DETAILED ACTION
This action is responsive to the filing of 8/15/23. Claims 1-16 are pending and have been considered below.
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.
Claim(s) 1-7, 9-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang (EP 3 370 139 A1) in view of Rucine (2017/0060819.)
Claim 1, 9: Wang discloses a computing device for modifying digital content of a document configured to:
display, onto a display interface, first digital content of the document onto a first input area of a first type (Fig. 5; top portion, iBook);
register a slice gesture responsive to a user touch or gesture (Fig. 4-5; par. 83, a display UI for screen splitting according to a touch gesture);
create, in response to the slice gesture, a horizontal border of the first input area (Fig. 5, horizontal line above Memo; par. 83-85);
create, right below the horizontal border, a second input area of a second type to enter second digital content of the document (Fig. 5: Memo input area; par. 83-85); and
display the second input area (Fig. 5: Memo input area; par. 83-85);
wherein one of the first or the second type input areas includes a structured input area (Fig. 5: Memo input area; par. 83-85.)
However, Wang does not explicitly disclose: a first input area; and the other input area includes a constraint-free input area.
Wang does disclose (in a separate embodiment) an input area in a form of a text application (an email application; par. 30.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Wang so as to utilize an email application in lieu of the iBook app. One would have been motivated to make the modification as the electronic device 100 is capable of multiple applications, including email app (Wang, par. 30.)
Rucine discloses a similar method for digital note taking, including: the other input area includes a constraint-free input area (Fig. 25, handwritten note; par. 202.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Wang with Rucine so as to allow a user a handwriting means for input in cases where a keyboard is unavailable, or the screen real-estates for one is too small to display.
Claim 2. 10: Wang and Rucine disclose the computing device of Claim 1, wherein the structured input area is defined by a line pattern delimited by a top padding, a left margin and a right margin and is configured to structure editing of the respective content of the document according to a guided handwritten input of text onto a line pattern background, said structured editing comprising: detecting, onto the structured input area, a move or a creation of a text block; aligning the text block onto the predefined line pattern; and displaying the aligned text block (Rucine Fig. 4; par. 103-109.)
Claim 3, 11: Wang and Rucine disclose the computing device of Claim 1, wherein the constraint-free input area defined with a flexible height and a flexible width, is vertically and horizontally scrollable, and is configured to accept constraint-free editing of the respective content of the document according to constraint-free handwriting input of text or non-text wherein the size, orientation, alignment and position of text or non-text is input arbitrarily by the user, said constraint-free editing comprising: detecting, onto the constraint-free input area, user handwriting input at any coordinates of the constraint-free input area; selecting one or more pixels contained within the boundaries of the handwriting input; and displaying the selected pixels as digital ink of the handwriting input (Rucine Fig. 6A-6B, par. 110, the page height extends accordingly and remains scrollable to offer an uninterrupted way of writing by removing paper size limitations.)
Claim 4, 12: Wang and Rucine disclose the computing device of Claim 1, wherein the first input area and the second input area are sequentially arranged in a vertically-scrollable column (Wang Fig. 5: 400, scroll bar; Fig. 5: Memo area.)
Claim 5, 13: Wang and Rucine disclose the computing device of Claim 1, further configured to validate the slice gesture (Wang par. 73-74, Optionally, when it is determined that the touch gesture matches the preset gesture, it is determined whether an angle of an included angle between the track of the touch gesture and a horizontal axis direction or a vertical axis direction is less than a preset angle. When it is determined that the touch gesture matches the preset gesture, the display UI of the display is split into the at least two display areas in response to the touch gesture.)
Claim 6, 14: Wang and Rucine disclose the computing device of Claim 5, wherein the validation of the slice gesture is based upon at least one of a width of the slice gesture, a height of the slice gesture, a direction of the slice gesture, and a speed of the slice gesture (Wang par. 73-74, Optionally, when it is determined that the touch gesture matches the preset gesture, it is determined whether an angle of an included angle between the track of the touch gesture and a horizontal axis direction or a vertical axis direction is less than a preset angle. When it is determined that the touch gesture matches the preset gesture, the display UI of the display is split into the at least two display areas in response to the touch gesture.)
Claim 7, 15: Wang and Rucine disclose the computing device of Claim 6, wherein the width and the height of the slice gesture defines a gesture bounding box according to which the horizontal border of the first input area is parallelly defined (Rucine Fig. 4; par. 103-109.)
Claim(s) 8, 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over
Wang (EP 3 370 139 A1) in view of Rucine (2017/0060819) and in further view of Cho (8345017.)
Claim 8, 16: Wang and Rucine disclose the computing device of Claim 5, however, Wang does not explicitly disclose: further configured to display a digital ink stroke in response to the slice gesture, the digital ink stroke generally tracing the path of the slice gesture, optionally wherein the digital ink stroke fades over a period of time.
Cho discloses a similar method for digital note taking, including: further configured to display a digital ink stroke in response to the slice gesture, the digital ink stroke generally tracing the path of the slice gesture, optionally wherein the digital ink stroke fades over a period of time (Fig. 8: 710-a; 13:17-19, a second component of a predetermined touch input gesture may be additionally comprised of a vertical line portion in addition to the aforementioned horizontal line portion.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Wang with Cho so as to show an indication to the user that the input box making gesture is being performed.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: Starner (8701050) Gesture completion path display for gesture-based keyboards.
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/Andrey Belousov/
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2145
1/9/2026