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
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 1, 6, & 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Spradley (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0255915) in view of Holiday (U.S. Patent No. 4,748,323).
Claim 1: Spradley discloses the invention substantially as claimed including a game controller (figure 1) comprising:
a substrate (figure 1[circuit board 3];
a stick to be operated by a user (figure 1[joystick handle 7]); and
a functional component that performs a controller function (figure 1[buttons or switches 11]), the functional component being different from the stick (paragraph 0014),
wherein the substrate includes (i) a front surface and a rear surface opposite to the front surface (figure 1, wherein the substrate is clearly illustrated with both a front or top surface and a rear or bottom surface, opposite the front surface) and (ii) a circuit provided on the front surface and electrically connected to the functional component (paragraph 0013, wherein the front or top surface includes a circuit having contacts and necessarily wiring to provide functionality to the game controller buttons).
Spradley, however, does not explicitly disclose that the stick includes an arm that moves as the stick is operated, the arm extending from a side of the front surface toward a side of the rear surface, and the substrate includes a first sensor provided on the rear surface, the first sensor directly or indirectly detecting a motion of the arm.
That is, while Spradley discloses a joystick included within the game controller, the specificity of aspects pertaining to the joystick and associated mechanisms is not taught by Spradley. Regardless of the deficiency, at the time of Applicant’s invention, these features in joystick designer were well-known. Holiday discloses a joystick assembly that, similarly to Spradley, includes a handle or stick (figure 1[handle 21]) and a circuit board having a top or first surface and a rear or bottom surface (figure 2[circuit board 36]). Holiday further discloses the stick includes an arm that moves as the stick is operated (figure 2[shaft 19]), where the arm extends from the front or top surface of the circuit board through an opening in the circuit board (figure 2[opening 37]) toward the rear or bottom surface of the circuit board (figure 2[lower end of shaft 19] and column 2, lines 32-35). Holiday utilizes sensors mounted to the bottom or rear surface of the circuit board to detect motion of the arm (abstract and column 2, line 12 – column 3, line 31, wherein Holiday discloses various light emitter-detector devices as sensors and uses a light blocking member 48 to generate signals pertaining to the tilt or movement of the joystick).
It would have been prima facie obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to those skilled in the art to have modified Spradley with the teachings of Holiday to incorporate the specificity of how Holiday’s joystick operates and the specificity associated therewith (i.e. substrate mounting sensors to rear surface, opening through substrate for shaft, and using the rear surface mounted sensors to detection movement of the arm) in order to provide a joystick means in the Spradley game controller that eliminates mechanical contacts (Holiday, abstract and column 1, lines 13-32) such as the actuators of Spradley and instead utilize movement detection means that require no physical contact (Holiday, abstract) of the joystick to actuators, detectors, sensors, or the like.
Claim 6: The combination of Spradley & Holiday discloses that the stick includes a first member that swings in a first direction of swing with swing of the stick, and a second member that swings in a second direction of swing with swing of the stick, the second direction of swing being different from the first direction of swing, and the arm moves with swing of the first member (Holiday, figures 2-4, where in a broadest reasonable interpretation, a first portion of disc 48 is interpreted as a first member and second portion of disc 48 is interpreted as the second member, such that when tilting the joystick in one direction as illustrated in figure 3, the first member or portion of disc 48 swings in the direction of the swing of the stick, while the second member or second portion of disc 48 on an opposite end, swings in an opposite direction, where in at least one perspective the arm has moved in the same direction as the first member as illustrated in figure 3).
Claim 10: The combination of Spradley & Holiday discloses that the functional component is a button, the button includes a button operated portion to be pressed in by the user, and a first contact that can be in contact with the button operated portion, the controller comprises a housing where the first contact is accommodated, the first contact is located on the substrate, and the button operated portion is exposed to outside of the housing in a direction identical to a direction of exposure of a stick operated portion in the stick, the stick operated portion being to be operated by the user (Spradley, figures 1-2, wherein the game controller has buttons pressable from the top of the game controller housing that causes switches mounted to contacts on the substrate, the buttons having button operated portions being exposed in the same direction as the stick as illustrated enabling a user to press the buttons and operate the stick portion).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 2 is 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.
Claims 3-5, 7-9, & 11 depend either directly or indirectly from claim 2, thus are similarly objected.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See attached Notice of References Cited (PTO-892).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MILAP SHAH whose telephone number is (571)272-1723. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 9:30-6PM.
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, KANG HU can be reached at 571-270-1344. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
/MILAP SHAH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715
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