Office Action Predictor
Last updated: April 15, 2026
Application No. 18/411,363

COMPUTER-GENERATED REALITY PLATFORM FOR GENERATING COMPUTER-GENERATED REALITY ENVIRONMENTS

Final Rejection §103
Filed
Jan 12, 2024
Examiner
GOOD JOHNSON, MOTILEWA
Art Unit
2619
Tech Center
2600 — Communications
Assignee
Apple INC.
OA Round
2 (Final)
73%
Grant Probability
Favorable
3-4
OA Rounds
3y 4m
To Grant
87%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 73% — above average
73%
Career Allow Rate
608 granted / 831 resolved
+11.2% vs TC avg
Moderate +14% lift
Without
With
+14.1%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
3y 4m
Avg Prosecution
35 currently pending
Career history
866
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
8.9%
-31.1% vs TC avg
§103
48.8%
+8.8% vs TC avg
§102
24.4%
-15.6% vs TC avg
§112
11.0%
-29.0% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 831 resolved cases

Office Action

§103
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 Rejections - 35 USC § 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 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) 2-21 are is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bradski et al., U.S. Patent Publication Number 2016/0026253 A1, in view of Keane et al., U.S. Patent Publication Number 2014/0368532 A1. Regarding claim 2, Bradski discloses an electronic device, comprising: one or more processors; and memory storing one or more programs configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs including instructions for: providing to a process of an operating system of the electronic device, by a process of a first application, a first data object (paragraph 0584, object recognizers may use inherent properties of an object to facilitate object identification; paragraph 0585, for example, a “cup finder” object recognizer may be associated with one, two or more application in which identifying a presence of a cup in physical space would be useful); providing to the process of the operating system, by a process of a second application, a second data object different from the first data object (paragraph 0586, applications can be logically connected for associated with defined recognizable visual data or models; paragraph 00587, AR system may employ an instance of a generic wall finder object recognizer; paragraph 0591, object recognizer developers may be allowed to post object recognizers for linking or associating with applications developed by other object recognizer or application developers); rendering, by the process of the operating system, a three-dimensional representation (paragraph 0574, allows virtual content to meaningfully interact with the user’s real surroundings in a coherent manner; for example, a virtual “monster” may be rendered to be originating from a particular building of the real world); (paragraph 0574, passable world contains persistent digital representations of real spaces that is crucially utilized in rendering virtual and/or digital content in relation to real coordinates of a physical space). However, it is noted that Bradski discloses two different application and object recognition, but fails to disclose object data of the first data object at a first position in a three-dimensional computer-generated reality environment, wherein the three-dimensional representation of the first data object is rendered at the first position in accordance with a first coordinate system associated with the first application; rendering, by the process of the operating system, a three-dimensional representation of the second data object at a second position in the three-dimensional computer-generated reality environment, wherein the three-dimensional representation of the second data object is rendered in accordance with a second coordinate system associated with the second application; and causing a display of the rendered three-dimensional computer-generated reality environment including the three-dimensional representation of the first data object at the first position and the three-dimensional representation of the second data object at the second position, wherein the three-dimensional computer-generated reality environment is rendered in accordance with a global coordinate frame that is different from the first coordinate system and the second coordinate system. Keane discloses providing a first data object (figure 3C, 1010, marker; paragraph 0039, a marker 1010 associated with a virtual definition 1020, object data including object location information); providing a second data object different from the first data object (paragraph 0084, third party objects include content information available from third-party social interaction service which is retrieved; paragraph 0085, third-party aggregator retrieves information from third-party social media services, each of which may provide information that can be used to populate virtual objects; third party objects, 966; figure 4A, 1015, Yelp); rendering, by the process of the operating system, a three-dimensional representation of the first data object at a first position in a three-dimensional computer-generated reality environment, wherein the three-dimensional representation of the first data object is rendered at the first position in accordance with a first coordinate system associated with the first application (paragraph 0056, build a model of the environment including the x, y, z Cartesian positions of all users, real world objects and virtual three-dimensional objects in the room or other environment; paragraph 0083, object location information can include, for a given area, a three-dimensional map of the location; see also figure 3A); rendering, by the process of the operating system, a three-dimensional representation of the second data object at a second position in the three-dimensional computer-generated reality environment, wherein the three-dimensional representation of the second data object is rendered in accordance with a second coordinate system associated with the second application (paragraph 0042, third-party markers as associated with virtual objects whose information may be derived from third-party services; paragraph 0084, third party object objects can be created by third-party social interaction services, or created by the central service using mapping engine and information available form third-party social interaction service; this information may include the allowable rendering locations; figure 3C); and causing a display of the rendered three-dimensional computer-generated reality environment including the three-dimensional representation of the first data object at the first position and the three-dimensional representation of the second data object at the second position, wherein the three-dimensional computer-generated reality environment is rendered in accordance with a global coordinate frame that is different from the first coordinate system and the second coordinate system (paragraph 0086, mapping engine associates global coordinate location information with location data from users and from third-party service aggregator; figure 4A). