Prosecution Insights
Last updated: April 19, 2026
Application No. 18/513,859

Editing System and Terminal

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Nov 20, 2023
Examiner
NAZAR, AHAMED I
Art Unit
2178
Tech Center
2100 — Computer Architecture & Software
Assignee
Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
53%
Grant Probability
Moderate
1-2
OA Rounds
3y 11m
To Grant
88%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 53% of resolved cases
53%
Career Allow Rate
202 granted / 378 resolved
-1.6% vs TC avg
Strong +35% interview lift
Without
With
+35.1%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
3y 11m
Avg Prosecution
29 currently pending
Career history
407
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
9.2%
-30.8% vs TC avg
§103
59.7%
+19.7% vs TC avg
§102
15.3%
-24.7% vs TC avg
§112
9.6%
-30.4% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 378 resolved cases

Office Action

§103
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 . This communication is responsive to the application filed 11/20/2023. Claims 1-17 are pending with claims 1, 14, and 17 as independent claims. Information Disclosure Statement The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 11/20/2023, 2/15/2024, and 5/5/2025 were filed on and/or after the mailing date of the application on 11/20/2023. The submissions are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner. 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 1-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Horiuchi et al. (US 2020/0296145, published 9/17/2020, hereinafter as Horiuchi) in view of Poletto et al. (US 2015/0244794) in view of Nemoto (JP2017188154A, Information processing system, terminal equipment, program, and image application method, published 10/12/2017). Claim 1. An editing system, comprising: a first terminal and a second terminal communicable with each other, the first terminal including a first display unit, the first terminal being configured to: accept a first content; Horiuchi discloses in [0072-0073] “In FIG. 5, the electronic whiteboard 1a is provided at a site A, the electronic whiteboard 1b is provided at a site B, and an electronic whiteboard 1c is provided at a site C… The electronic whiteboard 1a, the electronic whiteboard 1b, the electronic whiteboard 1c, the relay device 3, the communication management system 5, and the image storage device 7 mutually communicate data through the communication network 100 such as the Internet.” And in [0165] “at the site A, the user A1 moves the electronic pen 190 or the hand H in contact with the display 180 of the electronic whiteboard 1a, and the acceptance unit 12a accepts an input of a stroke movement (trajectory). In step S63, the image processing unit 17a creates stroke data (for example, coordinate data (x, y)) for displaying a stroke image on the two-dimensional display 180 based on the stroke.” (emphasis added) examiner note: site A may be the first terminal includes electronic whiteboard 1a as the first display unit. Site C may be the second terminal includes whiteboard 1c. Stroke, as first content, on 2D display 180 may be accepted, and transmit first associated information and the first content to the second terminal, the first associated information indicating a first position and a first size, the first position indicating a position where the first content is to be displayed on the first display unit, the first size indicating a size of the first content to be displayed on the first display unit, Horiuchi discloses in [0112-0113] “The stroke data includes information of a stroke ID, a sequence number, a start time, an end time, a color of a drawn stroke, a width indicating a line width of the drawn stroke, vertices of the drawn stroke, and an image ID. The stroke ID identifies stroke data generated by a stroke drawing event. The sequence number indicates the order in which the stroke drawing events occur. The start time indicates the time when drawing of the stroke starts. The end time indicates the time when drawing of the stroke ends. The image ID identifies a document image, which is a background image on which the stroke is drawn… the width of the line of the drawn stroke is represented by the number of pixels. The vertices of the drawn stroke are represented by X-Y coordinates. A Bezier curve obtained from the vertices forms a line segment indicating the stroke.” And in [0165] “the image processing unit 17a creates stroke data (for example, coordinate data (x, y)) for displaying a stroke image on the two-dimensional display 180 based on the stroke.” And in [0177-0178] “In step S105, the data exchange unit 51 of the communication management system 5 transmits the URLs indicating the storage location of the document image data read in step S104 to the halfway participating terminal (electronic whiteboard 1c)… the data exchange unit 11c of the halfway participating terminal (electronic whiteboard 1c) transmits download request information indicating a request for downloading document image data by accessing the URLs indicating storage locations at the image storage device 7 received in step S105… the data exchange unit 11c of the electronic whiteboard 1c starts downloading (receiving) the document image data. Further, in step S109, the data exchange unit 11c of the halfway participating terminal (electronic whiteboard 1c) transmits request information indicating a request for downloading stroke data to the communication management system 5… the data exchange unit 51 starts transmitting the stroke data read in step S110 to the electronic whiteboard 1c. Thereby, the data exchange unit 11c of the electronic whiteboard 1c starts downloading (receiving) the stroke data.” and in [0190-0192] “the user C1 of the electronic whiteboard 1c recognizes that download of the document image data and the stroke data is in progress as well as grasps the outline of the remote conference so far from the capture image h1. The notification image ml illustrated in FIG. 23 is just example, and any image, text, icon, or a combination thereof can be used provided that it can notify the user C1 that data is being downloaded. For example, the notification image m1 can be an indicator indicating the progress of the download, a numerical value of the percentage (%) of the downloaded data, or an hourglass icon. The notification image m1 is an example of a predetermined message indicating that the download of the stroke data is in progress… Since the communication management system 5 stores a plurality pieces of stroke data generated during the remote conference, and the data size of the plurality of pieces of stroke data to be downloaded is large. It takes more time to download stroke data than it does to download capture image data as described above and document image data from the image storage device 7. For this reason, the electronic whiteboard 1c displays the display image as illustrated in FIG. 23 on the display 180 until the download of all the stroke data is completed.” (emphasis added) examiner note: site A transmits document image data (first content) and stroke data (first associated information), which includes position information indicated by