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 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.
Claim(s) 1, 2, 3-12, and 14-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Berman (US 11232682) in view of Anderson (US 20110105218) in view of Anderson2 (US 20160071373)
In claims 1 and 11, Berman discloses
Displaying, on an electronic display device, a plurality of symbol bearing reels, the symbols borne by the symbol bearing reels comprising basic symbols, trigger symbols, and portable symbols and (figure 2A, any of the symbols may be interpreted as “basic” “Trigger” or “portable”, however the most common basic symbol would be “7”, trigger would be “scatter” and portable would be “wild”, column 5 lines 22-50)
Generating, by the game logic circuitry using the RNG, (fig 6 #640, 602)
Spinning and stopping the plurality of symbol bearing reels to populate a first array and a second array with landed symbols from the stopped reels (figure 2A #250 “spin”, column 2 lines 59-67, column 3 lines 1-13)
designate a position in the first array as a sending portal and designating a position in the second array as a receiving portal, and (column 6 lines 55-65. The first grid is the sending portal with the positions in the second grid being the receiving portal) the designating including applying, by the game logic circuitry, a distinguishing characteristic to each of the sending portal and the receiving portal on the electronic display device (figure 2B shows boxes around the sending and receiving portal, which is to say the wild cards)
In response to one of the outcomes comprising a portable symbol landing in the sending portal: Animating, on the electronic display device, moving a copy of the landed portable symbol from the sending portal to the receiving portal and Modifying an aspect of the portable symbol in the receiving portal (column 5 lines 64-67, column 6 lines 1-14) the animating including presenting a special effect animation extending between the sending portal and the receiving portal (figure 2B shows lines going from the wild symbols 240 to the wild symbols in 220. This is part of the animation of sending the wild symbols, as the lines are not there in figure 2A)
Berman fails to disclose a bonus game comprising a series of free spin outcomes, and that the sending and receiving portals are created in response to a triggering event, however Anderson discloses a bonus game comprising a series of free spin outcomes (paragraph 69) and a triggering event to create a sending and receiving portal (paragraph 92.) It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine Berman with Anderson in order to allow for the copying to occur more rarely to increase excitement.
Berman in view of Anderson fails to disclose executing, by the game logic circuitry, an authentication program that generates a live authentication code from contents of the main memory and compares the live authentication code to a trusted code stored in the main memory, and permitting execution of the RNG programming only upon a match between the live authentication code and the trusted code, however Anderson2 discloses executing, by the game logic circuitry, an authentication program that generates a live authentication code from contents of the main memory and compares the live authentication code to a trusted code stored in the main memory, and permitting execution of the RNG programming only upon a match between the live authentication code and the trusted code (paragraph 153), it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine Berman in view of Anderson with Anderson2 in order to increase security of the device.
In claims 2 and 12, Berman discloses the portable symbols comprise value bearing symbols (column 6 lines 64-67, column 7 lines 1-12)
In claims 4 and 14, Berman discloses the value bearing symbols bear respective multiplier amounts (column 6 lines 64-67, column 7 lines 1-12)
In claims 5 and 15, Berman discloses the value bearing symbols comprise wild symbols (column 6 lines 64-67, column 7 lines 1-12)
In claims 6 and 16, Berman discloses the modified aspect comprises the value borne by the portable symbol the receiving portal (column 6 lines 64-67, column 7 lines 1-12)
In claims 7 and 17, Berman discloses the portable symbol comprise value bearing symbols and the modifying step comprises applying a multiplier to the value borne by the portable symbol in the receiving portal (column 6 lines 64-67, column 7 lines 1-12)
In claims 8 and 18, Berman discloses the portable symbol comprise value bearing symbols, and wherein in response to the second in the series of free spin outcomes comprising a portable symbol landing in both the sending portal and in the receiving portal, replacing the value borne by the portable symbol hat landed in the receiving portal with the sum of the value of the portable symbol that landed in the sending portal and the value of the portable symbol hat landed in the receiving portal (column 6 lines 64-67, column 7 lines 1-12)
In claims 9 and 19, Anderson discloses the triggering event comprises the first in the series of free spin outcomes comprising a trigger symbol landing in the first array (paragraph 69, 92)
In claims 10 and 20, Berman discloses detecting via at least one or more electronic input devices, a physical item associated with a monetary value that establishes a credit balance and receiving via at least one of the one or more electronic input devices, a cashout input that initiates a payout from the credit balance (figure 6 #646, 644)
Claim(s) 3 and 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Berman in view of Anderson in view of Anderson2 in view of Pariseau (US 20200111291)
In claims 3 and 13, Berman in view of Anderson in view of Anderson2 discloses the claimed invention except that the value bearing symbols bear respective credit amounts, however Pariseau discloses the value bearing symbols bear respective credit amounts (figure 3B, figure 19, 20, abstract). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine Berman in view of Anderson in view of Anderson2 with Pariseau in order to make the awards available to the user clearer.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s amended claim language overcomes the previous art rejection, however a new rejection is made in view of Anderson2 as set forth above.
Applicant’s arguments and amendments overcome the 101 rejection.
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THOMAS HAYNES HENRY whose telephone number is (571)270-3905. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10-6.
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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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/THOMAS H HENRY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715
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