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 .
This action is in response to communication(s):
This office action is responsive to the amendment filed with RCE on 7/16/2026.
Application filed on 7/31/2023 with priority date of 4/8/2023 based on Foreign application CN202310487832.X with priority date 4/8/2023.
The status of the claims is as follows:
Claims 1-3, 6, 8-15, 18-20 are pending in the application, of which claims 11-12, 18 are withdrawn from consideration.
Claims 1-3, 6, 8-10, 13-15, 19-20 are considered.
Claims 1, 13, and 19-20 are independent claims.
In the amendment, claims 1, 6, 8, 13 are amended.
Claims 4-5, 7, 16-17 have been cancelled.
The claim objections to claim 5, and 17 are respectfully withdrawn in light of the amendment to the claims.
Response to Arguments
The examiner acknowledges the amendment made to claim(s) 1, 6, 8, 13 as well as the cancellations of claims 4-5, 7, 16-17 in the amendment filed on 7/16/2026.
The claim objections to claims 5, and 17 are respectfully withdrawn in light of the amendment to the claims.
Applicant’s arguments filed 7/16/2026 have been fully considered but they are directed to the newly amended limitations which is addressed with a new ground of rejection using newly cited art George.
Claim Objections
The previous objections to claims 5, and 17 are respectfully withdrawn in light of the amendment to the claims.
Claim(s) 2-3, 14-15 is/are objected to because of the following informalities:
Per claim 2, claim 2 depend from claim 1, and recites “… displaying the stroke on the touch display screen according to the preset pressure value …”, where there is no antecedent basis for the preset pressure value from claim 1. For the purpose of examination, the term is interpreted as a preset pressure value.
Per claim 3, claim 3 depend from claim 1, and recites “… when the number of information frame of the first status information indicating the first status in the first signal is greater …”, where there is no antecedent basis for the number of information frame of the first status information from claim 1. For the purpose of examination, the term is interpreted as a number of information frame of the first status information.
Claims 14-15 recites similar limitations as claims 2-3 respectively, and are likewise objected and interpreted.
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
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) 1-2, 6, 8-9, 13-14, 19-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 being unpatentable over Ogawa et al. (US Pub 20110169756, hereinafter Ogawa), in view of George et al. (Us Pub 20160132168, hereinafter George).
Per claim 1, Ogawa teaches:
An information input method applied to a touch display screen, comprising: (abstract: electronic pen transmitting information to a controller corresponding to a detection of a touch condition; [0047] Fig. 1 shows a display device 5, which can be a LCD provided on the rear side of the touch panel body that are made of a transparent material (touch display screen));
acquiring a first signal sent by a stylus, wherein the first signal carries first status information, and the first status information is configured to indicate whether a tip of the stylus is in contact with the touch display screen; and ([0064-0065] Fig. 3 shows a flowchart of steps of communication between the electronic pen 1 and controller device 6 shown in Fig. 1; at step ST202, the controlling device receive/acquire “pen information”(first status information) from pen/stylus, where “pen information” is sent from the pen after the pen tip is in contact with the touch surface, so “pen information” indicates the tip of the pen is in contact with the touch display screen);
displaying a stroke on the touch display screen under a condition that the first status information indicates a first status, the first status being that the tip of the stylus is in a contact status with the touch display screen. ([0064-0065, 0069] Fig. 3-4: Fig. 4 shows a flowchart for pen input processing, where drawing process with designated color is displayed at step ST302, under the condition that at steps ST202-ST207, it was determined that pen tip press to the touch surface was detected, and that information was received at the processing device at step ST202).
Although Ogawa teaches a pressure sensing amount ([0078-0079] Fig. 9) that can be measured as a pen tip displacement amount, Ogawa does not explicitly teach displaying the stroke when the pressure sensing amount meets a sensing threshold when pen tip is in contact with the touchscreen. However, George teaches:
wherein the information input method further comprising at least one of:
acquiring the stylus sensing amount according to the first signal, wherein the stylus sensing amount is configured to reflect a degree of contact between the stylus and the touch display screen; ([0024] the computer input module 122 receives raw pressure data from either stylus tip or the touchscreen surface, that’s measured from the contact between the stylus and the surface as a stream of numbers) and wherein displaying a stroke on the touch display screen under a condition that the first status information indicates a first status comprises: (the raw pressure data is produced when stylus and the screen make contact) displaying the stroke on the touch display screen when the stylus sensing amount is greater than or equal to a sensing threshold, under the condition that the first status information indicates the first status; ([0024] when the stylus and the screen make contact (first status information indicates the first status), raw pressure data produced as a stream of numbers representing the pressure; [0034] a pressure value above the minimum raw pressure value is used as a minimum pressure to remap the raw pressure values; claim 16, when the raw pressure meets (greater than or equal to) a threshold minimum, the width of the stoke is calculated and displayed).
or
acquiring a second signal sent by the stylus, wherein the second signal carries a tip pressure value of the stylus; and displaying the stroke on the touch display screen according to the first signal and the second signal; and under a condition that the tip pressure value is greater than zero, stopping displaying the stroke on the touch display screen when a number of information frames of the first status information indicating a second status in the first signal is greater than or equal to a frame number threshold.