the coordinates and the size of document image data may be smaller than the size of the stroke data, to site c (second terminal) as shown in fig. 23, and the second terminal including a second display unit, the second terminal being configured to: receive the first content and the first associated information transmitted by the first terminal; Horiuchi discloses in [0189] “the display control unit 14c of the electronic whiteboard 1c controls the display 180 to display a capture image h1 as illustrated in FIG. 23. The display image illustrated in FIG. 23 includes the capture image h1, which is generated by the electronic whiteboard 1a, and a notification image ml indicating that download of document image data and stroke data is in progress.” (emphasis added) examiner note: site c receives and displays capture image h1, which includes background image and stroke data or stamp image (as first content) as shown in fig. 23 and , based on the first associated information, display, on the second display unit, an associated image based on which the first position and the first size are identifiable; Horiuchi discloses in [0189-0195] “The display image illustrated in FIG. 24 is configured by a layer for a stroke image and a layer for a document image, as illustrated in FIG. 25. The display image illustrated in FIG. 24 is obtained by superimposing the stroke image as a first layer (closest layer viewed from a user) on the document image as a second layer (second closest layer viewed from the user). The stroke image is, for example, an image including drawing data received by the acceptance unit 12. The document image is an image including image data displayed on the display 180, and is an image arranged at the rearmost plane of the superimposed images.” (emphasis added) examiner note: the layer for stroke image indicates an associated image laid over a layer for document image indicates first content. The stroke image may be displayed based on the first associated information such as the first position and the first size as indicated by the captured image h1 shown in fig. 23, and Horiuchi does not explicitly disclose accept an editing operation while the associated image is being displayed on the second display unit, the editing operation including at least one of a change operation or an input operation, [the change operation being of changing at least one of a position or a size of the associated image, the input operation being of inputting a second content different from the first content]. However, Poletto, in an analogous art, discloses in [0012] “a background download of a second version of the image may be performed while the first version of the image is displayed within the user interface. For example, the first version may be a low resolution version of the image and the second version may be a high resolution version of the image. While the user interacts with the low resolution version of the image, the high resolution version may download in the background.” And in [0048] “the user may still be able to interact with image 402a because the user device may allow them to modify, message, annotate, or provide a request or attempt to share the image.” And in [0049] “the user may be able to provide a message 408 to image 402a. Message 408 may include text, images, videos, hyperlinks, attachments, or any other form of content capable of being associated with image 402a.” (emphasis added) examiner note: an edit operation may be accepted on the downloaded low-resolution version of the associated image as the high resolution being downloaded in the background as indicated by notification image m1 shown in fig. 23 of Horiuchi. Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Horiuchi with the teaching of Poletto because “because they may desire to interact with their content without any constraints despite any limitations that may be outside of their control (e.g., low connectivity/signal), a low resolution version of the shared image may be downloaded for user interaction while the high-resolution version is being downloaded in the background. Poletto [Background and 0012]. Horiuchi does not explicitly disclose the change operation being of changing at least one of a position or a size of the associated image, the input operation being of inputting a second content different from the first content. However, Nemoto, in an analogous art, discloses in [Abstract] “The second terminal device having one or more second terminal devices has an additional image editing means for adding an additional image to the distribution destination and a distribution processing means for distributing the content to the distribution destination together with the information that can identify the user who added the additional image. Displayed when the display means for displaying the content distributed from the first terminal device and the information that can identify the user who added the additional image match the information that can identify the operator of the second terminal device. The above problem is solved by having an additional image editing means that accepts an editing operation for an additional image added on the content.” And in [P2-Description] “When the information that can identify the user who added the additional image distributed from the first terminal device matches the information that can identify the operator of the second terminal device, the second content And a second additional image editing unit that receives an editing operation for the additional image added on the content displayed by the display unit.” And in [P3-Para. 7] “In the stamp editing process performed by the terminal device 12B, the stamp added by the terminal device 12A cannot be edited, but a new stamp can be added or the stamp added by the terminal device 12B can be edited.” And in [P5-Para. 7] “In the content browsing screen 1200 of FIG. 9, a frame 1201 is displayed on the stamp to be edited. The user can instruct enlargement or reduction of the stamp to be edited by an operation such as pinching out or pinching in to enlarge or reduce the frame 1201.Further, the user can instruct the movement of the stamp to be edited by an operation such as dragging to move the frame 1201.”(emphasis added) examiner note: a matching user, based on role, may edit the size, position and/or add new stamp image different from the first stamp image utilizing edit operation on the second terminal. Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Horiuchi with the teaching of Nemoto because “in an information processing system that shares a display screen of content such as materials, it is required to make communication smooth and efficient by adding visually easy-to-understand images.” Nemoto [P2-Para. 4]. Claim 2. The rejection of the editing system according to claim 1 is incorporated, Horiuchi does not explicitly disclose wherein the second terminal accepts the editing operation after completing receiving the first associated information and before completing receiving the first content. However, Poletto discloses in [0012] “the first version may be a low resolution version of the image and the second version may be a high resolution version of the image. While the user interacts with the low resolution version of the image, the high resolution version may download in the background. Thus, a user may be able to locally interact with a first version of an image while obtaining a second version.” (emphasis added) examiner note: the second terminal may edit the low resolution image, such as captured image h1 displayed in fig. 23 as the first association information that includes background image and some foreground drawing in low resolution format, while the high resolution image is being downloaded in the background. Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Horiuchi with the teaching of Poletto because “because they may desire to interact with their content without any constraints despite any limitations that may be outside of their control (e.g., low connectivity/signal), a low resolution version of the shared image may be downloaded for user interaction while the high-resolution version is being downloaded in the background. Poletto [Background and 0012]. Claim 3. The rejection of the editing system according to claim 1 is incorporated, Horiuchi does not explicitly disclose wherein the first content has a data volume greater than a data volume of the second content. However, Nemoto discloses in [P5-Para. 7] “The user can instruct enlargement or reduction of the stamp to be edited by an operation such as pinching out or pinching in to enlarge or reduce the frame 1201.” (emphasis added) examiner note: the reduction of the size of the stamp image may render the first content data (enlarged stamp image) volume greater than a data volume of the second content (reduced image size). Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Horiuchi with the teaching of Nemoto because “in an information processing system that shares a display screen of content such as materials, it is required to make communication smooth and efficient by adding visually easy-to-understand images.” Nemoto [P2-Para. 4]. Claim 4. The rejection of the editing system according to claim 3 is incorporated, Horiuchi does not explicitly disclose wherein the first content is at least one of a picture, a video, or audio, and wherein the second content is at least one of a text or a line drawing. However, Poletto discloses in [0049] “the user may be able to provide a message 408 to image 402a. Message 408 may include text, images, videos, hyperlinks, attachments, or any other form of content capable of being associated with image 402a.” (emphasis added). Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Horiuchi with the teaching of Poletto because “because they may desire to interact with their content without any constraints despite any limitations that may be outside of their control (e.g., low connectivity/signal), a low resolution version of the shared image may be downloaded for user interaction while the high-resolution version is being downloaded in the background. Poletto [Background and 0012]. Claim 5. The rejection of the editing system according to claim 2 is incorporated, wherein the second terminal displays a reception-in-progress image until completing receiving the first content after completing receiving the first associated information, the reception-in-progress image indicating that the reception of the first content is in progress. Horiuchi discloses in [0190] “The notification image ml illustrated in FIG. 23 is just example, and any image, text, icon, or a combination thereof can be used provided that it can notify the user C1 that data is being downloaded. For example, the notification image m1 can be an indicator indicating the progress of the download, a numerical value of the percentage (%) of the downloaded data, or an hourglass icon. The notification image m1 is an example of a predetermined message indicating that the download of the stroke data is in progress.” (emphasis added). Claim 6. The rejection of the editing system according to claim 5 is incorporated, wherein the reception-in-progress image is a progress indicator. Horiuchi discloses in [0190] “The notification image ml illustrated in FIG. 23 is just example, and any image, text, icon, or a combination thereof can be used provided that it can notify the user C1 that data is being downloaded. For example, the notification image m1 can be an indicator indicating the progress of the download, a numerical value of the percentage (%) of the downloaded data, or an hourglass icon. The notification image m1 is an example of a predetermined message indicating that the download of the stroke data is in progress.” (emphasis added). Claim 7. The rejection of the editing system according to claim 1 is incorporated, wherein the second terminal displays the associated image on the second display unit, the associated image being represented by a closed curve based on which the first position and the first size are identifiable. Horiuchi discloses in [0113 and 0192] “the width of the line of the drawn stroke is represented by the number of pixels. The vertices of the drawn stroke are represented by X-Y coordinates. A Bezier curve obtained from the vertices forms a line segment indicating the stroke… the user C1 of the electronic whiteboard 1c recognizes that download of the document image data and the stroke data is in progress as well as grasps the outline of the remote conference so far from the capture image h1. The notification image ml illustrated in FIG. 23 is just example, and any image, text, icon, or a combination thereof can be used provided that it can notify the user C1 that data is being downloaded.” (emphasis added) examiner note: the captured image h1 may be the associated image which includes circular drawing as shown in fig. 23. Claim 8. The rejection of the editing system according to claim 1 is incorporated, Horiuchi does not explicitly disclose wherein the second terminal is further configured to, in response to accepting the editing operation after completing receiving the first associated information and before completing receiving the first content, transmit, to the first terminal, [second associated information indicating a second position and a second size, the second position indicating a position of the associated image whose position has been changed, the second size indicating a size of the associated image whose size has been changed]. However, Poletto, in an analogous art, discloses in [0012] “a background download of a second version of the image may be performed while the first version of the image is displayed within the user interface. For example, the first version may be a low resolution version of the image and the second version may be a high resolution version of the image. While the user interacts with the low resolution version of the image, the high resolution version may download in the background.” And in [0048] “the user may still be able to interact with image 402a because the user device may allow them to modify, message, annotate, or provide a request or attempt to share the image.” And in [0049] “the user may be able to provide a message 408 to image 402a. Message 408 may include text, images, videos, hyperlinks, attachments, or any other form of content capable of being associated with image 402a.” and in [0182] “the data exchange unit 11a of the electronic whiteboard 1a receives the capture image data generation request. In step S139, the image processing unit 17a of the electronic whiteboard 1a performs capturing of a screenshot displayed on the display 180 to generate capture image data. In the embodiment, the term “screenshot” refers to a display screen (still image or moving image) displayed on the display 180. The “capturing” refers to a process of acquiring the display screen displayed on the display 180 as image data. The capturing may be alternatively referred to as snapshot or image recognition.” (emphasis added) examiner note: a user may edit and share the downloaded low-resolution version of the associated image before completing the download of the high resolution version of the associated image, wherein the associated image may be capture image h1 (screenshot) shown in fig. 23 of Horiuchi. Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Horiuchi with the teaching of Poletto because “because they may desire to interact with their content without any constraints despite any limitations that may be outside of their control (e.g., low connectivity/signal), a low resolution version of the shared image may be downloaded for user interaction while the high-resolution version is being downloaded in the background. Poletto [Background and 0012]. Horiuchi does not explicitly disclose second associated information indicating a second position and a second size, the second position indicating a position of the associated image whose position has been changed, the second size indicating a size of the associated image whose size has been changed. However, Nemoto, in an analogous art, discloses in [Abstract] “The second terminal device having one or more second terminal devices has an additional image editing means for adding an additional image to the distribution destination and a distribution processing means for distributing the content to the distribution destination together with the information that can identify the user who added the additional image. Displayed when the display means for displaying the content distributed from the first terminal device and the information that can identify the user who added the additional image match the information that can identify the operator of the second terminal device. The above problem is solved by having an additional image editing means that accepts an editing operation for an additional image added on the content.” And in [P2-Description] “When the information that can identify the user who added the additional image distributed from the first terminal device matches the information that can identify the operator of the second terminal device, the second content And a second additional image editing unit that receives an editing operation for the additional image added on the content displayed by the display unit.” And in [P3-Para. 7] “In the stamp editing process performed by the terminal device 12B, the stamp added by the terminal device 12A cannot be edited, but a new stamp can be added or the stamp added by the terminal device 12B can be edited.” And in [P5-Para. 7] “In the content browsing screen 1200 of FIG. 9, a frame 1201 is displayed on the stamp to be edited. The user can instruct enlargement or reduction of the stamp to be edited by an operation such as pinching out or pinching in to enlarge or reduce the frame 1201.Further, the user can instruct the movement of the stamp to be edited by an operation such as dragging to move the frame 1201.”(emphasis added) examiner note: a matching user, based on role, may edit the size, position and/or add new stamp image different from the first stamp image utilizing edit operation on the second terminal. Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Horiuchi with the teaching of Nemoto because “in an information processing system that shares a display screen of content such as materials, it is required to make communication smooth and efficient by adding visually easy-to-understand images.” Nemoto [P2-Para. 4]. Claim 9. The rejection of the editing system according to claim 8 is incorporated, wherein the first terminal is further configured to: Horiuchi does not explicitly disclose display the accepted first content in the first size at the first position on the first display unit; receive the second associated information transmitted by the second terminal; and based on the second associated information, change the position of the first content displayed on the first display unit from the first position to the second position and change the size of the first content from the first size to the second size. Horiuchi discloses in [0165-0167] “In step S62, at the site A, the user A1 moves the electronic pen 190 or the hand H in contact with the display 180 of the electronic whiteboard 1a, and the acceptance unit 12a accepts an input of a stroke movement (trajectory). In step S63, the image processing unit 17a creates stroke data (for example, coordinate data (x, y)) for displaying a stroke image on the two-dimensional display 180 based on the stroke. The display control unit 14a controls the display 180 of the electronic whiteboard 1a to display the stroke image based on the stroke data. Thereby, a stroke image stA is displayed as illustrated in FIG. 19C… In step S67, the image processing unit 17b of the electronic whiteboard 1b generates a stroke image based on the stroke data, and the display control unit 14b controls the display 180 of the electronic whiteboard 1b to display the stroke image. Thereby, the same stroke image stA as that of displayed on the electronic whiteboard 1a as the counterpart terminal is displayed, as illustrated in FIG. 19D.” (emphasis added) examiner note: let assume that, based on the teaching of Nemoto [P5-Para. 7], which allows the operator on the second terminal to edit the shared stamp image (thumbnail image) by changing the size and/or the position of the stamp, a user utilizing terminal 1b edits the capture image h1 (screenshot image of terminal 1a) before completing download of high-resolution image (teaching of Poletto [0012]) of document image d2 and stroke image st2, for example. Thus, the user may share, using share button b2 shown in fig. 23 (teaching of Horiuchi), the edited version of the capture image h1 with terminal 1a using steps s51-s67 shown in fig. 17 (teaching of Horiuchi). Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Horiuchi with the teaching of Nemoto because “the visually easy-to-understand image addition performed on the paper is performed in order to make it easy for the person who added the image to understand, or to convey some intention to other people…Additional images include, for example, images showing sticky notes and bags.” Nemoto [P2-Para. 4]. Claim 10. The rejection of the editing system according to claim 1 is incorporated, wherein the first content includes a plurality of contents, wherein the second terminal is further configured to accept assignment of priorities to the plurality of contents, and wherein the second terminal receives the plurality of contents in decreasing order of the priorities. Horiuchi discloses in [0167] “the data exchange unit 51 transfers the stroke data to the electronic whiteboard 1b, which is the counterpart terminal… Thereby, the same stroke image stA as that of displayed on the electronic whiteboard 1a as the counterpart terminal is displayed, as illustrated in FIG. 19D.” And in [0171] “the data exchange unit 71 transmits the requested document image data to the electronic whiteboard 1b as the request source terminal… Thereby, the data exchange unit 11b of the electronic whiteboard 1b downloads (receives) the document image data. In step S77, the display control unit 14b of the electronic whiteboard 1b displays the same document image as the document image d1 illustrated in FIG. 19C on the screen illustrated in FIG. 19D and stops displaying the hourglass icon c2 displayed until then.” (emphasis added) examiner note: the second terminal 1b may be assigned to receive the stroke data (stroke image stA) first and, then hourglass icon c2 (indicating receiving document image d1), then the background image (document image d1) as shown in figs. 19C-19D. Claim 11. The rejection of the editing system according to claim 10 is incorporated, wherein the second terminal is further configured to display, on the second display unit, a first assignment image that enables the assignment of the priorities to the plurality of contents. Horiuchi discloses in [0167] “the data exchange unit 51 transfers the stroke data to the electronic whiteboard 1b, which is the counterpart terminal… Thereby, the same stroke image stA as that of displayed on the electronic whiteboard 1a as the counterpart terminal is displayed, as illustrated in FIG. 19D.” And in [0171] “the data exchange unit 71 transmits the requested document image data to the electronic whiteboard 1b as the request source terminal… Thereby, the data exchange unit 11b of the electronic whiteboard 1b downloads (receives) the document image data. In step S77, the display control unit 14b of the electronic whiteboard 1b displays the same document image as the document image d1 illustrated in FIG. 19C on the screen illustrated in FIG. 19D and stops displaying the hourglass icon c2 displayed until then.” (emphasis added) examiner note: the second terminal 1b may be assigned to receive the stroke data (stroke image stA) first and, then hourglass icon c2 (indicating receiving document image d1), then the background image (document image d1) as shown in figs. 19C-19D. Claim 12. The rejection of the editing system according to claim 1 is incorporated, wherein the first position and the second size are indicated by respective values standardized based on a size of the first display unit. Horiuchi discloses in [0112-0113] “The stroke data includes information of a stroke ID, a sequence number, a start time, an end time, a color of a drawn stroke, a width indicating a line width of the drawn stroke, vertices of the drawn stroke, and an image ID. The stroke ID identifies stroke data generated by a stroke drawing event… The image ID identifies a document image, which is a background image on which the stroke is drawn… the “stroke drawing” is an input process of drawing data by a user. For example, the stroke drawing is an event detected from when a user presses the electronic pen 190 against the display 180… the width of the line of the drawn stroke is represented by the number of pixels. The vertices of the drawn stroke are represented by X-Y coordinates.” And in [0167] “the data exchange unit 51 transfers the stroke data to the electronic whiteboard 1b, which is the counterpart terminal… the data exchange unit 11b of the electronic whiteboard 1b receives the stroke data. In step S67, the image processing unit 17b of the electronic whiteboard 1b generates a stroke image based on the stroke data, and the display control unit 14b controls the display 180 of the electronic whiteboard 1b to display the stroke image. Thereby, the same stroke image stA as that of displayed on the electronic whiteboard 1a as the counterpart terminal is displayed, as illustrated in FIG. 19D.” (emphasis added) examiner note: the stroke data comprises width (size) information and position information (coordinates) indicated in pixels (values). For example, the stroke image stA on display unit on site A has been propagated to site B using stroke data information as shown in figs. 19C-19D. the indication of the first position and second size may correspond to the difference between the transferred image (high resolution image) and the received image (low resolution image) as indicated in [0052-0054]. Thus, the position of the stroke image in the high resolution image and the low resolution image may be the same but the size of the stroke may be different. Claim 13. The rejection of the editing system according to claim 8 is incorporated, Horiuchi does not explicitly disclose wherein the second position and the second size are indicated by respective values standardized based on a size of the second display unit. However, Nemoto discloses in [P2-Para. 9, P3-Para. 9 and P5-Para. 7] “When the information that can identify the user who added the additional image distributed from the first terminal device matches the information that can identify the operator of the second terminal device, the second content And a second additional image editing unit that receives an editing operation for the additional image added on the content displayed by the display unit… The terminal device 12B can store the content distributed from the terminal device 12A, and can perform stamp editing processing such as pressing a stamp, which will be described later. In the stamp editing process performed by the terminal device 12B, the stamp added by the terminal device 12A cannot be edited, but a new stamp can be added or the stamp added by the terminal device 12B can be edited… In the content browsing screen 1200 of FIG. 9, a frame 1201 is displayed on the stamp to be edited. The user can instruct enlargement or reduction of the stamp to be edited by an operation such as pinching out or pinching in to enlarge or reduce the frame 1201.Further, the user can instruct the movement of the stamp to be edited by an operation such as dragging to move the frame 1201.” (emphasis added) examiner note: the second position and the second size may be indicated by a second user performing editing operation on the second terminal, wherein the editing operation may be enlarging or reducing (size) and/or moving (position) the stamp overlay. Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Horiuchi with the teaching of Nemoto because “in an information processing system that shares a display screen of content such as materials, it is required to make communication smooth and efficient by adding visually easy-to-understand images.” Nemoto [P2-Para. 4]. Claim 14. A terminal, comprising: a controller; and a display unit, wherein the terminal is communicable with a particular terminal, Horiuchi discloses in [0158] “On the electronic whiteboard 1a at the site A, the screen illustrated in FIG. 19A is displayed on the display 180 by the display control unit 14a. A document image d1, a site image v2 of the site B, and a Share button b1 to be pressed when sharing the document image d1 are displayed on the electronic whiteboard 1a at the site A.” (emphasis added) examiner note: electronic whiteboard 1a may be the terminal that includes display control unit 14a in communication with site B (particular terminal) as shown in figs. 19A-19D, and wherein the controller is configured to: accept a first content; Horiuchi discloses in [0165] “the user A1 moves the electronic pen 190 or the hand H in contact with the display 180 of the electronic whiteboard 1a, and the acceptance unit 12a accepts an input of a stroke movement (trajectory). In step S63, the image processing unit 17a creates stroke data (for example, coordinate data (x, y)) for displaying a stroke image on the two-dimensional display 180 based on the stroke. The display control unit 14a controls the display 180 of the electronic whiteboard 1a to display the stroke image based on the stroke data. Thereby, a stroke image stA is displayed as illustrated in FIG. 19C.” (emphasis added) examiner note: the acceptance unit 12a accepts trajectory as stroke image (drawing as shown in fig.19c) and creating stroke data comprising position information and size information. The trajectory or stroke image may be the first content, transmit first associated information and the first content to the particular terminal, the first associated information indicating a first position and a first size, the first position indicating a position where the first content is to be displayed on the display unit of the terminal, the first size indicating a size of the first content to be displayed on the display unit of the terminal; Horiuchi discloses in [0166-0167] “the data exchange unit 11a transmits the stroke data generated in step S63 for reproducing the stroke image to the communication management system 5… the data exchange unit 51 of the communication management system 5 receives the stroke data of the stroke image… the data exchange unit 51 transfers the stroke data to the electronic whiteboard 1b, which is the counterpart terminal.” And in [0168] “the data exchange unit 51 of the communication management system 5 transmits the upload completion notice including the URL indicating the storage location of the document image data to the electronic whiteboard 1b as the counter terminal… Thereby, the data exchange unit 11b of the electronic whiteboard 1b downloads (receives) the document image data. In step S77, the display control unit 14b of the electronic whiteboard 1b displays the same document image as the document image d1 illustrated in FIG. 19C on the screen illustrated in FIG. 19D and stops displaying the hourglass icon c2 displayed until then.” (emphasis added) examiner note: the electronic whiteboard 1a transmits, the stroke data comprising (first associated information defining the size and position of the stroke image stA) and the stroke image stA, to the counterpart terminal (the particular terminal), display the accepted first content in the first size at the first position on the display unit of the terminal; Horiuchi discloses in [0171]” Thereby, the data exchange unit 11b of the electronic whiteboard 1b downloads (receives) the document image data. In step S77, the display control unit 14b of the electronic whiteboard 1b displays the same document image as the document image d1 illustrated in FIG. 19C on the screen illustrated in FIG. 19D and stops displaying the hourglass icon c2 displayed until then.” (emphasis added) examiner note: the display control unit 14b displays the stroke image stA based on the size and position information received from the electronic whiteboard 1a as shown in fig. 19D, and Horiuchi does not explicitly disclose accept an editing operation including at least one of a change operation or an input operation, [the change operation being of changing at least one of a position or a size of the first content displayed on the display unit, the input operation being of inputting a second content different from the first content]. However, Poletto, in an analogous art, discloses in [0012] “a background download of a second version of the image may be performed while the first version of the image is displayed within the user interface. For example, the first version may be a low resolution version of the image and the second version may be a high resolution version of the image. While the user interacts with the low resolution version of the image, the high resolution version may download in the background.” And in [0048] “the user may still be able to interact with image 402a because the user device may allow them to modify, message, annotate, or provide a request or attempt to share the image.” And in [0049] “the user may be able to provide a message 408 to image 402a. Message 408 may include text, images, videos, hyperlinks, attachments, or any other form of content capable of being associated with image 402a.” (emphasis added) examiner note: an edit operation may be accepted on the downloaded low-resolution version of the associated image as the high resolution being downloaded in the background as indicated by notification image m1 shown in fig. 23 of Horiuchi. Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Horiuchi with the teaching of Poletto because “because they may desire to interact with their content without any constraints despite any limitations that may be outside of their control (e.g., low connectivity/signal), a low resolution version of the shared image may be downloaded for user interaction while the high-resolution version is being downloaded in the background. Poletto [Background and 0012]. Horiuchi does not explicitly disclose the change operation being of changing at least one of a position or a size of the first content displayed on the display unit, the input operation being of inputting a second content different from the first content. However, Nemoto, in an analogous art, discloses in [Abstract] “The second terminal device having one or more second terminal devices has an additional image editing means for adding an additional image to the distribution destination and a distribution processing means for distributing the content to the distribution destination together with the information that can identify the user who added the additional image. Displayed when the display means for displaying the content distributed from the first terminal device and the information that can identify the user who added the additional image match the information that can identify the operator of the second terminal device. The above problem is solved by having an additional image editing means that accepts an editing operation for an additional image added on the content.” And in [P2-Description] “When the information that can identify the user who added the additional image distributed from the first terminal device matches the information that can identify the operator of the second terminal device, the second content And a second additional image editing unit that receives an editing operation for the additional image added on the content displayed by the display unit.” And in [P3-Para. 7] “In the stamp editing process performed by the terminal device 12B, the stamp added by the terminal device 12A cannot be edited, but a new stamp can be added or the stamp added by the terminal device 12B can be edited.” And in [P5-Para. 7] “In the content browsing screen 1200 of FIG. 9, a frame 1201 is displayed on the stamp to be edited. The user can instruct enlargement or reduction of the stamp to be edited by an operation such as pinching out or pinching in to enlarge or reduce the frame 1201.Further, the user can instruct the movement of the stamp to be edited by an operation such as dragging to move the frame 1201.”