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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
1. The information disclosure statement filed 3/4/2026 fails to comply with 37 CFR 1.98(a)(2), which requires a legible copy of each cited foreign patent document; each non-patent literature publication or that portion which caused it to be listed; and all other information or that portion which caused it to be listed. It has been placed in the application file, but the foreign patent and non-patent literature references have not been considered and lined through since there are no corresponding foreign patent and non-patent literature document submissions.
Response to Amendment
2. This action is in response to the amendment filed on March 2nd, 2026. Claims 1 and 19-20 have been amended. Claims 1-20 are pending. Claims 1-20 remain rejected in the application.
Response to Arguments
3. Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim 1, and similarly claims 19 and 20, filed on 2/12/2026, with respect to the rejection under 35 U.S.C. 103 regarding that the prior art does not teach the limitation(s): “in response to determining that the first user has the virtual pet for use in the interaction function, initiating display of the virtual pet with an avatar of the first user in an uncollapsed state in the interaction function to a computing device of the second user, wherein an uncollapsed state displays more of the virtual pet than a collapsed state, the collapsed state including display of at least a portion of the virtual pet” and “determining a threshold of time has elapsed; and in response to determining that the threshold of time has elapsed, initiating display in the interaction function of a second state, the second state being between the uncollapsed state and a collapsed state of the virtual pet with the avatar of the first user” have been fully considered, but are moot because of new grounds for rejection. Claim 1, and similarly claims 19 and 20, are now disclosed by Fong, Gal, Wang, and Matsuda.
4. Regarding arguments to claims 2-18, they are dependent on independent claim 1. Applicant does not argue anything other than independent claim 1, and similarly claims 19 and 20. The limitations in those claims, in conjunction with combination, has previously been established and explained.
Drawings
5. The drawings are objected to as failing to comply with 37 CFR 1.84(p)(5) because they do not include the following reference sign(s) mentioned in the description: 500 of ¶ [0008]. Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
6. 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.
7. Claims 1, 3, 6, 9-10, and 12-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fong et al. (WO-2007/134402-A1, hereinafter "Fong") in view of Gal et al. (US-2023/0082002-A1, hereinafter "Gal"), further in view of Wang et al. (CN-116983630-A, hereinafter "Wang-630"), and further in view of Matsuda et al. (US-2002/0133592-A1, hereinafter "Matsuda").
8. As per claim 1, Fong discloses: A system comprising:
at least one processor; and
at least one memory component storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations comprising: (Fong, page 1, lines 4-6, “The present invention relates to an interactive instant messaging system, particularly one that operates on computers or other electronic devices such as mobile telephones, that can be used by people to communicate over the Internet, for example.” and page 10, lines 19-20, “Having memory means that a user's profile, likes and dislikes, etc, can be remembered by the system ...” and page 23, line 32-page 24, line 1, “The chat application system (200) consists of a ... a files system (204), ... user profile database (208) ...”) determining participation in an interaction function by a first user of an interaction system with a second user of the interaction system; (Fong, page 4, lines 4-9, “The invention in one broad form relates to an instant messaging system, which has the usual features of such systems, namely that the system has a message sender and message receiver to send and receive instant messages to and from one or more other users, and a display device to display or communicate these messages. If necessary the system may also display some identification for the users, so that conversations with multiple users can be easily managed on the display device.”)
accessing profile data of the first user;
determining, based on the profile data, whether the first user has a virtual pet for use in the interaction function; (Fong, page 3, lines 11-19, “In another embodiment, a user is able to create and design their own virtual character or "pet" which seemingly acts independently to the user. ... A user may interact with his or her own pet, or with that belonging to other users.” and page 23, lines 12-18, “The chat application system (200) operates not only as an instant messaging client but also allows the user to continue to adapt, interact, alter and modify his/her creations in real time with continual updates occurring through an event router that sends updated notifications to the instant messaging client as well as a user database (UDB) (190). This system therefore enables complete control over emoticons, characters, images, wallpapers, etc, including intelligent response, reactions, actions, animations and emotion through the constant mining of information through the NLP.”)
