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 Objections
Claims 10 and 18 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claims 10 and 18 include the limitation “receiving, from an information processing device receiving operation information”. This limitation should be changed to state “receiving, from an information processing device, operation information”.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-6 and 8-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Katou (US 7,626,109 B2).
Claims 1 and 17: Katou discloses an information processing device and method, comprising a control part which executes: receiving operation information corresponding to a played key of an electronic musical instrument (100) from the electronic musical instrument; and transmitting operation associated information (keyboard image) of the electronic musical instrument corresponding to whether the operation information was an incorrect or correct key played (column 15 lines 19-27) to a terminal (television receiver 200) of a user of the electronic musical instrument via communication unit (11) (column 4 lines 57-59), wherein the terminal is different from the electronic musical instrument, as shown in FIG. 1.
Claim 2: Katou discloses an information processing device as stated above, where the control part transmits, to the terminal, information based on the operation associated information of the electronic musical instrument corresponding to each of one or more steps constituting an operation procedure (notes to be played in sequence) of the electronic musical instrument (column 15 line 57 through column 16 line 11).
Claim 3: Katou discloses an information processing device as stated above, where the control part transmits, to the terminal, the operation associated information comprising an instruction for displaying an operator (key) of the electronic musical instrument to be operated in each of the one or more steps and an operation method of the operator (column 15 line 57 through column 16 line 11).
Claim 4: Katou discloses an information processing device as stated above, where the control part transmits, to the terminal, the operation associated information comprising an instruction for displaying a current state of the operator to be operated in each of the one or more steps (column 15 line 57 through column 16 line 11).
Claims 5 and 6: Katou discloses an information processing device as stated above, where in each of the one or more steps, in a case where operation information indicating a correct or erroneous operation of the operator has been received from the electronic musical instrument, the control part transmits, to the terminal, the operation associated information comprising an instruction for displaying on the display device an operator to be operated in a next step and an operation method of the operator or information indicating an operation error, respectively (column 15 line 66 through column 16 line 24).
Claim 8: Katou discloses an information processing device as stated above, where the control part transmits, to the terminal, a result (music title selected) of an information search using the operation information corresponding to a music search process (column 8 lines 26-35).
Claim 9: Katou discloses an information processing device as stated above, where in each of the one or more steps, in a case where operation information indicating a correct operation of the operator has been received from the electronic musical instrument, the control part transmits, to the terminal, the operation associated information comprising an instruction for displaying on the display device an operator to be operated in a next step and an operation method of the operator (column 15 line 66 through column 16 line 11).
Claims 10 and 18: Katou discloses a terminal (television receiver 200) of a user of an electronic musical instrument (100), wherein the terminal is different from the electronic musical instrument as shown in FIG. 1, and comprises a control part which executes: receiving, from an information processing device (CPU 5) via communication unit (11) (column 4 lines 57-59) operation information corresponding to a played key of the electronic musical instrument from the electronic musical instrument, operation associated information (keyboard image) of the electronic musical instrument corresponding to whether the operation information was an incorrect or correct key played; and displaying, on a display device, information (incorrect mark, correct mark) based on the operation associated information (column 15 lines 19-30).
Claim 11: Katou discloses an information processing method as stated above, where the control part displays, on the display device, information based on the operation associated information of the electronic musical instrument corresponding to each of one or more steps constituting an operation procedure (notes to be played in sequence) of the electronic musical instrument according to the operation information (column 15 line 57 through column 16 line 11).
Claim 12: Katou discloses an information processing method as stated above, where the control part displays, on the display device, the operation associated information comprising an instruction for displaying an operator (key) of the electronic musical instrument to be operated in each of the one or more steps and an operation method of the operator based on the operation associated information (column 15 line 57 through column 16 line 11).
Claim 13: Katou discloses an information processing method as stated above, where the control part transmits/displays, to/on the terminal/device, the operation associated information comprising an instruction for displaying a current state of the operator to be operated in each of the one or more steps based on the operation associated information (column 15 line 57 through column 16 line 11).
Claims 14 and 15: Katou discloses an information processing method as stated above, where in each of the one or more steps, in a case where operation information indicating a correct or erroneous operation of the operator has been received from the electronic musical instrument, the control part transmits, from the information processing device, the operation associated information comprising an instruction for displaying on the display device an operator to be operated in a next step and an operation method of the operator or information indicating an operation error, respectively (column 15 line 66 through column 16 line 24).
Claim 16: Katou discloses an information processing method as stated above, where in each of the one or more steps, in a case where operation information indicating a correct operation of the operator has been received from the electronic musical instrument, the control part transmits, from the information processing device, the operation associated information comprising an instruction for displaying on the display device an operator to be operated in a next step and an operation method of the operator (column 15 line 66 through column 16 line 11).
Claims 19 and 20: Katou discloses an information processing method as stated above, where a computer-readable recording medium records a program causing an information processing device/terminal to execute the information processing method (column 2 lines 18-27).
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.
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Katou (US 7,626,109 B2) in view of Kim (US 7,289,768 B2).
Claim 7: Katou discloses an information processing device where the control part transmits, to the terminal, the operation associated information, as stated above. This reference fails to disclose the operation associated information to comprise an instruction for displaying an operation manual corresponding to the operation information.
However Kim teaches an information processing device, where operation associated information includes an instruction for displaying an operation manual (user manual) corresponding to operation information (column 7 lines 42-43).
Given the teachings of Kim, 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 information processing device disclosed in Katou with providing the operation associated information to comprise an instruction for displaying an operation manual corresponding to the operation information. Doing so would allow “users slow in learning the manual in text form [to] easily access functions of the [electronic musical instrument] through visual or audible guiding. As a result, the [electronic musical instrument] is further utilized and is user-friendly enough to attract a wider range of users” as taught in Kim (column 4 lines 39-43).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US 4,378,720, US 2005/0257667 A1, US 10,176,791 B2 pertaining to displaying information regarding playing of an instrument while playing said instrument.
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/Christopher Uhlir/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3619 December 9, 2025