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 .
In the response to this Office action, the Office respectfully requests that support be shown for language added to any original claims on amendment and any new claims. That is, indicate support for newly added claim language by specifically pointing to page(s) and line numbers in the specification and/or drawing figure(s). This will assist the Office in prosecuting this application.
The Office has cited particular figures, elements, paragraphs and/or columns and line numbers in the references as applied to the claims for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings in the art and are applied to the specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested from the applicant, in preparing the responses, to fully consider each of the cited references in entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage disclosed by the Office.
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on April 1, 2026 has been entered.
Status of Claims
- Applicant’s Amendment filed April 1, 2026 is acknowledged.
- Claim(s) 1-14 is/are canceled
- Claim(s) 15-20 is/are pending in the application.
Allowable Subject Matter
The indicated allowability of claims 15-20 is withdrawn in view of the newly discovered reference(s) to Jiao et al, U.S. Patent Publication No. 20080102960. Rejections based on the newly cited reference(s) follow.
Priority
The U.S. National Phase Application of PCT International Application No. PCT/US24/39193 filed on July 23, 2024 claims benefit to the instant application.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on April 3, 2026 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner, except as noted below.
Examiner notes that multiple U.S. patent application numbers have been listed on several of the attached IDS. These US patent application numbers have been lined through because the applications appear to have not yet published and a copy was not provided by Applicant for consideration
Applicant's Information Disclosure Statements (IDS), filed April 3, 2026 has been received, and entered into the record. Examiner notes the Information Disclosure Statements (IDS), filed April 3, 2026 consist of 157 documents which Applicant alleges to be pertinent prior art for consideration. It is noted that it is impractical for the examiner to review the references thoroughly with the number of references cited in this case. By initializing each of the cited references on the accompanying 1449 forms, the examiner is merely acknowledging the submission of the cited references and merely indicating that only a cursory review has been made of the cited references.
It is noted that the Information Disclosure Statements (IDS), fails to indicate the relevance of each of the items listed. Given the large number of items listed on the Information Disclosure Statements (IDS), submitted April 3, 2026, Examiner respectfully requests the cooperation of the Applicant in providing a concise explanation of relevance, such as the pertinent paragraphs, columns and line numbers or drawings, which have caused each corresponding item to be listed on the IDS, since such action will insure that information pertinent to the validity of any issued patent will not be overlooked.
Specification
The specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
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.
Claim(s) 15, 19-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee et al, U.S. Patent Publication No. 20230048793 in view of Jiao et al, U.S. Patent Publication No. 20080102960.
Lee teaches a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing program instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a computing device, cause the one or more processors to perform functions (see Lee paragraphs 0225-0235) comprising:
receiving, from the mobile game controller, information that indicates that the mobile game controller is customized for a particular gaming platform (see Lee figure 16, element 210, 100, 1610, 1630, 1640, and paragraphs 0214-0219 specifically for example paragraph 0214-0215 where display apparatus 100 may recognize the first device by obtaining identification information of the first device based on information transmitted and received in operation 1610 and figure 1, elements 20, 30, 35, 25 and paragraph 0047 where each game console manufacturer sells a controller to be used with its own manufactured game console and figure 2, elements 310, 320, 330, 210, 220, 230 and paragraph 0056 where first device 210, which is manufactured by a first manufacturer, is able to directly communicate with a first device controller 310 manufactured by the first manufacturer, but is unable to directly communicate with a second device controller 320, a third device controller 330, or a display apparatus controller 340 (hereinafter, also referred to as the remote controller 340));
sending the information to a server (see Lee paragraph 0135 where server computer 240 may provide a graphical user interface for displaying one or more game content items, and, upon a request from the display apparatus 100 for selecting one of the one or more game content items, provide the requested game content to the display apparatus 100 in, for example, a streaming manner),
receiving, from the server, an identification of the one or more games remotely playable from the user’s game console (see Lee paragraph 0135 where server computer 240 may provide a graphical user interface for displaying one or more game content items, and, upon a request from the display apparatus 100 for selecting one of the one or more game content items, provide the requested game content to the display apparatus 100 in, for example, a streaming manner);
automatically displaying the identification of one or more games remotely playable from a user's game console ((see Lee paragraph 0135 where server computer 240 may provide a graphical user interface for displaying one or more game content items, and, upon a request from the display apparatus 100 for selecting one of the one or more game content items, provide the requested game content to the display apparatus 100 in, for example, a streaming manner));
receiving a selection of a game from the one or more games (see Lee figure 15, element CLOUD GAME 1 is highlighted and paragraph 0135 where server computer 240 may provide a graphical user interface for displaying one or more game content items, and, upon a request from the display apparatus 100 for selecting one of the one or more game content items, provide the requested game content to the display apparatus 100 in, for example, a streaming manner)); and
streaming the selected game from the user's game console to the computing device for remote play (see Lee paragraph 0135 where server computer 240 may include a game content provider. The server computer 240 may provide a graphical user interface for displaying one or more game content items, and, upon a request from the display apparatus 100 for selecting one of the one or more game content items, provide the requested game content to the display apparatus 100 in, for example, a streaming manner).
