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 .
Status
This Office Action is responsive to communications filed on 26 May 2026; Claim(s) 1, 9, 17, and 21 have been amended, claims 2, 10, 18 and 20 have been cancelled and claims 23-25 have been added, therefore claims 1, 3-9, 11-17, 19, and 21-25 is/are pending in the application and have been presented for examination.
Summary
Office Action Summary:
Amendments to the claim(s) overcome the prior art rejection under 35 USC 103, therefore the Examiner has entered new grounds of rejection of necessitated by the amendments.
Amendments to claim(s) 9, 13-14, 17 and 21 overcomes the 112(b) rejection for lack of antecedent basis.
The Applicant’s arguments have been fully considered however they are either not persuasive and/or are moot, see Response to Arguments below.
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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim 1, 3-4, 8-9, 11-12, 16-17, and 18-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bates et al (US 2009/0076894 A1, hereinafter “Bates”), in view of Bromenshenkel et al (US 2010/0070884 A1, hereinafter “Bromenshenkel”), further in view of Hamilton et al (US 20090287758 A1, hereinafter “Hamilton”).
Claim 1: Bates discloses, An advertisement management system comprising (0012, 0020):
at least one memory storing instructions (0020, computer-readable instructions, memory);
and at least one processor configured to access the at least one memory and execute the instructions to (0020-0021, 0023, processor, memory, instructions):
detect the avatars both as associated with each other in the virtual space and also as recipients to which an advertisement is to be output (0031, “targeting an advertisement to a crowd of avatars gathered at some common location proximal to one of advertising locations”, see also 0018, “The selected advisement may be based not only on the sum of individual interests for the avatars present in the particular location, but also current interaction between the avatars”),
and detecting the avatars as [ ] as indicating that the avatars have participated in a same virtual event carried out in at least part of the virtual space (0008, “identifying a plurality of avatars within a specified proximity of an advertising location within the immersive virtual environment”, 0036);
obtain an analysis result by analyzing a target in which a plurality of users operating the avatars associated with each other are interested in common [ ] (0008, “identifying a common interest of the plurality of avatars”, see also 0043-0044, “the advertisement selector 152 reads the user profile 120 (i.e., specified user information and demographic data) and user content 150 (i.e., communications between avatars and/or avatar interactions with the virtual world) associated with each avatar in a crowd proximate to an advertising location within a virtual world. In one embodiment, the advertisement selector 152 may evaluate this information to identify common interests among avatars in the crowd”);
select an advertisement for the plurality of users operating the avatars, associated with each other, based on both the analysis result and also at least one attribute of the virtual space in which the virtual event is carried out (0043-0044, see also 0033, “Clicking on the virtual mountain could influence the advertisement selector 152 to select advertisements related to climbing equipment, especially where multiple avatars are present”, see also 0035, 0039);
output, to the management system, the advertisement to be displayed in the virtual space (0046, “the advertising selector 152 displays the advertisement within the (e.g., the advertisement is rendered on a virtual billboard, as shown in FIGS. 2A-2C)”);
It appears that Bates may not explicitly disclose acquire, from a management system of a virtual space, data related to at least one action of a plurality of actions, the at least one action is performed by avatars, in the virtual space, to an object existing in the virtual space; [based on the data].
Bromenshenkel, however teaches acquire, from a management system of a virtual space, data related to at least one action of a plurality of actions, the at least one action is performed by avatars, in the virtual space, to an object existing in the virtual space (Bromenshenkel at 0033-0035, “when a grouping application 128 receives a trigger indicating a need to determine an avatar group 127 within a virtual world 130… a trigger may include…avatar action occurring within the virtual world”, see also 0035, “the grouping application 128 may identify avatars that are looking at each other for at least a minimum time, avatars that are looking in the same direction or at the same object (or sequence of objects)…the grouping application 128 may identify avatars representing users that have similar interests (e.g., avatars representing users that interact with the same objects, participate in the same events or activities”), based on the data (Bromenshenkel at 0038, 0041, 0044).
The Examiner finds and understands that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the teachings of grouping avatars based on a common action or interests as taught by Bromenshenkel with the system and method for targeted advertising to avatars in a virtual environment as disclosed by Bates so that content can be better targeted to the group profile based on a common group action or interest as taught by Bromenshenkel.
