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 Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1 – 20, filed 18 March 2026, have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 6, 9, 10, 14, 16, and 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ganschow et al. (US 2020/0245017) in view of Setton et al. (US 2014/0009475) and Cai et al. (US 2022/0291815).
Regarding independent claim 1, Ganschow teaches <and does not expressly disclose> a method, comprising:
in response to receiving an instruction (paragraph 96 and Figures 4D, 4E: the interactive content overlay window 102 may be re-sized such that it is expanded and/or retracted) for viewing a comment by a first user (paragraph 105: The messaging interactive content overlay window 102 may include a message input interface to send messages to other audience members) <and determining that the first user has a permission to obtain information about animation materials>, performing operations comprising:
<obtaining a level of the first user, wherein the animation materials are classified into a plurality of categories that respectively corresponds to levels of users>; and
obtaining, based on the instruction, information about a comment section of a video page (paragraph 105: This may allow the end-user to engage in multiple messaging conversations with various audience members, private one-to-one messages, private group messages of three or more people, and public discussions that all end-users viewing that particular video program 103 are viewing) and <information about an animation material corresponding to the level of the first user>.
Setton discloses “the set of selectable animation representations 191 is available and/or accessed based on account status. For example, user 105 has a payable account to have access to the set of selectable animation representations 191. If user 105 has provided adequate payment to the account, then user 105 is able to access the set of selectable animation representations 191. In contrast, if user has not provided adequate payment to the account, then user 105 is unable to access the set of selectable animation representations 191” (paragraph 57). Setton’s system is a text messaging app between multiple users over various type of messaging platforms (paragraph 12) and is in the same field on endeavor as Ganschow’s system that is a messaging application over multiple users (paragraph 105). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention (pre-AIA ) or at the time of the effective filing date of the application (AIA ) to achieve a predictable result determining a permission of at least a first user to obtain information about animation materials corresponding to at least the first user, wherein the animation materials are classified into a plurality of categories that respectively correspond to levels of users by modify Ganschow 's system that allows animated interactions with multiple users to add certain animated interactions to be available behind a paywall so that a user who paid for the animated interactions {levels of users, the first user has a permission to obtain information about animation material} may use the animated interactions {the animation materials are classified into a plurality of categories} and a user who has not paid for the animated interactions {levels of users, the first user has a permission to obtain information about animation material}may not use the animated interactions {the animation materials are classified into a plurality of categories}, as taught by Setton, and the result would have been predictable.
Ganschow teaches wherein the video page comprises a video displayed at an upper portion of the video page and the comment section of the video page is below the video (Figure 4D: video content 103 above the interactive content overlay window 102), and wherein,
in response to the comment section of the video page below the video is expanded (Figure 4D: content overlay window 102 is expanded alongside with video content 103), the instruction for viewing a comment is an instruction for opening the video page by the first user (paragraph 96 and Figures 4D: the interactive content overlay window 102 may include a close button 113 configured to close the interactive content overlay window 102. In this regard, it is contemplated that the interactive content overlay window 102 may be minimized/closed upon selection of the close button 113 and/or upon selection of a portion of the graphical user interface 108 without the interactive content overlay window 102);
in response to the comment section of the video page below the video is collapsed (Figures 4A-4C: content overlay window 102 is not displayed with the home page content window 104 being displayed), the instruction for viewing a comment is an instruction for expanding the comment section by the first user (paragraph 96: upon selection of a selectable button 116 of the submenu button set 101, the interactive content overlay window 102 may be generated/appear);
in response to receiving an interaction instruction of the first user for a second user in the comment section, obtaining first information of the first user and second information of the second user (paragraph 105: as selection of the second selectable button 116c in FIG. 7 may cause the graphical user interface 108 to generate an interactive content overlay window 102 displaying messages from other audience members. The messaging interactive content overlay window 102 may include a message input interface to send messages to other audience members. This may allow the end-user to engage in multiple messaging conversations with various audience members, private one-to-one messages, private group messages of three or more people, and public discussions that all end-users viewing that particular video program 103 are viewing).
