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 .
Application Status
Present office action is in response to application filed 06/26/2023. Claims 1-20 are currently pending in the application.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102/103
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 (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.
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) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-10 and 12-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by or, in the alternative, under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being obvious over Jones (US 20190278382 A1).
Re claims 1, 19 and 20:
[Claim 1] Jones discloses a programmatic method for providing a game using character labeled buttons of a language script system (at least ¶ 82: a virtual keyboard, e.g., with virtual keys arranged as described above on a display and configured to be virtually depressed by a user for inputting characters into the computing device 2 …; ¶ 84: the computing device 2 is a wireless device, also referred to as a mobile device … a wireless device (WD) refers to a device capable, configured, arranged and/or operable to communicate wirelessly with network nodes and/or other wireless devices … a WD include, but are not limited to … a gaming console or device), the programmatic method comprising: providing to a display: a central axis extending in a vertical direction; a left-side game section on a left of the central axis comprising a left-side cluster of character labeled-buttons formed from character labeled-buttons in multiple different left-side rows, including a left-side top row proximate to a top of the game and a left-side bottom row proximate to a bottom of the game that each has only a single labeled-character button to elongate the left-side cluster of character labeled-buttons in a vertical direction parallel to the central axis, wherein the left side character labeled-buttons generally depict a perimeter of the left-side cluster as approximating an oval shape with character labeled-buttons forming the perimeter of the left-side cluster being disposed on a boundary of the oval shape in alphabetical order of the language script system; and a right-side game section on the right of the central axis comprising a right-side cluster of character labeled-buttons formed from character labeled-buttons in multiple different right-side rows, including a right-side top row proximate to the top of the game and a right-side bottom row proximate to the bottom of the game that each has only a single character labeled-button to elongate the right-side cluster of character labeled-buttons in a vertical direction parallel to the central axis, wherein the right-side character labeled-buttons generally depict a perimeter of the right-side cluster as approximating an oval shape with character labeled-buttons forming the perimeter of the right-side cluster being disposed on a boundary of the oval shape in alphabetical order of the language script system, wherein the left-side game section and the right-side game section are spaced apart (at least ¶¶ 5,7; FIG. 1 and associated text, for example ¶¶ 42, 43, 45, 46, 48, 49, 56, 63, 65, 74, 80); receiving user input; and updating the display based on the user input (at least ¶ 74: The keyboards in FIGS. 17A and 17B each are shown with a functional key 22 for switching between inputting characters as an initial (in FIG. 17A) or as a final (in FIG. 17B); ¶ 75: As letters are typed into the keyboard, Chinese characters applicable for the typed-in letters are populated around the character key clusters as shown in FIG. 18B, so as to expand the perimeter of the clusters; ¶ 76: When one of the Chinese characters in the keyboard of FIG. 18B is long-pressed, the computing device 2 switches to the keyboard of FIG. 18C as populated with the character set associated with the Chinese character that was long-pressed; ¶ 77: When on the Japanese characters in the overlap box 27 is pressed, the the computing device 2 switches to the keyboard of FIG. 19C as populated with the character set associated with the Japanese character that was pressed).
The elements of Jones, though named differently, perform the same functions as corresponding elements of the instant application. The following table map examples of the elements of the instant application to corresponding elements of Jones that perform the same functions.
Instant Application
Jones (US 20190278382 A1)
game
virtual keyboard
single character key
single labeled-character button
character labeled buttons
character keys
left of a central axis of the virtual keyboard
left-side game section on a left of the central axis
cluster of character labeled-buttons
cluster of character keys
single character labeled-button
single character key
Alternatively, in the event the above interpretation of Jones is viewed as not being reasonable, each recitation of “game” and associated recitations is interpreted as being directed to the subject matter of the claimed “game”, which is directed only to the data of the game. Therefore, these differences are found only in the nonfunctional descriptive material and are not functionally involved in the steps recited, since the steps of the invention would be performed the same regardless of the data. Thus, this descriptive material may be interpreted as not distinguishing the claimed invention from the prior art in terms of patentability. See In re Gulack, 703 F.2d 1381, 1385, 217 USPQ 401, 404 (Fed. Cir. 1983); In re Lowry, 32 F.3d 1579, 32 USPQ2d 1031 (Fed. Cir. 1994). Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Jones as claimed to predictably use the virtual keyboard of Jones for playing games.
[Claim 19] The claim is a computing device counterpart to the method of claim 1. The computing device is claimed for providing a game using character labeled buttons of a language script system, the computing device comprising a memory; and at least one processor configured for performing steps comparable to those performed in claim 1. As a result, claim 19 is rejected for reasons similar to those previously explained when addressing representative independent claim 1.