(emphasis added) examiner note: a matching user, based on role, may edit the size, position and/or add new stamp image different from the first stamp image utilizing edit operation on the second terminal. Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Horiuchi with the teaching of Nemoto because “in an information processing system that shares a display screen of content such as materials, it is required to make communication smooth and efficient by adding visually easy-to-understand images.” Nemoto [P2-Para. 4]. Claim 15. The rejection of the terminal according to claim 14 is incorporated, wherein the first content includes a plurality of contents, wherein the controller is further configured to accept assignment of priorities to the plurality of contents, and wherein the controller transmits the plurality of contents to the particular terminal in decreasing order of the priorities. Horiuchi discloses in [0167] “the data exchange unit 51 transfers the stroke data to the electronic whiteboard 1b, which is the counterpart terminal… Thereby, the same stroke image stA as that of displayed on the electronic whiteboard 1a as the counterpart terminal is displayed, as illustrated in FIG. 19D.” And in [0171] “the data exchange unit 71 transmits the requested document image data to the electronic whiteboard 1b as the request source terminal… Thereby, the data exchange unit 11b of the electronic whiteboard 1b downloads (receives) the document image data. In step S77, the display control unit 14b of the electronic whiteboard 1b displays the same document image as the document image d1 illustrated in FIG. 19C on the screen illustrated in FIG. 19D and stops displaying the hourglass icon c2 displayed until then.” (emphasis added) examiner note: the second terminal 1b may be assigned to receive the stroke data (stroke image stA) first and, then hourglass icon c2 (indicating receiving document image d1), then the background image (document image d1) as shown in figs. 19C-19D. Claim 15. The rejection of the terminal according to claim 14 is incorporated, wherein the controller is further configured to display, on the display unit, a second assignment image that enables the assignment of the properties to the plurality of contents. Horiuchi discloses in [0167] “the data exchange unit 51 transfers the stroke data to the electronic whiteboard 1b, which is the counterpart terminal… Thereby, the same stroke image stA as that of displayed on the electronic whiteboard 1a as the counterpart terminal is displayed, as illustrated in FIG. 19D.” And in [0171] “the data exchange unit 71 transmits the requested document image data to the electronic whiteboard 1b as the request source terminal… Thereby, the data exchange unit 11b of the electronic whiteboard 1b downloads (receives) the document image data. In step S77, the display control unit 14b of the electronic whiteboard 1b displays the same document image as the document image d1 illustrated in FIG. 19C on the screen illustrated in FIG. 19D and stops displaying the hourglass icon c2 displayed until then.” (emphasis added) examiner note: the second terminal 1b may be assigned to receive the stroke data (stroke image stA) first and, then hourglass icon c2 (indicating receiving document image d1), then the background image (document image d1) as shown in figs. 19C-19D. Claim 17. A terminal, comprising: a controller; and a display unit, wherein the terminal is communicable with a particular terminal, Horiuchi discloses in [0092] “the electronic whiteboard 1c includes a data exchange unit 11c, an acceptance unit 12c, an image/audio processing unit 13c, a display control unit 14c, a determination unit 15c, a communication capacity measuring unit 16c, an image processing unit 17c, a short-range communication unit 18c, and a storing/reading processing unit 19c.” and in [0173] “A description is now given of an example in which another electronic whiteboard 1 provided at another site joins part way through a remote conference (videoconference) that is already started among the plurality of electronic whiteboards 1 provided at plural sites, with reference to FIG. 20 to FIG. 25.” (emphasis added), and wherein the controller is configured to: receive a first content and first associated information transmitted by the particular terminal, the first associated information indicating a first position and a first size, the first position indicating a position where the first content is to be displayed on a display unit of the terminal, the first size indicating a size of the first content to be displayed on the display unit of the terminal; Horiuchi discloses in [0178] “the data exchange unit 11c of the halfway participating terminal (electronic whiteboard 1c) transmits download request information indicating a request for downloading document image data by accessing the URLs indicating storage locations at the image storage device 7 received in step S105… the data exchange unit 11c of the electronic whiteboard 1c starts downloading (receiving) the document image data. Further, in step S109, the data exchange unit 11c of the halfway participating terminal (electronic whiteboard 1c) transmits request information indicating a request for downloading stroke data to the communication management system 5… the data exchange unit 51 starts transmitting the stroke data read in step S110 to the electronic whiteboard 1c. Thereby, the data exchange unit 11c of the electronic whiteboard 1c starts downloading (receiving) the stroke data.” And in [0189-0195] “In step S153, the display control unit 14c of the electronic whiteboard 1c controls the display 180 to display a capture image h1 as illustrated in FIG. 23. The display image illustrated in FIG. 23 includes the capture image h1, which is generated by the electronic whiteboard 1a, and a notification image ml indicating that download of document image data and stroke data is in progress… the user C1 of the electronic whiteboard 1c recognizes that download of the document image data and the stroke data is in progress as well as grasps the outline of the remote conference so far from the capture image h1. The notification image ml illustrated in FIG. 23 is just example, and any image, text, icon, or a combination thereof can be used provided that it can notify the user C1 that data is being downloaded… in response to receiving the document image data transmission completion notice and the stroke data transmission completion notice by the data exchange unit 11c, the display control unit 14c of the electronic whiteboard 1c controls the display 180 to display an image