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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
2. A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 1/6/2025 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
3. Applicant has amended the claim and argues (Remarks 10 filed 1/6/2026) and Examiner disagrees that Humphrey does not recite an additional random determination as to whether there is a collection of the collectable element or multiplier activation. Examiner construes Humphreys to disclose a random determination to deal the cards. Humphreys then makes an additional random determination to assess whether there is a “8” in any of the dealt card positions. Moreover, Humphreys makes a further determination, as does applicant’s claimed inventions, of whether there is not an “8” in a card position. Based on all these determinations, the associated indicators 241a-245a and 241b-245b are activated or not.
4. Applicant also argues and Examiner disagrees that Humphreys teaches that the multiplier is applied to the award in which the multiplier is triggered. Applicant’s claimed invention activates “Grow Reels” in Fig. 2B and applied the enhancement in a subsequent play of the game (Fig. 2C). Similarly, the activated “4x” multiplier is Humphreys (Fig. 3B) is applied to the next play of the game (Fig. 3C) where the “4x” is applied to the full house hand for a total award of 180. Thus, the rejections based on Humphrey are maintained.
5. Examiner proposes allowable subject matter options for Applicant to consider. Overall, Examiner deems that the other claims changes to move from subsequent to enumerated activations and additional determinations may be predicated on the fact that the claimed invention may be tuned to a reel machine and the embodiment of Humphreys is one of a card game – ostensibly cards are reels but differences in iterations of gameplay at some point may finally exhaust how much the card game embodiment holds. This may result is adoption of other card game embodiments of Humphreys ([0082]) that continue to align with iterations such as card games that may draw more or less cards or extend to fewer or several iterations as in Baccarat, Blackjack or Seven Card Stud ([0082]). Rather than go in that direction, Examiner proposes Applicant consider amending the claims with either the “trigger indicator” or the “active” indicator - displayed features that are not taught or suggested by Humphreys.
Drawings
6. The drawings filed on 9/18/2023 are acceptable subject to correction of the informalities indicated below. In order to avoid abandonment of this application, correction is required in reply to the Office action. The correction will not be held in abeyance.
Figs. 2A to 2E: Change reel indicators 201…250 to 210…218.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
7. 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.
8. Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102 (a1) as being anticipated by U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2019/0340886 to Humphrey.
In Reference to Claim 1, 8, and 15-16
Humphrey discloses a gaming system (Fig. 6 EGM 1000 [0122]) comprising:
a housing comprising an access door (cabinet, access doors [0215]);
a security monitoring circuit supported by the housing, that monitors the access door (security monitoring circuits detect intrusion into an EGM at the access door [0215]), and causes a signal to be sent to a remote server when the access door is opened (remote server [0113], security features are incorporated into the EGM to prevent unauthorized users from accessing confidential or sensitive information [0159]);
a plurality of output devices comprising a display device supported by the housing (Fig. 6A);
a plurality of input devices comprising buttons mounted on a deck (Fig. 6A) supported by the housing (Fig. 6A) and a touchscreen input device supported by the housing and operable with the display device ([0061]);
a processor ([0114] processor); and
a trusted memory device ([0202, 0216, 0217, 0218, 0219]) and configured to provide a gaming regulatory authority a root trusted authority that can be tracked and verified as original ([0216]), the trusted memory device storing a plurality of instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
cause a display [0135] display device 1035) of a pot (Figs. 1 and 2A pots 200-225 for collectable elements);
cause a display of reels (Humphrey depicts video poker but further discloses that the displays can be configured to display one or more video reels [0138, 0172-1076]) associated with but separate from the pot (Fig. 2A 210-215), the symbol displays {reels} comprising a quantity of activators associated with the pot (Fig. 2B indicia on the cards 210-215 are activators when matching the collectable element of 220-225), the quantity of activators being at least one (Fig. 2C 213);
cause a display of an indication of a feature associated with the pot (Fig. 2C has an associated multiplier of 2X), the feature comprising a first quantity of enhancements associated with the symbol displays {reels} (Fig. 2C a first quantity 243a), the first quantity enhancements of the feature being at least one (Fig. 2C 243a is at least one);
cause a display of a first activation of the symbol displays {reels}, wherein the display comprises a display of a randomly selected (one of the activators on one of the symbol displays (Fig. 2B is a first hand dealt containing activation indicia, the hand randomly generated [0016, 0026, 0037, 0045, 0049]);