It appears that Bates in view of Bromenshenkel may not explicitly disclose, and output information indicating a tendency of a presence position of the avatar based on stay information of the avatar in the virtual space.
Hamilton, however teaches output information indicating a tendency of a presence position of the avatar based on stay information of the avatar in the virtual space (Hamilton at 0026, “create data feeds that collect statistical data over time, such as…number of avatars in the store, demographics of avatars in the store, etc. A feed may be created to derive graphical data representing correlations between statistical data and avatar activity over time. For example, a feed can contain plots of avatar traffic flow in the store over a day. The data can be analyzed to determine the most and least popular areas of the store”, see also 0031, 0039, “A space is defined as an area within specific boundaries in the virtual universe. For example, an owner of a convention center in a virtual universe can define a space that is part of the convention center. The owner can monitor avatar activity within the space such as time spent in the space, corporate booths visited in the space, number of avatars in the space, etc.”).
The Examiner finds and understands that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the teachings of Hamilton to track the number of avatars and the amount of time spent in a location with the system and method for advertising to a group of avatars as disclosed by Bates in view of Bromenshenkel in order to determine the most and least popular areas of the virtual space (i.e., a tendency for being in particular area of a virtual space) as taught by Hamilton at 0026.
Claim 3. Bates in view of Bromenshenkel and Hamilton discloses, The advertisement management system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the instructions to: analyze the target further based on any of the at least one action and a conversation content between the avatars (Bates at 0018, “The selected advisement may be based not only on the sum of individual interests for the avatars present in the particular location, but also current interaction between the avatars”, see also 0043).
Claim 4. Bates in view of Bromenshenkel and Hamilton discloses, The advertisement management system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the instructions to: exclude use of a use history not desired to be used by a user of the plurality of users, from selection of the advertisement in a case of the advertisement is selected using the use history of the user, and the user participates in the virtual space by operating an avatar of the avatars (Bates at 0040, “a vegetarian user may specify in their user profile 120 that this user prefers not to see advertisements for meat products while within the virtual environment. As is shown in FIG. 2C, the vegetarian user's preference may supersede the selection of an advertisement for the fast-food business, and in this case an alternate advertisement for an airline is displayed on the virtual billboard 250”).
Claim 8. Bates in view of Bromenshenkel and Hamilton discloses, The advertisement management system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the instructions to: select the advertisement for each of a plurality of groups of avatars, including the avatars associated with each other in the virtual space (Bates at 0045-0046).
Claim 9. Bates discloses, An advertisement management method comprising (0006, 0029):
detecting the avatars both as associated with each other in the virtual space and also as recipients to which an advertisement is to be output (0031, “targeting an advertisement to a crowd of avatars gathered at some common location proximal to one of advertising locations”, see also 0018, “The selected advisement may be based not only on the sum of individual interests for the avatars present in the particular location, but also current interaction between the avatars”),
and detecting the avatars [ ] as indicating that the avatars have participated in a same virtual event carried out in at least part of the virtual space (0008, “identifying a plurality of avatars within a specified proximity of an advertising location within the immersive virtual environment”, 0036),
obtain an analysis result by analyzing a target in which a plurality of users operating the avatars associated with each other are interested in common [ ] (0008, “identifying a common interest of the plurality of avatars”, see also 0043-0044, “the advertisement selector 152 reads the user profile 120 (i.e., specified user information and demographic data) and user content 150 (i.e., communications between avatars and/or avatar interactions with the virtual world) associated with each avatar in a crowd proximate to an advertising location within a virtual world. In one embodiment, the advertisement selector 152 may evaluate this information to identify common interests among avatars in the crowd”);
selecting an advertisement, an advertisement, for the plurality of users operating the avatars associated with each other based on both the analysis result and also at least one attribute of the virtual space in which the virtual event is carried out (0043-0044, see also 0033, “Clicking on the virtual mountain could influence the advertisement selector 152 to select advertisements related to climbing equipment, especially where multiple avatars are present”, see also 0035, 0039);
outputting, to the management system, the advertisement to be displayed in the virtual space (0046, “the advertising selector 152 displays the advertisement within the (e.g., the advertisement is rendered on a virtual billboard, as shown in FIGS. 2A-2C)”);
It appears that Bates may not explicitly disclose, acquiring, from a management system of a virtual space, data related to at least one action of a plurality of actions, the at least one action is performed by avatars, in the virtual space, to an object existing in the virtual space; [based on the data];
Bromenshenkel, however teaches acquiring, from a management system of a virtual space, data related to at least one action of a plurality of actions, the at least one action is performed by avatars, in the virtual space, to an object existing in the virtual space (Bromenshenkel at 0033-0035, “when a grouping application 128 receives a trigger indicating a need to determine an avatar group 127 within a virtual world 130… a trigger may include…avatar action occurring within the virtual world”, see also 0035, “the grouping application 128 may identify avatars that are looking at each other for at least a minimum time, avatars that are looking in the same direction or at the same object (or sequence of objects)…the grouping application 128 may identify avatars representing users that have similar interests (e.g., avatars representing users that interact with the same objects, participate in the same events or activities”); [based on the data] (Bromenshenkel at 0038, 0041, 0044).
