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 .
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
The following title is suggested: VIDEO GAME WITH PERSISTANT SUB-MISSIONS.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-3, 6, 10-12, 15 and 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by foreign patent publication Okamura et al (WO2013099349). Note that citations are both to the publication (the paragraph numbers and brackets) and the machine translation (page numbers).
Regarding claim 1, Okamura discloses a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored with an information processing program executable by a computer of an information processing apparatus (“In this embodiment, an example will be described in which a game memory card 40 is used to supply a game program and game data to the game device 10, but other information storage media such as an optical disc may also be used”, [0042], p. 24),
wherein the information processing program causes one or more processors of the computer (“An example of an embodiment of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. The game system according to the embodiment of the present invention is realized by, for example, a home game console (stationary game console), a portable game console, a mobile phone (smartphone), a personal digital assistant, or a personal computer. Here, a case will be described in which the game system according to the embodiment is realized by a plurality of portable game devices”, [0023], pp. 14 & 15)
to execute: executing game processing in a multi-play and in a solo-play, during a game of the multi-play, regarding an overall mission that is a plurality of missions including a personal mission that is at least a mission to be set to a player and an others mission that is at least a mission to be set to other player (“Next, games executed in the game system 1 will be described. The game system 1 executes a game in which a plurality of players cooperate to accomplish a common overall mission. A mission is a game play that a player must perform, and is a task (task or objective) assigned to each player in the game. Here, the actions that each player's control subject should take are set as missions.
In addition, an overall mission common to a plurality of players and individual missions to be individually accomplished by each of the plurality of players are set. The overall mission can be considered a condition for multiple players to clear the game. The individual missions can also be considered as evaluation criteria for individually evaluating each player's gameplay”, [0046] & [0047], pp. 26 & 27;
“The contents of the individual missions are different for each player, even if they belong to the same group. For example, the individual mission set for player A is "move to building 82," and the individual mission set for player B is "defeat character 74f." The content of the individual mission may be something that contributes to the achievement of the overall mission, or something that does not contribute to the achievement of the overall mission”, [0057]; p. 33; that a player is evaluated based on an overall mission is interpreted to be a multi-play; that a player is evaluated based on personal mission(s) interpreted to be a solo-play that occurs simultaneously),
progressing, when a progress condition that is set to any mission included in the overall mission is satisfied based on a play by any player that joins to the multi-play, the mission that satisfies the progress condition; granting a reward to the player when a progress degree of the any mission reaches a mission accomplishment condition that is a condition that the mission is accomplished (“In this case, the conditions relating to the status of the character operated by each player and the personal mission ID that is set when the conditions are satisfied are associated with each other and stored in the game data storage unit 100 . For example, by comparing information about the current situation of the character operated by each player with the above conditions, it is determined whether or not the above conditions are satisfied. The personal mission of the personal mission ID associated with the condition determined to be satisfied will be set for the player”, [0076]; p. 45;
“The achievement determination unit 106 is realized, for example, primarily by the control unit 44 of the game device 10A. The achievement determination unit 106 determines whether or not the individual mission set by the individual mission setting unit 104 has been achieved based on the game play of the player for whom the individual mission has been set.
Here, the achievement determination unit 106 determines whether or not the conditions for achieving the individual mission are met by comparing the actions of each player's character 74 with the content of the individual mission set for that player. If it is determined that the achievement conditions are met, it is determined that the individual mission is accomplished. For example, when the character 74 moves to a position specified in the personal mission, or when the character 74 performs an action specified in the personal mission, it is determined that the player operating the character 74 has accomplished the personal mission”, [0081] & [0082], p. 47);
and ending the multi-play in a state that the progress degree of the personal mission is kept at a time of ending the multi-play (“It is also possible to store information about previously set personal missions in the game data storage unit 100, and the personal mission setting unit 104 may refer to this information to determine the personal missions to be set for each player from among the personal missions that have not yet been set. In other words, a personal mission that has been set to any player even once may not be set again”, [0074], p. 44),
and during a game of the solo-play, progressing, when a progress condition that is set to any personal mission is satisfied based on a play by the player, the mission that satisfies the progress condition; granting a reward to the player when the progress degree of the any personal mission reaches a mission accomplishment condition that is a condition that the mission is accomplished ([0081] & [0082], p. 47);
and starting the multi-play based on the overall mission including the personal mission having the progress degree at a time of starting and the others mission having the progress degree at the time of starting ([0074], p. 44).