in response to determining that the first user has the virtual pet for use in the interaction function, initiating display of the virtual pet with an avatar of the first user in an uncollapsed state in the interaction function to a computing device of the second user, [[wherein an uncollapsed state displays more of the virtual pet than a collapsed state, the collapsed state including display of at least a portion of the virtual pet;]] (Fong, page 11, line 34-page 12, line 2, “The instant messaging system may also include a section on the display device that shows any characters created by any one or all of the users, and/or any virtual characters created by any one or all of the users.” and page 12, lines 13-20, “The invention in a further broad form allows a first user to communicate via a communications system with at least one other user by sending and/or receiving messages, said system including: a message receiver, a message sender, and a display device to display messages, characterised in that said system displays at least one character that represents and emulates a virtual user. The character may be displayed as an apparent 3-dimensional character. The character may represent and emulate a virtual pet that belongs to the user associated with said pet. The pet may further function as a virtual user on said instant messaging system, able to receive messages from and/or send messages to the user to whom the pet belongs.” and page 7, lines 5-9, “The pet characters may be designated in the instant messaging system along with real users, preferably linked to the users they belong to, or else may be kept separate from real users. Ideally, some method of identifying the pets and keeping them separate can be employed. A user may also have more than one pet, if they wish. A user may use a different pet at different times, of several pets at the same time.”)
[[determining that the first user is typing a message in the interaction function; and]]
[[in response to determining that the first user is typing the message in the interaction function,]] initiating display of the virtual pet with the avatar of the first user in a first state in the interaction function, the first state including a visual indicator indicating that the [[first user is typing the message;]] (Fong, page 3, lines 20-22, “Another embodiment concerns an interactive instant messaging application that reacts and responds intelligently and emotionally to a user's dialogue or conversation as they chat to a friend or another person.” and page 3, lines 22-32, “Based on the meaning of the language utilised by a user in regard to various types of information such as his or her personality, profile, activities, hobbies, etc, a user can create and personalise his or her own customised interactive, responsive, and emotional type of characters, emoticons, pets, avatars, spaces, dynamic display backgrounds, or wallpapers, etc, and then watch these characters interact and chat with them, their friends and their friends' characters. In addition, dynamic display backgrounds or spaces change and fluctuate according to how a user is feeling, and his or her emotional status or moods, as determined from the meaning of the language being used in the instant messaging communications. A natural language processor can determine this meaning, and it is backed by a 3-D graphics engine that can therefore provide beautifully rendered, responsive and seemingly-intelligent real-time 3-D characters and images.” and Fong, page 7, lines 17-23, “As another alternative, the pet may serve as an observer to messages sent by the original user to other real users, and respond to outgoing messages sent by the user, for instance. Or it may react to all the messages, according to their emotional content, or subject content. As a simple example, the meanings of messages can be divided into a number of emotions, such as happy, sad, angry and bored. With happy-type meanings, the pet can smile, or wag its tail (assuming it has one), with sad one, it may cry or look sad, with angry ones, it can shake a fist or snarl, and with bored ones, may sit down, or look bored.” and page 5, lines 22-30, “As another example, if a user sends message with language that indicates he is unhappy, a character's face that is the user's avatar may change to look unhappy, or the background may show a cloudy sky, or the character's shirt may change to a blue colour. ... A change may occur once, or each time a message is received or transmitted, or several times during the course or a message. The change in appearance may replace one image with another, including adding or subtracting image elements, or slowly evolve from one image to another, or involve combinations of these.”)
[[determining a threshold of time has elapsed; and]]
[[in response to determining that the threshold of time has elapsed, initiating display in the interaction function of a second state, the second state being between the uncollapsed state and a collapsed state of the virtual pet with the avatar of the first user.]]
9. Fong doesn't explicitly disclose but Gal discloses: determining that the first user is typing a message in the interaction function; and
in response to determining that the first user is typing the message in the interaction function, [[initiating display of the virtual pet with the avatar of the first user in a first state in the interaction function, the first state including a visual indicator indicating that the]] first user is typing the message. (Gal, [0060], “In some embodiments, while a participant is typing a message into the message composing field within their spatial chat UI, the system will display a chat bubble adjacent to the spatialized avatar for that participant, indicating that the participant is currently typing a message. For example, a chat bubble displaying an animated, moving ellipses (“ . . . ”) may appear within a chat bubble, indicating that the participant is currently typing.” and [0024], “Such systems and methods can provide a visual representation of a chat session with spatialized avatars, rather than the traditional linear chat view described above.”)
10. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify the system of Fong to include determining that a first user is typing a message in an interactive application (or "function"), of Gal. The motivation for this modification could have been to notify the second user that the first user is actively constructing a message and a current participant in the chat conversation. This information could be used by the interactive pet to show anticipation, excitement, or other emotion before the message is received.