The Examiner finds and understands that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the teachings of grouping avatars based on a common action or interests as taught by Bromenshenkel with the system and method for targeted advertising to avatars in a virtual environment as disclosed by Bates so that content can be better targeted to the group profile based on a common group action or interest as taught by Bromenshenkel.
It appears that Bates in view of Bromenshenkel may not explicitly disclose, and outputting information indicating a tendency of a presence position of the avatar based on stay information of the avatar in the virtual space.
Hamilton, however teaches, output information indicating a tendency of a presence position of the avatar based on stay information of the avatar in the virtual space (Hamilton at 0026, “create data feeds that collect statistical data over time, such as…number of avatars in the store, demographics of avatars in the store, etc. A feed may be created to derive graphical data representing correlations between statistical data and avatar activity over time. For example, a feed can contain plots of avatar traffic flow in the store over a day. The data can be analyzed to determine the most and least popular areas of the store”, see also 0031, 0039, “A space is defined as an area within specific boundaries in the virtual universe. For example, an owner of a convention center in a virtual universe can define a space that is part of the convention center. The owner can monitor avatar activity within the space such as time spent in the space, corporate booths visited in the space, number of avatars in the space, etc.”).
The Examiner finds and understands that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the teachings of Hamilton to track the number of avatars and the amount of time spent in a location with the system and method for advertising to a group of avatars as disclosed by Bates in view of Bromenshenkel in order to determine the most and least popular areas of the virtual space (i.e., a tendency for being in particular area of a virtual space) as taught by Hamilton at 0026.
Claim 11. Bates in view of Bromenshenkel and Hamilton discloses, The advertisement management method according to claim 9, further comprising: analyzing the target further based on any of the at least one action and a conversation content between the avatars (Bates at 0043, “where the advertisement selector 152 reads the user profile 120 (i.e., specified user information and demographic data) and user content 150 (i.e., communications between avatars and/or avatar interactions with the virtual world) associated with each avatar in a crowd proximate to an advertising location within a virtual world…the advertisement selector 152 may evaluate this information to identify common interests among avatars in the crowd”).
Claim 12. Bates in view of Bromenshenkel and Hamilton discloses, The advertisement management method according to claim 9, further comprising: excluding use of a use history not desired to be used by a user of the plurality of users from selection of the advertisement in a case of the advertisement is selected using the use history of the user, and the user participates in the virtual space by operating an avatar of the avatars (Bates at 0040, “a vegetarian user may specify in their user profile 120 that this user prefers not to see advertisements for meat products while within the virtual environment. As is shown in FIG. 2C, the vegetarian user's preference may supersede the selection of an advertisement for the fast-food business, and in this case an alternate advertisement for an airline is displayed on the virtual billboard 250”).
Claim 16. Bates in view of Bromenshenkel and Hamilton discloses, The advertisement management method according to claim 9, further comprising: selecting the advertisement for each of a plurality of groups of avatars, including the avatars, associated with each other in the virtual space (Bates at 0045-0046).
