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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 11/25/2025 has been entered.
Claims 1, 13, and 14 have been amended.
Claims 1-8, 10, and 12-20 are currently pending in Application 18/536,720.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks, filed 11/25/2025, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-14 under 35 USC 112 have been fully considered and are persuasive in view of the claim amendments. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks, filed 11/25/2025, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-14 under 35 USC 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive in view of the claim amendments. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of O’Sullivan (US 2011/0087745 A1) and, in the alternative, O’Sullivan2 (US 2014/0164947 A1). Specifically, Applicant argues that the previously relied upon art does not disclose “a voting event in the group chat”, as recited by the amended independent claims. Examiner agrees. However, O’Sullivan/O’Sullivan2 teaches this feature, as detailed below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1, 10, and 13-14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being obvious over Fulay (US 9723242 B1) in view of O’Sullivan (US 2011/0087745 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Fulay discloses A message sending method (Fulay: Figure 4, Column 4 Lines 41-46, “video conference processes”, Column 6 Lines 10-28, “various viewer applications, each of which may be used by the viewers of video 160… to interact with celebrity 154… question submission application 164… chatting application 172”, and Claim 9, “computer-implemented method…”), comprising:
receiving input of a target message in a group chat interface and determining a recipient of the target message, wherein the recipient is at least one group member participating in an interaction event predetermined (Fulay: Figure 4: item #194 for receiving input, Column 6 L57-67: celebrity chose to address or answer highly ranked question in form of text or video) and determining a recipient of the target message (Column 6 L57-67: celebrity choses to address specific question from the viewer and invites the viewer), wherein the recipient is at least one group member participating in an interaction event predetermined (Column 5 L41-65: members of a social network, wherein videoconference is hosted by the celebrity, Column 6 L10-61: participants of conference can submit question in the app to be answered by celebrity);
determining the recipient based on an event occurring in a preset application (Fulay: Column 6 L10-67: celebrity selects highly ranked question posted or submitted by one of the viewers and the viewer who asked the question is invited to participate in videoconference);
and sending the target message based on the recipient (Fulay: Column 6 L10-67, Column 8 L39-60: inviting the user and answering user’s question in form of text or videoconference, Column 9 L15-21: question answered by celebrity);
wherein the group chat interface is comprised in the preset application (Fulay: Figure 3: video conference 152 app, Figure 4: video conference app comprising chat box, Column 4 L41-46: specialized app, Column 6 L10-28: video conference process or application executed various viewer application utilized by viewers such as feedback submission app, file submission app, chat app, etc.), and the interaction event comprises the event occurring in the preset application (Fulay: Column 6 L29-67: video conferencing application hosting a video conference with users wherein users submit the questions to be answered by celebrity), and
the preset application comprises a resource posting application (Fulay: Figure 4 - video conferencing application includes question submission app, applause generation app, file submission app, etc.).
Fulay does not explicitly disclose that the interaction event comprises an event occurring in a group chat of the preset application, wherein the event occurring in the group chat is a voting event in the group chat.
However, O’Sullivan teaches that the interaction event comprises an event occurring in a group chat of the preset application, wherein the event occurring in the group chat is a voting event in the group chat (O’Sullivan: Figure 3 and Paragraph [0033], “After the members have voted, in block 311, the votes from two or more members in the approval group may be received. Then in block 312, it may be determined if the party's request has been approved and if not, in block 313, the party may be denied access to the multiparty forum. If the party's request has been approved, then in block 314, it may be determined whether the party has received a restricted access approval and if not, then in block 315, the party may be allowed access to the multiparty forum. If the party has received a restricted access to the multiparty forum, then in block 316, the party may be allowed access to the multiparty forum but restricted from access to sensitive information”).
Fulay and O’Sullivan are analogous art in the same field of endeavor as the instant invention as all are drawn to group messaging systems. 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; that is, it would have been obvious to incorporate O’Sullivan’s voting to allow forum (and forum message) access into the system of Fulay so that group members could assure the security of private and confidential data.