George and Ogawa are analogous art because George also teach method filtering pressure data for displaying a stroke. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date, having the teachings of George and Ogawa before him/her, to modify the teachings of Ogawa to include the teachings of George so that a stroke is only displayed when the minimum pressure threshold is met. One would be motivated to make the combination, with a reasonable expectation of success, because it would provide an alternative method of displaying strokes with varying width, so that remapping pressure value using false lift avoidance algorithm using a minimum pressure threshold that’s above the raw minimum pressure can help to avert “false lift” events (George [0025]), improving user experience.
Per claim 2, Ogawa-George teach all the limitations of claim 1, and further teach:
wherein displaying a stroke on the touch display screen under a condition that the first status information indicates a first status comprises:
displaying the stroke on the touch display screen according to the preset pressure value when it is detected that the first status information indicates the first status. (Ogawa [0069, 0079-0080]: Fig. 9 shows an embodiment of the electronic pen where tip pressure can be measured and transmitted to the controlling device; where without this embodiment a default/preset pressure value is associated with the contact of the pen to the touch panel, and displayed at step ST302 from Fig. 4 accordingly).
Per claim 6, Ogawa-George teach all the limitations of claims 1, and further teach:
wherein displaying the stroke on the touch display screen according to the first signal and the second signal comprises:
displaying the stroke on the touch display screen under the condition that the tip pressure value is greater than zero; and (Ogawa [0064, 0069, 0079-0080] Fig. 3: at step ST102 when the pen is pressed on the touch panel, and pen information including displacement amount of the pen tip (tip pressure value), which is greater than 0 when connected to position sensor 91, is sent to the controlling device 6, the stroke/draw is displayed at the corresponding coordinates at ST302 from Fig. 4);
determining a width of the stroke according to the tip pressure value. (Ogawa [0079-0080] the line width can be determined based on the pressure of the pen tip).
Per claim 8, Ogawa-George teach all the limitations of claim 1, and further teach:
wherein displaying the stroke on the touch display screen under the condition that the first status information indicates the first status comprises:
stopping displaying the stroke on the touch display screen when the stylus sensing amount is less than the sensing threshold, under the condition that the first status information indicates the first status. (George [0024, 0017] when the stylus and the screen make contact (first status information indicates the first status), raw pressure data produced as a stream of numbers representing the pressure; [0034] a value greater than the raw pressure minimum is mapped as the pressure minimum threshold; claim 16, when the pressure meets a threshold minimum, the width of the stoke is calculated and displayed, thus when the pressure is below the threshold, the stroke is not displayed).
Per claim 9, Ogawa-George teach all the limitations of claim 1, and further teach:
wherein the first status information indicates pressure status information of the tip of the stylus. (Ogawa [0078-0079] Fig. 9: pen tip displacement amount can be added into the transmitted pen information to indicate writing pressure, which in turn controls line thickness).
Per claim 13, claim 13 is a system claim of a touch display screen device, comprising a touch display screen (Ogawa Fig. 1 [0047] display device 5 can be LCD behind the touch panel body 3), a memory (Ogawa Fig. 1 [0050] controller device 6 can be a personal computer with memory), and a processor (Ogawa Fig. 1 [0050] controller device 6 can be a personal computer with processor), that executes the same method as claim 1, and is likewise rejected as claim 1.
Per claim 14, claim 14 includes limitations that are substantially the same as claim 2, and is likewise rejected.
Per claim 19, claim 19 is a non-transitory medium (Ogawa Fig. 1 [0050] controller device 6 can be a personal computer with memory) claim that stores instructions for the same method as claim 1, and is likewise rejected.
Per claim 20, claim 20 is a system claim of a chip comprising a processor (Ogawa Fig. 1 [0050] main controller 19, controller device 6 can be a personal computer with processor) and an interface (Ogawa Fig. 1 [0048] wireless communicator 16) that execute the same method according to claim 1, and is likewise rejected.