Claim 17. Bates discloses, A non-transitory recording medium recording an advertisement management program that cause a computer to execute (0020-0021, 0023):
detecting the avatars both as associated with each other in the virtual space and also as recipients to which an advertisement is to be output (0031, “targeting an advertisement to a crowd of avatars gathered at some common location proximal to one of advertising locations”, see also 0018, “The selected advisement may be based not only on the sum of individual interests for the avatars present in the particular location, but also current interaction between the avatars”),
and detecting the avatars [ ] as indicating that the avatars have participated in a same virtual event carried out in at least part of the virtual space; (0008, “identifying a plurality of avatars within a specified proximity of an advertising location within the immersive virtual environment”, 0036),
obtain an analysis result by analyzing a target in which a plurality of users operating the avatars associated with each other are interested in common [ ] (0008, “identifying a common interest of the plurality of avatars”, see also 0043-0044, “the advertisement selector 152 reads the user profile 120 (i.e., specified user information and demographic data) and user content 150 (i.e., communications between avatars and/or avatar interactions with the virtual world) associated with each avatar in a crowd proximate to an advertising location within a virtual world. In one embodiment, the advertisement selector 152 may evaluate this information to identify common interests among avatars in the crowd”);
selecting an advertisement, an advertisement, for the plurality of users operating the avatars associated with each other based on both the analysis result and also at least one attribute of the virtual space in which the virtual event is carried out (0043-0044, see also 0033, “Clicking on the virtual mountain could influence the advertisement selector 152 to select advertisements related to climbing equipment, especially where multiple avatars are present”, see also 0035, 0039);
outputting, to the management system, the advertisement to be displayed in the virtual space (0046, “the advertising selector 152 displays the advertisement within the (e.g., the advertisement is rendered on a virtual billboard, as shown in FIGS. 2A-2C)”);It appears that Bates may not explicitly disclose acquiring, from a management system of a virtual space, data related to at least one action of a plurality of actions, the at least one action is performed by avatars, in the virtual space, to an object existing in the virtual space; [based on the data];
Bromenshenkel, however teaches acquiring, from a management system of a virtual space, data related to at least one action of a plurality of actions, the at least one action is performed by avatars, in the virtual space, to an object existing in the virtual space (Bromenshenkel at 0033-0035, “when a grouping application 128 receives a trigger indicating a need to determine an avatar group 127 within a virtual world 130… a trigger may include…avatar action occurring within the virtual world”, see also 0035, “the grouping application 128 may identify avatars that are looking at each other for at least a minimum time, avatars that are looking in the same direction or at the same object (or sequence of objects)…the grouping application 128 may identify avatars representing users that have similar interests (e.g., avatars representing users that interact with the same objects, participate in the same events or activities”); [based on the data] (Bromenshenkel at 0038, 0041, 0044).
The Examiner finds and understands that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the teachings of grouping avatars based on a common action or interests as taught by Bromenshenkel with the system and method for targeted advertising to avatars in a virtual environment as disclosed by Bates so that content can be better targeted to the group profile based on a common group action or interest as taught by Bromenshenkel.
It appears that Bates in view of Bromenshenkel may not explicitly disclose, and outputting information indicating a tendency of a presence position of the avatar based on stay information of the avatar in the virtual space.
Hamilton, however teaches, output information indicating a tendency of a presence position of the avatar based on stay information of the avatar in the virtual space (Hamilton at 0026, “create data feeds that collect statistical data over time, such as…number of avatars in the store, demographics of avatars in the store, etc. A feed may be created to derive graphical data representing correlations between statistical data and avatar activity over time. For example, a feed can contain plots of avatar traffic flow in the store over a day. The data can be analyzed to determine the most and least popular areas of the store”, see also 0031, 0039, “A space is defined as an area within specific boundaries in the virtual universe. For example, an owner of a convention center in a virtual universe can define a space that is part of the convention center. The owner can monitor avatar activity within the space such as time spent in the space, corporate booths visited in the space, number of avatars in the space, etc.”).
The Examiner finds and understands that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the teachings of Hamilton to track the number of avatars and the amount of time spent in a location with the system and method for advertising to a group of avatars as disclosed by Bates in view of Bromenshenkel in order to determine the most and least popular areas of the virtual space (i.e., a tendency for being in particular area of a virtual space) as taught by Hamilton at 0026.
