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 .
Claim Objections
Claims 19 and 20 are objected to because of the following informalities: please properly space claims 19 and 20 to show separate claims. Appropriate correction is required.
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 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception (i.e., a law of nature, a natural phenomenon, or an abstract idea) without significantly more.
Independent claims 1, 12, and 20 recite the following abstract ideas:
receiving a first request to associate a first character with a first place, the first character having been associated with a second place (certain methods of organizing human activity, CMOHA, such as managing relationships between people, where a person can move to/from different locations);
presenting a first space corresponding to the first place (a first location that a person can occupy); and
providing a first set of items available to the first character in the first space (a person can own, buy, use, or the like a variety of items, e.g., a person can use food, furniture, tools, or the like while in the first location), and
disabling a second set of items corresponding to the first set of items in the second place for the first character, wherein a first set of attributes of the first set of items are determined based on a second set of attributes of the second set of items (according to rules and/or unavailability of particular items, the person cannot use some items while is in the second location, note, some item features are modified or not provided as a person changes locations).
Claims 1, 12, and 20 fall under “certain methods of organizing human activity” related to a person traveling to and from different locations to obtain and/or use a variety of objects, which is common human activity. The claims appear to translate this common human activity into a virtual world. However, simply taking known human behavior and implementing into a virtual world does not meet the criteria to overcome 101 requirements.
Claims 1, 12, and 20 does not recite additional elements that integrated into a practical application because the claimed “electronic device”, “processing unit”, “memory”, “virtual items”, and “virtual environment” are related to using computer components as tools to perform the abstract ideas, and linking a particular technological environment to the abstract ideas.
Claims 1, 12, and 20 does not recite additional elements that amount to significantly more that the judicial exceptions because the claimed “electronic device”, “processing unit”, “memory”, “virtual items”, and “virtual environment” are related to using computer components as tools to perform the abstract ideas, and linking a particular technological environment to the abstract ideas. The additional elements taken individually and in combination do not result in the claims as a whole amounting to significantly more than the judicial exceptions.
Dependent claims 2-11 and 12-19 do not include additional elements that are sufficient to (a) integrate the judicial exceptions into a practical application and/or (b) amount to significantly more than the judicial exceptions because they recite additional limitations relating to “certain methods of organizing human activity”.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claims 1-6, 8-17, 19, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by CN Pub. 114432699 as evidence provided by Google Patents English Translation - https://patents.google.com/patent/CN114432699A/en?oq=CN114432699 to Tencent Technology Shenzhen (herein referred to as Tencent).
Claims 1, 12, and 20. Tencent discloses an electronic device comprising:
at least one processing unit; and
at least one memory, the at least one memory being coupled to the at least one processing unit and storing instructions for execution by the at least one processing unit, the instructions, when executed by the at least one processing unit, causing the device to perform a method comprising:
receiving a first request to associate a first character with a first place in a virtual environment (“virtual room enabled application is an application that a user can control to move a virtual character within the virtual room”), the first character having been associated with a second place (“second virtual room”);
presenting a first space corresponding to the first place in the virtual environment (“the first virtual room and the first virtual character”); and
providing a first set of virtual items available to the first character in the first space (“placing operation of the target prop, the target prop is placed in the first virtual room”), and
disabling a second set of virtual items corresponding to the first set of virtual items in the second place for the first character, wherein a first set of attributes of the first set of virtual items are determined based on a second set of attributes of the second set of virtual items (“virtual item refers to a virtual object that exists in the second virtual room and can be commercialized. For example, virtual props include, but are not limited to, virtual props, virtual furniture, virtual pets, virtual appliances, virtual clothing, virtual plants, virtual food, virtual travel tools, virtual house models, virtual raw materials, virtual semi-finished products, virtual equipment, and virtual service displays one or more of the regions. Taking the second virtual room as a virtual supermarket as an example, the virtual supermarket is filled with virtual items such as various styles of virtual daily necessities, virtual food, virtual appliances, and virtual clothing; taking the second virtual room as a virtual sales department as an example, There are a variety of virtual house models placed in the virtual sales department; the second virtual room is an example of a virtual car dealership, where a variety of virtual cars, virtual electric cars, virtual skateboards and other virtual props are placed in the virtual car dealership; the second virtual room is used as an example. Taking a virtual bedroom as an example, virtual props such as a virtual single bed, a virtual wardrobe, a virtual dresser, a virtual mirror, a virtual sofa, a virtual TV, and a virtual desk lamp are placed in the virtual bedroom”).