[Claim 20] The claim is a non-transitory computer readable medium
counterpart to the method of claim 1. The non-transitory computer readable medium
is claimed as comprising a plurality of machine-readable instructions which when executed by one or more processors are adapted to perform a method comparable to that performed in claim 1. As a result, claim 20 is rejected for reasons similar to those previously explained when addressing representative independent claim 1.
Re claims 2-10 and 12-18:
[Claim 2] Jones teaches or at least suggests wherein: the left-side cluster comprises left-side inner alphabetically-ordered character labeled-buttons that are character labeled-buttons in an inner part of the left-side cluster and that are arranged in a line in alphabetical order according to an alphabet; and the right-side cluster comprises right-side inner alphabetically-ordered character labeled-buttons that are character labeled-buttons in an inner part of the right-side cluster and that are arranged in a line in alphabetical order according to said alphabet (at least ¶¶ 5, 56: Letter keys forming a perimeter of the left-side cluster are arranged around the perimeter in alphabetical order according to said alphabet. Similarly, the right-side keyboard section comprises a right-side cluster of letter keys formed from letter keys in multiple different right-side rows, including a right-side top row and a right-side bottom row that each has only a single letter key. Letter keys forming a perimeter of the right-side cluster are arranged around the perimeter in alphabetical order according to said alphabet).
[Claim 3] Jones teaches or at least suggests wherein: the character labeled-buttons forming the perimeter of the left-side cluster are each ordered in the alphabet before any of the left-side inner alphabetically-ordered character buttons; the left-side inner alphabetically-ordered character labeled-buttons are each ordered in the alphabet before any of the character labeled-buttons forming the perimeter of the right-side cluster; and the character labeled-buttons forming the perimeter of the right-side cluster are each ordered in the alphabet before any of the right-side inner alphabetically-ordered character labeled-buttons (at least claims 1, 6, 8, 10, 15, 17; ¶¶ 5, , 48, 62; FIGs. 4, 5A, 5B, 6).
[Claim 4] Jones teaches or at least suggests wherein: the character labeled-buttons forming the perimeter of the right-side cluster are each ordered in the alphabet before any of the right-side inner alphabetically-ordered character labeled-buttons; the right-side inner alphabetically-ordered character labeled-buttons are each ordered in the alphabet before any of the character labeled-buttons forming the perimeter of the left-side cluster; and the character labeled-buttons forming the perimeter of the left-side cluster are each ordered in the alphabet before any of the left-side inner alphabetically-ordered character labeled-buttons (at least claims 1 and 10; ¶ 54; FIGs. 2A, 2D).
[Claim 5] Jones teaches or at least suggests wherein: the left-side rows further comprise: a widest left-side row that is between the left-side top row and the left-side bottom row, that has two or more character labeled-buttons, and that is the widest among the left-side rows in terms of a distance spanned by character labeled-buttons in the left-side row or in terms of inter-character spacing; an upper intermediate left-side row that is between the widest left-side row and the left-side top row, that has two or more character labeled-buttons, and that is narrower than the widest left-side row in terms of a distance spanned by character labeled-buttons in the left-side row or in terms of inter-character spacing; and a lower intermediate left-side row that is between the widest left-side row and the left-side bottom row, that has two or more character labeled-buttons, and that is narrower than the widest left-side row in terms of a distance spanned by character labeled-buttons in the left-side row or in terms of inter-character spacing; and the right-side rows further comprise: a widest right-side row that is between the right-side top row and the right-side bottom row, that has two or more letter labeled-buttons, and that is the widest among the right-side rows in terms of a distance spanned by character labeled-buttons in the right-side row or in terms of inter-character spacing; an upper intermediate buttons-side row that is between the widest right-side row and the right-side top row, that has two or more character labeled-buttons, and that is narrower than the widest right-side row in terms of a distance spanned by character labeled-buttons in the right-side row or in terms of inter-character spacing; and a lower intermediate right-side row that is between the widest right-side row and the right-side bottom row, that has two or more character labeled-buttons, and that is narrower than the widest right-side row in terms of a distance spanned by character buttons in the right-side row or in terms of inter-character spacing claims 4-7, 13-16 and 19-20; ¶¶ 7, 42, 43, 45-49, 51-54; FIGs. 4. 5A, 5B).
[Claim 6] Jones teaches or at least suggests wherein: the left-side rows further comprise a further lower intermediate left-side row that is between the lower intermediate left-side row and the left-side bottom row, that has two or more character labeled-buttons, and that is narrower than the lower intermediate left-side row in terms of a distance spanned by character labeled-buttons in the left-side row or in terms of inter-character spacing, and the right-side rows further comprise a further lower intermediate right-side row that is between the lower intermediate right-side row and the right-side bottom row, that has two or more character labeled-buttons, and that is narrower than the lower intermediate right-side row in terms of a distance spanned by character labeled-buttons in the right-side row or in terms of inter-character spacing (at least claims 4-7, 13-16 and 19-20; ¶¶ 7, 42, 43, 45-49, 51-54; FIGs. 4. 5A, 5B).
