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 .
Response to Amendment
Receipt is acknowledged of applicant’s preliminary amendment filed March 10, 2023. Claims 1-8 are pending and an action on the merits is as follows.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement filed March 10, 2023 fails to comply with 37 CFR 1.98(a)(3)(i) because it does not include a concise explanation of the relevance, as it is presently understood by the individual designated in 37 CFR 1.56(c) most knowledgeable about the content of the information, of each reference listed that is not in the English language. It has been placed in the application file, but the information referred to therein has not been considered.
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
Claim 3 is objected to because the following element lacks proper antecedent
basis in the claim: line 3: “the pitch”
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 2 and 5-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Daido et al. (US 2021/0256960 A1).
Claims 1, 2 and 5-8: Daido et al. discloses an electronic musical instrument, an electronic musical instrument control method causing a processor of an electronic musical instrument to execute processing, and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores a program for causing a processor of an electronic musical instrument to execute processing including a lyric output unit configured to output performance time lyric data (page 1 paragraph [0019]) indicating lyrics represented as a series of phonemes at a time of a performance and a pitch designation unit configured to output performance time pitch data (series of pitches) (page 6 paragraph [0061]). The performance time pitch data is designated in tune with an output of lyrics at the time of the performance based on synthesis data (XC) (page 2 paragraph [0026]), and a performance style output unit outputs performance time performance style data indicating a performance style at the time of the performance (page 1 paragraph [0019]). A sound generation/vocalization model unit configured, based on an acoustic model parameter (intermediate data Y) inferred by inputting the performance time lyric data, the performance time pitch data and the performance time performance style data to a trained acoustic model (first well-trained model M1), to synthesize and output singing voice sound data corresponding to the performance time lyric data, the performance time pitch data and the performance time performance style data, at the time of the performance (page 1 paragraph [0019], page 6 paragraph [0061]).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claims 3 and 4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Daido et al. (US 2021/0256960 A1) in view of Silverstein (US 2019/0237051 A1).
Claim 3: Daido et al. discloses an electronic musical instrument as state above, but fails to disclose the performance style output unit to be configured to sequentially measure time intervals at which the pitch is designated at the time of the performance, and to sequentially output performance tempo data indicating the sequentially measured time intervals, as the performance time performance style data.
However Silverstein teaches an electronic musical instrument where an output unit sequentially measures (analyzes) time intervals in real time on a time domain at which a pitch event is designated at a time of a performance, and sequentially outputs musical experience descriptors indicating the sequentially measured time intervals (page 6 paragraph [0059]). The musical experience descriptors includes performance tempo data (page 4 paragraph [0040]).
Given the teachings of Silverstein, 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 electronic musical instrument disclosed in Daido et al. with providing the performance style output unit to be configured to sequentially measure time intervals at which the pitch is designated at the time of the performance, and to sequentially output performance tempo data indicating the sequentially measured time intervals, as the performance time performance style data. Doing so would allow a user to “adjust the tempo … of the music” in order to “edit the music that has been created” as taught in Silverstein (page 39 paragraph [0430]).
Claim 4: Daido et al. modified by Silverstein discloses an electronic musical instrument as state above, where the performance style output unit includes a changing means for allowing a user to intentionally change the performance tempo data obtained sequentially, as shown in Silverstein (page 39 paragraph [0430]).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: US 8,115,089 B2, US 10,891,928 B2, US 9,355,628 B2, US 2022/0223125 A1, US 2018/0268792 A1 pertaining to synthesizing lyric data and pitch data as a performance.
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/Christopher Uhlir/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3619 February 21, 2026