Fulay-O’Sullivan teaches 10. The message sending method according to claim 1, wherein the interaction event comprises an event that occurs in the group and is associated with a target user in the group (Fulay: Column 6 L29-67: video conferencing application hosting a video conference with users wherein users submit the questions to be answered by celebrity).
Regarding claim 13, Fulay discloses An electronic device, comprising a memory and a processor, wherein a computer program executable on the processor is stored in the memory, and the processor, when executing the computer program (Fulay: Claim 11, “A computing system including a processor and memory configured to perform operations comprising”),
receives input of a target message in a group chat interface and determines a recipient of the target message, wherein the recipient is at least one group member participating in an interaction event predetermined (Fulay: Figure 4: item #194 for receiving input, Column 6 L57-67: celebrity chose to address or answer highly ranked question in form of text or video) and determining a recipient of the target message (Column 6 L57-67: celebrity choses to address specific question from the viewer and invites the viewer), wherein the recipient is at least one group member participating in an interaction event predetermined (Column 5 L41-65: members of a social network, wherein videoconference is hosted by the celebrity, Column 6 L10-61: participants of conference can submit question in the app to be answered by celebrity),
determines the recipient based on an event occurring in a preset application (Fulay: Column 6 L10-67: celebrity selects highly ranked question posted or submitted by one of the viewers and the viewer who asked the question is invited to participate in videoconference),
and sends the target message based on the recipient (Fulay: Column 6 L10-67, Column 8 L39-60: inviting the user and answering user’s question in form of text or videoconference, Column 9 L15-21: question answered by celebrity),
wherein the group chat interface is comprised in the preset application (Fulay: Figure 3: video conference 152 app, Figure 4: video conference app comprising chat box, Column 4 L41-46: specialized app, Column 6 L10-28: video conference process or application executed various viewer application utilized by viewers such as feedback submission app, file submission app, chat app, etc.), and the interaction event comprises the event occurring in the preset application (Fulay: Column 6 L29-67: video conferencing application hosting a video conference with users wherein users submit the questions to be answered by celebrity), the preset application comprises a resource posting application (Fulay: Figure 4 - video conferencing application includes question submission app, applause generation app, file submission app, etc.).
Fulay does not explicitly disclose that the interaction event comprises an event occurring in a group chat of the preset application, wherein the event occurring in the group chat is a voting event in the group chat.
However, O’Sullivan teaches that the interaction event comprises an event occurring in a group chat of the preset application, wherein the event occurring in the group chat is a voting event in the group chat (O’Sullivan: Figure 3 and Paragraph [0033], “After the members have voted, in block 311, the votes from two or more members in the approval group may be received. Then in block 312, it may be determined if the party's request has been approved and if not, in block 313, the party may be denied access to the multiparty forum. If the party's request has been approved, then in block 314, it may be determined whether the party has received a restricted access approval and if not, then in block 315, the party may be allowed access to the multiparty forum. If the party has received a restricted access to the multiparty forum, then in block 316, the party may be allowed access to the multiparty forum but restricted from access to sensitive information”).
Fulay and O’Sullivan are analogous art in the same field of endeavor as the instant invention as all are drawn to group messaging systems. 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; that is, it would have been obvious to incorporate O’Sullivan’s voting to allow forum (and forum message) access into the system of Fulay so that group members could assure the security of private and confidential data.
