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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 09/24/2026 has been entered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 1 recites the limitation “a second game screen” in both lines 15 and 18 of the claim. It is unclear if these second game screens are the same screens or if they are different from one another. For the purposes of examination, the Examiner will interpret these as the same game screen that is displayed in each of the scenarios. Claims 2-3 depend on claim 1 and are therefore rejected on the same grounds.
Claim 4 recites the limitation “a second game screen” in both lines 12-13 and 17 of the claim. It is unclear if these second game screens are the same screens or if they are different from one another
Claim 5 recites the limitation “a second game screen” in both lines 19 and 22 of the claim. It is unclear if these second game screens are the same screens or if they are different from one another
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.
Claims 1, and 3-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yu Sakamoto (JP 2016154707 A; hereinafter Sakamoto) in view of Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes by EA Capital Games as evidenced by YouTube Video by Mist Passiert (“EXCLUSIVE! QOL Updates: Auto Battles and Gear Challenges! SWGoH” published on Feb. 22, 2017, found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbu7mb4nDTs; hereinafter SWGoH).
Regarding Claim 1, Sakamoto discloses a non-transitory computer readable medium storing a program causing a computer to perform (“The storage unit 80 is a storage medium such as a memory or a hard disk, and reads/writes data from/to the storage medium. Further, the storage unit 80 stores battle stage information to be displayed” (recited in at least: Sakamoto paragraph [0019])) a method comprising: displaying, on a display device within a player terminal, a first game screen that presents a plurality of operation portions for a computer game (“Specifically, as shown in FIG. 2, when the game program is executed and the game starts, a battle stage selection screen is displayed” (recited in at least: Sakamoto paragraph [0022])), wherein the first game screen provides a user interface using the plurality of operation portions for selecting a first play mode and an auto play mode for executing the computer game; receiving, from an input unit within the player terminal, a first operation input from a player for the computer game in response to displaying the first game screen (“by selecting the “start” button in FIG. 4, information necessary for displaying the battle stage, information on enemy characters and the like are received from the server, and the battle stage shown in FIG. 5 is started. In the present embodiment, a mode selection unit capable of selecting between the normal mode and the auto mode, and a speed setting unit (described later) are displayed” (recited in at least: Sakamoto paragraph [0026])), wherein the first operation input corresponds to the first play mode; executing the computer game using the first play mode to achieve a reached game stage and in response to receiving the first operation input, wherein executing the computer game using the first play mode comprises completing a first game stage using one or more operation inputs by the player to the input unit while a second game screen is displayed on the display device while executing the computer game (“there is provided a game program according to any one of the first and the second as a third game program, wherein the terminal is selected in the virtual game space according to the selection operation of the player. A game program can be obtained which further functions as switching means for switching between the normal mode and the automatic mode in which the automatic control is executed” (recited in at least: Sakamoto paragraph [0009]); “In the normal mode, operations such as movement, attack, and avoidance of the character Cp are performed by an operation on the touch display of the player, and the battle stage ends when all enemy characters are defeated. When the character's physical strength (sometimes called HP) becomes 0 while the game is in progress in the battle stage, the game is forcibly terminated at that point” (recited in at least: Sakamoto paragraph [0026])));
displaying, on the display device and based on a selection of the auto play mode using the first game screen, a second game screen that presents a first selection operation portion and a second selection operation portion for the auto play mode, wherein the first selection operation portion corresponds to a first prescribed amount of time and a first plurality of game stages for the auto play mode (“when the auto mode is selected in the mode selection unit, the motion of the character is automatically controlled in the battle stage. As a specific control method, for example, the movement pattern of a character to be automatically controlled is movement for attacking an enemy character located in the immediate vicinity of the character, and an attack action is performed when approaching an attackable distance. Start. An action may be taken to avoid the attack of the enemy character based on a certain probability. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the display showing the auto mode is performed on the entire screen” (recited in at least: Sakamoto paragraph [0027]), wherein the second selection operation portion corresponds to a second prescribed amount of time and a second plurality of game stages for the auto play mode, wherein the first prescribed amount of time is greater than the second prescribed amount of time, and receiving, from the input unit within the player terminal (“Operation is controlled automatically. The number of possession of the auto play item according to the present invention is restored every lapse of a predetermined time, and the number of possession is recovered without waiting for a predetermined time by the charging operation of the player” (recited in at least: Sakamoto paragraph [0016])), a second operation input from the player for the computer game in response to displaying the second game screen, wherein the second operation input corresponds to a selection of the auto play mode based on the first selection operation portion with the first prescribed amount of time and the first plurality of game stages wherein the first plurality of game stages has a greater number of game stages than the second plurality of game stages; (“the number of autoplay items is recovered when a predetermined time (hereinafter referred to as “recovery time”) elapses (hereinafter referred to as “recovery processing”). That is, when the selection to use the auto play item is made in FIG. 4, the usable number of the auto play item decreases, but the number of the decreased number recovers after the recovery time elapses (for example, every 2 minutes) Process to recover one autoplay item to The predetermined time may be counted at the beginning of the progression of the battle stage (ie, including the time during which the effects of the autoplay item are exhibited) shown in FIG. (Ie, the time during which the auto play item is effective) may be excluded from the recovery time” (recited in at least: Sakamoto paragraph [0028])); and executing the computer game using the auto play mode and an elapsed time clock, wherein executing the computer game using the auto play mode comprises measuring an elapsed time using the elapsed time clock, determining that the elapsed time exceeds the first prescribed amount of time while executing the computer game using the auto play mode (“a speed setting unit may be provided to accelerate time (virtual time) in the virtual game space when the auto mode is selected. In the example to be performed, “× 2” is selected, and the time in the virtual game space is doubled. That is, when viewed from the player, the action speed of the character and the enemy character is controlled to be doubled. As a result, it is possible to meet the needs of players who want to finish the battle stage quickly, and the battles until the boss battle have already been completed in the auto mode” (recited in at least: Sakamoto paragraph [0034])).
