DETAILED ACTION
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-3, 7-10, 12-17, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more. Specifically the claims are directed to a mental process. The claim(s) recite(s) “receiving a skill linking operation on n target skill release controls, n being an integer greater than or equal to 2; and controlling the first virtual object to release target virtual skills corresponding to the n target skill release controls in response to an end of the skill linking operation.” In the absence of any further detail on the linking operation, this recites a game process whereby a judgment is made to link various game skill controls together logically thanks to a player input and then the skills are determined to be used in game when a player provides another input. This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because recitation of a Terminal, processor, memory, and non-transitory computer readable medium are simply recitation of generic computer components that are merely instructions to implement the abstract idea on a computer, see MPEP 2106.05(f). Further the limitation “displaying a first virtual object and a skill release control, the skill release control being configured to trigger the first virtual object to trigger a virtual skill” represent insignificant extra solution display activity, see MPEP 2106.05(f). Finally recitation of the “virtual object” and “virtual skill” amount to generally linking the use of the judicial exception to the particular technological environment of computer games, see MPEP 2106.05(h).
Dependent Claims 2-3, 7-10, 12-14, and 15-17 recite additional abstract details of the skill release such as release order and cooldown timers, these element fail to integrate the abstract idea into a practical application. Further, in regard to Claim 14, switching the display state of the skill release control amounts to insignificant extra solution display activity in the examiner’s opinion, and thus fails to integrate the abstract idea into a practical application.
The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because a terminal, processor, memory and computer readable medium represent well understood routine and conventional computer functionality. Further with regard to “displaying a first virtual object and a skill release control…” Toyohara et al., US 6,368,210 teaches where it is conventional for a game device to display a game with game character and various input controls for controlling arbitrary player character game actions (Col. 6 lines 21-37). As such, even when considered as a whole Claims 1, 15 and 20 fail to add significant more than the abstract idea.
Dependent Claims 2-3, 7-10, 12-14, and 15-17 recite additional abstract details of the skill release such as release order and cooldown timers. Further, in regard to Claim 14, code.tutsplus.com webpage “How to Code HUD Cooldown Bars” by Kyatric teaches where graphical display of cooldown for game actions is an element present and even critical in many different types of games “In many games, the player needs a visual display of the time remaining before being able to perform a certain action, such as casting a spell. Cooldown bars on the HUD or UI are a great way to present this information.” And “HUD cooldown bars are visual elements in game that don't necessarily belong to the game's world, but are an indication for the player of a period of time during which she can or cannot perform an action. In role-playing games, multiplayer online battle arenas (like League of Legends or DOTA), or even real-time strategy games, these indicators are often critical to the player.” Which teaches that cooldown displays for player actions, such as spells, are well-understood, routine and conventional computer activity well known in the gaming arts. As such these limitations fail to add significantly more than the abstract idea.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 1-3, 12-13, 15-17, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Wu et al., CN 113908534 A. In the interest of expediting prosecution, reference to Wu et al. will be made to the English Machine Translation of CN113908534A obtained by the examiner from espacenet.com, and the figures in the CN113908534A reference submitted by applicant.
In Reference to Claims 1, 15, and 20
Wu et al. teaches A non-transitory computer readable-medium, a terminal, comprising a processor and a memory; and the memory and medium storing at least one instruction, at least one program, a code set, or an instruction set, and the at least one instruction, the at least one program, the code set, or the instruction set being loaded and executed by the processor to implement a method for controlling a virtual object to release skills, performed by a terminal, and a method for controlling a virtual object to release skills (Fig. 1-2 Page 6 “The memory 220 can be used to store software programs and modules, and the processor 240 executes various functional applications and data processing of the mobile phone 102 by running the software programs and modules stored in the memory 220…Additionally, memory 220 may include high-speed random access memory, and may also include non-volatile memory, such as at least one magnetic disk storage device, flash memory device, or other volatile solid state storage device.”) and , performed by a terminal comprising displaying a first virtual object and a skill release control (Fig. 5-8, Page 7 “When the player wants to release two non-pointing skills to the same target, they can first click the A skill (the first skill). ), then drag the A skill to the B (second skill) skill, then drag it out from the B skill, and select the release direction.” and “first virtual character 604”) and, the skill release control being configured to trigger the first virtual object to release a virtual skill (Fig. 6 and Page 7); receiving a skill linking operation on n target skill release controls, n being an integer greater than or equal to 2 (Page 7 which teaches dragging from the first skill to the second skill for release. See also Page 7 “The combo operation of the second skill allows players to perform a complete set of continuous operations without lifting their fingers during the process, thereby realizing the release of multiple skill combos.” and “For another example, both skills A and B of a virtual character are released to the nearest target within the skill range by default. When the player first taps skill A, then drags skill A to skill B, and then leaves the screen to end the touch. Operation, the avatar will continuously release two skills A and B to the nearest target within the skill range.” Which teach release a combo of two skills from a single drag operation. See also Page 10 “In some embodiments, the number of skills that the player chooses to release continuously may be more than two, such as four or five skill combo operations, to improve the flexibility of combo operations.” Which teaches releasing four or five skills in combo of “continuous” skills); and controlling the first virtual object to release target virtual skills corresponding to the n target skill release controls in response to an end of the skill linking operation (Fig. 6 ref. 603 and Page 7 “If the player releases his finger at this time to complete the release operation of the skill, the first virtual character 604 controlled by the player can first release the A skill and then release the B skill until The position of the enemy avatar 605.”).
