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: GAME ENABLING EXTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS WITH VIRTUAL CHARACTER
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.
Claim 21 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter wherein the claim recites a processing program that is not claimed as embodied in a non-transitory storage medium. Because Applicant's disclosure is not limited solely to tangible embodiments, the claimed subject matter, given the broadest reasonable interpretation, may be a carrier wave comprises of instructions and is, therefore, non-statutory. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is obliged to give claims their broadest reasonable interpretation consistent with the specification during proceedings before the USPTO. See In re Zletz, 893 F.2d 319 (Fed. Cir. 1989) (during patent examination the pending claims must be interpreted as broadly as their terms reasonably allow). The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim drawn to a computer readable storage medium typically covers forms of non-transitory tangible media and transitory propagating signals per se in view of the ordinary and customary meaning of computer readable storage media, particularly when the specification is silent. (See MPEP 2111.01). When the broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim covers a signal per se, the claim must be rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 101 as covering non-statutory subject matter (See In re Nuijten, 500 F.3d 1346, 1356-57 (Fed. Cir. 2007) (transitory embodiments are not directed to statutory subject matter) and Interim Examination Instructions for Evaluating Subject Matter Eligibility Under 35 U.S.C. § 101, Aug. 24, 2009; p. 2).
To overcome this type of rejection, the claims need to be amended to include only the physical computer storage media unassociated with any intangible or non-functional transmission media. Examiner suggests adding the word -- non-transitory -- to the claim. Other word choices will be considered but the one proposed shall overcome the rejection. Appropriate attention is required.
Claims 1-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. §101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea, without “significantly more”. The claims recite A method by which a game-providing apparatus provides a game service, the method comprising: obtaining prerequisite information pre-defined for playing a game; obtaining first content produced by setting a specific person as a recipient, based on the prerequisite information; requesting an external server configured to provide an external service, to display the first content through the external service; obtaining a first answer input by a user, based on the first content; and providing a game service controlled based on the first answer
which is a video game that can send and receive messages to a virtual character. The course of game play is effected by responses from the virtual communications made by the player. At a high level this is
• Information processing and management: Collecting, displaying, and updating content and responses.
• Rules for organizing human activity: Setting up interactions between users and content, and controlling game flow based on responses.
• Presentation of information: Displaying content and receiving user input.
These are an abstract ideas that falls under “Certain Methods of Organizing Human Activity", specifically “managing personal behavior or relationships or interactions between people”, as discussed in MPEP §2106(a)(2) Parts (I) and (II), and in the 2019 Revised Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance.
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because an “a server”, “server”, “processor”, “memory”, “input unit”, “computer readable recording medium” are generically recited computer elements that do not add a meaningful limitation to the abstract idea because they amount to simply implementing the abstract idea on a computer.
There is no improvement made to computer technology since the claims are directed to prompting and collecting user input based on game state and then updating the game based on the user input. This is not related to a long standing problem in computer technology. Additionally, there is no practical application as there is no particular machine that is used to implement the claim language, but instead the claims only generic computer components are used to perform the invention. In addition, there is no transformation of the machine used in the application into a different state or thing. Lastly, the claims do not attempt to apply the abstract idea in a meaningful way beyond simply using the claimed machine.
All dependent claims are also rejected, because they merely further detail the game logic or the media format of the content and are consequently also abstract ideas.
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) 1-4, 6-13 and 15-21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Caporale et al. (pub. no. 20080235581).
Regarding claim 1, Caporale discloses a method by which a game-providing apparatus provides a game service, the method comprising: obtaining prerequisite information pre-defined for playing a game (“FIG. 3 illustrates several components comprising action engine 222. These components are common to each of the alternative embodiments of the software-implemented system. In the specific instance of the standalone alone, as shown, subscriber registration component 302 is used for registering each new subscriber or user to enable a registered user to activate and use one or more avatars in the interactive environment 224. Avatar activation component 304 is used to activate each new avatar to be used in the in the interactive environment 224 by a registered user”, [0028]);
obtaining first content produced by setting a specific person as a recipient, based on the prerequisite information; requesting an external server configured to provide an external service, to display the first content through the external service (“However, if action is required, an action alert will be sent to the, user as shown at step 1008, and the avatar await a response from the user, as shown at step 1010”, [0047]; “Referring back to step 1008, an action alert can be issued by one or more of a registered users avatars in the form of electronic mail messages or telephone calls from each of the user's avatars in which a speech synthesized voice of an avatar describes the events in the interactive environment to the user. The electronic mail message, also referred to as an "Emergency Action Message," can include a request for specific user input to enable the avatar to take action in the interactive environment in response to an imminent event or threat”, [0048]);
obtaining a first answer input by a user, based on the first content; and providing a game service controlled based on the first answer (“If a user responds to an action alert received on a telephone call with a command, the avatar will attempt to execute the command, as shown at step 1102 in FIG. 11”, [0049]).
Regarding claim 2, Caporale discloses obtaining first situation information about a situation faced by the user in the game service (“FIG. 10 depicts a process that enables an avatar to interact with a user when that user is not logged-in to an interactive environment. The process commences as step 1002 with the monitoring of events in an interactive environment while an avatar is in a protected wait state, as shown at step 1004. Depending on the monitored event, certain actions may be required by the avatar, as indicated by step 1006”, [0047]);
and obtaining the first content, based on the prerequisite information and the first situation information ([0047] & [0048]).