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include in the different applications working within a user’s environment as disclosed by Bradski, providing with the different applications, object data and further including it within a global coordinate system as disclosed by Keane, to provide a passable world which contains persistent digital representations of real spaces that is crucially utilized in rendering virtual and/or digital content in relation to real coordinates of a physical space so that a user can interact in a common virtual world. Regarding claim 3, Keane discloses wherein rendering, by the process of the operating system, the three-dimensional representation of the first data object at the first position in the three-dimensional computer-generated reality environment includes: receiving, from the process of the first application, the first coordinate system associated with the first application (figure 3A, first coordinate system associated with the first process); and mapping the first coordinate system to the global coordinate frame without providing the global coordinate frame to the process of the first application (figure 3B; paragraph 0087, add global coordinate information to user generated data). Regarding claim 4, Bradski discloses wherein the one or more programs further include instructions for: rendering, by the process of the operating system, an interaction between the three- dimensional representation of the first data object and the three-dimensional representation of the second data object (paragraph 0788, Map 5106 may comprise a passable world model. The passable world model allows a user to effectively “pass” over a piece of the user's world (i.e., ambient surroundings, interactions, etc.) to another user; paragraph 0862, virtual object may also be dynamic; paragraph 0862, a virtual object may respond to a user device or component thereof (e.g., a virtual ball moves when a haptic device is placed next to it), physical or verbal user interaction (e.g., a virtual creature runs away when the user approaches it, or speaks when the user speaks to it), a chair is thrown at a virtual creature and the creature dodges the chair, other virtual objects (e.g., a first virtual creature reacts when it sees a second virtual creature), physical variables such as location, distance, temperature, time, etc. or other physical objects in the user's environment (e.g., a virtual creature shown standing in a physical street becomes flattened when a physical car passes)). Regarding claim 5, Bradski discloses wherein the three-dimensional representation of the first data object is rendered, by the process of the operating system, with one or more visual effects based on one or more properties of the second data object (paragraph 0892, user receives the cup of coffee that he has ordered, or upon detection by the system of some other pertinent parameter, the system may display (6110) one or more time-based augmented or virtual reality images, video, and/or sound in the local environment with the display device, such as a Madagascar jungle scene from the walls and ceilings, with or without jungle sounds and other effects). Regarding claim 6, Bradski discloses wherein one or more visual effects include lighting, shadows, reflections, collisions, occlusion, or a combination thereof (paragraph 0702, apply effective image based lighting to virtual content in the AR system). Regarding claim 7, Bradski discloses wherein the one or more programs further include instructions for: receiving information associated with the rendering of the three-dimensional representation of the first data object; and forgoing providing a portion of the received information to the process of the first application (paragraph 0722, AR system may statistically process voice inflection (e.g., not content of utterances), and animate or modify an emotional expression of the corresponding avatar to reflect an emotion of the respective user which the avatar represents; [0723] For example, if a user has selected an avatar that resembles a pumpkin, in response to detecting patterns in the user's voice that indicate anger, the AR system may render teeth in a mouth cutout of the pumpkin avatar. As a further example, a user may have an avatar that resembles a particular character. In response to detection of vocal inflections that indicate inquisitiveness, the AR system may render an avatar that resembles the particular character, for instance with mouth moving and eyes are looking around is same manner as the user's mouth and eyes, etc.; paragraph 0191, Dynamic objects representing a two-dimensional or three-dimensional object within the scene presented to a user can be, for example, broken down into component shapes, such as a static shape that is moving but is not changing, and a dynamic shape that is changing. The part of the dynamic object that is changing can be updated by a real-time; Examiner interprets the component shapes with dynamic and static and updating of the dynamic, as forgoing the static in the updating). Regarding claim 8, Bradski discloses wherein the portion of the received information includes eye tracking information, motion tracking information, or a combination thereof (paragraph 1001, interaction with the virtual user interface is always being tracked (e.g., eye interaction, gesture interaction, hand interaction, head interaction, etc.). These interactions (or characteristics of these interactions), including, but not limited to location of the interaction, force of interaction, direction of the interaction, frequency of interaction, number of interactions, nature of interactions, etc. are used to allow the user to provide user input to the user interface in response to the displayed virtual user interface). Regarding claims 9-15, they are rejected based upon similar rational as above claims 2-8 respectively. Bradski further discloses a method (paragraph 0017). Regarding claims 16-21, they are rejected based upon similar rational as above claims 2-5 and 7-8, respectively. Bradski further discloses an electronic device (paragraph 0017). Response to Arguments Applicant's arguments filed 09/29/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. In response to applicant's arguments against the references individually, one cannot show nonobviousness by attacking references individually where the rejections are based on combinations of references. See In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 208 USPQ 871 (CCPA 1981); In re Merck & Co., 800 F.2d 1091, 231 USPQ 375 (Fed. Cir. 1986). Applicant argues the prior art cited Bradski fails to disclose the virtual content tied to different parts of the user’s body being provided by different applications. Examiner responds Keane discloses different applications and Bradski discloses virtual conte may be tied to one or more coordinate systems. Therefore the combination would render obvious virtual content provided by different application tied to one or more coordinate systems for interaction in a common virtual world. Applicant argues the global copy of the world model as disclosed by Bradski are a three-dimensional representation of a data object. Examiner responds Keane discloses paragraph 0056, build a model of the environment including the x, y, z Cartesian positions of all users, real world objects and virtual three-dimensional objects in the room or other environment. Applicant argues Keane fails to disclose the marker as provided are not three-dimensional representations of a data object where the data object tis provided by an application. Examiner responds as stated above. Keane discloses in paragraph 0057, virtual three-dimensional objects. Applicant argues the prior art cited Keane further fails to disclose wherein the three-dimensional representation of the first data object is rendered at the first position in accordance with a first coordinate system with the first application. Examiner responds the combination of Bradski in view of Keane discloses paragraph 0591, object recognizer developers may be allowed to post object recognizers for linking or associating with applications developed by other object recognizer or application developers and Keane discloses paragraph 0042, third-party markers as associated with virtual objects whose information may be derived from third-party services and paragraph 0086, mapping engine associates global coordinate location information with location data from users and from third-party service aggregator; figure 4A. Applicant argues independent claim 16, the prior art Bradski in view of Keane fails to disclose “the first data object is rendered without providing the first position of the first data object or the second position of the second data object in the three-dimensional computer-generated reality environment to the process of the first application” or that “the second data object is rendered without providing the first position of the first data object or the second position of the second data object in the three-dimensional computer-generated reality environment to the process of the second application”. Examiner responds Kean discloses paragraph 0086, mapping engine associates global coordinate location information with location data from users and from third-party service aggregator. Conclusion The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Peuhkurienen, EP 2793127 B1 Peuhkurienen discloses paragraph 0057, a first application context on an operating system of a computer system; paragraph 0057, a second process running in a second application context on the operating system; paragraph 0063, loading the first process processing the first 3D cube 1 and the second process processing the second 3D cube 2 to the display server; display server displays both cubes 1 and 2. Stall et al., U.S. Patent Number 10,650,541 B2 Stall discloses multiple applications 114 are to be integrated with the virtual environment 106; such as text, images, movies, and/or two- and/or three-dimensional models that comprise the application environment 116, and the virtual environment 106 again comprises a set of virtual objects 110 and a dynamic perspective 108 of the user 102. The headset 104 of the user 102 integrates the application environment 116 with the virtual environment 106. THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a). A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Motilewa Good-Johnson whose telephone number is (571)272-7658. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 6am-2:30pm. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jason Chan can be reached at 571-272-3022. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. MOTILEWA . GOOD JOHNSON Primary Examiner Art Unit 2616 /MOTILEWA GOOD-JOHNSON/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2619
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Prosecution Timeline

Jan 12, 2024
Application Filed
Sep 19, 2024
Response after Non-Final Action
Jul 30, 2025
Non-Final Rejection — §103
Aug 28, 2025
Applicant Interview (Telephonic)
Aug 29, 2025
Examiner Interview Summary
Sep 29, 2025
Response Filed
Jan 15, 2026
Final Rejection — §103
Mar 30, 2026
Request for Continued Examination
Apr 01, 2026
Response after Non-Final Action

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Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

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Prosecution Projections

3-4
Expected OA Rounds
73%
Grant Probability
87%
With Interview (+14.1%)
3y 4m
Median Time to Grant
Moderate
PTA Risk
Based on 831 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow rate.

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