11. Fong in view of Gal doesn't explicitly disclose but Wang-630 discloses: [[in response to determining that the first user has the virtual pet for use in the interaction function, initiating display of the virtual pet with an avatar of the first user in an uncollapsed state in the interaction function to a computing device of the second user,]] wherein an uncollapsed state displays more of the virtual pet (Wang-630, Fig. 11; p. 10, [0079],”The main virtual character can ... release the pet virtual character by throwing a spherical container containing the pet virtual character.” and p. 10, [0081], “The released pet virtual characters can stay in the virtual scene and interact with the main virtual character, perform collection activities, and also fight against other pet virtual characters. In addition, the released pet virtual characters will interact with the environment in the virtual world, such as activating potential energy mechanisms to change the potential energy of the surrounding environment, obtaining virtual items from treasure chests with attribute locks, and affecting the attributes of land plots in the virtual environment, such as igniting grass and freezing lakes.” and p. 13, [0117], “Optionally, the first virtual character, the second virtual character, and the third virtual character are in the same virtual world. The first and second virtual characters belong to different factions, while the second and third virtual characters belong to the same faction.” and p. 7, [0051], “In non-combat scenarios, virtual characters move around on the world map, such as playing, capturing pet virtual characters, collecting treasure chests, and collecting virtual items.” and p. 12, [0113], “These activities include, but are not limited to: ... capturing pet virtual characters, controlling pet virtual characters, raising pet virtual characters, using pet virtual characters to pick fruits, using pet virtual characters to fight, ... and attacking other virtual characters.”; Examiner’s note: As disclosed by Wang-630 in [0081], an “uncollapsed state” for the virtual pet is one which the pet is released and fully displayed interacting with the user and the virtual world. Fig. 11 shows virtual pets interacting with the environment.) than a collapsed state, the collapsed state including display of at least a portion of the virtual pet; (Wang-630, Fig. 11; p. 10, [0079], “The main virtual character can capture the pet virtual character by throwing an empty spherical container ...” and p. 11, [0090], “For example, the control corresponding to the first container item 301 that contains the first pet virtual character is displayed in the pet virtual character selection area. The control corresponding to the first container item 301 is displayed with the pet virtual character's avatar icon. The pet virtual character's level information is displayed below the pet virtual character's avatar icon.”; Examiner’s note: The user can capture/store their virtual pet in a container. When this is done, an icon appears for the virtual pet in the corresponding container used. This functions as a “collapsed state” as the pet is still visible but is less visible than the “uncollapsed state.” Fig. 11 shows virtual pets as icons when in a stored container (“collapsed state”).)
12. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify the system of Fong in view of Gal to include specifying that an uncollapsed state displays more of the virtual pet than a collapsed state and that the collapsed state displays at least a portion of the virtual pet, of Wang-630. The motivation for this modification could have been to provide a more dynamic spectrum of availability from a virtual pet. For instance, as disclosed by Wang-630, a virtual pet could be released and fully displayed interacting with the virtual world or captured/stored, displaying the pet’s avatar icon and status. This would allow a user to continue to see the status of their pet at all times but not necessarily have the pet released and active into the virtual world. This provides the user with options on how they want to interact with their virtual pet.
13. Fong in view of Gal, and further in view of Wang-630 doesn't explicitly disclose but Matsuda discloses: determining a threshold of time has elapsed; and (See Matsuda [0008] below about creature requests based on time.)
