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 .
Claim Objections
Claim(s) 1, 5, 8, and 10 are objected to because of the following informalities:
In claim 1, “communication circuitry” should read “a communication circuitry”
In claim 1, “processing circuitry” should read “a processing circuitry”
In claims 5, 8, and 10, “gameplay information storage circuitry” should read “the gameplay information storage circuitry”.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more. The claims recite limitations which have been constructed as certain method of organizing human activity and/or mental processes. Claim(s) 1-10 recite an apparatus, claim 11 recites a method, and claim 12 recites a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for performing a process including the steps of receiving a progress indicator indicative of a player’s progress in a game; receiving gameplay information resource associated with the player; generating gameplay information resource associated with the player; receiving a share request comprising of a further player identifier; and making the gameplay information resource accessible to a further device associated with the further player identifier. Under their broadest reasonable interpretation, the recited steps establish collecting information (player progress and gameplay information), evaluating that information (determining what supplementary information corresponds to the player’s progress and generating a custom resource), and sharing the resulting information with one or more user(s). The recited steps therefore include a mental process. Tailoring guidance based on a person’s advancement level and sharing that guidance with another person is a longstanding human activity that can be performed mentally or with pen and paper. Accordingly claims 1-12 recite abstract ideas.
The judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because the claims do not recite additional elements such as “communication circuitry, processing circuitry, gameplay information storage circuitry”, under their broadest reasonable interpretation, these elements are generic computer components/device performing conventional functions of receiving, processing, and storing data, and transmitting data over a network (see MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)). The additional limitations merely add mere instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer or merely uses a computer as a tool to perform an abstract idea and/or generally link the use of the judicial exception to a particular technological environment or field of use (see MPEP 2106.05(f)). Therefore, the claims are directed to an abstract idea.
The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because, as discussed above, the additional elements of “communication circuitry”, “processing circuitry”, “gameplay information storage circuitry”, and a “non-transitory computer-readable storage medium” are generic computer components/device that are known to one of ordinary skill in the art. The recitation of these additional elements do not amount to significantly more than the juridical exception, but rather add mere instructions to implement an abstract idea on a computer as a tool to perform an abstract idea. Therefore, claims 1-12 are not directed to eligible subject matter but are found to recite a judicial exception without significantly more.
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.
Claim(s) 1-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sherwani et al. (US 20210146250 A1), hereinafter referred to as Sherwani, in view of Benedetto et al. (US 20210283514 A1), hereinafter referred to as Benedetto.
In regards to claim(s) 1 and 11, Sherwani teaches a system and method comprising:
communication circuitry to receive a progress indicator indicative of a player’s progress in a game (Par. [0005]; “receiving an activity identifier of an activity completed by a first video game player”), and to receive gameplay information comprising supplementary information related to content of the game (Par. [0036] teaches processing collected event data to generate supplementary gameplay information related to the content of the game (e.g., “mechanic mitigation information”));
processing circuitry to generate, based on the player progress indicator and the received gameplay information, a gameplay information resource associated with the player (Par. [0038]; “player-specific information”; and Par. [0050]-[0051] teach processing received event data to generate and customize gameplay information (e.g., “an activity suggestion”) based on the user’s context and gameplay progression),
wherein: the communication circuitry is configured to receive, from a device (Par. [0049] teaches that video game platform exchanges communications data between devices (e.g., “video game console” and “player devices”) and [0051] further teaches that event data is received from such devices associated with a user (e.g., “data reported from a device”), a player identifier identifying the player (Par. [0076] teaches that metadata and event data are associated with a “user profile”), and is responsive to receiving the player identifier to make the generated gameplay information resource accessible to the device (Par. [0041]; FIG. 1 teaches that the video game platform receives information from video game player devices and, based on the received information, provides video game-related content (e.g., video game help)).
Sherwani does not explicitly teach the communication circuitry is configured to receive a share request associated with the player identifier, the share request comprising a further player identifier identifying a further player, and is responsive to receiving the share request to make the generated gameplay information resource accessible to a further device associated with the further player identifier. However, Benedetto teaches a method for generating and sharing messages or gameplay information between identified users, whereby each targeted user is identified by a player identifier, and the resulting gameplay information is made accessible to the further device associated with that user (Par. [0034]; “a message can be created and delivered to one or more targeted users to enhance game play”).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Sherwani’s server-based gameplay information system to incorporate Benedetto’s sharing method. Sherwani discloses a communication structure for exchanging data between player devices (Par. [0049]; “communications data can be exchanged between the video game console and the video game player devices”). Benedetto teaches sending gameplay related information or messages to identified users (Par. [0034]; “a message can be created and delivered to one or more targeted users to enhance game play”). Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to combine these teachings in order to allow gameplay information for one player to be communicated to other players.
