DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Response to Amendment
This is in response to the amendments/arguments filed on 1/2/26. Claims 1 – 20 are pending in the current application.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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 – 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Desanti et al. (U.S. 2015/0031440).
Regarding claim 1, Desanti discloses an interaction method in a virtual environment, (fig. 5), comprising receiving a request to perform a target action in a target interface, the target action being related to obtaining a virtual element in a virtual environment, the virtual element comprising a virtual item and/or virtual character, (“obtain one or more virtual items”, par. 0007), presenting an execution value corresponding to an execution of the target action with dynamic changes of a probabilistic interaction element, (“At an operation 54, the executed instance of the game space may be implemented to present offers. A store interface may present offers to sell container instances of virtual containers”), wherein the Examiner views the presented offers to sell the virtual containers as being equivalent to the claimed execution value since the execution value is defined as whether a virtual item can be obtained, (par.0049 of specification), and based on a comparison of the execution value with at least one target value among a plurality of target values presented in the target interface, determining an attribute of a target virtual element obtained based on the target action, (“FIG. 3A illustrates an exemplary implementation of a user interface 70 allowing a user to input selection of a container instance of a virtual container. In some implementations, with respect to FIG. 3B, a container instance of virtual container 92 may be associated by price module 72 with a price of 180 Gems” and “FIG. 3E illustrates the type of virtual item uncovered by the player. The virtual item may be any type of in-game matter. Various matters may be collected in an inventory. These matters may include, but are not limited to, virtual items, virtual resources, character attributes), wherein the Examiner views the player purchasing virtual containers containing characters attributes using gems, as being equivalent to the claimed execution value being compared target virtual element values wherein, as stated above, the execution being defined as whether a virtual item can be obtained.
Regarding claims 2 and 12, Desanti discloses providing a set of candidate tags related to a candidate virtual element that can be obtained in the virtual environment; and obtaining the request to perform the target action based on a selection of at least one target tag in the set of candidate tags, (“Various matters may be collected in an inventory. These matters may include, but are not limited to, virtual items, virtual resources, character attributes”, par. 0076), wherein the Examiner views character attributes as being equivalent to the claims candidate tags.
Regarding claims 3 and 13, Desanti discloses wherein the attribute of the target virtual element is further determined based on the at least one selected target tag, (“A character attribute may be any quality, trait, feature and/or characteristic a particular character can have. Character attributes may include, but are not be limited to: a character score, a virtual object, the physical appearance of a character”, par. 0030).
Regarding claims 4 and 14, Desanti discloses wherein determining an attribute of a target virtual element obtained based on the target action comprises: based on the at least one target tag, increasing a probability of obtaining a virtual element matching the at least one target tag; and based on the increased probability, determining the attribute of the target virtual element obtained based on the target action, (“if the user pays $1.00 for the mystery box and the first prize by chance is only worth $0.10, there may be a higher probability that the combined value of the subsequent items (e.g., second, third, fourth, etc.) will be worth at least $0.90. The items that arise subsequently may be either higher or lower based on the cost of the box and the value of the first item. The values of the subsequent items may be dynamically changed based on the value of the first item”, par. 0052).
Regarding claims 5 and 15, Desanti discloses presenting a target item for performing the target action in the target interface, wherein the determination of the execution value is based at least on an item attribute of the target item, (“implement a multi-prize mystery box that dynamically changes probabilities to ensure payout value in an online game”, par. 0004).
Regarding claims 6 – 9 and 16 - 19, Desanti discloses in response to a number of times that the target action is allowed to be performed being greater than a threshold number of times, an entry for receiving the request is provided in the target interface, wherein the frequency of increasing the number of times is associated with a preset duration, and the preset duration is determined based on a value of the item attribute of the target item, (“with respect to FIG. 3B, a container instance of virtual container 92 may be associated by price module 72 with a price of 180 Gems. The price of 180 Gems to purchase a container instance of virtual container 92 may be based the probability of obtaining items greater than or equal to the value of virtual items within the container”, par. 0071).
Regarding claim 10, Desanti discloses wherein the attribute of the target element comprises at least one of the following: a type of the target element indicating that the target element is a virtual item or a virtual character, an item attribute of the obtained virtual item, a character attribute of the obtained virtual character, (“FIG. 3E illustrates the type of virtual item uncovered by the player. The virtual item may be any type of in-game matter. Various matters may be collected in an inventory. These matters may include, but are not limited to, virtual items, virtual resources, character attributes, and/or character skills”, par. 0076 and fig. 3e).
Regarding claim 11, Desanti discloses an electronic device comprising at least one processing unit, and at least one memory, the at least memory being coupled to the at least one processing unit and storing instructions for execution by the at least one processing unit, (“The one or more processing devices may include one or more devices executing some or all of the operations of method 50 in response to instructions stored electronically on an electronic storage medium”, par. 0065), the instructions causing the device to perform actions comprising receiving a request to perform a target action in a target interface, the target action being related to obtaining a virtual element in a virtual environment, the virtual element comprising a virtual item and/or virtual character, (“obtain one or more virtual items”, par. 0007), presenting an execution value corresponding to an execution of the target action with dynamic changes of a probabilistic interaction element, (“implement a multi-prize mystery box that dynamically changes probabilities to ensure payout value in an online game”, par. 0004), and based on a comparison of the execution value with at least one target value among a plurality of target values presented in the target interface, determining an attribute of a target virtual element obtained based on the target action, (“FIG. 3E illustrates the type of virtual item uncovered by the player. The virtual item may be any type of in-game matter. Various matters may be collected in an inventory. These matters may include, but are not limited to, virtual items, virtual resources, character attributes, and/or character skills”, par. 0076 and fig. 3e).
Regarding claim 20, Desanti discloses a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by a processor, implements the method according to claim 1, (“The one or more processing devices may include one or more devices executing some or all of the operations of method 50 in response to instructions stored electronically on an electronic storage medium”, par. 0065).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, with respect to the rejection of claims 1 - 20 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Desanti et al. (U.S. 2015/0031440).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ERIC M THOMAS whose telephone number is (571)272-1699. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00am - 5:00pm.
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/E.M.T/Examiner, Art Unit 3715
/DMITRY SUHOL/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3715
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