Regarding claim 14, Fulay discloses A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, wherein the computer program, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to (Fulay: Column 11 Lines 36-39, “the present disclosure may take the form of a computer program product on a computer-usable storage medium having computer-usable program code embodied in the medium”):
receive input of a target message in a group chat interface and determine a recipient of the target message, wherein the recipient is at least one group member participating in an interaction event predetermined (Fulay: Figure 4: item #194 for receiving input, Column 6 L57-67: celebrity chose to address or answer highly ranked question in form of text or video) and determining a recipient of the target message (Column 6 L57-67: celebrity choses to address specific question from the viewer and invites the viewer), wherein the recipient is at least one group member participating in an interaction event predetermined (Column 5 L41-65: members of a social network, wherein videoconference is hosted by the celebrity, Column 6 L10-61: participants of conference can submit question in the app to be answered by celebrity; and Fulay: Column 6 L10-67: celebrity selects highly ranked question posted or submitted by one of the viewers and the viewer who asked the question is invited to participate in videoconference);
send the target message based on the recipient (Fulay: Column 6 L10-67, Column 8 L39-60: inviting the user and answering user’s question in form of text or videoconference, Column 9 L15-21: question answered by celebrity),
wherein the group chat interface is comprised in a preset application (Fulay: Figure 3: video conference 152 app, Figure 4: video conference app comprising chat box, Column 4 L41-46: specialized app, Column 6 L10-28: video conference process or application executed various viewer application utilized by viewers such as feedback submission app, file submission app, chat app, etc.), and the interaction event comprises an event occurring in the preset application (Fulay: Column 6 L29-67: video conferencing application hosting a video conference with users wherein users submit the questions to be answered by celebrity), the preset application comprises a resource posting application (Fulay: Figure 4 - video conferencing application includes question submission app, applause generation app, file submission app, etc.).
Fulay does not explicitly disclose that the interaction event comprises an event occurring in a group chat of the preset application, wherein the event occurring in the group chat is a voting event in the group chat.
However, O’Sullivan teaches that the interaction event comprises an event occurring in a group chat of the preset application, wherein the event occurring in the group chat is a voting event in the group chat (O’Sullivan: Figure 3 and Paragraph [0033], “After the members have voted, in block 311, the votes from two or more members in the approval group may be received. Then in block 312, it may be determined if the party's request has been approved and if not, in block 313, the party may be denied access to the multiparty forum. If the party's request has been approved, then in block 314, it may be determined whether the party has received a restricted access approval and if not, then in block 315, the party may be allowed access to the multiparty forum. If the party has received a restricted access to the multiparty forum, then in block 316, the party may be allowed access to the multiparty forum but restricted from access to sensitive information”).
Fulay and O’Sullivan are analogous art in the same field of endeavor as the instant invention as all are drawn to group messaging systems. 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; that is, it would have been obvious to incorporate O’Sullivan’s voting to allow forum (and forum message) access into the system of Fulay so that group members could assure the security of private and confidential data.
Claim(s) 2-7, 12, and 15-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fulay-O’Sullivan as applied to claims 1, 10, 13, and 14 above, and further in view of Shuo (applicant provided prior art CN109981304A, English translation provided by Espacenet).
Fulay-O’Sullivan teaches 2/15/18. The message sending method according to claim 1/electronic device according to claim 13/non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 14.
Fulay-O’Sullivan does not explicitly disclose that the determining of the recipient of the target message comprises:
receiving interaction event information or user attribute information input by a current user;
and determining the recipient of the target message based on the interaction event information or the user attribute information.
However, Shuo teaches that the determining of the recipient of the target message comprises:
receiving interaction event information or user attribute information input by a current user (Shuo: Figure 4 and Page 5 Paragraph 4, “Send message reminders and group chat messages to specific group members by specifying the role name or group nickname being displayed”);
and determining the recipient of the target message based on the interaction event information or the user attribute information (Shuo: Figure 4 and Page 5 Paragraph 4, “Send message reminders and group chat messages to specific group members by specifying the role name or group nickname being displayed”).
Fulay-O’Sullivan and Shuo are analogous art in the same field of endeavor as the instant invention as all are drawn to message interaction systems. 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; that is, it would have been obvious to incorporate Shuo’s user attributes into the system of Fulay-O’Sullivan so that particular users could be listed and targeted more efficiently.
Fulay-O’Sullivan-Shuo teaches 3/16/19. The message sending method according to claim 1/electronic device according to claim 13/non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 14, wherein the determining of the recipient of the target message comprises:
displaying a member combination list in the group chat interface, wherein the member combination list comprises at least one member combination, a member combination of the at least one member combination comprising a group member participating in a same interaction event or a group member having a same user attribute (Shuo: Figure 4 and Page 5 Paragraph 4, “Send message reminders and group chat messages to specific group members by specifying the role name or group nickname being displayed”);
determining a target member combination based on a selection operation on the member combination list (Shuo: Figure 4 and Page 5 Paragraph 4, “Send message reminders and group chat messages to specific group members by specifying the role name or group nickname being displayed”);
and determining the recipient of the target message based on the group member comprised in the target member combination (Shuo: Figure 4 and Page 5 Paragraph 4, “Send message reminders and group chat messages to specific group members by specifying the role name or group nickname being displayed”).
