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
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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 1-3, 6, 11-12, 14, and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by ZTE (CN 101730010A).
Regarding claim 1, ZTE discloses a method for a server providing a notification to a user terminal (abstract) comprising: determining whether characteristic point-in-time information dependent on a friend account (contact person) of a user account meets a first condition based on the reference point-in-time information( whether date of the commemorating date is the current date, abstract) and whether the friend account meets a second condition with respect to the user account (whether the friend is a contact). ZTE further discloses identifying the friend account as a friend to be notified based on whether the first and second conditions are met(when blessing mode is set and both conditions are met, page 3), and providing a message including information about the friend to be notified to the user terminal (Page 3, Preferably, when described transmitting element confirms that the user selects note blessing mode, provide the short message content of setting or from input mode to the user; Behind the short message content of accepting the blessing note of user's selection or importing certainly, extract the contact persons of described souvenir date correspondence telephone number, note is sent to described telephone number).
Regarding claims 19-20, ZTE discloses a server (service generator) which inherently contains a memory/non-transitory computer readable recording medium and processor (note abstract refers to portable terminal and service generator). ZTE discloses that the processor determines whether characteristic point-in-time information dependent on a friend account (contact person) of a user account meets a first condition based on the reference point-in-time information( whether date of the commemorating date is the current date, abstract) and whether the friend account meets a second condition with respect to the user account (whether the friend is a contact). ZTE further discloses identifying the friend account as a friend to be notified based on whether the first and second conditions are met(when blessing mode is set and both conditions are met, page 3), and providing a message including information about the friend to be notified to the user terminal (Page 3, Preferably, when described transmitting element confirms that the user selects note blessing mode, provide the short message content of setting or from input mode to the user; Behind the short message content of accepting the blessing note of user's selection or importing certainly, extract the contact persons of described souvenir date correspondence telephone number, note is sent to described telephone number).
Regarding claims 2-3, ZTE discloses the characteristic point-in-time information comprises time information entered so that the user account is dependent on the friend account ( page 4, “setting up date and time information receives the souvenir date”) and that it is birthday information (Page 4 “for example, contact person’s birthday”).
Regarding claim 6, ZTE discloses the first condition is determined based on characteristic point-in-time information being included in the reference point-in-time (i.e. – the souvenir date being the same date as the reference date).
Regarding claim 11-12, ZTE discloses wherein the friend account is specified by the user account as meeting the second condition as well as information about the reason to be notified (Page 4, Among the present invention, set up the souvenir date and time information in the contacts in the cards folder of portable terminal, for example contact person's birthday, wedding anniversary, red-letter day or commemoration day of establishing certainly etc., the user is according to own this contact persons who is understood information, for each contact person imports the corresponding souvenir date. Here, the contact persons who is imported souvenir date and time information, optimal way is for only comprising month and date and time information, the commemoration day generally all is the annual date that all can commemorate, as birthday or wedding anniversary etc.)
Regarding claim 14, ZTE discloses the message comprises a gift-related interface and the based on the interaction with the interface of the user terminal, providing the user terminal with a gift page where the friend is notified, they are a gift recipient. (Page 3, “When portable terminal confirms that the user selects to order the blessing mode of the thing of giving a present, provide to the user setting shopping website network address or and from input mode; The network address of accepting the user is selected the shopping website of this network address correspondence of back visit, and after be contact person's ordering present of described commemoration day correspondence the user, the information of ordering present is notified the contact person of described commemoration day correspondence with short message mode.”).
Regarding claim 18, ZTE further discloses wherein the message is provided to the user terminal in response to at least one of a predetermined time condition and predetermined message reception for the user terminal being met (souvenir date meeting the current date is a predetermined time condition).
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 4, 7-8, 10, 15-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZTE in view of Ahn (7580864).
Regarding claims 4, 7, 15-16, ZTE discloses a reason for the friend to be notified (anniversary, birthday, etc.). ZTE discloses all the particulars of the claim except for the characteristic information being based on gift history information between the friend and user account. However, Ahn teaches in an analogous art, a wireless system in which gift history is used between users and friends (Claims 1 and 6, use of gifting history or usage history between users). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention in order to provide a greater statistical monitoring including gifts as taught by Ahn.
Regarding claim 8 and 10, Ahn further teaches that the gift history information comprises a type of the gift, which shows the friend’s use of a service provided (Figure 9, gift history refers to type of gift certificate used and Col. 5;2-9).
Claims 5 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZTE in view of Liu (2016/0301639).
Regarding claim 5, ZTE discloses that the characteristic point-in-time information is determined between a relationship between the user and friend account (whether the friend account is a contact in the user’s portable terminal). ZTE does not disclose that the relationship is a name, chat room, or content of conversation. However, Liu teaches the use of a wireless system in which relationship information is tracked between a user account and a friend account in which the nature of the conversation is used for recommendations (abstract, Fig 6a-6c). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to include the conversation tracking in order to provide personalized recommendations to a friend.
Regarding claim 9, ZTE discloses all the particulars except that the second condition is met based on the history of a friend account performing a predetermined action within a predetermined period. However, Liu teaches in a chat room, the interaction between a friend and a user, wherein the friend’s chat can suggest certain restaurants (para 119-127) within the chat (i.e. – the chat is within a predetermined period). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the invention to include a condition being met based on predetermined actions within a predetermined period in order to provide timely notification.
Claim(s) 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZTE in view of Van (9807038).
Regarding claim 13, ZTE discloses all the particulars of the claim except the use of a chat room link to a chat room. However, Van teaches a wireless messaging service in which a chat room link (Col. 5;30-65, a pop-up notification can include a chat room link button). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to notify about chat room links in order to efficiently communicate between the two parties.
Claim 17 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZTE in view of Khandewale (9,419,931).
Regarding claim 17, ZTE discloses all the limitations except the use of a recommended gift based on history. However, Khandewale teaches a gifting system in which a user’s history is taken into account in suggesting a recommended gift (Col 6; 42-56). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to include a recommended gift in order to reduce unwanted gift giving by the user to a friend.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Kadiyala (2018/0032585) discloses the use of context based historical information with respect to contacts in a mobile environment.
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WILLIAM GEORGE TROST IV
Primary Patent Examiner
Art Unit 2641
/WILLIAM G TROST IV/Primary Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2641