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 .
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s “Response to Amendment and Reconsideration” filed on 10/17/2025 has been considered.
Claims 1-5 are pending in this application and an action on the merits follows.
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.
Claims 1-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Phan et al. (U.S. Patent No. 7,529,687), in view of Lum (WO Patent Publication No. 2006/015173), in view of Argue et al. (U.S. Patent Publication No. 2014/0019256) and further in view of Lu et. al. (U.S. Patent Publication No. 2015/0085589).
Regarding claims 1 and 5, Phan teaches an external display to be used with a point of sale (POS) host, comprising: (FIG. 2 shows an example of a customer display screen presented on the customer display device 160 during the checkout process, Col.5 ln 25-35);
a display memory module; a processor connected to the register memory module and the display memory module; a display controller connected to the display memory module, a display screen connected to the display controller; (a display control unit numeral 310, and an event management unit numeral 320. The event management unit 320 receives and interprets the event information generated by the internal timer numeral 342 of the operating system numeral 340 and delivers the event information to the display control unit 310. The display control unit 310 receives the event information from the event management unit 320 and processes the event information to control the position and type of content displayed in the infomercial window 220, Col.5 ln 40-65,
and wherein the processor is configured to in response to receipt of the purchase information and the advertisement multimedia file, storing the purchase information in the register memory module and storing the advertisement multimedia file in the other one of the register memory module, (the POS database 182 and the infomercial database 184 are stored in a memory unit such as a disk device that is accessed by the control unit 110, Col.5 ln 15-25)
access the register memory module to obtain the purchase information and the advertisement multimedia file, (POS program 330 then uses the interpreted input event information to look-up the corresponding item in the POS database 182; obtains the corresponding pricing information for that item; computes the subtotal, tax, and total amount based on the pricing information; and then delivers the computed amount to the event management unit 320. The event management unit 320 receives and interprets the event information generated by the POS program 330 and signals the display control unit 310 when a new condition that requires a display update is detected. The display control unit 310 receives the event information from the event management unit 320 and processes the event information to control the position and type of content displayed in the receipt window 210, Col. 5 ln 61-67, Col.6 ln 1-9);
The event management unit 320 receives and interprets the event information generated by the internal timer numeral 342 of the operating system numeral 340 and delivers the event information to the display control unit 310. The display control unit 310 receives the event information from the event management unit 320 and processes the event information to control the position and type of content displayed in the infomercial window 220, Col.5 ln 45-60)
control the display screen to display the purchase information and the advertisement multimedia file simultaneously thereon, (This screen consists of two windows, the receipt window 210 and the infomercial window 220, , Col.5 ln 25-45).
Phan substantially teaches the claimed invention, however does not a serial data transmission interface that enables a wired connection between the POS host and the external display, so as to receive purchase information from the POS host; a processor connected to the serial data transmission interface. Phan teaches control unit, POS inputs/processing and controlling what is displayed.
However, Lum teaches the current most popular method to interface a pole display to a computer, in cases where the POS application software is installed, is through an RS232 port, pg 2; the serial interface circuit 38 is controlled by the microcontroller circuit 32 and provides bidirectional transfer capability between the microcontroller circuit 32 and an external serial device in accordance with RS232 protocol, pg 6.
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date, to modify Phan’s control unit architecture with Lum’s known RS-232 pole display interface, because both references are directed to POS customer facing displays and address the same problem of presenting transaction related information toa customer during checkout. Lum teaches well-known standardize customer solution for interfacing an external customer display with a POS host, which would have been a routine design choice yielding predictable result.
Phan does not explicitly teach generate a composite multimedia file based on the purchase information and the advertisement multimedia file, store the composite multimedia file in the display memory module, the display controller is configured to access the display memory module to obtain the composite multimedia file. Phan teaches POS program look-up…item in the POS database, infomercial content in database 184, windows 210 and 220 (separate regions), screen consists of two windows, the receipt window 210 and the infomercial window 220, each window is implemented as an HTML browser, capable of displaying text, graphics, and multi-media content, see at least Col.5.
However, Argue teaches a completed advertisement 62 may be stored within a memory device or collection of memory devices corresponding to a POS system 10, [62]; final image presented to the customer, [58], an advertisement can be “a resulting advertisement 62 may comprise a digital image formed when an image template is modified such that one or more placeholders therewithin are respectively replaced with one or more machine-readable codes 66, transaction-specific images, [61], An ID generation module 72 may generate one or more identifications to be incorporated within an advertisement 62, [57-60].
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date, to modify Phan’s customer display system with the advertisement generation and image-based content delivery because both references are directed to enhancing customer interaction at the point of sale by presenting transaction related information together with advertisement content and in order to improve flexibility, efficiency and consistency of presenting ads, see Argue, [2].
Phan does not explicitly teach a register memory module including separate first section and a second section; However, Lu teaches memory device 500 may be subdivided into a plurality of sections. In the example illustrated in FIGS. 5A-5D two sections 510 and 520 of memory device 500, [25]. It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date, to modify Phan’s customer display system to store different types of display data in separate memory sections as thought by Lu, because Phan already discloses storing and displaying both purchase information and advertising content during a POS transaction and Lu teaches a well-known and predictable technique of dividing memory into sections for storing different data types to improve organization, access efficiency and data management. The combination would have yielded predictable results without altering the basic operation of the POS customer display.
Regarding claim 2, Phan does not teach, however Lum teaches the serial data transmission interface is a Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface, (pg. 4).
Regarding claim 3, Phan does not teach, however Lum teaches the external display further comprises a microcontroller, and the processor is a central processing unit (CPU) of the microcontroller, (8052, pg. 2, 5-6, 8).
Regarding claim 4, Phan does not teach, however Lum teaches the register memory module is a register memory included in the microcontroller, (pg.6).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the rejection of claims 1-5 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Phan, Lum, Lu and Argue.
Conclusion
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/MILENA RACIC/Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3627
/FLORIAN M ZEENDER/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3627