Fulay-O’Sullivan and Shuo are analogous art in the same field of endeavor as the instant invention as all are drawn to message interaction systems. 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; that is, it would have been obvious to incorporate Shuo’s user attributes into the system of Fulay-O’Sullivan so that particular users could be listed and targeted more efficiently.
Fulay-O’Sullivan-Shuo teaches 4/17/20. The message sending method according to claim 3/electronic device according to claim 13/non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 14, wherein the member combination is the subset of all group members in the group (Shuo: Figure 4 and Page 5 Paragraph 4, “Send message reminders and group chat messages to specific group members by specifying the role name or group nickname being displayed”; all group members may be selected).
Fulay-O’Sullivan and Shuo are analogous art in the same field of endeavor as the instant invention as all are drawn to message interaction systems. 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; that is, it would have been obvious to incorporate Shuo’s user attributes into the system of Fulay-O’Sullivan so that particular users could be listed and targeted more efficiently.
Fulay-O’Sullivan-Shuo teaches 5. The message sending method according to claim 3, further comprising, before displaying the member combination list in the group chat interface:
receiving a preset instruction input by a current user, the preset instruction being configured to specify a plurality of recipients for receiving a message (Shuo: Figure 4 and Page 5 Paragraph 4, “pre-set special character ‘@’ is written…”).
Fulay-O’Sullivan and Shuo are analogous art in the same field of endeavor as the instant invention as all are drawn to message interaction systems. 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; that is, it would have been obvious to incorporate Shuo’s user attributes into the system of Fulay-O’Sullivan so that particular users could be listed and targeted more efficiently.
Fulay-O’Sullivan-Shuo teaches 6. The message sending method according to claim 3, further comprising, before displaying the member combination list in the group chat interface:
determining group identity information of a current user in the group (Shuo: Page 5 Paragraph 10, “Receive an incoming request for each group member. After each group member joins the chat group, according to the operation of each group member, for example, in the group setting, the roles of each group member are selected from the plurality of roles established by the group owner, and the roles corresponding to each group member are obtained”);
and determining the member combination list based on the group identity information (Shuo: Figure 4 and Page 5 Paragraph 4, “when the pre-set special character "@" is written in the message
sending box of the chat group, the role names of multiple roles are displayed in a window bar popped up in the chat window”).
Fulay-O’Sullivan and Shuo are analogous art in the same field of endeavor as the instant invention as all are drawn to message interaction systems. 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; that is, it would have been obvious to incorporate Shuo’s user attributes into the system of Fulay-O’Sullivan so that particular users could be listed and targeted more efficiently.
Fulay-O’Sullivan-Shuo teaches 7. The message sending method according to claim 3, further comprising, before displaying the member combination list in the group chat interface:
receiving screening condition information input by a current user (Shuo: Figure 3 and Page 6 Paragraph 3, “Zhang San (product) specifies the role of the group chat message desired to be sent for iOS development by writing "@iOS development" in the message sending box of the chat group. Of course, it is also possible to specify the role of the group chat message that is desired to be sent as an iOS development and product by writing "@iOS Development Product" in the message box of the chat group”);
and determining the member combination list based on the screening condition information (Shuo: Figure 4 and Page 6 Paragraph 3, “Zhang San (product) specifies the role of the group chat message desired to be sent for iOS development by writing "@iOS development" in the message sending box of the chat group. Of course, it is also possible to specify the role of the group chat message that is desired to be sent as an iOS development and product by writing "@iOS Development@Product" in the message box of the chat group”).
Fulay-O’Sullivan and Shuo are analogous art in the same field of endeavor as the instant invention as all are drawn to message interaction systems. 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; that is, it would have been obvious to incorporate Shuo’s user attributes into the system of Fulay-O’Sullivan so that particular users could be listed and targeted more efficiently.