In Reference to Claims 2 and 16
Wu et al. teaches wherein the controlling the first virtual object to release target virtual skills respectively corresponding to the n target skill release controls in
response to the end of the skill linking operation comprises: determining a control trigger order in response to the end of the skill linking operation, the control trigger order being an order in which the skill linking operation passes through the n target skill release controls (Fig. 5-8 which shows via arrows the skill release dragging operation passing in order through multiple skills A, B, and C); determining a skill release order of the n target virtual skills based on the control trigger order, and a correspondence between the skill release control and the virtual skill; and controlling the first virtual object to release the n target virtual skills according to the skill release order (Page 9 “In some embodiments, the system may control the sequential release sequence of skills based on the player's relevant actions. As an example, the above step S430 may specifically include the following steps: Step e), in response to a second designated operation that is continuous with the first sliding operation, controlling the first virtual character to release the first skill, and continuously release the second skill after releasing the first skill.”).
In Reference to Claim 3 and 17
Wu et al. teaches controlling the first virtual object to release the n target virtual skills to a release target according to the skill release order, the release target comprising at least one of a release area, a release direction, and a release object (Fig. 6 ref 603 and Page 7 “The direction of the touch point 601 relative to the B skill button 502 (second skill control) is the direction of the A skill and the B skill. release direction. The direction pointed by the arrow 602 is the same as the direction pointed by the skill indicator 603. If the player releases his finger at this time to complete the release operation of the skill, the first virtual character 604 controlled by the player can first release the A skill and then release the B skill until The position of the enemy avatar 605”).
In Reference to Claim 12
Wu et al. teaches determining that the skill linking operation is effective in response to the skill linking operation on the n target skill release controls, and to that an operation start point and an operation end point of the skill linking operation are located at different target skill release controls (Page 7 “In the embodiment of the present application, after sliding from the first skill control to the second skill control and then performing a certain specified operation, the first skill and the second skill can be released continuously, so that the first skill and the second skill can be performed more conveniently and quickly.” And “Exemplarily, as shown in Figure 6, in MOBA games, some virtual characters have multiple non-pointing skills. When the player wants to release two non-pointing skills to the same target, they can first click the A skill (the first skill). ), then drag the A skill to the B (second skill) skill, then drag it out from the B skill, and select the release direction.” Which teaches that in order for the user to release a combo skill the player must perform a dragging operation from a first skill to a different second skill and then perform a release operation).
In Reference to Claim 13
Wu et al. teaches determining that the skill linking operation is invalid in response to the skill linking operation on n target skill release controls, and that the operation start point and the operation end point of the skill linking operation are located at the same target skill release control (Page 9 “In some embodiments, the player may also cancel the continuous release of the skill and choose to release only the first skill. As an example, after the above step S420, the method may further include the following steps: In step f), the touch point of the first sliding operation is slid back to the first skill control, and the determined second skill is canceled.” Which teaches that a combo skill release is cancelled if the player performs a dragging operation back to the first skill).
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 4-5 and 18-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wu et al., CN 113908534 A, in view of Wei et al., CN 111589142 A (published 2020-08-28). In the interest of expediting prosecution reference to CN 111589142 A will be made to specification of US 2022/0032191 which is a publication in English of CN 111589142 A.
