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 .
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)(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 1-9 and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Sony PlayStation4 as evidenced by “Using Wireless controller” (hereinafter PS4), item H8 on IDS filed on 08/15/2024.
With regard to claim 1¸PS4 discloses a method comprising: performing by a platform operating service application in a computing device in communication with a mobile game controller: receiving, from the mobile game controller, one or more user input events of a user input element of the mobile game controller, wherein the user input element is associated with a plurality of actions; determining which action of the plurality of actions is associated with the received one or more user input events, wherein the determined action comprises causing a game application to open on the computing device; and causing the game application to open on the computing device (the entirety of the claim is noted in the “Basic button operations describing various functions that the buttons can do).
With regard to claim 2, PS4 discloses wherein the determined action depends on the mobile game controller being a platform-specific mobile game controller (where it is for a PlayStation).
With regard to claim 3, PS4 discloses wherein at least one of the plurality of actions depends on whether a user is in a communications group (wherein the controller has to be paired with a PS4 to actually work thus comprising a communication group).
With regard to claim 4, PS4 discloses wherein the plurality of actions comprises: opening the platform operating service application, switching to a previous application if the platform operating service application is in a foreground, opening an options menu, performing a screen capture, opening a streaming application, and/or muting a communications group (Basic button operations).
With regard to claim 5, PS4 discloses wherein the user input element of the mobile game controller comprises a button (basic button operations).
With regard to claim 6, PS4 discloses wherein the one or more user input events comprises a single press of the button (basic button operations)
With regard to claim 7, PS4 discloses wherein the one or more user input events comprises holding down the button for a period of time (basic button operations).
With regard to claim 8, PS4 discloses wherein the one or more user input events comprises a plurality of presses of the button over a period of time (basic button operations).
With regard to claim 9, PS4 discloses wherein the platform operating service application is configured to receive the one or more user input events even when the platform operating service application is in a background (basic button operations).
Claims 19 and 20 are mirrored claims to claims 1 and 2 and are rejected in like manner.
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.
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.
Claims 10 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0136568 to Buhr in view of PS4.
With regard to claim 10, Buhr discloses that an association between user input events of the user input element and the plurality of actions is stored in a user profile (0035). Buhr does not appear to explicitly disclose the elements of claim 1. However, as discussed above, PS4 teaches the elements of claim 1.
With regard to claim 11, Buhr discloses downloading an association between user input events of the user input element and the plurality of actions (0031; 0035). Buhr does not appear to explicitly disclose the elements of claim 1. However, as discussed above, PS4 teaches the elements of claim 1.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the application was filed to combine the teachings of PS4 with the disclosure of Buhr such that users would be able to accomplish various functions such as opening up applications and/or switching between applications by using inputs found on the gaming controller thus making it easier to navigate the system by the user.
Claims 12-14 and 16-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Buhr in view of US Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0084904 to Tan and PS4.
With regard to claim 12, Buhr discloses 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 comprising: providing a user interface through which a user assigns an overlay action to a user input element of a mobile game controller, wherein the user input element has a default action, and wherein the overlay action is associated with one or more hardware0initiated input events of the user input element (0031; 0035); and storing an association between the overlay action and the one or more hardware-initiated input events of the user input element (fig. 4a; 0031; 0035).
Buhr does not explicitly disclose a graphical user interface. However, Tan teaches such (fig. 1; fig. 17).
Buhr does not appear to explicitly disclose causing a game application to open. However, such is taught by PS4 (basic button operations).
Claims 13 and 14 are like unto claims 2 and 4 and are rejected in like manner as PS4 teaches such.
With regard to claim 16, Buhr discloses that the association is stored in a networked device for use with at least one other computing device (0031; 0035).
With regard to claim 17, Buhr discloses that the association is stored in a memory of the mobile game controller (0040; element 406).
With regard to claim 18, Buhr discloses that the association is stored in a user profile (0031; 0035).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to combine the teachings of Tan with Buhr so that the user could easily assign various functions to various buttons through the use of a graphical user interface which is familiar to most users.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the application was filed to combine the teachings of PS4 with the disclosure of Buhr such that users would be able to accomplish various functions such as opening up applications and/or switching between applications by using inputs found on the gaming controller thus making it easier to navigate the system by the user.
Claim 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Buhr in view of Tan and PS4 as applied to claim 12 above, and further in view of US Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0326145 to Wu.
With regard to claim 15¸Buhr does not explicitly disclose the elements as claimed. However, Wu teaches prompting the user to downloading an application when it is not on the computing device (0071).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the application was filed to combine the teachings of Wu with the disclosure of Buhr such that a user could quickly access an application that they have not yet downloaded.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure can be found on the Notice of References Cited.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jay Liddle whose telephone number is (571)270-1226. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-5.
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/Jay Trent Liddle/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715