Fulay-O’Sullivan-Shuo teaches 12. The message sending method according to claim 1, further comprising:
for each preset recipient of recipients, displaying that the recipient of the target message is a current preset recipient in a message receiving interface corresponding to the current preset recipient (Shuo: Figure 4 and Page 5 Paragraph 4, “For example, iOS development hides Li Si; the product contains Zhang San, Wang Wu, and Zhao Liu. When you want to view the group members corresponding to a certain role, you can expand the group nickname of all the corresponding group members that are hidden under the role name by clicking the role name of the role. For example, by clicking iOS development, expand the hidden Li 4 under the role name; click on the product to expand the hidden names of Zhang San, Wang Wu, and Zhao Liu. Send message reminders and group chat messages to specific group members by specifying the role name or group nickname being displayed”).
Fulay-O’Sullivan and Shuo are analogous art in the same field of endeavor as the instant invention as all are drawn to message interaction systems. 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; that is, it would have been obvious to incorporate Shuo’s user attributes into the system of Fulay-O’Sullivan so that particular users could be listed and targeted more efficiently.
Claim(s) 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fulay, O’Sullivan, and Shuo as applied to claim 3 above, and further in view of Koolwal (US 2016/0173436 A1).
Fulay-O’Sullivan-Shuo teaches 8. The message sending method according to claim 3, further comprising, before displaying the member combination list in the group chat interface: determining the member combination list based on the at least one of the target interaction event or the target user attribute (Shuo: Pages 5-6).
Fulay-O’Sullivan-Shuo does not explicitly disclose analyzing historical chat content of a group chat within a preset time period to obtain at least one of a target interaction event or a target user attribute.
However, Koolwal describes this feature (Koolwal: Paragraphs [0033] and [0053], “suggested invitees provided to an event organizer may be determined based on one or more of the following factors: the location or availability of a candidate invitee at the time the event is scheduled to occur; the affinity between the event organizer and a candidate invitee; the frequency that the suggested candidate invitee has joined previous events; or the history of the candidate user attending events that the event organizer also attended… the invitee's history in relationship to previous event proposals (e.g., an invitee who has accepted previous similar events may be more likely to accept); or social-networking information, such as for example the social-graph coefficient between the invitee and the event organizer or one or more of the other invitees (e.g., an invitee having a strong social-graph coefficient with one or more invitees who have accepted the event proposal may be more likely to also accept the event proposal)”).
Fulay-O’Sullivan-Shuo and Koolwal are analogous art in the same field of endeavor as the instant invention as both are drawn to messaging systems. 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; that is, it would have been obvious to incorporate Koolwal’s historical event information into the system of Fulay-O’Sullivan-Shuo to improve message targeting.
Claim(s) 1, 10, and 13-14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Deselaers (US 10346411 B1) in view of O’Sullivan2 (US 2014/0164947 A1).
Regarding claims 1, 13, and 14, Deselaers discloses A message sending method (Deselaers: A method for sending messages using suggested target recipients in a chat session including receiving a message (step 202, Fig. 2, col 6/18-24) and identifying one or more target recipients for the determined for the received message (2/18-22))/An electronic device, comprising a memory and a processor, wherein a computer program executable on the processor is stored in the memory, and the processor, when executing the computer program (Deselaers: Claim 17, “A system comprising: one or more processors; and a machine-readable medium comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations”)/A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, wherein the computer program, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to (Deselaers: Claim 9, “A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising”)/comprising:
receiving input of a target message in a group chat interface and determining a recipient of the target message, wherein the recipient is at least one group member participating in an interaction event predetermined (Deselaers: Column 11 Lines 1-14, identifies the list of recipients 416 for message 414 in a target recipient suggestion 408; the target recipient “Mary” was suggested because an entity with whom the user 402 is connected had “Mary” as an audience in a previously shared message about tennis; i.e. participated in an interaction event);
determining the recipient based on an event occurring in a preset application (Deselaers: Column 3 Lines 35-56, Identifying a groups of recipients with whom the user previously interacted (step 206); an example of target recipients suggestion for a message, Figure 4 shows a user message (404) "I really want to watch Federer and Djokovich battle for a Grand Slam victory", determining based on an event related to tennis suggested recipients, e.g. tennis coach Mike, Robbie … as one or more recipients (408), 10/38-30; identifies a group of recipients with whom the user has previously interacted, i.e. any recipient who has previously received a message from the user or a recipient from whom the user has received a message is identified by the system, "event occurring in the application");
and sending the target message based on the recipient (Deselaers: Claim 9, providing, for transmission, a target recipient recommendation to the user in response to the received message, the target recipient recommendation comprising a list identifying the one or more target recipients);
wherein the group chat interface is comprised in the preset application, and the interaction event comprises the event occurring in the preset application (Deselaers: Column 6 Lines 18-24 and Column 3 Lines 35-56, a message from a user is received… may include… a social network post, a chat session, or any other kind of an electronic message that may be composed, generated or created by a user for sharing with other users, event occurring as described above), the preset application comprises a resource posting application (Deselaers: Column 6 Lines 18-24, a social network post, a chat session, as described above).
