DETAILED ACTION
Information Disclosure Statement
Applicant’s submission of Information Disclosure Statements on 4/6/2023, 4/25/2023, 4/18/2024, and 11/26/2025 been received and considered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 2 appears to claim also possibilities related to pointing/not pointing an attribute to a node. Therefore, claim 2 fails to further limit claim 1 because it encompasses all possibilities with the use of and/or. Clarification or correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to abstract idea without significantly more.
2019 PEG Analysis
Step 1: Are the claims directed to a statutory category (e.g., a process, machine, etc.)
Claims 1-18 are directed to a process. Claims 19 and 20 are directed to an apparatus.
Step 2A (Prong 1): Does the claim recite an abstract idea, law of nature or natural phenomenon?
Yes, the claims recite an abstract idea. The following specific limitations in the claims under examination recite an abstract idea:
Defining new attributes for a file format (e.g., claims 1, 19, and 20)
Implementing new attributes on an image (e.g., claims 1, 19, and 20)
The above listed identified limitations fall within at least one of the groupings of abstract ideas enumerated in the 2019 PEG:
Mental Processes: concepts preformed in the human mind (including on observation, evaluation, judgement, opinion).
Certain Methods of Organizing Human Activity: managing personal behavior or relationships or interactions or relationships of interaction between people (including social activities, teaching, and following rules or instructions.
The claims are primarily directed to developing new attributes for a standardized 3D file format, that without more, could be done mentally or merely following a set of rules or instructions.
Step 2A (Prong 2): Does the claim recite additional elements that integrate the judicial exception into a practical application?
Overall, the following additional claim limitations appear to merely implement the abstract idea, add insignificant extra-solution activity to the judicial exception, or generally link the judicial exception to a particular environment or field of use, as outlined below:
Generating/Presenting/Displaying game information (e.g., see at least claims 1, 19, and 20, insignificant extra-solution activity);
Defining the type of attribute: audio, expression transformation, collider, bone, cloth, lightmap, metadata, post-processing, dynamic script, rendering, skybox, cubemap, story timeline, sprite, streaming, and resource variable (e.g., see claims 3-16, generally link the judicial exception to a particular environment or field of use),
Step 2B: Does the claim recite additional elements that amount to significantly more than the judicial exception?
With regard to claims 1-20 the claims as a whole do not amount to significantly more than the exception itself. The above listed additional claim limitations display and process game data in a well-understood, routine, and conventional way. Further, the computer hardware of claim 19 (e.g., a processor, memory, and presentation assembly) are well-understood, routine, and conventional in the art.
In order to satisfy the Berkheimer factual determination of conventional elements in the art, U.S. Patent No. 7,819,742 to Chamberlain is cited for disclosing the conventional features of a gaming including processors (e.g., see at least column 11, lines 14-16) and displays (e.g., see column 7, lines 12-25). Therefore, claims 1-20 are not patent eligible under 101.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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, 2, 6, 10, 13, 14, and 16-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Non-Patent Literature titled, glTF – what the [rubber duck]? An overview of the basics of GL Transmission Format For glTF 2.0! as published by Khronos Group in 2019 (hereinafter Khronos NPL).
As an initial matter, it appears that Applicant is intending to claim add-on attribute extensions to the standardized glTF 3D file format. The Examiner cites Khronos NPL as an overview of the glTF 3D file format standard, which notes on page 8 that “the glTF format allows extensions to add new functionality, or to simplify the definitions of commonly used properties.” Also on page 8, Khronos NPL notes that some “file extensions are already developed and maintained on the Khronos GitHub repository.” The following are examples of existing glTF extensions: Specular-Glossiness Materials, Unlit Materials, Punctual Lights, WebGL Rendering Techniques, and Texture transforms.
Therefore, with regard to claim 1, Khronos NPL discloses a method, comprising: comprising: defining a newly added attribute in an attribute extension field of a target formatted file associated with a target format compatible with glTF format (e.g. see page 8 that discusses that “the glTF format allows extensions to add new functionality, or to simplify the definitions of commonly used properties”), wherein the target format is obtained by defining extension field information of the glTF format; generating a 3D image based on the target formatted file; and implementing, based on the newly added attribute in the target formatted file, a newly added effect/function supported by the 3D image (e.g. see page 8 that discusses “file extensions are already developed and maintained on the Khronos GitHub repository”);
[claim 2] wherein the newly added attribute comprises: an attribute defined in the attribute extension field to be pointed to by a node; an attribute defined in the attribute extension field, to which no node points; and/or an attribute defined in a node (e.g., see page 2 that discusses scenes and nodes used in glTF);
[claim 6] wherein defining the newly added attribute in the attribute extension field of the target formatted file comprises: defining an expression transformation attribute in the attribute extension field to be pointed to by a node, wherein the expression transformation attribute comprises material information and expression file information used to set a mesh blend shape (e.g., see at least page 2 that describes meshes, including multiple “morph targets”).