Claim 19. Bates in view of Bromenshenkel and Hamilton discloses, The non-transitory recording medium recording the advertisement management program according to claim 17, wherein the advertisement management program further causes the computer to execute: analyzing the target further based on any of the at least one action and a conversation content between the avatars (Bates at 0018, “The selected advisement may be based not only on the sum of individual interests for the avatars present in the particular location, but also current interaction between the avatars”, see also 0043).
Claim 20. Bates in view of Bromenshenkel and Hamilton discloses, The non-transitory recording medium recording the advertisement management program according to claim 17, wherein the advertisement management program further causes the computer to execute: excluding use of a use history not desired to be used by a user, of the plurality of users, from selection of the advertisement in a case of the advertisement is selected using the use history of the user, and the user participates in the virtual space by operating an avatar of the avatars (Bates at 0040, “a vegetarian user may specify in their user profile 120 that this user prefers not to see advertisements for meat products while within the virtual environment. As is shown in FIG. 2C, the vegetarian user's preference may supersede the selection of an advertisement for the fast-food business, and in this case an alternate advertisement for an airline is displayed on the virtual billboard 250”).
Claim 5-7 and 13-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bates in view of Bromenshenkel and Hamilton, further in view of Murakami et al (US 2015/0084858 A1, hereinafter “Murakami”).
Claim 5. Bates in view of Bromenshenkel and Hamilton discloses, The advertisement management system according to claim 1, it appears that Bates may not explicitly disclose, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the instructions to: control a timing related to output of the advertisement based on any of at least one action of at least one avatar of the avatars and a conversation content between the avatars.
Where Bates in view of Bromenshenkel and Hamilton discloses outputting an advertisement based on avatars action and conversations, Murakami, further teaches controlling the timing related to the output of the advertisement, see Murakami at 0098, “the advertisement is displayed on the display unit 240 for a longer period of time or the content of the advertisement is changed according to the expression of the viewer viewing the advertisement”, 0137-0138, “line of sight”, see also 0067).
The Examiner finds and understands that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the teachings of adjusting the display time or advertisement based on the viewer’s line of sight or expression as taught by Murakami with the system and method for grouping avatars based on a common action or interest and displaying targeted advertising to the group as disclosed by Bates in view of Bromenshenkel and Hamilton in order to increase advertising effectiveness by reflecting the interest of the viewers as taught by Murakami at 0008.
Claim 6. Bates in view of Bromenshenkel, Hamilton and Murakami discloses, The advertisement management system according to claim 5, it appears that Bates may not explicitly disclose, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the instructions to: control a timing related to output of the advertisement based on any of at least one action of at least one avatar of the avatars and a conversation content between the avatars.
Where Bates in view of Bromenshenkel and Hamilton discloses outputting an advertisement based on avatar actions and conversations, Murakami, further teaches controlling the timing related to the output of the advertisement, see Murakami at 0098, “the advertisement is displayed on the display unit 240 for a longer period of time or the content of the advertisement is changed according to the expression of the viewer viewing the advertisement”, 0137-0138, “line of sight”, see also 0067).
The Examiner finds and understands that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the teachings of adjusting the display time or advertisement based on the viewers line of sight or expression as taught by Murakami with the system and method for grouping avatars based on a common action or interest and displaying targeted advertising to the group as disclosed by Bates in view of Bromenshenkel and Hamilton in order to increase advertising effectiveness by reflecting the interest of the viewers as taught by Murakami at 0008.
Claim 7. Bates in view of Bromenshenkel, Hamilton and Murakami discloses, The advertisement management system according to claim 5, although Bates indicates determining advertisements based on an avatar’s proximity and line of sight (viewing angle) to the virtual billboard (see Bates at 0042) it appears that Bates may not explicitly disclose, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the instructions to: control the timing related to the output of the advertisement based on directions of any of lines of sight, faces, or heads of the avatars.
Murakami, however teaches the missing limitations at 0098, “the advertisement is displayed on the display unit 240 for a longer period of time or the content of the advertisement is changed according to the expression of the viewer viewing the advertisement”, 0137-0138, “line of sight”, see also 0067).
The Examiner finds and understands that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the teachings of adjusting the display time or advertisement based on the viewers line of sight or expression as taught by Murakami with the system and method for grouping avatars based on a common action or interest and displaying targeted advertising to the group as disclosed by Bates in view of Bromenshenkel and Hamilton in order to increase advertising effectiveness by reflecting the interest of the viewers as taught by Murakami at 0008.