Claims 2 and 13. Tencent discloses wherein receiving the first request comprises:
in response to a second character being associated with the second place (“second virtual character 315 controlled by a homeowner account is also displayed in the second virtual room”), providing a request entry for associating the first character with the first place; and
receiving the first request based on a selection of the request entry (“first virtual character to return to the first virtual room in response to the second switching operation of returning to the first virtual room”; and “In response to the triggering operation of the first account on the selection control 611, the first virtual room is displayed. The entrance 612”).
Claims 3 and 14. Tencent discloses further comprising:
in response to the first character moving to a second space corresponding to the second place in the virtual environment, providing a usage entry for using a third set of virtual items in the second space, the third set of virtual items being different from the second set of virtual items (“Taking the second virtual room as a virtual supermarket as an example, the virtual supermarket is filled with virtual items such as various styles of virtual daily necessities, virtual food, virtual appliances, and virtual clothing; taking the second virtual room as a virtual sales department as an example, There are a variety of virtual house models placed in the virtual sales department; the second virtual room is an example of a virtual car dealership, where a variety of virtual cars, virtual electric cars, virtual skateboards and other virtual props are placed in the virtual car dealership; the second virtual room is used as an example. Taking a virtual bedroom as an example, virtual props such as a virtual single bed, a virtual wardrobe, a virtual dresser, a virtual mirror, a virtual sofa, a virtual TV, and a virtual desk lamp are placed in the virtual bedroom”).
Claims 4 and 15. Tencent discloses wherein the first set of virtual items comprise a set of manufacturing items in the virtual environment, and the first set of attributes characterize at least a manufacturing capability of a set of manufacturing items (“virtual props include, but are not limited to, virtual props, virtual furniture, virtual pets, virtual appliances, virtual clothing, virtual plants, virtual food, virtual travel tools, virtual house models, virtual raw materials, virtual semi-finished products, virtual equipment”).
Claims 5 and 16. Tencent discloses further comprising:
in response to the first character being located in the first space, providing a first warehouse entry for accessing a private warehouse space of the first character; and
in response to the first character being located in the second space, providing a second warehouse entry for accessing the private warehouse space of the first character, wherein the first warehouse entry and the second warehouse entry correspond to the same data (“a virtual supermarket as an example, the virtual supermarket is filled with virtual items… virtual sales department”).
Claims 6 and 17. Tencent discloses wherein a number of the first set of virtual items and/or a capability of the first set of virtual items is further determined based on a place attribute associated with the first place (“first room data includes but is not limited to at least one of the following data: the room area of the first virtual room, the room shape of the first virtual room, the orientation of doors and windows in the first virtual room, the The number of virtual props in the first virtual room, the type of virtual props in the first virtual room, and the placement position of the virtual props in the first virtual room in the room”).
Claims 8 and 19. Tencent discloses further comprising:
in response to receiving a second request for controlling the first character to drop out of the first place, disassociating the first character from the first place such that the first character can use the second set of virtual items corresponding to the first set of virtual items in the second place (“switching operation is used to implement display switching between the first virtual room and the second virtual room”).
Claim 9. Tencent discloses further comprising:
receiving the second request based on an interaction between the first character and the first place (“Chat information for communicating and interacting”).
Claim 10. Tencent discloses wherein the second place is further associated with a second character, the method further comprises:
receiving an invitation from the second character to invite the first character to return to the second place (“second virtual room is one of at least one recommended virtual room”); and
receiving the second request based on a confirmation of the invitation by the first character (“Display the second virtual room in response to the confirmation operation on the virtual room entrance of the second virtual room”).
Claim 11. Tencent discloses further comprising:
receiving a third request for a third character to access the first space; and
presenting the first space of the virtual environment to a user associated with the third character (“third virtual character… is optionally displayed in the second virtual room”).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US Pub. 20200368623 to Wu et al (Wu).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DAMON J PIERCE whose telephone number is (571)270-1997. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8am-5pm.
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/DAMON J PIERCE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715