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 . This action is in response to the arguments submitted June 11, 2026. Claims 1, 3-5, 7-9 and 11-14 are pending, all examined and rejected.
Priority
As requested by applicant on June 15, 2026, acknowledgement is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority. The certified copies have been received. This is also acknowledged on the PTOL-326 form.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, and 12-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Piersol United States Patent Application Publication US 2011/0320935 in view of Wolff United States Patent US 6,833,848.
With regard to Independent Claim 1,
Regarding claim 1, Piersol discloses a document generation method, comprising:
receiving a first input performed by a user for selecting a type of a to-be-generated document on a photographing preview interface, wherein the photographing preview interface comprises a photo option and a document option; (Piersol, para [0093], with regards to fig 2A, new form view 734 includes multiple templates (each template interpreted as a document type). Selection of template adds it to a list maintained by the inbox; Piersol, para [0084], inbox contains forms for a user to select to open and fill); See also Fig. 2A, showing “photographing preview interface” comprising camera button 212 – photo option, document options 734.
entering a creation mode for a document of a target type and displaying at least one component of a to-be-generated target document in the creation mode, in response to the first input (Piersol, [0084, 0089], Selection of template adds it to a list maintained by the inbox which can then be selected to open form view mode; Piersol, para [0094]form view mode displays document, BRI of “input” in view of specification can include multiple “sub-inputs”);
receiving a second input performed by a user for adding a picture to the at least one component (Piersol, para [0095], with regards to fig 7, element 702, receives a capture image command by a user);
capturing a target picture and adding the target picture to the at least one component, in response to the second input (Piersol, para [0096], with regards to fig 7, element 702, captures image; Piersol, para [0097], after determining if there is a rectangle within the document available for insertion of the image, adds image to spacing of unfilled rectangle area (714 or 718)).
generating a target document in response to a third input for generating the target document (Piersol, para [0104], user can select to update an image in a rectangular area by selecting checkbox and can cancel if the current image for the rectangle is determined to not be edited).
Piersol does not disclose the additional limitations of:
wherein the receiving a second input performed by a user for adding a picture to the at least one component comprises:
receiving a first sub-input performed by the user for selecting a target component in the target document, and receiving a second sub-input performed by the user for capturing the target picture; and
the capturing a target picture and adding the target picture to the at least one component, in response to the second input comprises:
capturing the target picture and adding the target picture to the target component according to an order of photographing time, in response to the second input, wherein captured target pictures are sequentially added to their respective target component according to the order of photographing time.
Wolff discloses wherein the receiving a second input performed by a user for adding a picture to the at least one component comprises:
receiving a first sub-input performed by the user for selecting a target component in the target document, and receiving a second sub-input performed by the user for capturing the target picture (Wolff, col 8, rows 43-67, allows input to add component to corresponding track); and
the capturing a target picture and adding the target picture to the at least one component, in response to the second input comprises:
capturing the target picture and adding the target picture to the target component according to an order of photographing time, in response to the second input, wherein captured target pictures are sequentially added to their respective target component according to the order of photographing time (Wolff, col 9-10, rows 59-67 and 1-4, system has an attached image capturing device to be used to take images when video input changes by more than some predetermined threshold. The images captured by the video camera may be added to the top track and available for inclusion in authored stories; Wolff, col 4, rows 54-65, top track shows images of photographs ordered by time of creation).
Before the time of the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have modified the capturing and insertion of images into a document to include the selection from a set of images. The motivation for doing so would have been to allow a user to generate digital stories in a portable less complex manner (Wolff, col 1, rows 15-37).
Regarding claim 4, Piersol in view of Wolff discloses the method according to claim 1. Piersol additionally discloses further comprising: receiving a fourth input performed by a user for adjusting the target picture in the target document; and adjusting a position of the target picture in the target document in response to the fourth input (Piersol, para [0104], user can select to move the captured image from 1 rectangle to another within the document via “move” command).
Claims 5, 9, 13 and 14 recite substantially similar limitations to claim 1 and are thus similarly rejected.
Claims 8 and 12 recite substantially similar limitations to claim 4 and are thus similarly rejected.
Claim(s) 3, 7 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Piersol United States Patent Application Publication US 2011/0320935 in view of Wolff United States Patent US 6,833,848 further in view of Masterson United States Patent Application Publication US 2015/0277722
Regarding claim 3, Piersol in view of Wolff discloses the method according to claim 1. Piersol in view of Wolff does not explicitly disclose wherein the displaying at least one component of a to-be-generated target document in the creation mode comprises: displaying a directory list of the target document in the creation mode.
Masterson discloses wherein the displaying at least one component of a to-be-generated target document in the creation mode comprises: displaying a directory list of the target document in the creation mode (Masterson, with regards to fig 4D, powerpoint editor shows a list of pages within the document).
Before the time of the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have modified the document generation to include the steps of Masterson. The motivation for doing so would have been to allow a user to more efficiently generate documents to be sent within a workflow (Masterson, para [0002-3]).
Claims 7 and 11 recite substantially similar limitations to claim 3 and are thus similarly rejected.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments regarding the 35 U.S.C. 103 rejection have been considered but are not persuasive.
Applicant argues that both “Feature A” and “Feature B” as described in the remarks filed 6/11/2026 are novel and non-obvious over the cited references. With regard to “Feature A”, the examiner yet again notes that the term “photographing preview interface” is broader than what applicant is arguing. The BRI of “photographing preview interface” is an interface on a device that is capable of previewing photographs either already captured or to be captured. If applicant wishes to add additional limitations such as requiring virtual controls through touch and to exclude physical buttons then the claims must be amended to positively recite these features.
With regard to the second argument that the photographing preview interface is only brought up after the user selects the form, the examiner disagrees. Fig. 2A clearly shows the ability to select forms and this is further discussed in [0093]. Even if other forms are available selection before, (a) this does not exclude the forms also being selectable on other screens that also map to the claim language as discussed previously and (b) even if it did, as noted previously the interface is capable of including multiple screens.
The applicant’s second comments about if the interface shown by the output device 220 in Piersol corresponds to the photographing preview interface are moot as this is an alternative argument however it is noted that while the output device 220 is part of the interface it is not being mapped to the entirety of the interface.
With regard to “Feature B”, these arguments are not persuasive. In response to the argument that Piersol “does not explain the specific process” by which the computing pad creates the new form, the examiner notes that there is no requirement Piersol has to have such details. The claim only requires that the device broadly “enters a creation mode” which, as it appears applicant agrees, Piersol does.
The examiner notes that this is a crowded field of art. If applicant wishes to obtain a patent in this field precise language that captures applicant’s invention is required. Broad terms such as “photographing preview interface” or “creation mode” without specific details as to what those interfaces and modes include and exclude are not helpful to further prosecution. The examiner strongly recommends applicant add significant detail to these terms to help move this application forward.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MATT ELL whose telephone number is (571)270-3264. The examiner can normally be reached 9-5, M-F.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Christyann Pulliam can be reached at 571-270-1007. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MATTHEW ELL/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2141
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