Claim 13. Bates in view of Bromenshenkel and Hamilton discloses, The advertisement management method according to claim 9, however it appears that Bates may not explicitly disclose, further comprising: controlling a timing related to output of the advertisement based on any of an action of the avatars and or a conversation content between the avatars.
Where Bates in view of Bromenshenkel and Hamilton discloses outputting an advertisement based on avatar actions and conversations, Murakami, further teaches controlling the timing related to the output of the advertisement, see Murakami at 0098, “the advertisement is displayed on the display unit 240 for a longer period of time or the content of the advertisement is changed according to the expression of the viewer viewing the advertisement”, 0137-0138, “line of sight”, see also 0067).
The Examiner finds and understands that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the teachings of adjusting the display time or advertisement based on the viewers line of sight or expression as taught by Murakami with the system and method for grouping avatars based on a common action or interest and displaying targeted advertising to the group as disclosed by Bates in view of Bromenshenkel and Hamilton in order to increase advertising effectiveness by reflecting the interest of the viewers as taught by Murakami at 0008.
Claim 14. Bates in view of Bromenshenkel, Hamilton and Murakami discloses, The advertisement management method according to claim 13, it appears that Bates may not explicitly disclose, further comprising: controlling the timing related to the output of the advertisement based on a reaction of a user, of the plurality of users and participating in the virtual space, by operating each of the avatars with respect to the output advertisement.
Murakami, however teaches the missing limitations at 0098, “the advertisement is displayed on the display unit 240 for a longer period of time or the content of the advertisement is changed according to the expression of the viewer viewing the advertisement”, 0137-0138, “line of sight”, see also 0067).
The Examiner finds and understands that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the teachings of adjusting the display time or advertisement based on the viewers line of sight or expression as taught by Murakami with the system and method for grouping avatars based on a common action or interest and displaying targeted advertising to the group as disclosed by Bates in view of Bromenshenkel and Hamilton in order to increase advertising effectiveness by reflecting the interest of the viewers as taught by Murakami at 0008.
Claim 15. Bates in view of Bromenshenkel, Hamilton and Murakami discloses, The advertisement management method according to claim 13, although Bates indicates determining advertisements based on an avatar’s proximity and line of sight (viewing angle) to the virtual billboard (see Bates at 0042) it appears that Bates may not explicitly disclose, further comprising: controlling the timing related to the output of the advertisement based on directions of any of lines of sight, faces, and heads of the plurality of avatars.
Murakami, however teaches the missing limitations at 0098, “the advertisement is displayed on the display unit 240 for a longer period of time or the content of the advertisement is changed according to the expression of the viewer viewing the advertisement”, 0137-0138, “line of sight”, see also 0067).
The Examiner finds and understands that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the teachings of adjusting the display time or advertisement based on the viewers line of sight or expression as taught by Murakami with the system and method for grouping avatars based on a common action or interest and displaying targeted advertising to the group as disclosed by Bates in view of Bromenshenkel and Hamilton in order to increase advertising effectiveness by reflecting the interest of the viewers as taught by Murakami at 0008.
Claim 21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bates in view of Bromenshenkel and Hamilton, further in view of Barsness.
Claim 21. Bates in view of Bromenshenkel and Hamilton discloses, The advertisement management system according to claim 1, however it appears that Bates in view of Bromenshenkel and Hamilton may not explicitly disclose, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the instructions to: acquire, from the management system, second data related to second actions, performed by the avatars, to a second object in the virtual space while the advertisement is displayed; obtain a second analysis result by analyzing a second target in which the plurality of users, operating the avatars associated with each other, are interested in common based on the second data; as a second selection, select another advertisement, for the plurality of users, operating the avatars associated with each other, based on the second analysis result, and a determination that the second target varies from the target; and output, to the management system, another advertisement to be displayed in the virtual space based on a result of the second selection.