Deselaers does not explicitly disclose that the interaction event comprises an event occurring in a group chat of the preset application, wherein the event occurring in the group chat is a voting event in the group chat.
However, O’Sullivan2 teaches that the interaction event comprises an event occurring in a group chat of the preset application, wherein the event occurring in the group chat is a voting event in the group chat (O’Sullivan2: Figures 2 and 3 and Claim 2, “receiving additional poll results from another collaborator in the select group in a reply to the new message; extracting the additional poll results from the reply to the new message; aggregating the additional poll results with existing poll results for the poll to produce an aggregated set of poll results; placing the poll within an even newer message along with the aggregated set of poll results; and, sending the even newer message to the select group”; NB: The example provided in the instant application of determining a recipient of the target message and sending the target message is simply feedback that the vote has been accepted and/or results of the vote, which is taught here by O’Sullivan2).
Deselaers and O’Sullivan2 are analogous art in the same field of endeavor as the instant invention as all are drawn to group messaging systems. 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; that is, it would have been obvious to incorporate O’Sullivan2’s voting to allow forum (and forum message) access into the system of Deselaers so that group members could assure the security of private and confidential data.
Deselaers-O’Sullivan2 teaches 10. The message sending method according to claim 1, wherein the interaction event comprises an event that occurs in the group and is associated with a target user in the group (Deselaers: Column 6 Lines 27-42 and Column 2 Lines 59-62, identifies a group of recipients with whom the user has previously interacted "event" (step 206), e.g. those who have sent a message to the user, those to whom the user has sent a message, those who commented on a social network post published by the user, or otherwise previously interacted with the user (step 204 of Fig. 2, i.e. "specific interaction of group members based a message of a preset activity in the group chat"); Advantages: The message sharing experience is more efficient and less obstructed by tasks such as selecting an audience (recipients) for a message).
Claim(s) 2-7, 12, and 15-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Deselears-O’Sullivan2 as applied to claims 1, 10, 13, and 14 above, and further in view of Shuo (applicant provided prior art CN109981304A, English translation provided by Espacenet).
Deselaers-O’Sullivan2 teaches 2/15/18. The message sending method according to claim 1/electronic device according to claim 13/non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 14.
Deselaers-O’Sullivan2 does not explicitly disclose that the determining of the recipient of the target message comprises:
receiving interaction event information or user attribute information input by a current user;
and determining the recipient of the target message based on the interaction event information or the user attribute information.
However, Shuo teaches that the determining of the recipient of the target message comprises:
receiving interaction event information or user attribute information input by a current user (Shuo: Figure 4 and Page 5 Paragraph 4, “Send message reminders and group chat messages to specific group members by specifying the role name or group nickname being displayed”);
and determining the recipient of the target message based on the interaction event information or the user attribute information (Shuo: Figure 4 and Page 5 Paragraph 4, “Send message reminders and group chat messages to specific group members by specifying the role name or group nickname being displayed”).