However, Sakamoto doesn’t explicitly disclose completing the first plurality of game stages without displaying the first plurality of game stages on any game screen on the display device. Nevertheless, such modification would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art. In an analogous art to games with auto battle features, SWGoH teaches allowing a user to complete a plurality of stages without displaying the stages on the game screen (as shown in FIGs 1-2 in the attached screenshots).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have included an ability for users to not see the game play on their screen when they are completing game stages as taught by SWGoH into the gaming system of Sakamoto for the added benefit of allowing users to pick what interests them to spend their time.
Regarding Claim 3 Sakamoto in view of SWGoH teach the claimed matter as stated above, and Sakamoto further discloses receiving a skip operation input by the player in the auto play mode, wherein, in response to receiving the skip operation input in the auto play mode, the first prescribed amount of time that is required to complete the first plurality of game stages is reduced (“as shown in FIG. 8, a speed setting unit may be provided to accelerate time (virtual time) in the virtual game space when the auto mode is selected. In the example to be performed, “× 2” is selected, and the time in the virtual game space is doubled” (recited in at least: Sakamoto paragraph [0034])). SWGoH also teaches (as shown in the attached NPL in FIGs 3-4) the user in the Auto Battle game mode of the game can select to skip/reduce the speed of the game by selecting speed input shown on the display screen.
Regarding Claim 4, Sakamoto discloses an information processing method (see Abstract) comprising: steps similar in scope to independent claim 1.
Regarding Claim 5 Sakamoto discloses an information processing system comprising: a computer processor; a display device; an input unit; and a memory connected to the computer processor (“The storage unit 80 is a storage medium such as a memory or a hard disk, and reads/writes data from/to the storage medium. Further, the storage unit 80 stores battle stage information to be displayed” (recited in at least: Sakamoto paragraph [0019])), wherein the memory comprises a program configured to perform a method comprising: steps similar in scope to independent claim 1.
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sakamoto in view of SWGoH as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Hiroaki Ochi (JP 2017012424 A; hereinafter Ochi).
Regarding Claim 2, Sakamoto in view of SWGoH teach the claimed matter as stated above; however they do not explicitly disclose advancing the computer game using a third operation input by the player in the first play mode; and receiving a skip operation input by the player in the first play mode, wherein, in response to receiving the skip operation input in the first play mode, the computer game skips one or more game stages and the computer game is started from a third game stage. Nevertheless, such modification would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art. In an analogous art to game mechanics, Ochi teaches advancing the computer game using a third operation input by the player in the first play mode; and receiving a skip operation input by the player in the first play mode, wherein, in response to receiving the skip operation input in the first play mode, the computer game skips one or more game stages and the computer game is started from a third game stage (“there in the communication connection has been the player terminal, stage and map, in the server system for the game progress management unit of chapters such as the player to run the game to continue to progress by playing a game in order on, depending on the predetermined skip operation input by the player terminal, skip control means for advancing a game by skipping the current game progress management unit” (recited in at least: Ochi paragraph [0030])). It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have included a skip stage game mechanic for players as taught by Ochi into the gaming system of Sakamoto for the added benefit of allowing users to play old stages again and skip stages that doesn’t interest the player.
Response to Arguments
35 U.S.C. § 103:
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the claims have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
Jeff Witt “Auto-Battling your Way to Victory is not a Good Sign” Aug. 10, 2020:
Witt explains the different types of Auto-Battling that players can use within games that have been around and are well known in RPG and Strategy Mobile games.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SELWA A ALSOMAIRY whose telephone number is (703)756-5323. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:30AM to 5PM EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Peter Vasat can be reached at (571) 270-7625. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SELWA A ALSOMAIRY/Examiner, Art Unit 3715
/Jay Trent Liddle/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715