In Reference to Claims 4 and 18
Wu et al. teaches a skill linking operation as described above in reference to Claims 1 and 15, including targeting a skill by selecting a direction with a sliding action from a skill icon in response to that the skill linking operation is located at the ith target skill release control, and a target virtual skill with a release target selection in the i target virtual skills through which the skill linking operation passes, i being a positive integer less than n; (Fig. 6 and Page 7 as described above). Further Wu et al. teaches different target selection types (Page 8 “target direction” “target location” “target avatar”), and teaches that the combo skill can include additional skills beyond 2 when the user moves to a third skill before performing a release action and canceling the determination of the skill release target selection wheel in the wheel display area corresponding to the target skill release control, and determining the skill release target selection corresponding to the ith target skill release control in response to that the skill linking operation is located at the (i+1) th target skill release control (Fig. 8 and Page 10 “Exemplarily, as shown in FIG. 8 , after clicking the A skill (first skill) button, the player can slide his finger from the A skill button 501 (the first skill control) to the B skill (second skill) button 502 . (second skill control) to determine the B skill that needs to be released, and then slide to the C skill (third skill) button 801 (third skill control) to determine the C skill that needs to be released. After that, the player can release the skill by releasing the finger to end the touch, sliding the finger to select the skill release direction, etc.”). However, Wu et al. does not teach displaying a skill release target selection wheel in a wheel display area corresponding to a determined target skill release control.
Wei et al. teaches displaying a skill release target selection wheel in a wheel display area corresponding to a determined target skill release control (Fig. 2-4 and Par. 51-54).
It would be desirable to modify the method and system of Wu et al. to include display of a skill release target selection wheel at the determined target skill release control for various skill target selection types as taught by Wei et al. in order to improve the play experience for the user by providing them with great precision and accuracy in targeting game skill be providing input feedback via the skill release target selection wheel for game skills whether the skill targets an object, direction, or area.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing of the invention to modify the method and system of Wu et al. to include display of a skill release target selection wheel at the determined target skill release control as taught by Wei et al.
In Reference to Claims 5 and 19
Wu et al. and Wei et al. teach determining a release target based on a position an end point of the skill linking operation in the skill release target selection wheel in response to the end of the skill linking operation (Wu et al. Page 7 as described above and Wei et al. Fig. 2-4 and Par. 51-54).
In Reference to Claim 6
Wu et al. and Wei et al. teach determining the release area based on a relative position relationship and a position of the first virtual object in a virtual environment in a case that the release target is the release area, the relative position relationship being based on a relative position between the operation end point and a center point of the release target selection wheel; determining the release direction based on an azimuth of the end point relative to the center point of the release target selection wheel in a case that the release target is the release direction; and determining the release object from a second virtual object based on the azimuth of the end point relative to the center point of the release target selection wheel in a case that the release target is the release object (Wei et al. Fig. 2-4 and Par. 51-54).
Claims 7-10 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wu et al., CN 113908534 A, in view of Mo et al., CN 111760274 A. In the interest of expediting prosecution, reference to Mo et al. will be made to the English Machine Translation of CN111760274A obtained by the examiner from espacenet.com, and the figures in the CN111760274A reference submitted by applicant.
In Reference to Claim 7
Wu et al. teaches controlling the first virtual object to release an mth target virtual skill in response to the end of the skill linking operation, m being a positive integer less than n; and controlling the first virtual object to release a (m+1) th target virtual skill in response to the end of the release of the mth target virtual skill (Page 9 “In some embodiments, the system may control the sequential release sequence of skills based on the player's relevant actions. As an example, the above step S430 may specifically include the following steps: Step e), in response to a second designated operation that is continuous with the first sliding operation, controlling the first virtual character to release the first skill, and continuously release the second skill after releasing the first skill.”).
However, Wu et al. does not teach switching the target skill release control corresponding to the mth target virtual skill from a releasable state to a skill cooling state based on a skill cooling duration of the mth target virtual skill.