Deselaers-O’Sullivan2 and Shuo are analogous art in the same field of endeavor as the instant invention as all are drawn to message interaction systems. 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; that is, it would have been obvious to incorporate Shuo’s user attributes into the system of Deselaers-O’Sullivan2 so that particular users could be listed and targeted more efficiently.
Deselaers-O’Sullivan2-Shuo teaches 3/16/19. The message sending method according to claim 1/electronic device according to claim 13/non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 14, wherein the determining of the recipient of the target message comprises:
displaying a member combination list in the group chat interface, wherein the member combination list comprises at least one member combination, a member combination of the at least one member combination comprising a group member participating in a same interaction event or a group member having a same user attribute (Shuo: Figure 4 and Page 5 Paragraph 4, “Send message reminders and group chat messages to specific group members by specifying the role name or group nickname being displayed”);
determining a target member combination based on a selection operation on the member combination list (Shuo: Figure 4 and Page 5 Paragraph 4, “Send message reminders and group chat messages to specific group members by specifying the role name or group nickname being displayed”);
and determining the recipient of the target message based on the group member comprised in the target member combination (Shuo: Figure 4 and Page 5 Paragraph 4, “Send message reminders and group chat messages to specific group members by specifying the role name or group nickname being displayed”).
Deselaers-O’Sullivan2 and Shuo are analogous art in the same field of endeavor as the instant invention as all are drawn to message interaction systems. 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; that is, it would have been obvious to incorporate Shuo’s user attributes into the system of Fulay-O’Sullivan so that particular users could be listed and targeted more efficiently.
Deselaers-O’Sullivan2-Shuo teaches 4/17/20. The message sending method according to claim 3/electronic device according to claim 13/non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 14, wherein the member combination is the subset of all group members in the group (Shuo: Figure 4 and Page 5 Paragraph 4, “Send message reminders and group chat messages to specific group members by specifying the role name or group nickname being displayed”; all group members may be selected).
Deselaers-O’Sullivan2 and Shuo are analogous art in the same field of endeavor as the instant invention as all are drawn to message interaction systems. 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; that is, it would have been obvious to incorporate Shuo’s user attributes into the system of Fulay-O’Sullivan so that particular users could be listed and targeted more efficiently.
Deselaers-O’Sullivan2-Shuo teaches 5. The message sending method according to claim 3, further comprising, before displaying the member combination list in the group chat interface:
receiving a preset instruction input by a current user, the preset instruction being configured to specify a plurality of recipients for receiving a message (Shuo: Figure 4 and Page 5 Paragraph 4, “pre-set special character ‘@’ is written…”).
Deselaers-O’Sullivan2 and Shuo are analogous art in the same field of endeavor as the instant invention as all are drawn to message interaction systems. 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; that is, it would have been obvious to incorporate Shuo’s user attributes into the system of Deselaers-O’Sullivan2 so that particular users could be listed and targeted more efficiently.
Deselaers-O’Sullivan2-Shuo teaches 6. The message sending method according to claim 3, further comprising, before displaying the member combination list in the group chat interface:
determining group identity information of a current user in the group (Shuo: Page 5 Paragraph 10, “Receive an incoming request for each group member. After each group member joins the chat group, according to the operation of each group member, for example, in the group setting, the roles of each group member are selected from the plurality of roles established by the group owner, and the roles corresponding to each group member are obtained”);
and determining the member combination list based on the group identity information (Shuo: Figure 4 and Page 5 Paragraph 4, “when the pre-set special character "@" is written in the message
sending box of the chat group, the role names of multiple roles are displayed in a window bar popped up in the chat window”).
Deselaers-O’Sullivan2 and Shuo are analogous art in the same field of endeavor as the instant invention as all are drawn to message interaction systems. 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; that is, it would have been obvious to incorporate Shuo’s user attributes into the system of Deselaers-O’Sullivan2 so that particular users could be listed and targeted more efficiently.