Ganschow does not expressly disclose generating an interactive animation in the comment section based on the first information, the second information, and the information about the animation material, however Ganschow does disclose interactive engagement platform 212 being a messaging platform, thus displayed on the interactive content overlay window 102 (paragraph 106). Cai discloses a messaging platform when a first user performs double click/tap on the head portrait 22 of the second user account, the head portrait 22 of the second user account displays a head portrait animation (paragraph 60) after the first user performs a double-click/tap operation on the head portrait 22 of the second user account, the head portrait 22 of the second user account displays a shaking animation (paragraph 95 and Figures 6, 7). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention (pre-AIA ) or at the time of the effective filing date of the application (AIA ) to achieve a predictable result of displaying an interactive animation based on animation material, the information pertaining to the first user and information pertaining to the second user to modify Ganschow's system that incorporates messaging platforms in the interactive content overlay window 102 by replacing the messaging platform with the messaging platform of Cai that includes interactive animation shared between the first user and the second user, and the result would have been predictable.
Regarding dependent claim 2, Ganschow does not expressly disclose wherein the information about the animation material comprises storage location information of the animation material in a server. Cai discloses message content of the interaction message is assembled by the server, the first client transmits the interaction message to the server, and the server assembles the message content of the interaction message after receiving the interaction message, and transmits the message content of the interaction message to the first user account of the first client and the second user account of the second client (paragraph 94). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention (pre-AIA ) or at the time of the effective filing date of the application (AIA ) to further modify Ganschow's and Cai’s systems to store animation material data in a server for the messaging platform. One would be motivated to do so because this would save memory space from the user devices and also would help quickly transmit animation material data directly from the server versus from one user device to another user device.
Ganschow does not expressly disclose the generating the interactive animation in the comment section based on the first information, the second information, and the information about the animation material comprises: obtaining the animation material based on the storage location information; and generating the interactive animation in the comment section based on the first information, the second information, and the animation material. Cai further discloses the first client transmits the interaction message to the second client by using a server, and the first client transmits the interaction message to the server in a system message format (or a newly defined message format) (paragraph 102) and for performing an animation between the first user and the second user (paragraph 95 and Figures 6, 7). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention (pre-AIA ) or at the time of the effective filing date of the application (AIA ) to further modify Ganschow's and Cai’s systems to retrieve stored animation material data in a server for generating animation content to be displayed on the user devices. One would be motivated to do so because this would manage the generation of the animation data using more powerful process power versus from the user devices.
Regarding dependent claim 6, Ganschow does not expressly disclose wherein the information about the comment section and the information about the animation material is obtained from a server by sending a comment viewing request to the server. Cai discloses “the message content of the interaction message is assembled by the server. The first client transmits the interaction message to the server. The server assembles the message content of the interaction message after receiving the interaction message, and transmits the message content of the interaction message to the first user account of the first client and the second user account of the second client” (paragraph 94). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention (pre-AIA ) or at the time of the effective filing date of the application (AIA ) to further modify Ganschow's and Cai’s systems to display the animation content when a user views a message history pertaining to the animation content. One would be motivated to do so because this would help the user to view message history of when certain animation content events happened and by whom.
Regarding claims 9, 10, 14, 16, and 17, claims 9, 10, 14, 16, and 17 are similar in scope as to claims 1, 2, and 6, thus the rejections for claims 1, 2, and 6 hereinabove are applicable to claims 9, 10, 14, 16, and 17. Ganschow teaches a computer device, comprising: one or more processors; and a memory, storing one or more programs configured to be executed by the one or more processors (paragraph 225). Ganschow teaches a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, wherein the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium stores one or more programs comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing device (paragraph 223).
Claim(s) 3 – 5, 11 – 13, and 18 – 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ganschow et al. (US 2020/0245017) in view of Setton et al. (US 2014/0009475) and Cai et al. (US 2022/0291815) and Tobin (2014/0292768).
Regarding dependent claim 3, Ganschow does not expressly disclose wherein the generating the interactive animation in the comment section based on the first information, the second information, and the animation material comprises: obtaining a first avatar of the first user based on the first information, and obtaining a second avatar of the second user based on the second information; and generating the interactive animation in the comment section based on the first avatar, the second avatar, and the animation material. Tobin discloses “a notification screen 800 that may be displayed when a user receives an incoming call from the caller "John Smith", which is similar to the notification screen 600 illustrated in FIG. 6. As illustrated in FIG. 8, the notification screen 800 includes romance-related animation 801, similar to the romance related animation 601 illustrated in FIG. 6. Moreover, the romance-related animation 801 includes a profile picture or photograph 802 of the caller John Smith as well as a profile picture or photograph 803 of the callee, where romance-related animation 801 display the caller's profile pic and the callee's profile pic moving together over a heart-shaped background. It should be understood that the animation 801 illustrated in FIG. 8 is merely a screenshot or snapshot of a single frame in the animation. For example, FIG. 9 illustrates three frames 901, 902, and 903 corresponding to the example animation 801 illustrated in FIG. 8. FIG. 9 illustrates more clearly the nature of the example animation 801, wherein the profile picture or photograph 802 of the caller John Smith and the profile picture or photograph 803 of the callee may move closer to each other over the background of a heart-shape that is increasing in size” (paragraph 54). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention (pre-AIA ) or at the time of the effective filing date of the application (AIA ) to further modify Ganschow's and Cai’s systems to achieve a predictable result of displaying an animation based on the first portrait of the first user, the second portrait of the second user, and the animation sequence based on a user interface that displays an animation sequence on the second portrait of a user as taught by Cai, by adding additional different animations that involves both the first portrait of the first user and the second portrait of the second user as taught by Tobin, wherein the animation involving the first portrait of the first user and the second portrait of the second user is displayed to the first user and the second in the interactive content overlay window 102 of Ganschow, and the result would have been predictable.