obtained by combining the document image d2 and the stroke images (st1 to st5) as illustrated in FIG. 24, replaced with the capture image h1 as illustrated in FIG. 23. The display image illustrated in FIG. 24 includes the document image d2 based on the document image data transmitted from the image storage device 7 and the stroke images st1 to st5 based on the stroke data transmitted from the communication management system 5.” (emphasis added) examiner note: the display control unit 14c of terminal 1c may receive document image h1 and stroke data comprising size and position information of stroke image st2 as shown in fig. 23 and displays document image d2 and stroke image st2 as shown in fig. 24, based on the first associated information, display, on the display unit of the terminal, an associated image based on which the first position and the first size are identifiable; Horiuchi discloses in [0194] “in response to receiving the document image data transmission completion notice and the stroke data transmission completion notice by the data exchange unit 11c, the display control unit 14c of the electronic whiteboard 1c controls the display 180 to display an image obtained by combining the document image d2 and the stroke images (st1 to st5) as illustrated in FIG. 24, replaced with the capture image h1 as illustrated in FIG. 23. The display image illustrated in FIG. 24 includes the document image d2 based on the document image data transmitted from the image storage device 7 and the stroke images st1 to st5 based on the stroke data transmitted from the communication management system 5.” (emphasis added), and Horiuchi does not explicitly disclose accept an editing operation while the associated image is being displayed on the display unit, the editing operation including at least one of a change operation or an input operation, [the change operation being of changing at least one of a position or a size of the associated image, the input operation being of inputting a second content different from the first content]. However, Poletto, in an analogous art, discloses in [0012] “a background download of a second version of the image may be performed while the first version of the image is displayed within the user interface. For example, the first version may be a low resolution version of the image and the second version may be a high resolution version of the image. While the user interacts with the low resolution version of the image, the high resolution version may download in the background.” And in [0048] “the user may still be able to interact with image 402a because the user device may allow them to modify, message, annotate, or provide a request or attempt to share the image.” And in [0049] “the user may be able to provide a message 408 to image 402a. Message 408 may include text, images, videos, hyperlinks, attachments, or any other form of content capable of being associated with image 402a.” (emphasis added) examiner note: an edit operation may be accepted on the downloaded low-resolution version of the associated image as the high resolution being downloaded in the background as indicated by notification image m1 shown in fig. 23 of Horiuchi. Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Horiuchi with the teaching of Poletto because “because they may desire to interact with their content without any constraints despite any limitations that may be outside of their control (e.g., low connectivity/signal), a low resolution version of the shared image may be downloaded for user interaction while the high-resolution version is being downloaded in the background. Poletto [Background and 0012]. Horiuchi does not explicitly disclose the change operation being of changing at least one of a position or a size of the associated image, the input operation being of inputting a second content different from the first content. However, Nemoto, in an analogous art, discloses in [Abstract] “The second terminal device having one or more second terminal devices has an additional image editing means for adding an additional image to the distribution destination and a distribution processing means for distributing the content to the distribution destination together with the information that can identify the user who added the additional image. Displayed when the display means for displaying the content distributed from the first terminal device and the information that can identify the user who added the additional image match the information that can identify the operator of the second terminal device. The above problem is solved by having an additional image editing means that accepts an editing operation for an additional image added on the content.” And in [P2-Description] “When the information that can identify the user who added the additional image distributed from the first terminal device matches the information that can identify the operator of the second terminal device, the second content And a second additional image editing unit that receives an editing operation for the additional image added on the content displayed by the display unit.” And in [P3-Para. 7] “In the stamp editing process performed by the terminal device 12B, the stamp added by the terminal device 12A cannot be edited, but a new stamp can be added or the stamp added by the terminal device 12B can be edited.” And in [P5-Para. 7] “In the content browsing screen 1200 of FIG. 9, a frame 1201 is displayed on the stamp to be edited. The user can instruct enlargement or reduction of the stamp to be edited by an operation such as pinching out or pinching in to enlarge or reduce the frame 1201.Further, the user can instruct the movement of the stamp to be edited by an operation such as dragging to move the frame 1201.”(emphasis added) examiner note: a matching user, based on role, may edit the size, position and/or add new stamp image different from the first stamp image utilizing edit operation on the second terminal. Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teaching of Horiuchi with the teaching of Nemoto because “in an information processing system that shares a display screen of content such as materials, it is required to make communication smooth and efficient by adding visually easy-to-understand images.” Nemoto [P2-Para. 4]. Conclusion The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See PTO-892. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AHAMED I NAZAR whose telephone number is (571)270-3174. The examiner can normally be reached 10 am to 7 pm Mon-Fri. 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, Stephen Hong can be reached at 571-272-4124. 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. /AHAMED I NAZAR/Examiner, Art Unit 2178 1/7/2026 /STEPHEN S HONG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2178
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Prosecution Timeline

Nov 20, 2023
Application Filed
Jan 09, 2026
Non-Final Rejection — §103 (current)

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53%
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88%
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3y 11m
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