Mo et al. teaches a system for release combinations of skills (Page 1 “The embodiments of the application provide a skill control method, device, storage medium, and computer equipment, which can release combined skills with one key”) which teaches switching the target skill release control corresponding to the mth target virtual skill from a releasable state to a skill cooling state based on a skill cooling duration of the mth target virtual skill (Fig. 11 and Page 12 “For example, when a combination skill or an independent skill is released, a skill cooling time will be set. Generally, the corresponding skill can be released after the skill cooling time expires” and “displaying the cooldown time of the combo skill at the combo control.“ As well as Page 8 “Optionally, in order for the user to more intuitively see the release state of the combined skill, when controlling the virtual object to release the combined skill associated with the target independent skill in the virtual scene, it can also control the skill corresponding to each independent skill in the combined skill The control is displayed dynamically. For example, the currently released combination skills include Skill 1, Skill 2, and Skill 4. When the combined skill is released, the control skill control 121, the skill control 122, and the skill control 124 will be displayed dynamically. The dynamic display may include flashing light and dark, Rotate, display time countdown, etc.” Which teaches that the cooldown or cooling time of the independent skills in a combo can be displayed on the skill when the skill it released as part of a combo.).
It would be desirable to modify the method of Wu et al. to display cooldown timers for skills released as part of combo as taught by Mo et al. so that the player can, in games that use skill cooldowns to manage game balance, be informed of the amount delay before the user can use that skill again as part of a combo and plan their gameplay accordingly.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the at the time of filing of the invention to modify the method of Wu et al. to display cooldown timers for skills released as part of combo as taught by Mo et al.
In Reference to Claim 8
Wu et al. teaches determining a kth skill release control as the target skill release control in response to that the skill linking operation passes through the kth skill release control, and the kth skill release control is in the releasable state, k being a positive integer less than or equal to n (Fig. 5-6 and Page 7 which teaches passing through two skills and then determining a skill release control operation after the user passes through the second skill).
In Reference to Claim 9
Wu et al. and Mo et al. teach acquiring a remaining cooling duration of the kth virtual skill in response to that the skill linking operation passes through the kth skill release control, and the kth skill release control is in the skill cooling state, k being a positive integer less than or equal to n (Wu et al. which teaches the skill linking operation and described above and Mo et al. Page 12 which teaches which teaches acquiring skill cooldown duration as described above in reference to Claim 7);
However, Wu et al. does not teach the controlling the first virtual object to release target virtual skills respectively corresponding to the n target skill release controls in response to the end of the skill linking operation comprises: controlling the first virtual object to release the n target virtual skills in response to the end of the skill linking operation and reaching the remaining cooling duration of all target virtual skills; or controlling the first virtual object to begin to release the target virtual skill in response to the end of the skill linking operation; controlling the first virtual object to pause the release of the skill in response to that a next target virtual skill is in the skill cooling state; and controlling the first virtual object to release the next target virtual skill in response to reaching the remaining cooling duration of the next target virtual skill.
Mo et al. teaches teach the controlling the first virtual object to release target virtual skills respectively corresponding to the n target skill release controls in response to the end of the skill linking operation comprises: controlling the first virtual object to release the n target virtual skills in response to the end of the skill linking operation and reaching the remaining cooling duration of all target virtual skills; or controlling the first virtual object to begin to release the target virtual skill in response to the end of the skill linking operation; controlling the first virtual object to pause the release of the skill in response to that a next target virtual skill is in the skill cooling state; and controlling the first virtual object to release the next target virtual skill in response to reaching the remaining cooling duration of the next target virtual skill (Page 12 “For example, when a combination skill or an independent skill is released, a skill cooling time will be set. Generally, the corresponding skill can be released after the skill cooling time expires. For example, when the number of times the combo skill is to be released is multiple, after the first release, before the second release, you need to wait for the cooldown to end before you can release it. For example, each independent skill has a fixed cooldown time. When different independent skills are combined into combo skills, the cooldown time of the combo skills obtained is different. The user can set the combo skills based on the cooldown of different independent skills. Time to set the number of skills and release sequence of the combo skills, so as to get combo skills with a shorter cooling time. For example, the time point of the cooldown before the second release starts can coincide with the release end time point of the first skill of the first release of the combined skill. When the release of the last skill of the first release of the combined skill ends, the cooling The time has come to the end, making the cooldown time overlap most of the release time of the first release of the skill, greatly reducing the waiting time between multiple combo releases.” Where the user has to wait to release a combo skill until the cooldown of the first skill in the combo has ended).
It would be desirable to modify the method of Wu et al. to include waiting for cooldown of the first skill to release the combo skill as taught by Mo et al. in order to ensure that players do not gain a competitive advantage from releasing skills more often than intended by the game designers as a result of using skills via the combo skill control.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing of the invention to modify the method of Wu et al. to include waiting for cooldown of the first skill to release the combo skill as taught by Mo et al.