Barsness, however teaches acquire, from the management system, second data related to second actions, performed by the avatars, to a second object in the virtual space while the advertisement is displayed; obtain a second analysis result by analyzing a second target in which the plurality of users, operating the avatars associated with each other, are interested in common based on the second data; as a second selection, select another advertisement, for the plurality of users, operating the avatars associated with each other, based on the second analysis result, and a determination that the second target varies from the target; and output, to the management system, another advertisement to be displayed in the virtual space based on a result of the second selection (Barsness at 0011, 0027, “an advertisement to be displayed to a user in a computer game environment may be selected based upon a user affinity for a subject of another advertisement as determined from monitoring activity of the user after the user views the other advertisement while the other advertisement is displayed in the computer game environment…interactions with products or objects associated with products may be monitored to determine user affinity”, see also 0053, Fig. 6, “in response to the detection of "positive" actions directed to an advertisement by a user, typically a high user affinity will be determined, resulting in future advertisements being selected for subjects that are similar to that of the advertisement with which the user has interacted. Such similarity may include the display of different advertisements for the same product”).
The Examiner finds and understands that it would have been readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date the benefits of monitoring user activity and/responses to an advertisement for purposes of determining future advertisements as taught by Barsness with the system and method for grouping avatars based on a common action or interests and displaying a targeted advertisement in a virtual environment as disclosed by Bates in view of Bromenshenkel because it would improve the targeting of advertisements in a computer game environment as taught by Barsness at 0023.
Claim 22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bates in view of Bromenshenkel and Hamilton further in view of Eatedali et al (US 2019/0192977 A1, hereinafter “Eatedali”).
Claim 22. Bates in view of Bromenshenkel and Hamilton disclose, The advertisement management system according to claim 1, however it appears that Bromenshenkel may not explicitly disclose, wherein the at least one attribute of the virtual space in which the virtual event is carried out comprises at least one of information tagged to the virtual space, whether the virtual space is indicated as official, whether the virtual space is paid, a category of the virtual space, a tendency of skill of at least one of the users, a target age, a rank of the at least one of the users, an average number of friends of the at least one of the users, a number of users supported by the virtual space, a time period of visitors to the virtual space, a design of the virtual space, an installer, an administrator, a service, and a number of elapsed days from a start of the virtual space.
Eatedali, however teaches wherein the at least one attribute of the virtual space in which the virtual event is carried out comprises at least one of information tagged to the virtual space, whether the virtual space is indicated as official, whether the virtual space is paid, a category of the virtual space, a tendency of skill of at least one of the users, a target age, a rank of the at least one of the users, an average number of friends of the at least one of the users, a number of users supported by the virtual space, a time period of visitors to the virtual space, a design of the virtual space, an installer, an administrator, a service, and a number of elapsed days from a start of the virtual space (Eatedali at 0134, “…skill-based marketing or targeted advertising…if a player who plays FPS games has a certain rank or level, certain advertisements for other games of the same or related genre which require a similar level of skill for playing may be pushed to that player. The advertisements may be delivered in-game when the user is playing a game, or online via some other website or app. Similarly, advertisements for merchandise related to games in which a user is doing well and/or has been playing for a certain length of time may be shown to the user. As another example, data regarding rank or level of users in certain categories of games may be used to select users for targeted marketing of virtual objects associated with one or more games”).
The Examiner finds and understands that it would have been obvious and readily apparent the benefits of combining the teachings of Eatedali for targeted advertising based on a skill level of a player or the length of time the player has been playing the game as a basis for a targeted advertisement as taught by Eatedali with the system and method for grouping avatars based on a common action or interests and displaying a targeted advertisement in a virtual environment as disclosed by Bates in view of Bromenshenkel and Hamilton in order to increase the effectiveness of the advertisement selected for display.
Claim 23-25 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bates in view of Bromenshenkel and Hamilton further in view of Van Hoff et al (US 10,701,426 B1).
Claim 23. Bates in view of Bromenshenkel and Hamilton disclose, The advertisement management system according to claim 1, it appears that Bates in view of Bromenshenkel and Hamilton may not explicitly disclose, wherein the information indicating the tendency of the presence position of the avatar includes a heat map indicating positions of the avatar in the virtual space. Van Hoff, however teaches wherein the information indicating the tendency of the presence position of the avatar includes a heat map indicating positions of the avatar in the virtual space (Van Hoff at col 28 lines 38-42, “the social module 218 may use at heat map that measures a user's gaze at different locations in the virtual reality content and illustrates the user's gaze with different colors based on a length of time the user spent looking at the different locations”).