Deselaers-O’Sullivan2-Shuo teaches 7. The message sending method according to claim 3, further comprising, before displaying the member combination list in the group chat interface:
receiving screening condition information input by a current user (Shuo: Figure 3 and Page 6 Paragraph 3, “Zhang San (product) specifies the role of the group chat message desired to be sent for iOS development by writing "@iOS development" in the message sending box of the chat group. Of course, it is also possible to specify the role of the group chat message that is desired to be sent as an iOS development and product by writing "@iOS Development@Product" in the message box of the chat group”);
and determining the member combination list based on the screening condition information (Shuo: Figure 4 and Page 6 Paragraph 3, “Zhang San (product) specifies the role of the group chat message desired to be sent for iOS development by writing "@iOS development" in the message sending box of the chat group. Of course, it is also possible to specify the role of the group chat message that is desired to be sent as an iOS development and product by writing "@iOS Development@Product" in the message box of the chat group”).
Deselaers-O’Sullivan2 and Shuo are analogous art in the same field of endeavor as the instant invention as all are drawn to message interaction systems. 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; that is, it would have been obvious to incorporate Shuo’s user attributes into the system of Deselaers-O’Sullivan2 so that particular users could be listed and targeted more efficiently.
Deselaers-O’Sullivan2-Shuo teaches 12. The message sending method according to claim 1, further comprising:
for each preset recipient of recipients, displaying that the recipient of the target message is a current preset recipient in a message receiving interface corresponding to the current preset recipient (Shuo: Figure 4 and Page 5 Paragraph 4, “For example, iOS development hides Li Si; the product contains Zhang San, Wang Wu, and Zhao Liu. When you want to view the group members corresponding to a certain role, you can expand the group nickname of all the corresponding group members that are hidden under the role name by clicking the role name of the role. For example, by clicking iOS development, expand the hidden Li 4 under the role name; click on the product to expand the hidden names of Zhang San, Wang Wu, and Zhao Liu. Send message reminders and group chat messages to specific group members by specifying the role name or group nickname being displayed”).
Deselaers-O’Sullivan2 and Shuo are analogous art in the same field of endeavor as the instant invention as all are drawn to message interaction systems. 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; that is, it would have been obvious to incorporate Shuo’s user attributes into the system of Deselaers-O’Sullivan2 so that particular users could be listed and targeted more efficiently.
Claim(s) 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Deselaers, O’Sullivan2, and Shuo as applied to claim 3 above, and further in view of Koolwal (US 2016/0173436 A1).
Deselaers-O’Sullivan2-Shuo teaches 8. The message sending method according to claim 3, further comprising, before displaying the member combination list in the group chat interface: determining the member combination list based on the at least one of the target interaction event or the target user attribute (Shuo: Pages 5-6).
Deselaers-O’Sullivan2-Shuo does not explicitly disclose analyzing historical chat content of a group chat within a preset time period to obtain at least one of a target interaction event or a target user attribute.
However, Koolwal describes this feature (Koolwal: Paragraphs [0033] and [0053], “suggested invitees provided to an event organizer may be determined based on one or more of the following factors: the location or availability of a candidate invitee at the time the event is scheduled to occur; the affinity between the event organizer and a candidate invitee; the frequency that the suggested candidate invitee has joined previous events; or the history of the candidate user attending events that the event organizer also attended… the invitee's history in relationship to previous event proposals (e.g., an invitee who has accepted previous similar events may be more likely to accept); or social-networking information, such as for example the social-graph coefficient between the invitee and the event organizer or one or more of the other invitees (e.g., an invitee having a strong social-graph coefficient with one or more invitees who have accepted the event proposal may be more likely to also accept the event proposal)”).
Deselaers-O’Sullivan2-Shuo and Koolwal are analogous art in the same field of endeavor as the instant invention as both are drawn to messaging systems. 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; that is, it would have been obvious to incorporate Koolwal’s historical event information into the system of Deselaers-O’Sullivan2-Shuo to improve message targeting.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Anderson (US 2011/0087735 A1) describes a voting system for messages in a chat environment.
TVM (CN 106330668 A) describes a WeChat-based voting implementation.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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 IMAD HUSSAIN whose telephone number is (571)270-3628. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 0900-1700 ET.
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, Kamal Divecha can be reached on (571) 272-5863. 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.
/IMAD HUSSAIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2453