Lee is silent regarding wherein the server segments, based on the information, one or more games for the particular gaming platform that are remotely playable from a user’s game console from other games.
In a related field of endeavor, Jiao teaches determining a client end terminal type and searching online games corresponding to a client end terminal type so as to notify a match result to the client end which asked for match request and facilitate a user quickly matching itself with a game or other users which are fit for its terminal.
One of ordinary skill would have been motivated to have modified Lee with the teachings of Jiao to have determined a client end terminal type and searched online games corresponding to a client end terminal type so as to notify a match result of one or more games for the particular gaming platform that are remotely playable from a user’s game console from other games using known techniques with predictable results.
Consider claim 19, Lee as modified by Jiao teaches all the limitations of claim 15 and further teaches wherein game content from the second device 220. The first device controller 310 is connected to the display apparatus 100. A control signal corresponding to the home button on the first device controller 310 may be particularly set to induce access to the game hub screen. That is, the display apparatus 100 may set the home button on the first device controller 310 as a code corresponding to an operation of displaying the game hub home screen, to induce access to the game hub screen. The display apparatus 100 may output the game hub home screen to the display in response to the control signal corresponding to the home button on the first device controller 310.)
Lee does not specifically use the term “account”. However as best understood by Examiner Lee teaches connecting multiple controllers, multiple consoles and a server computer and providing a Game Hub to display options for a user to select games associated with the connected controllers, consoles and server computer (cloud games). Therefore, as best understood by Examiner, the recited features would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in view of Lee’s teachings
Consider claim 20, Lee as modified by Jiao teaches all the limitations of claim 15 and further teaches wherein the program instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to perform functions comprising: displaying a curated list of the user's game consoles (see Lee figure 1, element 20, 30, 35, 25; figure 2, element 200, 300, 60; figure 6, element 240, 210, 220, 230, 310, 320, 330, figure 13, element 1350, 210 and paragraphs 0198-0224 where display apparatus 100 is connected to the second device 220 and receives and displays game content from the second device 220. The first device controller 310 is connected to the display apparatus 100. A control signal corresponding to the home button on the first device controller 310 may be particularly set to induce access to the game hub screen. That is, the display apparatus 100 may set the home button on the first device controller 310 as a code corresponding to an operation of displaying the game hub home screen, to induce access to the game hub screen. The display apparatus 100 may output the game hub home screen to the display in response to the control signal corresponding to the home button on the first device controller 310.).
Claim(s) 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee et al, U.S. Patent Publication No. 20230048793 and Jiao et al, U.S. Patent Publication No. 20080102960 in view of Smith et al, U.S. Patent Publication No. 2018035139.
Consider claim 16, Lee as modified by Jiao teaches all the limitations of claim 15. Lee is silent regarding wherein the information comprises a stock keeping unit (SKU) number of the mobile game controller.
In a related field of endeavor, Smith teaches an serial number (SKU) of a controller used so as to identify a particular controller (see Smith paragraph 0038). One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to have further modified Lee with the teachings of Smith to have a serial number (SKU) so as to identify a particular controller using known techniques with predictable results.
Consider claim 17, Lee as modified by Jiao and Smith teaches all the limitations of claim 15 and further teaches wherein the information comprises a protocol string (see Smith paragraph 0038 where driver-compatible game controller 206 may transmit a “hello” message that includes a unique device identifier, such as a serial number for the driver-compatible game controller 206).
Claim(s) 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee et al, U.S. Patent Publication No. 20230048793 Jiao et al, U.S. Patent Publication No. 20080102960 in view of Pack et al, U.S. Patent Publication No. 20170173461.
Consider claim 18, Lee as modified by Jiao teaches all the limitations of claim 15. Lee is silent regarding wherein the program instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to perform functions comprising: automatically deep linking to install an application to remote play the selected game.
In a related field of endeavor, Pack teaches video game communications by sending a message to a second user including a link portion so as to facilitate inviting a second user to play the game and accomplish triggers necessary to display the message (see Pack figure 8, element 806 and paragraph 0089 where deep link opening module 208 may download and/or install the video game onto the second user's device 104b).
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to have further modified Lee with the teachings of Pack to automatically deep linking to install an application to remote play the game so as to facilitate video game communications as disclosed by Pack.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Abassi et al, U.S. Patent Publication No. 20060063590 (control game usage on user devices), Diez et al, U.S. Patent Publication No. 20060080702 (delivering content over a network), Dagres, U.S. Patent Publication No. 20070072678 (online gaming organization), Bruno et al, U.S. Patent Publication No. 9295915 (game availability in a remote gaming environment), Holmes, U.S. Patent Publication No. 20170142201 (network coupled cloud gaming), Wei et al, U.S. Patent Publication No. 12074946 (automatic content capability detection).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Dorothy H Harris whose telephone number is (571)270-7539. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8am - 4pm.
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/Dorothy Harris/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2625
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