[claim 10] wherein defining the newly added attribute in the attribute extension field of the target formatted file comprises: defining a lightmap attribute in the attribute extension field, wherein the lightmap attribute is used to instruct an engine to pre-calculate a change in brightness of surfaces in a scene (e.g., see at least page 8 that discusses existing extension for lighting, including unlit materials and punctual lights);
[claim 13] defining a cubemap attribute in the attribute extension field, which is used as a map type to be pointed to in a material, wherein the cubemap attribute comprises a layout, texture mapping (e.g., see at least page 8 that discusses existing extension for texture, including Texture transforms), and texture of each side of a cubemap;
[claim 14] wherein defining the newly added attribute in the attribute extension field of the target formatted file comprises at least one of: defining a story timeline attribute in the attribute extension field to be pointed to by a node, wherein the story timeline attribute is used to arrange a track of an object and create a cutscene and a game sequence, and defining a sprite attribute in the attribute extension field to be pointed to by a node, wherein the sprite attribute comprises a layout, texture reference, a texture position, a border, a physical shape and/or a spatial position (e.g., see at least page 8 that discusses existing extension for texture, including Texture transforms);
[claim 16] wherein the target formatted file comprises a node; and wherein the method further comprises: defining a resource variable attribute in the node (e.g., see page 2 that discusses scenes and nodes used in glTF), wherein the resource variable attribute comprises a variable type and a set of indexes pointing to reference fields to support the use of resources;
[claim 17] further comprising: defining an import mode and an export mode, wherein the export mode is used to define an export of a provided material parameter and/or an export of a provided component parameter (e.g., see at least page 4 for discussion of materials that can be imported in the 3D file).
[claim 18] defining some non-common parameters in an attribute extras field which is mounted to a node or mounted under an object (e.g., see page 2 that discusses scenes and nodes used in glTF).
Claims 19 and 20 are anticipated by Khronos based on the analysis set forth above for claim 1, which is similar in claim scope. It is noted that implementation of glTF 2.0 necessarily requires a computer device with a processor and memory.
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 3-5, 12, and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khronos NPL in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0099773 to Bouazizi.
With regard to claims 3-5, 12, and 15, Khronos NPL fails to expressly disclose existing extensions include audio files for playing audio segments, as well as, streaming media with URL data and scripting.
In the same field of endeavor, Bouazizi teaches a method of defining extensions for glTF that including streaming media/audio files with URL data for playing video/audio segments (e.g., see at least paragraph 97 for general discussion of adding extensions to conventional glTF2; see also paragraph 47 for discussion of media data identifiers including URL, URN, and URI; see also paragraphs 44 and 131-133 for discussion of streaming video/audio data; see at least paragraph 134 for discussion of scripting).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the current invention to modify Khronos NPL with the various types of attribute extensions taught by Bouazizi in order to use a known technique to improve similar devices (methods, or products) in the same way. In this case, adding additional functionality improves the options available to developers to make a more robust development application.
Claims 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khronos NPL in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2022/0295034 to Bouazizi ‘034.
With regard to claim 7, Khronos NPL fails to expressly disclose existing extensions include collision data.
In the same field of endeavor, Bouazizi ‘034 teaches a method of defining extensions for glTF that including collision data (e.g., see at least paragraph 81 for discussion of setting collision boundaries for data of scene description).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the current invention to modify Khronos NPL with the various types of collision data as taught by Bouazizi ‘034 in order to use a known technique to improve similar devices (methods, or products) in the same way. In this case, adding additional functionality improves the options available to developers to make a more robust development application.
Claims 8 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khronos NPL in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2022/0094941 to Kondrad.
With regard to claims 8 and 11 Khronos NPL fails to expressly disclose existing extensions include bone data.
In the same field of endeavor, Kondrad teaches a method of defining extensions for glTF that including bone data (e.g., see at least paragraph 81 for discussion of setting bone data). In at least paragraph 4, Kondrad discusses the use of metadata in 3D format files.
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the current invention to modify Khronos NPL with the various types of bone data as taught by Kondrad in order to use a known technique to improve similar devices (methods, or products) in the same way. In this case, adding additional functionality improves the options available to developers to make a more robust development application.
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khronos NPL in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2019/0385351 to Luo.
With regard to claim 9 Khronos NPL fails to expressly disclose existing extensions include clothing data.
In the same field of endeavor, Kondrad teaches a method of defining extensions for glTF that including clothing data (e.g., see at least paragraph 103 for discussion of setting clothing).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the current invention to modify Khronos NPL with the various types of clothing data as taught by Luo in order to use a known technique to improve similar devices (methods, or products) in the same way. In this case, adding additional functionality improves the options available to developers to make a more robust development application.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2024/0046562 to Kiyama discusses a 3D object file generator using glTF (e.g., see at least Fig. 2)
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2022/0222890 to Zhao discusses a method and apparatus for media scene description (e.g., see at least paragraphs 46, 47, and 66)
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2020/0380771 to Kim discusses a method and apparatus for modifying attribute data and metadata (e.g., see at least paragraphs 59, 69, 77, 123, and 163)
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAMES S MCCLELLAN whose telephone number is (571)272-7167. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday (8:30AM-5:00PM).
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kang Hu can be reached at 571-270-1344. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/James S. McClellan/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715