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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed on 2/15/2024.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 2/2/24, 7/31/24, 11/18/24, 12/30/24 & 1/16/25 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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 1-24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Donkey Kong Country Returns (Donkey Kong Country Returns for the Wii released November 21, 2010; referred to hereinafter as Donkey Kong).
Claims 1, 7, 13 & 19: Donkey Kong disclose computer-readable non-transitory storage medium having stored therein instructions that, when executed by a processor of the information processing apparatus (Wii console), cause the information processing apparatus to, in a virtual space where at least a player character object and terrain objects are placed (see figure 1 below which disclose virtual space), control at least the player character object and a virtual camera (see figure below, wherein player controls the characters and the camera is inherently controlled by the character actions);
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and draw, in a frame buffer, objects in the virtual space, on the basis of orthographic projection,
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and further, in a first scene in a game, perform drawing while performing, by a vertex shader, such transformation that, among the objects in the virtual space (see characters and objects in figure), at least the player character object and one or some of the terrain objects are moved to a near side and are enlarged, or are moved to a far side and are reduced (figures below disclose objects moved/moving to far side is/are reduced in size, bottom figure disclose “regular” size, while the lower figures discloses reduced size for far side).
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Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-6, 8-12, 14-17 & 20-24 objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Examiner’s Note
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Nishida (11,645,811) refers to an information processing device for drawing an object arranged in a three-dimensional virtual space, in an expression viewed from a virtual camera, the object including a field object associated with a two-dimensional plane defined by a first axis and a second axis, and a specific object arranged on the field object, the device including: a change processing unit changing a region of the field object falling within a viewing angle of the virtual camera; and a deformation processing unit deforming the field object, in which in a case where the region is changed by the change processing unit, the deformation processing unit makes a deformation mode of the field object different when it is determined that the specific object is positioned in the region after being changed and when it is determined that the specific object is not positioned in the region after being changed.
Yonezu (11,219,829) refers to image processing apparatus disposes a virtual camera and a terrain object in a virtual space, and generates grass objects at a predetermined region located with reference to a land horizon that is a boundary between the terrain object and a background as viewed from the virtual camera. A player character is displayed at a position closer to the virtual camera, and the grass objects are generated in the predetermined region located with reference to the land horizon. Therefore, the terrain can be represented to look real, and the player character can be more easily seen.
The referenced citations made in the rejection(s) above are intended to exemplify areas in the prior art document(s) in which the examiner believed are the most relevant to the claimed subject matter. However, it is incumbent upon the applicant to analyze the prior art document(s) in its/their entirety since other areas of the document(s) may be relied upon at a later time to substantiate examiner's rationale of record. A prior art reference must be considered in its entirety, i.e., as a whole, including portions that would lead away from the claimed invention. W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc. v. Garlock, Inc., 721 F.2d 1540, 220 USPQ 303 (Fed. Cir. 1983), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 851 (1984). However, "the prior art's mere disclosure of more than one alternative does not constitute a teaching away from any of these alternatives because such disclosure does not criticize, discredit, or otherwise discourage the solution claimed ...." In re Fulton, 391F.3d 1195, 1201,73 USPQ2d 1141, 1146 (Fed. Cir. 2004).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SUNIT PANDYA whose telephone number is (571)272-2823. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:30-6:30PM.
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/SUNIT PANDYA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715