Claim(s) 3, 10, 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ogawa, in view of George, and Ding et al. (US Pub 20180348938, hereinafter Ding).
Per claim 3, Ogawa-George teach all the limitations of claim 1, and Ogawa further teach to wait for a predetermined time period after the stylus pen tip press is on (Fig. 3 step ST104-ST105, but before coordinates information can be processed (Fig. 3 ST206), to display the stroke on the touchscreen:
wherein displaying a stroke on the touch display screen under a condition that the first status information indicates a first status comprises:
displaying the stroke on the touch display screen, when the number of information frames (Ogawa [0058, 0065-0066, 0103] Fig. 3: Fig. 3 shows at step ST104-ST105: a predetermined time of 500ms is waited (frame threshold) before the connecting switch is turned ON, which in turn enables coordinates detection that is used to display the stroke).
Ogawa-George do not explicitly teach the number of information frames to be waited is a part of the first signal sent by the stylus; “ … the number of information frames of the first status information indicating the first status in the first signal …”.
Ding, however, teaches a first signal comprising contact information for a duration to be detected by the touch panel “ … the number of information frames of the first status information indicating the first status in the first signal …” ([0077, 0082-0083] Fig. 4C, Fig. 5: the stylus may transmit the first signal only upon contact with the touch panel, and transmit the first signal for the duration of a first time period, for the touch panel to determine touch input position based on the first signal).
Ding and Ogawa-George are analogous art because Ding also teach method of communication between a stylus and a touch panel. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date, having the teachings of Ding and Ogawa-George before him/her, to modify the teachings of Ogawa-George to include the teachings of Ding so that the wait timer can be set based on a threshold number of frames of first signal indicating contact with the touch panel. One would be motivated to make the combination, with a reasonable expectation of success, because it would provide an alternative method of introducing a delay timer to ensure the pen information is processed before the coordinate information is received from the touch panel, making the algorithm more robust and enhancing user experiences.
Per claim 15, claim 15 includes limitations that is substantially the same as claim 3 , and is likewise rejected.
Per claim 10, Ogawa-George teach all the limitations of claim 1, and further teach:
before displaying the stroke on the touch display screen, the information input method further comprises: (Ogawa [0065] Fig. 3 shows step ST206 before the pen input processing is performed at step ST208);
acquiring the coordinate coding information (Ogawa [0065] coordinate info is received after pen information is transmitted);
acquiring a contact coordinate of the stylus on the touch display screen according to the coordinate coding information; (Ogawa [0065] Fig. 3 shows step 206 of receiving contact coordinate of the pen);
stopping displaying the stroke on the touch display screen in the event of failure in acquiring the contact coordinate; and (Ogawa [0065] Fig. 3 shows if no coordinates is received – “No”, then the method will not proceed to display stroke in Fig. 4).
performing an operation of displaying the stroke on the touch display screen under the condition that the first status information indicates the first status, in the event of successful acquisition of the contact coordinate. (Ogawa [0065, 0069] Fig. 3 shows if coordinates is received – “Yes”, then the method proceed to display stroke in Fig. 4).
But Ogawa-George do not explicitly teach “the first signal further comprises second status information that indicates coordinate coding information of the stylus”. However, Ding teaches “the first signal further comprises second status information that indicates coordinate coding information of the stylus” ([0068-0069] Fig. 4A: step 302-303 show that the stylus transmits the first signal to the touch panel, where the first signal is used to determine the position of the contact between the stylus and the touch panel).
Ding and Ogawa-George are analogous art because Ding also teach method of communication between a stylus and a touch panel. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date, having the teachings of Ding and Ogawa-George before him/her, to modify the teachings of Ogawa-George to include the teachings of Ding so that position information can be part of the signal sent from the stylus to the touch panel. One would be motivated to make the combination, with a reasonable expectation of success, because it would provide an alternative method of acquiring positional coordinates of a stylus, making the algorithm more robust and enhancing user experiences.
Conclusion
The examiner requests, in response to this Office action, support by 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 no(s) in the specification and/or drawing figure(s). This will assist the examiner in prosecuting the application.
When responding to this office action, Applicant is advised to clearly point out the patentable novelty which he or she thinks the claims present, in view of the state of the art disclosed by the references cited or the objections made. He or she must also show how the amendments avoid such references or objections, See 37 CFR 1.111(c).
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PHOEBE X PAN whose telephone number is (571)270-7794. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9am-6pm.
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, Fred Ehichioya can be reached at (571) 272-4034. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/PHOEBE X PAN/Examiner, Art Unit 2179
/IRETE F EHICHIOYA/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2179
Prosecution Insights