[Claim 7] Jones teaches or at least suggests wherein: the single character labeled-button in each of the left-side top row and the left-side bottom row is centered on a left-side axis extending between the left-side top row and the left-side bottom row, and wherein the single labeled-character button in each of the right-side top row and the right-side bottom row is centered on a right-side axis extending between the right-side top row and the right-side bottom row; each left-side intermediate row between the left-side top row and the left-side bottom row comprises at least an outermost left-side character labeled-button and an outermost right-side character labeled-button, wherein the outermost labeled-left-side character button is offset the farthest left from the left-side axis among all character labeled-button in the left-side intermediate row, and wherein the outermost right-side character labeled-button is offset the farthest right from the left-side axis among all character labeled-buttons in the left-side intermediate row; the perimeter of the left-side cluster is formed from the single character labeled-button in the left-side top row, the single character labeled-buttons in the left-side bottom row, and the outermost left-side character labeled-button and the outermost right-side character button in each left-side intermediate row; each right-side intermediate row between the right-side top row and the right-side bottom row comprises at least an outermost left-side character labeled-button and an outermost right-side character labeled-button, wherein the outermost left-side character labeled-button is offset the farthest left from the right-side axis among all character labeled-buttons in the right-side intermediate row, and wherein the outermost right-side character labeled-buttons is offset the farthest right from the right-side axis among all character labeled-buttons in the right-side intermediate row; and the perimeter of the right-side cluster is formed from the single labeled-character button in the right-side top row, the single character button in the right-side bottom row, and the outermost left-side character labeled-button and the outermost right-side character labeled-button in each right-side intermediate row (at least claims 6, 15 and 19; ¶¶ 7, 45, 46, 48, 49; FIGs. 4. 5A, 5B).
[Claim 8] Jones teaches or at least suggests wherein: the left-side rows comprise the left-side top row, the left-side bottom row, and four left-side intermediate rows between the left-side top row and the left-side bottom row; at least three of the four left-side intermediate rows comprise three or more character labeled-buttons; the right-side rows comprise the right-side top row, the right-side bottom row, and four right-side intermediate rows between the right-side top row and the right-side bottom row; and at least three of the four right-side intermediate rows comprise three or more character labeled-buttons (at least ¶¶ 5, 7, 42-46, 48, 49, 51-54, 59, 60, 62; FIGs. 5A, 5B).
[Claim 9] Jones teaches or at least suggests wherein: the single character labeled-buttons in the left-side top row, the left-side bottom row, the right-side top row, and the right-side bottom row have a common visual characteristic that visually distinguishes the single character labeled-buttons from character labeled-buttons in an inner part of the left-side cluster and from character labeled-buttons in an inner part of the right-side cluster; and at least some of the character labeled-buttons forming the perimeter of the left-side cluster also have the common visual characteristic, and wherein at least some of the character labeled-buttons forming the perimeter of the right-side cluster also have the common visual characteristic (at least claims 8 and 17; ¶ 62; FIGs. 4, 5A, 5B).
[Claim 10] Jones teaches or at least suggests wherein: the single character labeled-button in the left-side top row is an ‘a’ letter; the left-side rows further comprise: a second left-side row of character labeled-buttons that is below the left-side top row and that, from left to right, comprises a ‘j’ letter, a ‘k’ letter, and a ‘b’ letter; a third left-side row of character labeled-buttons that is below the second left-side row and that, from left to right, comprises an ‘i’ letter, an ‘l’ letter, and a ‘c’ letter; a fourth left-side row of character labeled-buttons that is below the third left-side row and that, from left to right, comprises an ‘h’ letter, an ‘m’ letter, and a ‘d’ letter; and a fifth left-side row of character labeled-buttons that is below the fourth left-side row, that is above the left-side bottom row, and that, from left to right, comprises a ‘g’ letter and an ‘e’ letter; the single character labeled-button in the left-side bottom row is an ‘I’ letter; the single character labeled-button in the right-side top row is an ‘n’ letter; the right-side rows further comprise: a second right-side row of character labeled-buttons that is below the right-side top row and that, from left to right, comprises a ‘w’ letter, an ‘x’ letter, and an ‘o’ letter; a third right-side row of character labeled-buttons that is below the second right-side row and that, from left to right, comprises a ‘v’ letter, a ‘y’ letter, and a ‘p’ letter; a fourth right-side row of character labeled-buttons that is below the third right-side row and that, from left to right, comprises a ‘u’ letter, a ‘z’ letter, and a ‘q’ letter; and a fifth right-side row of character labeled-buttons that is below the fourth right-side row, that is above the right-side bottom row, and that, from left to right, comprises a ‘t’ letter and an ‘r’ letter; and the single character labeled-button in the right-side bottom row is an ‘s’ letter (at least claims 9 and 18; FIGs. 4, 5A, 5B).