The Examiner finds and understands that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include the teachings of using a heatmap to identify areas of interest in virtual reality content as taught by Van Hoff with the system and method for grouping avatars based on a common action or interests and displaying a targeted advertisement in a virtual environment as disclosed by Bates in view of Bromenshenkel and Hamilton in order to determine where to place advertisements in the virtual reality and to determine objects of interest as taught by Van Hoff at col 35 lines 63-65, col 36 lines 1-5.
Claim 24. Bates in view of Bromenshenkel, Hamilton and Van Hoff disclose, The advertisement management system according to claim 23, it appears that Bates may not explicitly disclose, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the instructions to: output information including a [heat] map for each position of the avatar in the virtual space to a terminal device used by an administrator of the virtual space.
Hamilton, however teaches output information including a [ ] map for each position of the avatar in the virtual space to a terminal device used by an administrator of the virtual space (Hamilton at 0026, “a feed can contain plots of avatar traffic flow in the store over a day. The data can be analyzed to determine the most and least popular areas of the store”, see also 0031, 0039, “The owner can monitor avatar activity within the space such as time spent in the space, corporate booths visited in the space, number of avatars in the space, etc.”). As combined and under the same rationale as above.
It appears that Hamilton may not explicitly teach a [heat] map, Van Hoff, however teaches the missing limitation at col 28 lines 38-42, “the social module 218 may use at heat map that measures a user's gaze at different locations in the virtual reality content and illustrates the user's gaze with different colors based on a length of time the user spent looking at the different locations”. As combined and under the same rationale as above.
Claim 25. Bates in view of Bromenshenkel, Hamilton and Van Hoff disclose, The advertisement management system according to claim 24, it appears that Bates may not explicitly disclose, wherein the heat map is used for setting at least one of a display position of at least one of the advertisement and a position where the avatar is arranged; and the at least one processor is further configured to execute the instructions to: generate the [heat] map indicating the tendency of the position of the avatar in the virtual space based on a number of at least one of times and frequency of stays of the avatar.
Hamilton, however teaches and the at least one processor is further configured to execute the instructions to: generate the [ ] map indicating the tendency of the position of the avatar in the virtual space based on a number of at least one of times and frequency of stays of the avatar (Hamilton at 0026, “a feed can contain plots of avatar traffic flow in the store over a day. The data can be analyzed to determine the most and least popular areas of the store”, see also 0031, 0039, “The owner can monitor avatar activity within the space such as time spent in the space, corporate booths visited in the space, number of avatars in the space, etc.”). As combined and under the same rationale as above.
It appears that Hamilton may not explicitly teach, a [heat] map and wherein the heat map is used for setting at least one of a display position of at least one of the advertisement and a position where the avatar is arranged, Van Hoff, however teaches the missing limitation at col 28 lines 38-42, “the social module 218 may use at heat map that measures a user's gaze at different locations in the virtual reality content and illustrates the user's gaze with different colors based on a length of time the user spent looking at the different locations”, see also col 35 lines 63-65, col 36 lines 1-5, “One example benefit to heat maps or gaze maps is to assist virtual reality content makers or advertisers in determining whether they have achieved their goal. For example, advertisers may use this information to determine where to place advertisements in virtual reality content. In another example, the heat map may be used to determine objects of interest in the virtual reality content”. As combined and under the same rationale as above.
Response to Amendment
Amendments to the claim(s) overcomes the prior art rejection under 35 USC 103, therefore the Examiner has entered new grounds of rejection of necessitated by the amendments.
The Applicant’s arguments have been fully considered however they are either not persuasive and/or are moot, see Response to Arguments below.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim 1, 9, and 17 have been considered but not persuasive and/or are moot because the arguments do not apply to the current rejection.
The Applicant relies on the same arguments for depending claims 3-9, 11-17, 19, and 21-25, therefore the Examiner’s response to the Applicant’s arguments above applies to depending claims 3-9, 11-17, 19, and 21-25.
Applicants’ arguments filed 26 May 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Conclusion
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.
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/M.G./Examiner, Art Unit 3622 /ILANA L SPAR/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3622
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