Regarding claim 2, Okamura discloses holding a predetermined number of the personal missions, and during the game of the multi-play game and the game of the solo-play game, completing, when any personal mission reaches the mission accomplishment condition, the any personal mission, and adding a new personal mission (“In this embodiment, when a player completes the current individual mission, the next individual mission is set for that player. The content of the next personal mission to be set may be related to the personal mission that has been completed, or may be unrelated. It is not the case that a group cannot win the game if each player does not complete their individual mission; even if an individual mission is not completed, the group can still win if they complete the overall mission”, [0059], p. 34).
Regarding claim 3, Okamura discloses during the game of the multi-play and the game of the solo-play game, adding a personal bonus mission as a new personal mission not included in the predetermined number of the personal missions when an accomplishment situation of the personal mission satisfies a predetermined condition (“For example, the content of the next individual mission may be different depending on the time it takes for a player to complete the individual mission. For example, if it takes five minutes to complete a personal mission, the personal mission data may be defined so that a less difficult personal mission is set as the next personal mission than if it takes two minutes.
In the variant example (8), when an individual mission set by the individual mission setting unit 104 is accomplished, the individual mission setting unit 104 sets, for the player who has accomplished the individual mission, a next individual mission that is associated with a condition that is satisfied by the time required to accomplish the individual mission”, [0134] & [0135], pp. 78 & 79).
Regarding claim 6, Okamura discloses during the game of the multi-play, adding an overall mission not included in the personal missions and the other missions to the overall bonus mission when the accomplishment situations of the personal bonus missions of all of the player joining to the multi-play satisfy a predetermined condition (“The game system 1 of the modified example (3) includes a means for changing the content of the overall mission based on information relating to the progress of the individual missions set for each player. This means is realized by, for example, the game execution unit 102. The game system 1 of the modified example (3) includes a means for acquiring the progress of the individual mission, similar to the modified example (2).
FIG. 13 is a diagram showing the association between conditions relating to the progress of individual missions and the contents of overall missions that are set when the conditions are met. Data indicating the association is stored in advance in the game data storage unit 100 . The information indicating the progress of the individual missions is compared with the above conditions, and the overall mission associated with the conditions that are determined to be met is set for each group, thereby changing the overall mission. The group for which the overall mission is changed may be a group to which a randomly selected player belongs, or may be only a group for which a specific overall mission is set”, [0114] & [0115], pp.66&67).
Claims 10-12 and 15 are directed to the methods implemented by the code on the articles of manufacture of claims 1-3 and 6 respectively and are rejected for the same reasons as claims 1-3 and 6 respectively.
Regarding claim 19, Okamura discloses a game system comprising a plurality of information processing apparatuses, wherein one or more processors of each of the plurality of information processing apparatuses (“An example of an embodiment of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. The game system according to the embodiment of the present invention is realized by, for example, a home game console (stationary game console), a portable game console, a mobile phone (smartphone), a personal digital assistant, or a personal computer. Here, a case will be described in which the game system according to the embodiment is realized by a plurality of portable game devices”, [0023], pp. 14 & 15),
are caused to execute: executing a game of a multi-play, and during the game of the multi-play, regarding an overall mission that includes a personal mission that is at least a mission to be set to each of all players joining to the multi-play ([0046] & [0047], pp. 26 & 27; [0057]; p. 33),
progressing, when a progress condition that is set to any mission included in the overall mission is satisfied based on a play by any player that joins to the multi-play, the mission that satisfies the progress condition; granting a reward to each player when a progress degree of the any mission reaches a mission accomplishment condition that is a condition that the mission is accomplished ([0076]; p. 45; [0081] & [0082], p. 47);
ending the multi-play in a state that the progress degree of each personal mission is kept at a time of ending the multi-play, and starting the multi-play based on the overall mission including the personal mission holding the progress degree of each of the all players at a time of starting ([0074], p. 44).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4, 5, 7-9, 13, 14 and 16-18 objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LAWRENCE STEFAN GALKA whose telephone number is (571)270-1386. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 6-9 & 12-5.
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, David Lewis can be reached at 571-272-7673. 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.
/LAWRENCE S GALKA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715