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 .
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 12-16 and 21-31 allowed.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed May 4, 2026 with respect to independent claim 17 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. In particular, Applicant argues on page 9 in the response:
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In response, the Examiner would respectfully point out that claim 17 does not include similar claim features like those amended to independent claim 1 or independent claim 21. In contrast, claim 17 was only amended in the last response to fix a 35 USC 112(b) issue relating to specifying the word “axes” (to indicate axis in the plural).
Applicant's remaining arguments filed with respect to independent claims 1 and 21 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the 35 USC 112 and 35 USC 102 rejections on these claims have been withdrawn.
Claim Interpretation
Regarding claims 17-20, Applicant has acted as their own lexicographer and explicitly defined “Computer-readable storage medium” as excluding signals per se. Applicant’s specification filed December 4, 2023 explicitly states (emphasis added):
[0065] “Computer-readable storage media” refers to media and/or devices that enable persistent and/or non-transitory storage of information (e.g., instructions are stored thereon that are executable by a processing device) in contrast to mere signal transmission, carrier waves, or signals per se. Thus, computer-readable storage media refers to non-signal bearing media. The computer-readable storage media includes hardware such as volatile and non-volatile, removable and non-removable media and/or storage devices implemented in a method or technology suitable for storage of information such as computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, logic elements/circuits, or other data. Examples of computer-readable storage media include but are not limited to RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical storage, hard disks, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or other storage device, tangible media, or article of manufacture suitable to store the desired information and are accessible by a computer.
Accordingly, claims 17-20 are eligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. 101 as directed to an equivalent of “non-transitory computer-readable storage medium” under applicant’s explicit definition.
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.
Claim(s) 17-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Jain et al. (US 2022/0130088 A1).
Regarding claim 17, Jain discloses:
One or more computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, responsive to execution by a processing device, causes the processing device to perform operations (Jain, ¶¶170-171: instructions stored on a computer-readable storage medium and executable by processors) including:
Detecting a plurality of directional flow axes for a plurality of objects displayed in a user interface; (Jain, ¶22: the design guide system assigns angular linear segments in a digital design document to angular bins (e.g., based on angular ranges and the corresponding angles of individual linear segments; ¶25: the design guide system also arranges the angular linear segments within the angular bins, where the design guide system sorts the angular linear segments within the angular bins based on angle and signed distance; ¶169: the caching engine 1310 caches locations of digital design objects, including angular linear segments (with corresponding signed distances and angles), in a digital design document)
Caching the plurality of directional flow axes as associated with object identifiers of the plurality of objects in axis cache (Jain, ¶25: the design guide system also arranges the angular linear segments within the angular bins, where the design guide system sorts the angular linear segments within the angular bins based on angle and signed distance; ¶169: the caching engine 1310 caches locations of digital design objects, including angular linear segments (with corresponding signed distances and angles), in a digital design document); and
Controlling at least one edit operation based on the axis cache. (Jain, ¶21: the design guide system can rotate subject angular linear segments so that they are parallel to existing angular linear segments or translate subject angular linear segments so that they are collinear with existing angular linear segments; ¶28: Upon identifying a target angular linear segment, in some embodiments the design guide system then generates an angular snapping guide to align the user interaction to the target angular linear segment and provide a visual indication to the user within the design user interface; ¶31: the design guide system provides an angular snapping guide during a translation to snap a subject angular linear segment to a collinear (or near-collinear) alignment relative to a target angular linear segment)
Regarding claim 18, Jain further discloses:
Wherein the plurality of directional flow axes is cached in respective angular bin of a plurality of angular bins defined within the axis cache (Jain, ¶25: the design guide system also arranges the angular linear segments within the angular bins, where the design guide system sorts the angular linear segments within the angular bins based on angle and signed distance; ¶169: the caching engine 1310 caches locations of digital design objects, including angular linear segments (with corresponding signed distances and angles), in a digital design document)
Regarding claim 19, Jain further discloses:
Wherein the controlling of the at least one edit operation includes a snapping operation in which a first said object is rotated in relation to a second said object in the user interface by aligning a first said directional flow axis of the first said object with a second said directional flow axis of the second said object (Jain, ¶21: the design guide system can rotate subject angular linear segments so that they are parallel to existing angular linear segments or translate subject angular linear segments so that they are collinear with existing angular linear segments; ¶26: the design guide system utilizes this angular binning data structure to efficiently identify target angular linear segments and generate angular snapping guides, where the design guide system efficiently identifies a target angular linear segment for generating an angular snapping guide by first identifying one or more angular bins corresponding to the angle of the user interaction, comparing the angle with the angular ranges of the angular bins to select a set of three angular bins to search; ¶28: the design guide system then generates an angular snapping guide to align the user interaction to the target angular linear segment and provide a visual indication to the user within the design user interface, including generates a visual representation of an angular snapping guide as a dashed line within the digital design document to indicate (e.g., provide a hint) to the user that the design guide system is snapping a user interaction to a particular location/orientation of an existing digital design object, snaps cursor movements or other editing functions onto angular snapping guides, and snaps cursor movements or other editing functions onto angular snapping guides; ¶31: the design guide system provides an angular snapping guide during a translation to snap a subject angular linear segment to a collinear (or near-collinear) alignment relative to a target angular linear segment; See Fig. 6A and ¶90 discloses snapping rotation to angular snapping guides)
Regarding claim 20, Jain further discloses:
Wherein the controlling of the at least one edit operation includes output of a visual guide in the user interface indicating a respective said directional flow axis in relation to a respective said object (Jain, ¶28: Upon identifying a target angular linear segment, the design guide system then generates an angular snapping guide to align the user interaction to the target angular linear segment and provide a visual indication to the user within the design user interface, including generates a visual representation of an angular snapping guide as a dashed line within the digital design document to indicate (e.g., provide a hint) to the user that the design guide system is snapping a user interaction to a particular location/orientation of an existing digital design object, snaps cursor movements or other editing functions onto angular snapping guides, and snaps cursor movements or other editing functions onto angular snapping guides; Fig. 6A)
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DANIEL F HAJNIK whose telephone number is (571)272-7642. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 8am-5pm.
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/DANIEL F HAJNIK/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2616
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