Regarding claim 3, Caporale discloses obtaining second situation information about a situation faced by the user in the game service; obtaining second content produced by setting the specific person as the recipient, based on the prerequisite information and the second situation information; requesting the external server to display the second content through the external service; obtaining, from the external server, a second answer input by the user, based on the second content; and providing the game service controlled based on each of the first answer and the second answer ([0047] – [0049]; any other event occurring in the virtual environment).
Regarding claim 4, Caporale discloses obtaining sender information about a sender of the first content; obtaining first situation information about a situation faced by the user in the game service; and obtaining the first content transmitted from the sender to the recipient, based on the prerequisite information, the sender information, and the first situation information ([0047] & [0048]).
Regarding claim 6, Caporale discloses the first content comprises at least one of an image, video, text, and speech ([0048]).
Regarding claim 7, Caporale discloses receiving, from the external server, the first answer obtained in the external service ([0049]).
Regarding claim 8, Caporale discloses the first answer comprises at least one of text and speech ([0049]).
Regarding claim 9, Caporale discloses obtaining real life data related to a real life person corresponding to at least one character in the game service; and changing the prerequisite information, based on the real life data (“After updating, the interactive environment will be monitored to determine if a user has logged off, as shown in step 912. If a user has not logged off, a wait time will be checked to determine whether the length of time between the occurrence of the last action performed by the user and the present time exceeds a wait time threshold for receiving a response from a user to a monitored event in the interactive environment, as shown in step 914. If the wait time has been exceeded, then the one or more avatars for a registered user will enter into a protected wait state in the interactive environment and await commands or requests to take actions from the user, as shown at step 916.
Alternatively, if the user has logged off, as shown in step 912, then the user's avatars will enter into the protected wait state in the interactive environment, as shown in step 916. If the time in which a user takes an action has not exceeded the wait time, as shown at step 914, then the user responses will continue to be actively monitored and compared to the record of stored responses in the knowledge base, as shown at step 906”, [0045] & [0046]).
Claims 10-13 and 15-18 are directed to an apparatus that implements the methods of claim 1-4 and 6-9 respectively and are rejected for the same reasons as claims 1-4 and 6-9 respectively.
Regarding claim 19, Caporale discloses a server comprising: a memory storing instructions; and at least one processor functionally connected to the memory and configured to execute the instructions to (“FIGS. 5A and 5B depict alternative embodiments of the software-implemented system in a client/server configuration. In particular, these figures represent client devices 104 and server devices 102. FIG. 5A represents a server device 102 comprising one or more input devices 502, a communication interface 504, a read only memory 506, a storage device 518, a processor 512, a program memory 514 and one or more output devices 516. Each of these components of the server device 102 is communicatively coupled to communication bus 510. Program memory 514 includes a knowledge base 518 and a server knowledge engine 520. Server knowledge engine 520 continuously monitors and analyses user responses and forms associations between events monitored by client knowledge engine 540 in the interactive environment 536 and the user responses. Knowledge engine 520 also applies processes to categorize user responses according to various metrics, including a decision metric, a performance metric and an emotion metric. Knowledge based 518 stores associations between monitored events and monitored user responses and permits the organized storage of the associated events and responses according to the categories in which user responses have been categorized based on the applicable metric (i.e., decision, performance or emotion)”, [0038]):
obtain prerequisite information pre-defined for playing a game ([0028]);
obtain first content produced by setting a specific person as a recipient, based on the prerequisite information; request an external server configured to provide an external service, to display the first content through the external service; obtain a first answer input by a user, based on the first content; and provide a game service controlled based on the first answer ([0047] – [0049]).
Regarding claim 20, Caporale discloses a user terminal for providing a game service, the user terminal comprising: a user input unit configured to receive a user input; a memory storing instructions; and at least one processor functionally connected to the user input unit and the memory, and configured to execute the instructions to (“FIG. 5B illustrates a client device 104 comprised of one or more input devices 522, a communication interface for communicating to and from server device 102, as illustrated in the FIG. 5A, a read only memory 526, a storage device 528, a processor 532, a program memory 534 and one or more output devices 530. Each of these components is coupled to communication bus 525 to facilitate inter-component communication. Program memory 534 includes a client knowledge engine 540, an action engine 542, an interactive environment 536 and an operating system 538. Each of the components included in program memory 534 are used by processor 532 for execution of the interactive environment 536. The interactive environment 536 is a computer-generated environment that controls the autonomous execution of computer-generated events. In an embodiment the interactive environment 536 is a computer-generated simulation environment, while on a different embodiment the interactive environment 536 is a computer-generated video game environment. Client knowledge engine 540 continuously monitors events in the interactive environment 536 and user responses to those events when a registered user is logged-in and actively responding to events in the interactive environment 536. Client knowledge engine 540 compiles a profile of the user responses and actively reports those responses to server knowledge engine 520 for analysis, association and categorization. User responses are categorized by several different metrics, including a decision metric, a performance metric and an emotion metric. After categorization, the responses are stored in knowledge base 518 according to one or more associations and applicable metrics”, [0039]):
obtain prerequisite information pre-defined for playing a game ([0028]);
obtain first content produced by setting a specific person as a recipient, based on the prerequisite information; request an external server configured to provide an external service, to display the first content through the external service; obtain a first answer input by a user, based on the first content; and provide a game service controlled based on the first answer ([0047] – [0049]).
Claim 21 is directed an article of manufacture containing code that implements the method of claim 1 and is rejected for the same reasons as claim 1.
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.
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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.
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/LAWRENCE S GALKA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715