[Claims 12-13] Jones teaches or at least suggests wherein the programmatic method is implemented by an application specific program, wherein the application specific program is an iOS® app, an Android® OS app, a watchOS® app, an iPad OS® app, a visionOS® app, a Mac OS app, a Windows OS app, a ChromeOS app, or a Linux OS app (at least ¶ 84: the computing device 2 is a wireless device, also referred to as a mobile device … a wireless device (WD) refers to a device capable, configured, arranged and/or operable to communicate wirelessly with network nodes and/or other wireless devices … a WD include, but are not limited to, a smart phone, a mobile phone, a cell phone … a desktop computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless camera, a gaming console or device … a wearable terminal device … a WD as described above may be mobile, in which case it may also be referred to as a mobile device or a mobile terminal).
[Claims 14-15] Jones teaches or at least suggests wherein the programmatic method is provided to a user via a web browser (at least ¶ 93: web browser application, a widget or gadget engine or another application). The additional limitation wherein the web browser is a Microsoft Internet Explorer® browser, a Microsoft Edge® browser, an Apple Safari® browser, a Google Chrome® browser, a Mozilla Firefox® browser, an Opera® browser, or an Epic® privacy browser would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention because this would amount to no more than applying a known technique to a known method (device, or product) ready for improvement to yield predictable results. See KSR Int’l Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 416 (2007) (“The combination of familiar elements according to known methods is likely to be obvious when it does no more than yield predictable results.”).
[Claim 16] Jones teaches or at least suggests wherein the programmatic method is provided to a user via a smart phone, a smart tablet, a laptop, a personal computer (PC), a workstation, a smart television (TV), a smart watch, a smart ring, a virtual reality (VR) device, or an augmented reality (AR) device (at least ¶ 84: the computing device 2 is a wireless device, also referred to as a mobile device … a wireless device (WD) refers to a device capable, configured, arranged and/or operable to communicate wirelessly with network nodes and/or other wireless devices … a WD include, but are not limited to, a smart phone, a mobile phone, a cell phone … a desktop computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless camera, a gaming console or device … a wearable terminal device … a WD as described above may be mobile, in which case it may also be referred to as a mobile device or a mobile terminal).
[Claim 17] Jones teaches or at least suggests wherein at least a portion of the user input is received from a physical movement of the user, a plurality of brainwaves of the user, a plurality of eye movements of the user, or speech provided by the user (at least ¶ 91: … input device may include … a camera (e.g., a digital camera, a digital video camera, a web camera, etc.), a microphone, a sensor, a mouse, a trackball, a directional pad, a trackpad, a scroll wheel, a smartcard, and the like … A sensor may be, for instance, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a tilt sensor, a force sensor, a magnetometer, an optical sensor, a proximity sensor, another like sensor, or any combination thereof … the input device may be an accelerometer, a magnetometer, a digital camera, a microphone, and an optical sensor).
[Claim 18] Jones teaches or at least suggests wherein at least a portion of the programmatic method is implemented within hardware specific circuitry (at least ¶ 90: … one or more hardware-implemented state machines (e.g., in discrete logic, FPGA, ASIC, etc.)).
Claims 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jones, as applied to claim 1, in view of HOLLAND et al. (US 20220035439 A1) (HOLLAND).
Re claim 11:
[Claim 11] Jones appears to be silent on but HOLLAND teaches or at least suggests wherein: the user input includes a request to start the game; and updating the display includes repositioning at least a portion of the character labeled-buttons of the left-side cluster of character labeled-buttons and right-side cluster of character labeled-buttons in a random manner (at least ¶ 42: … in many cases, such as competitive gaming scenarios, the user many not want other users in the multi-user AR game to learn the user's input through the virtual gaming controls as it can put the user in a competitive disadvantage with those other user; ¶ 46: in the virtual keyboard example above, the position, order, size, and/or configuration of the virtual keyboard and/or keys on the virtual keyboard can be modified or randomized when rendered to the user to prevent other users in the physical environment from inferring key locations or typed data). Hence, it would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to have used HOLLAND’s gaming environment’s virtual keyboard and/or keys on the virtual keyboard randomization feature and to have modified Jones as claimed because this would amount to no more than applying a known technique to a known method (device, or product) ready for improvement to yield predictable results. See KSR Int’l Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 416 (2007) (“The combination of familiar elements according to known methods is likely to be obvious when it does no more than yield predictable results.”).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is listed in the attached PTO
Form 892 and is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
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/EDDY SAINT-VIL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715