In Reference to Claim 10
Wu et al. and Mo et al. teach displaying prompt information in response to that the skill linking operation passes through a kth skill release control, and the kth skill release control is in the skill cooling state, the prompt information being used for prompting that the kth virtual skill cannot be released, the kth virtual skill being a virtual skill corresponding to the kth skill release control, and k being a positive integer less than or equal to n (Mo et al. Fig. 11 and Page 12 which teaches displaying skill cooldown timers for combo skills. Where examiner considers this “prompt information.”).
In Reference to Claim 14
Wu et al. does not teach switching a display state of the target skill release control from a triggerable state to a non-triggerable state in response to the end of the skill linking operation; and further comprising: switching the display state of the target skill release control from the non-triggerable state to the triggerable state in response to the end of the release of all target virtual skills.
Moe et al. teaches switching a display state of the target skill release control from a triggerable state to a non-triggerable state in response to the end of the skill linking operation; and further comprising: switching the display state of the target skill release control from the non-triggerable state to the triggerable state in response to the end of the release of all target virtual skills (Page 12 “Optionally, before controlling the virtual object to release the combo skill associated with the target independent skill in the virtual scene, it also includes: displaying the cooldown time of the combo skill at the combo control, and controlling the virtual object when the cooldown time of the combo skill is over Release the combined skill associated with the target independent skill in the virtual scene.” And which further teaches that the cooldown of the combo skill is based on the specific cooldowns of the individual skills in the combo ending).
It would be desirable to modify the method of Wu et al. to display cooldown timers for skills in a combo as taught by Mo et al. so that the player can, in games that use skill cooldowns to manage game balance, be informed of the amount delay before the user can use that skill again as part of a combo and plan their gameplay accordingly.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the at the time of filing of the invention to modify the method of Wu et al. to display cooldown timers for skills released as part of combo as taught by Mo et al.
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wu et al., CN 113908534 A, in view of Mo et al., CN 111760274 A and Gerhard et al., US 2018/0311582.
In Reference to Claim 11
Wu et al. teaches determining a jth skill link line in response to that the skill linking operation moves from a jth target skill release control to a (j+1) th target skill release control, the jth skill link line being used for linking the jth target skill release control and the (j+1) th target skill release control, and j being a positive integer less than n; and where the skill link line is between all target skill release controls (See Fig. 5-8 and Page 7, which teaches a skill link line determination based on the user’s sliding operation represented visually by the arrows shown in Fig 5-8). However, Wu et al. does not explicitly teach where the skill like line is displayed by the terminal, or canceling the display of the skill link line in response to the end of the release of all target virtual skills.
Gerhard et al. teaches a game interface with a plurality of skill icons and which teaches displaying a skill link line to indicate an association between the icons to the player (Fig. 4-5 and Par. 50, 72 and 81 “graphical link”).
It would be desirable to modify the method of Wu et al. to display the skill linking line as taught by Gerhard et al. in order to provide feedback to inform the player of the combo skill operation being interpreted by the game system so that the player can ensure that commands are executed or cancelled as actually desired.
Mo et al. teaches a combo skill display and canceling the display of the combo skill display in response to the end of the release of all target virtual skills (Page 16-17 “Optionally, the control module 304 can also be used to: in response to a second operation of moving from the skill control of the target independent skill to the combo control, display a combo progress bar, which is used to indicate that the combo is independent of the target. The skill release time of the combo skill associated with the skill, and control the virtual object to release the combo skill associated with the target independent skill in the virtual scene, and update the combo progress bar according to the change information of the skill release time of the combo skill; when the combo skill When the release is complete, the combo progress bar ends.” Which teaches ending a display indicator for an in progress combo command once all the skills of the combo have been released).
It would be desirable to modify the method of Wu et al. and Gerhard et al. to end display of the combo skill indicator once the combo skill has been completed, as taught by Mo et al. in order to avoid cluttering the user interface with no longer relevant combo displays. Particularly where the user is performing various different combinations of various different skills.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing of the invention to modify the method of Wu et al. to display the skill linking line as taught by Gerhard et al. and to modify the method of Wu et al. and Gerhard et al. to end display of the combo skill indicator once the combo skill has been completed, as taught by Mo et al.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CARL V LARSEN whose telephone number is (571)270-3219. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Friday; 10:00 am - 6:30 pm.
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/CARL V LARSEN/ Examiner, Art Unit 3715