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 .
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Response to Amendments and Arguments
Regarding an anticipation rejection under 35 U.S.C. §102, applicant amended independent claims 8 and 20 by adding several new limitations. Applicant argued that a previously cited primary reference to Daredia (US PG Pub. 2020/0403817) fails to teach the newly added limitations ((Remarks, pages 7-8).
The examiner has performed an update search and discovered many references (see an attached PTO-892 form). In addition, a previously cited reference to Strader (US PG Pub. 2019/0121532, cited in a previous office action, but was not relied upon in the previous rejection) also discloses the argued features defined by the newly added limitations.
In the following rejection, the examiner combines a previously cited primary reference (Daredia) with Strader (a reference cited in a PTO-892 form mailed on 08/13/2025) to reject the amended claims under 35 U.S.C. §103. Applicant’s arguments regarding to a previous rejection under §102 are moot because the arguments do not apply to the following rejection under 35 U.S.C. §103, necessitated by the amendment.
Drawings
The drawing Fig. 3 is objected to because the specification mentioned various features shown in Figure 3. However, these described features are NOT shown in Figure. 3 filed in the U.S.A. It appears the specification describes features related to Figure 3 of an application filed in China.
Applicant amended independent claims by adding certain new limitations. By reviewing the disclosure, it appears the amendment was based on the specification ([0057-0063]). Although the specification mentions various features in Figure 3, however, the figure 3 does not have any features described in the specification.
The instant application claims a priority benefit of an application filed in China (CN202110113700.1). In an application filed in the United States (18/262,400), Fig. 1-2 and 4-6 are the same drawings as that in the Chinese application. However, Fig. 3 filed in the U.S.A is different from Fig. 3 filed in China. The specification does NOT describe features of Figure 3 filed in the U.S.A, but describes features of Figure 3 filed in China as shown below.
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Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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 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 of this title, 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 8-11 and 20-23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Daredia et al. (US PG Pub. 2020/0403817, referred to as Daredia) in view of Strader et al. (US PG Pub. 2019/0121532, referred to Strader).
Daredia discloses a video meeting/conference system ([0029], [0085], Fig. 4B, Fig. 8). The system applies natural language processing techniques to generate speech transcripts and obtain meeting highlights, meeting summaries and action items ([0017-0018], [0054], Fig. 3). Daredia further discloses displaying various obtained meeting information on a user’s devices (Fig. 4C and 4E, Fig. 5A / 5B).
Strader discloses generating a speech transcription for a conversation between a doctor and a patient (Strader, Abstract, Fig. 1 and Fig. 2). Strader further discloses highlighting important words in the speech transcript (Strader, [0036], [0042-0044]). Strader further discloses generating a note to summarize the conversation (Strader, [0057], Fig. 9, 902). When a user clicks a word in the note, a corresponding speech transcription section is displayed (Strader, [0043], [0049], [0051], Fig. 9, a user clicks a word “weight gain” in the note region, the corresponding speech transcription between the doctor / patient is shown and is highlighted).
Regarding claims 8 and 20, Daredia discloses a method and a device for processing meeting minutes (Fig. 1, Fig. 4E, a computer implemented method / device for generating meeting highlights, meeting summaries and action items), comprising:
receiving a display triggering operation performed by a user on a first minutes item in a meeting minutes display interface, wherein the meeting minutes display interface displays a meeting audio content or meeting video content, meeting text of the meeting audio content or meeting video content, and the target minutes statement ([0018], [0050], [0053], [0069-0071], [0082], Fig. 4A-4E, in response to user’s click or selection, displaying video meeting information including, video of meeting participants, generated speech transcripts, meeting highlights, meeting summaries and action items); and
in response to the displaying triggering operation performed by the user on the first minutes item, displaying the first minutes item and an item associated with the target minutes statement (Fig. 4E, the displayed meeting highlights or meeting summaries are claimed “the target minutes statement”, a title “Sales Team Meeting Summary” is a claimed “a statement”).
Daredia discloses generating speech transcriptions, summaries and action items based on audio / video meetings (Fig. 4A-4E). Daredia further discloses a graphical user interface that allows a user to click and view meeting transcriptions or summaries ([0050], [0098], [0107]). Although Daredia does not explicitly disclose the newly added limitation: “the item associated with the first minutes item comprises items preceding or succeeding the first minutes item in the meeting text”, in the same area, Strader discloses when a user clicks a word in note section (i.e., a summary section), the corresponding speech transcript is highlighted and displayed. Please note, the words in the words in the speech transcripts corresponds to a claimed “comprises items preceding or succeeding the first minutes item in the meeting text” as illustrated in Fig. 9 (duplicated below)
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Both Daredia and Strader are related to generating a speech transcription / a summary of the transcription. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to combine Daredia’s teaching with Strader’s teaching to display related speech transcriptions when a user clicks words in a note section (a summary). One having ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make such a modification to improve efficiency and save doctor’s time (Strader, [0002-0003]).
Regarding claims 9 and 21, Daredia in view of Strader further discloses the statement associated with the target minutes statement is comprised in the meeting text and is a subtitle statement that has a positional association with the target minutes statement, the meeting text comprises a plurality of subtitle statements and the target minutes statement comprises a target meeting to-do statement (Daredia, [0061], [0112-0116], Fig. 4E, displaying various meeting information at different positions of a displaying window, including titles, subtitles, meeting summaries, action items etc.; Note, action items are a claimed “to-do statement”, see [0036], [0049]).
Regarding claim 23, Daredia in view of Strader further discloses the target minutes statement comprises a target meeting to-do statement (Daredia, [0067], [0071], [0116], Fig. 4E, displaying action items for each meeting participants, see Fig. 5A / 5B).
Regarding claims 10 and 22, Daredia in view of Strader further discloses:
displaying the target minutes statement and the statement associated with the target minutes statement in a floating window in the meeting minutes display interface (Daredia, Fig. 4E, [0091] displaying in a popup window, [0154] implemented on Microsoft windows, the displayed window on a screen can be dragged or moved (i.e., a floating window)).
Regarding claim 11, Daredia further discloses playing the meeting audio-video based on a time period associated with the target minutes statement, and distinctively displaying a subtitle associated with the target minutes statement in the meeting text (Daredia, [0007-0023], [0034], [0052], [0086], Fig. 4A-4E, audio-video contents are played during a time of the video meeting, the meeting highlights, meeting summaries, titles / subtitles, action items are generate in real-time by analyzing speech transcripts ).
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 extension fee 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 date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jialong He, whose telephone number is (571) 270-5359. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday – Friday, 8:00AM – 4:30PM, EST.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Pierre Desir can be reached on (571) 272-7799. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JIALONG HE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2659
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