Regarding dependent claim 4, the combination of Ganschow's and Cai’s systems teaches wherein the obtaining the information about the comment section and the information about the animation material based on the instruction comprises:
sending a content request to the server based on the instruction, so that the server obtains the information about the comment section (Ganschow, paragraph 70: the messaging system 228 may include a messaging system communicatively coupled to the routing/load balancer server 218, wherein the messaging system is provided by a third-party messaging platform or service provider, such as Telegram, FB Messenger, Agora, and the like) and the information about the animation material based on the content request (Cai, paragraph 102: The first client transmits the interaction message to the second client by using a server. In some embodiments, the first client transmits the interaction message to the server in a system message format (or a newly defined message format)); and
receiving the information about the comment section (Ganschow, paragraph 70: the messaging system 228 may include a messaging system communicatively coupled to the routing/load balancer server 218, wherein the messaging system is provided by a third-party messaging platform or service provider, such as Telegram, FB Messenger, Agora, and the like) and the information about the animation material that are sent by the server (Cai, paragraph 102: If the server verifies that the interaction message meets a transmission condition, the server transmits the interaction message to all user accounts in the chat interface; paragraph 77: the second client receives the interaction message transmitted by a server. The first user account transmits the interaction message to the server and requests the server to forward the interaction message to the second user account).
Regarding dependent claim 5, the combination of Ganschow’s, Cai’s, and Tobin’s systems teaches wherein the generating the interactive animation in the comment section based on the first avatar, the second avatar, and the animation material comprises: generating the interactive animation in the comment section in a sequence frame form based on the first avatar, the second avatar, and the animation material (Tobin, paragraph 54: the notification screen 800 includes romance-related animation 801, similar to the romance related animation 601 illustrated in FIG. 6. Moreover, the romance-related animation 801 includes a profile picture or photograph 802 of the caller John Smith as well as a profile picture or photograph 803 of the callee, where romance-related animation 801 display the caller's profile pic and the callee's profile pic moving together over a heart-shaped background).
Regarding claims 11 - 13 and 18 - 20, claims 11 - 13 and 18 - 20 are similar in scope as to claims 3 - 5, thus the rejections for claims 3 - 5 hereinabove are applicable to claims 11 - 13 and 18 - 20.
Claim(s) 7, 8 and 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ganschow et al. (US 2020/0245017) in view of Setton et al. (US 2014/0009475) and Cai et al. (US 2022/0291815).
Regarding dependent claim 7, Ganschow does not expressly disclose wherein the animation material is regularly rendered and stored in a cache by the server; and wherein the information about the animation material is obtained based on storage location information of the animation material in the cache. Examiner takes Official Notice that the concept of servers comprising local cache for storing animation material data and the advantage of faster retrieval of animation material data are well known and expected in the art. It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention (pre-AIA ) or at the time of the effective filing date of the application (AIA ) to further modify Ganschow's and Cai’s systems to store animation content on the server and retrieved from the cache of the server. One would be motivated to do so because this would save memory space from the user devices and also would help quickly retrieve animation material data for generation and transmission animation content.
Regarding dependent claim 8, the combination of Ganschow’s and Cai’s system with Official Notice teaches wherein the cache is a local cache of the server (Official Notice: server comprising local cache).
Regarding claim 15, claim 15 is similar in scope as to claims 7, thus the rejections for claim 7 hereinabove is applicable to claim 15.
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 JEFFREY J CHOW whose telephone number is (571)272-8078. The examiner can normally be reached 11AM-7PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Devona Faulk can be reached on 571-272-7515. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JEFFREY J CHOW/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2618
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