to be simultaneously performed”, “advancing the playback of the accompaniment from the first section to the second section when a user operation of the electronic musical instrument is detected outside of the determination grace period for the first section” and “causing the playback of the accompaniment not to advance from the first section to the second section when a user operation of the electronic musical instrument is detected within the determination grace period for the first section”. Accordingly, when multiple key-on events occur within the determination grace period, said multiple key-on events are considered as being simultaneously performed and cause the playback of the accompaniment not to advance to the second section. However applicant’s specification does not properly describe why simultaneously performed operations, e.g. playing a chord, should result in the playback of the accompaniment to not advance, while operations performed outside of the determination grace period, e.g. sequentially performed notes, should result in advancing the playback of the accompaniment. Applicant’s specification further describes setting the determination grace period to 0 when a first determination is performed after playback of the accompaniment, and assigns 3 as the determination grace period when the determination is not the first run (page paragraph [0051]). Therefore anytime a chord is improperly performed or a sequence of notes are performed during the first determination, the playback of the accompaniment will advance. It is unclear how such a process allows achieving applicant’s objective of providing “music data [that] is adequately played back according to the user’s performance operations” (page 2 paragraph [0007]). Therefore these limitations do not meet the enablement requirement.
Claims 2 and 8 include the limitations “if a timing of detection of a second operation on the performance controller that follows the first operation is outside of the determination grace period, instructing a start of playback of the second section” and “if the timing of detection of the second operation is within the determination grace period, not instructing the start of playback of the second section”. However these limitations are similar to the limitations of claims 1 and 7 shown above. Therefore these limitations further do not meet the enablement requirement.
Claims 3-6 and 9-11 depend from claims 1 and 7 and therefore inherit all claimed limitations. These claims then also contain the limitations which do not meet the enablement requirement.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-11 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Claim 1 and 7: Although the prior art (US 8,026,437 B2) teaches an electronic device and a method performed by at least one processor in an electronic device, comprising: at least one processor (column 23 lines 25-31), a song having a first section and a second section that follows the first section; and setting a determination grace period (double stop judgement time JT) during which a plurality of operations (note-on) on an electronic musical instrument by a user are determined to be simultaneously performed for the first section based on the data included in the first section of the music (column 8 lines 53-62); the prior art does not teach nor suggest instructing playback of an accompaniment of a song based on a data of the song, advancing the playback of the accompaniment from the first section to the second section when a user operation of the electronic musical instrument is detected outside of the determination grace period for the first section during the playback of the first section of the accompaniment; and causing the playback of the accompaniment not to advance from the first section to the second section when the user operation of the electronic musical instrument is detected within the determination grace period for the first section during the playback of the first section of the accompaniment. The combinations of the claimed limitations are novel and found to be allowable over prior art. The cited references taken singly or in combination do not anticipate nor make obvious applicant's claimed invention.
Claims 2-6 and 8-11 depend from claims 1 or 7 and therefore inherit all allowed claim limitations.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US 10,325,513 B2 pertaining to advancing playback of an accompaniment from a first section to a second section in response to activation of buttons.
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/Christopher Uhlir/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3619 October 30, 2025