In regards to claim 2-3, Sherwani teaches the communication circuitry configured to receive the gameplay information from gameplay information storage circuitry (Par. [0005] teaches that gameplay data is stored in a “data store”); and the gameplay information resource comprises a subset of the gameplay information stored by the gameplay information storage circuitry, wherein the subset is selected in dependence on the player progress indicator (Par. [0038] teaches that gameplay information is filtered and customized based on player-specific data and current gameplay state (“filter the mechanic tip for the player's current state”). Sherwani further teaches the processing circuitry is configured to identify one or more gameplay elements that have been encountered by the player and to generate the gameplay information resource to include, as the subset, information relating to the one or more gameplay elements that have been encountered by the player (Par. [0050]; (“event processor 156”) and Par. [0054]-[0055] teach the user interface provides contextually relevant information based on the current progress of the user (e.g., “Yet another property can optionally be an outcome of the activity, such as completed, failed, or abandoned”)).
In regards to claim 4, Sherwani does not explicitly teach the communication circuitry configured to receive an additional gameplay information resource associated with an additional player identifier identifying an additional player, and the processing circuitry configured to generate the gameplay information resource in dependence on the additional gameplay information resource. However, Benedetto teaches game processors associated with other remote game sessions execute instances of the gaming application for other users and that this additional information may be used to create the contextually relevant information for the current player (Benedetto; Par. [0044]; “this additional information may be used to create the contextually relevant information”). Benedetto further teaches additional gameplay information resource is associated with a player identifier identifying an additional player (Par. [0051]; “user profile data that identifies user 5”).
It would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Sherwani’s sever based gameplay information resource generation system to incorporate Benedetto’s multiplayer information sharing method. Both Sherwani and Benedetto are directed to systems and methods that generate gameplay information for users within a gaming platform. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to modify Sherwani’s system by incorporating Benedetto’s teaching of using information associated with additional players in order to generate contextually relevant gameplay information for the current player. Upon such modification, Sherwani’s system would generate gameplay information resources based not only on the player’s own gameplay progress but also on gameplay information associated with other players, as taught by Benedetto.
In regards to claim 5, Sherwani teaches the communication circuitry is configured to send, to gameplay information storage circuitry, a request for the gameplay information, the request being sent in response to receiving at least one of: a gameplay information resource request (Par. [0092]; “A user selection of any of the suggested activities presented in the menu 812 can be received” and [0094]; “In some embodiments, the video game platform receives a user selection of one of the selectable options 940”); the player progress indication (Par. [0078] teaches that events are fired in response to trigger conditions that reflect a user’s gameplay state and progression (e.g., starting or ending activities, in-game statics, etc.)).
Sherwani does not teach an indication that the game has been added to the player’s game library. However, Benedetto teaches that game titles owned by a member user are managed and made available through an account manager (Par. [0075]; “game titles owned by a member user may be managed by account manager”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention to modify Sherwani’s system to further incorporate Benedetto’s account manager system because doing so would allow the system to condition gameplay information request based on whether a game is present in the user’s library. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to enhance Sherwani’s system with an additional trigger that ensures gameplay information automatically surfaces when a user adds a new game to their library.
In regards to claim 6, Sherwani teaches the gameplay information comprises at least one of: text describing one or more in-game elements; video data describing one or more in-game elements; and audio data describing one or more in-game elements (Par. [0007] teaches that gameplay information includes multiple content formats; “text description, video file, audio file”).
In regards to claim 7, Sherwani further teaches the one or more in-game elements comprise at least one of: one or more in-game characters (Par. [0060]; “the video game platform 150 can also collect data about an actor in a video game”); one or more in-game locations; one or more in-game storylines; in-game lore; and one or more in-game user controls (Par. [0077]; “the metadata 412 may include: a list of in - game statistics, items, lore, in - game zones”).
In regards to claim 8 and 10, Sherwani teaches the communication circuitry is configured to receive the gameplay information from gameplay information storage circuitry (Par. [0050] teaches the video game platform processes stored data to generate gameplay information and sends such data to the video game console); and the gameplay information storage circuitry comprises a shared gameplay information resource (Par. [0036]; “The data, collected from many users of the video game platform, is aggregated and processed”).
In regards to claim 9, Sherwani teaches the gameplay information comprises information downloaded from an online resource (Par. [0044]; “download or stream video content from the third party system” and Par. [0048]-[0049] further teaches that gameplay information (e.g., “video files demonstrating how a video game can be played”) is provided by a third-party system).
In regards to claim 11, the claim recites similar limitations as claims 1-10 and therefore met by the teachings of Sherwani in view of Benedetto for the reasons discussed above.
In regards to claim 12, sherwani teaches a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program comprising instructions (Par. [0004]; “non-transitory computer readable storage media (e.g. one or more memories) storing instructions”)
Conclusion
Accordingly claim(s) 1-12 are rejected.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kang Hu can be reached at 5712701344. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/BUSHIRA MUSA/Examiner, Art Unit 3715
/KANG HU/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3715