cause a display of an indication of said displayed activator resulting in an activation of the pot associated with the activator based on a separate additional random determination by the processor that said displayed activator causes the activation of the pot (Fig. 2 did not demonstrate the limitation but in the hand dealt in Fig. 3, see Fig. 3B 243a and 243b are solid activating the pot’s 4x multiplier in addition to the persistent prior indications, these additional hands and cards positions are the separate additional random determinations which are assessed), and wherein said activator not resulting in an activation of the pot associated with the activator results in a display of an indication of a change to an activator occurrence indicator associated with said pot (Fig. 3B 242a is solid but the pot is not activated because the threshold has not been reached);
cause a display of an indication that the feature associated with the pot is an activated feature for a second activation of the symbol displays (Fig. 3C replacement cards are dealt for non-held cards 354a and 355a),
cause a display of the second {another} activation of the symbol displays {reels} employing the activated feature based on another activation based on a separate additional random determination by the processor that said displayed activator causes the activation of the pot (Fig. 3C employing activating indicia on the ace card), and wherein the display comprises a display of a randomly selected of one of the activators on one of the symbol displays (Fig. 3C 245a is solid, see also hand randomly generated [0016, 0026, 0037, 0045, 0049]);
cause a display of an indication of said activator resulting in an activation of the pot associated with the activator (Fig. 3C when indicia occur to populate 242b or 254b for example then the threshold would be achieved for activation of the respective pots), and wherein said activator not resulting in an activation of the pot associated with the activator results in a display of an indication of a further change to an activator occurrence indicator associated with said pot (Fig. 3C 242b or 245b are not solid indicating no change to trigger the respective pots); and
cause a display of an indication that an enhanced feature associated with the pot is an activated enhanced feature for a third activation of the symbol displays {reels} (Fig. 3C the multiplier 235 of 10x is an enhanced feature v 230 – 234), wherein the enhanced feature comprises a second quantity of the enhancements associated with the symbol displays {reels}, the second quantity being greater than the first quantity (the 10X enhancement is in addition to the 4x enhancement and 10x is greater than 4x in terms of number of multipliers applied to awards); and
thereafter for a third activation of the reels cause a display by the display device of the third activation of the reels employing the activated feature (See Response to Arguments wherein Humphreys has alternative embodiments which can read on different card game embodiments that can read on any number of claimed iterations of gameplay).
In Reference to Claims 2, 9, and 17
Humphreys discloses enhancement feature 231 which is one of a plurality of different
enhanced features associated with the pot, for example, in addition to multipliers the enhancement can be free plays [0083]).
In Reference to Claims 3, 10, and 18
Humphreys discloses that the enhancements can comprise different quantities as in a
number of free plays or a free car ([0083]).
In Reference to Claims 4 and 11
Examiner construes the claim limitation to be feature dependent where when Humphreys discloses free games or bonus games ([0083]) then the activation of the
feature causes a spin and thus a change to the symbol displays {reels}.
In Reference to Claims 5 and 12
Humphreys discloses in Fig. 3C activation of the enhanced feature of 4X but not the 2x as in activation only where the threshold for 220-225 has been met.
In Reference to Claims 6-7, 13-14, and 19-20
Examiner construes perceived persistent and actual persistent as based on a probability where the game is closer or not closer to an activation. Humphreys indicates this probablistic nature where as in Fig. 3A, a random determination of the cards populate or do not populate 241a-245a fulfilling a perceived persistent condition. Upon another activation of the symbols as in Fig. 3B, achieving a second, threshold-achieving element 241b-245b is more likely to occur fulfilling an actual persistent condition.
Allowable Subject Matter
9. As discussed in the Remarks above, Examiner proposes Applicant consider amending the claims with either the “trigger indicator” or the “active” indicator - displayed features that are not taught or suggested by Humphreys.
Conclusion
10. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure is in the Notice of References Cited.
11. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Paul A. D’Agostino whose telephone number is (571) 270-1992.
12. 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.
13. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, David Lewis can be reached on (571) 272-7673. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-270-2992.
/PAUL A D'AGOSTINO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715