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 .
Election/Restrictions
Claims 15-20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected invention II, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Applicant timely traversed the restriction (election) requirement in the reply filed on 2/26/26.
Applicant requests that the restriction be withdrawn and the two Groups be examined together asserting that both inventions “may rely on coordinated control between game servers within a shared virtual space, and both may be directed to resolving synchronization and processing burdens arising from distributed event execution.”
The examiner does not concur. The restriction is proper because the inventions are independent or distinct for the reasons given in the original requirement. Searching for structure and functionality is very different from searching commands and timing.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
Claims 1-14 have been examined as follows.
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-4 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Flavel et al. (US PG pub 2015/0358401).
Flavel et al. shows,
In regards to claim 1,
An electronic device comprising:
a processor; and memory storing (paragraph [0028], “The computing devices and systems on which the routing system may be implemented may include a central processing unit, input devices, output devices (e.g., display devices and speakers), storage devices (e.g., memory and disk drives), network interfaces, graphics processing units, accelerometers, cellular radio link interfaces, global positioning system devices, and so on.”) instructions that,
when executed by the processor, cause the electronic device to:
control a plurality of game servers (paragraph [0028], gaming devices are included in the computer devices that the supporting servers serve, which allows them to be considered “game servers”.) including a first game server and a second game server, (paragraph [0025], “The nodes 101, 111, and 121 are assigned to layer 0, layer 1, and layer 2, respectively.” In this example, node 121, layer 2, is considered to be a first game server and node 111, layer 1, is considered to be a second game server.)
the first game server configured to execute events occurring in a first region of a virtual space (Figure 1, layers 0, 1, and 2 combined is considered to be the space.), and
the second game server configured to execute events occurring in a second region, adjacent to the first region of the virtual space,
control the first game server to function as a scaling server by transferring at least one cell of a plurality of cells of the second region from the second game server to the first game server, based on load condition of the first game server and the second game server, (paragraph [0025], “When a client first requests to connect to the domain network using the domain name of layer 2, the client is directed to a DNS in layer 2, which directs the client to connect through its associated edge server, which is also in layer 2, unless the DNS has been instructed by a load controller to start offloading. If the DNS of layer 2 is offloading, the DNS provides the domain name of layer 1 to the client.” The function request is considered to be one of many cells) and
control to transfer the at least one cell of the second region, previously transferred to the first game server functioning as the scaling server, to a variable server based on load condition of the scaling server. (paragraph [0025], “The client then requests to connect to the domain network using the domain name of layer 1. The client is directed to a DNS in layer 1, which directs client to connect through its associated edge server, which is also in layer 1, unless that DNS has been instructed by the load controller to start offloading. If the DNS of layer 1 is offloading, the DNS provides the domain name of layer 0 to the client. The client then requests to connect to the domain network using the domain name of layer 0. The client is directed to a DNS in layer 0 that directs the client to connect through its associated edge server, which is also in layer 0.”)
In regards to claim 2,
wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor,
cause the electronic device to create the variable server in case of that a load size of the scaling server exceeds a threshold, and (paragraph [0024] shows the offloading to another server based on a threshold.)
control the scaling server to transfer at least one cell allocated to the scaling server to the variable server in order to process at least one event processed by the scaling server instead. (See paragraph [0025] cited above.)
In regards to claim 3,
wherein the plurality of cells include a set of cells which are a minimum division units of an entire map for which the scaling server and the at least one game server are responsible together, (The function requests are considered to be cells. Each function is a minimum division unit. The request for function server service is passed on in a hierarchy in the entire map of figure 1.) and
divide the entire map into a plurality of regions, and the plurality of regions comprise the first region and the at least one second region adjacent to the first region. (See figure 1)
In regards to claim 4,
further comprising a region allocation server configured to manage coordinate information of a plurality of cells included in each of the plurality of regions, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the electronic device to update coordinate information of the region allocation server corresponding to the plurality of regions based on at least one cell being transferred between the plurality of regions. (paragraph [0024] shows the load controller that monitors the load of an edge server and instructs the DNS when to start reducing the load of that edge sever. The edge sever is part of each node.)
In regards to claim 14,
further comprising a communication module comprising communication circuitry configured to communicate with a user terminal granted a character through a network, wherein the user terminal is configured to receive a command for an event occurring in the scaling server or the at least one game server, and wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the electronic device to control the communication module to notify the user terminal of the server change based on a server to which the character belongs being changed according as the at least one cell is transferred in a state in which the character belongs to the at least one cell. (See paragraph [0026] and figure 2.)
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-13 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: Claim 5 recites specific limitation in regards to load calculations and synchronization which, in combination with previous limitation, are not shown or taught by the cited prior art. Claims 6-13 are dependent upon claim 5.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL A CUFF whose telephone number is (571)272-6778. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 9-5.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Xuan Thai can be reached at 571 272-7147. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MICHAEL A CUFF/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715