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 .
Response to Amendment
This Action is in response to applicant’s amendment submitted on December 11, 2025. Claims 1-11 and 13-19 are now currently pending in the present application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-8 and 13-15 have been considered but are moot because of the new ground of rejection.
Claims 9-11 and 16-19 are allowed.
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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, 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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Woolsey et al. (US PGPUB 2016/0073223 A1, hereinafter Woolsey) in view of Trussel et al. (US PGPUB 2015/0195235 A1, hereinafter Trussel).
Consider claim 1. Woolsey discloses at least one computer-readable storage medium, carrying instructions, which when executed by at least one data processor, executes operations for a location sharing session (paragraphs 6, 63), the operations comprising:
during the location sharing session, receiving data related to a distance to a destination or a travel time to the destination (paragraph 44, read as location sharing/sharing experience persists and a particular threshold distance is obtained),
wherein a wireless mobile device initiated the location sharing session based on user input (paragraph 37, read as the user (i.e. the local sharing party) selects a share button that is exposed on the phone app’s UI, a shirting UI is surfaced so that the user can initiate a location sharing experience with the remote party);
determining, relative to the wireless mobile device, a current distance to the destination or a current travel time to the destination (paragraph 45, read as the location sharing component estimates that the local and remote parties are within some threshold time interval of being in the same physical location); and,
providing a location sharing message, wherein the message is at least one of: a warning that a duration for sharing location data via the location sharing session is set to end before an estimated time of arrival, a warning that the wireless mobile device will need to be charged before the end of the duration for sharing location data, a prompt to a user that the duration for sharing location data has been set longer or shorter than a threshold, a prompt to end the location sharing session upon a determination that the destination was reached a threshold amount of time ago, or an option to share travel velocity of the wireless mobile device (paragraph 47, read as the location sharing component determines that there is some probability beyond a predetermined threshold that the estimated meet-up will actually occur after the expiration of the location sharing time period and then surfaces a notification that employs text to inform the user of the expiring time period and provide the opportunity to extend it).
Woolsey discloses the claimed invention but fails to teach providing a location sharing message, wherein the message is at least one of: a warning that a duration for sharing location data via the location sharing session is set to end before an estimated time of arrival, the estimated time of arrival being computed based on the distance to the destination or current travel time to the destination determined relative to the mobile wireless device, wherein the warning includes an option to adjust the duration for sharing the location data, a warning that the wireless mobile device will need to be charged before the end of the duration for sharing location data, a prompt to a user that the duration for sharing location data has been set longer or shorter than a threshold, or a prompt to end the location sharing session upon a determination that the destination was reached a threshold amount of time ago.
However, Trussel teaches providing a location sharing message, wherein the message is at least one of: a warning that a duration for sharing location data via the location sharing session is set to end before an estimated time of arrival, the estimated time of arrival being computed based on the distance to the destination or current travel time to the destination determined relative to the mobile wireless device, wherein the warning includes an option to adjust the duration for sharing the location data, a warning that the wireless mobile device will need to be charged before the end of the duration for sharing location data, a prompt to a user that the duration for sharing location data has been set longer or shorter than a threshold, or a prompt to end the location sharing session upon a determination that the destination was reached a threshold amount of time ago (fig. 5, paragraphs 45, 47, read as a progress bar shows an amount of time remaining for a location sharing event, where there is an option menu 420 to extend the progress bar to extend a time amount of the location sharing event. In other words, once the user selects to extend the time by a threshold of 15 minute, the amount of time remaining is reflective of the time extension).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of applicant’s claimed invention to have incorporated the teachings of Trussel into the invention of Woolsey in order to provide a more user-friendly experience by providing the user with different sharing experiences.
Consider claim 2 and as applied to claim 1. The combination of Woolsey and Trussel discloses wherein the message is a prompt to a user that the duration for sharing location data has been set longer than a threshold, and wherein the threshold is 4 hours (Woolsey; paragraph 39).
Consider claim 3 and as applied to claim 1. The combination of Woolsey and Trussel discloses wherein the message is a prompt to a user that the duration for sharing location data has been set shorter than a threshold, and providing an option for an extra time buffer to be included to account for meet-up time after reaching the destination (Woolsey; paragraph 47).
Consider claim 4 and as applied to claim 1. The combination of Woolsey and Trussel discloses wherein the message is a warning to a user that the duration for sharing location data has been set shorter than a threshold, and providing an option for an extra time buffer to be included to account for meet-up time after reaching the destination, wherein the extra time buffer is approximately 5 minutes when a mode of transportation is a car, to thereby account for walking time from the car to the destination (Woolsey; paragraph 47).
Consider claim 5 and as applied to claim 1. The combination of Woolsey and Trussel discloses wherein the message is a warning that the duration for sharing location data for the location sharing session is set to end before an estimated time of arrival, and providing an option to extend the location sharing session for a particular amount of time or until the destination is reached (Woolsey; paragraph 47).
Consider claim 6 and as applied to claim 1. The combination of Woolsey and Trussel discloses wherein the message is a prompt to end the location sharing session upon a determination that the destination was reached a threshold amount of time ago, and wherein the threshold amount of time is approximately 5 minutes (Woolsey; paragraph 39).
Consider claim 7 and as applied to claim 1. The combination of Woolsey and Trussel discloses wherein: the threshold comprises a threshold distance or travel time to the destination and the location sharing session includes the current distance or the current travel time to the destination, the threshold comprises a threshold time since reaching the destination and the location sharing session includes a time since reaching the destination, or the threshold comprises a threshold rate of travel and the location sharing session includes a current rate of travel (Woolsey; paragraphs 39, 47).
Consider claim 8 and as applied to claim 1. The combination of Woolsey and Trussel discloses wherein at least one of an estimated time of arrival, the current distance to the destination, or the current travel time to the destination is based on one or more of: a selected mode of transportation, an identified current weather condition, a determined speed characteristic of the user based on previously observed diving speeds of the user, or any combination thereof (Woolsey; paragraphs 42, 47).
Claim 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Woolsey et al. (US PGPUB 2016/0073223 A1, hereinafter Woolsey) in view of Tharshanan et al. (US PGPUB 2014/0329548 A1, hereinafter Tharshanan).
Consider claim 13. Woolsey discloses at least one computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one computing system, cause the computing system to perform operations associated with a location sharing session that is for sharing location data of a wireless mobile device with a receiving computing device (paragraphs 6, 63), the operations comprising:
during the location sharing session, receiving data related to a distance to a destination or a travel time to the destination (paragraph 44, read as location sharing/sharing experience persists and a particular threshold distance is obtained),
wherein the wireless mobile device initiated the location sharing session based on user input (paragraph 37, read as the user (i.e. the local sharing party) selects a share button that is exposed on the phone app’s UI, a shirting UI is surfaced so that the user can initiate a location sharing experience with the remote party);
determining, relative to the wireless mobile device, a current distance to the destination or a current travel time to the destination (paragraph 45, read as the location sharing component estimates that the local and remote parties are within some threshold time interval of being in the same physical location).
Woolsey discloses the claimed invention but fails to teach automatically ending the location sharing session based on: a threshold amount of time after reaching the destination, wherein the threshold amount of time is greater than zero, when the user is a threshold distance away from the destination, or when the user achieves a threshold change in speed.
However, Tharshanan teaches automatically ending the location sharing session based on: a threshold amount of time after reaching the destination, wherein the threshold amount of time is greater than zero, when the user is a threshold distance away from the destination, or when the user achieves a threshold change in speed (paragraphs 12, 86, 88, read as terminating the location sharing session when mobile device 210 is within a particular geographic distance from the group of recipient devices, where the “group of recipient devices” in Tharshanan is read as the destination since Tharshanan indicates that the group of recipient devices are meeting at places such as the mall or movie theater).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of applicant’s claimed invention to have incorporated the teachings of Tharshanan into the invention of Woolsey in order to prevent inaccurate location determination.
Claim 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Woolsey et al. (US PGPUB 2016/0073223 A1, hereinafter Woolsey) in view of Tharshanan et al. (US PGPUB 2014/0329548 A1, hereinafter Tharshanan) in view of Kulikov (US PGPUB 2019/0116465 A1).
Consider claim 14 and as applied to claim 13. Woolsey and Tharshanan disclose the claimed invention but fail to teach wherein automatically ending the location sharing session is based on when the user achieves a threshold speed, to thereby indicate that the user is no longer on surface streets and location sharing is no longer needed.
However, Kulikov teaches wherein automatically ending the location sharing session is based on when the user achieves a threshold speed, to thereby indicate that the user is no longer on surface streets and location sharing is no longer needed (Kulikov; paragraph 36).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of applicant’s claimed invention to have incorporated the teachings of Kulikov into the invention of Woolsey and Tharshanan in order to provide the user with the ability to reduce battery consumption by terminating the sharing application early.
Claim 15 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Woolsey et al. (US PGPUB 2016/0073223 A1, hereinafter Woolsey) in view of Tharshanan et al. (US PGPUB 2014/0329548 A1, hereinafter Tharshanan) in view of Trussel et al. (US PGPUB 2015/0195235 A1, hereinafter Trussel).
Consider claim 15 and as applied to claim 13. Woolsey and Tharshanan disclose the claimed invention but fail to teach wherein automatically ending the location sharing session is based on when the user is a threshold distance away from the destination, to thereby provide security to the user so a recipient of the shared location data cannot see where the wireless mobile device stopped speed.
However, Trussel teaches wherein automatically ending the location sharing session is based on when the user is a threshold distance away from the destination, to thereby provide security to the user so a recipient of the shared location data cannot see where the wireless mobile device stopped speed (paragraph 47).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of applicant’s claimed invention to have incorporated the teachings of Trussel into the invention of Woolsey and Tharshanan in order to provide a more user-friendly experience by providing the user with different sharing experiences.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHRISTOPHER M BRANDT whose telephone number is (571)270-1098. The examiner can normally be reached Mon - Fri 8:00-5:00.
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/CHRISTOPHER M BRANDT/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2645
February 12, 2026