in response to determining that the threshold of time has elapsed, initiating display in the interaction function of a second state, the second state being between the uncollapsed state and a collapsed state of the virtual pet with the avatar of the first user. (Matsuda, [0008], “The virtual reality creature is programmed such that proper instructions given help the virtual reality creature grow without problem and improper instructions given make it sick or, in the worst case, die. Further, the virtual reality creature is programmed to make various requests based on the time elapsing from its birth provided by an incorporated calendar timer. For example, in the nighttime zone, the virtual reality creature requests a sleep and, in the mealtime zone, it requests food.” and [0209], ““B” represented as “Sleep” denotes a button for putting the virtual reality pet to bed.” and [0198], “An agent AO controls a virtual reality pet that a user can rear in a shared virtual reality space and assigns one virtual reality pet to one user for example.” and [0241], “If the character of a virtual reality pet for example is controlled by the AO server 13, 0.1 point is added to a predetermined index of the growth parameter according to the type of a message sent from each client; for example, every time the virtual reality pet is talked to in chat.” and [0249]-[0250], “An event in a shared virtual space (for example, an experience of being fed by another client) may be reported by the virtual reality life object to the client through a text-based chat window, thereby realizing an intimacy emotional expression. Experience of an event in a shared virtual space may be reported from the virtual reality life object to the client through a voice chat to provide an intimacy emotional expression.” and [0269], “In public chat, conversation uttered by one client (user) at a predetermined location in the shared virtual space is transmitted to other nearby clients (users) in the shared virtual space.”; Examiner’s note: Building on the disclosure of Wang-630 that a virtual pet being released and fully displayed into the environment of a virtual world (in an “uncollapsed state”) or captured/stored in a container and shown with a pet avatar icon (in a “collapsed state”), a state between uncollapsed state and a collapsed state would be one where the virtual pet is in a hybrid state. As disclosed by Matsuda, a virtual pet could be displayed out in the virtual world (similar to “uncollapsed state”) but in a lesser visible “sleep” status (similar to “collapsed state”).
14. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify the system of Fong in view of Gal, and further in view of Wang-630 to include determining a threshold of time has elapsed and initiating display of a second state being between the uncollapsed state and a collapsed state of the virtual pet with the avatar of the first user, of Matsuda. The motivation for this modification could have been to provide a more dynamic spectrum of availability and behaviors from a virtual pet. For instance, as disclosed by Matsuda, a virtual pet could be “available” and displayed in the virtual world but in a sleep state where the pet is without activity (and “less visible” due to only being shown as asleep).
15. As per claim 3, Fong in view of Gal, further in view of Wang-630, and further in view of Matsuda discloses: The system of claim 1, wherein the visual indicator includes a visual cloud above a user avatar's head. (Gal, [0060], “In some embodiments, while a participant is typing a message into the message composing field within their spatial chat UI, the system will display a chat bubble adjacent to the spatialized avatar for that participant, indicating that the participant is currently typing a message. For example, a chat bubble displaying an animated, moving ellipses (“ . . . ”) may appear within a chat bubble, indicating that the participant is currently typing.”)
16. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify the system of claim 1 of Fong in view of Wang-630, and further in view of Matsuda to include a visual cloud above a user avatar's head as a visual indicator that a user is typing, of Gal. The motivation for this modification could have been to notify the second user that the first user is actively constructing a message and a current participant in the chat conversation. This information could be used by the interactive pet to show anticipation, excitement, or other emotion before the message is received.
17. As per claim 6, Fong in view of Gal, further in view of Wang-630, and further in view of Matsuda discloses: The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:
inputting at least a portion of the profile data into a large language model to receive a pet preference for the first user, the large language model trained to receive profile data of users and output a preference of a pet characteristic for the first user; and (Fong, page 30, lines 11-15, “In a preferred form, the method of profiling a user is used in combination with the method of generating an object. The method further includes the step of changing at least one aspect of an object associated with the instant messaging system, based on the result of the personality type. For example, a pet created by the user may change to better compliment or reflect the personality type of the user.” and page 28, lines 25-27, “Once a user has created a particular object with default personalities, characterisation, intelligence etc., a user can either be chatting to a friend, or a group of friends of his/her creation.” and page 22, lines 23-29, “The chat bot can conduct a natural conversation or dialogue with a user in order to ascertain things like the user's preferences, likes and dislikes, age, personality, intelligence and so on, to assist the user in creating a 2- or 3- dimensional character, image, etc, according to the user's own choice. The natural dialogue is processed and understood by a natural language processor (NLP) (300) (which is shown in Figure 3 in more detail), and an artificial intelligence module (122) and compared and enhanced by an ontological knowledge resource (123).”)
generating the virtual pet of the first user based on the pet characteristic for the first user. (Fong, page 30, lines 11-20, “In a preferred form, the method of profiling a user is used in combination with the method of generating an object. The method further includes the step of changing at least one aspect of an object associated with the instant messaging system, based on the result of the personality type. For example, a pet created by the user may change to better compliment or reflect the personality type of the user. In the case of a user which has been determined to have an ISTJ (Introverted Sensing Thinking Judging) Myers-Briggs personality type, the system may alter the pet to behave or appear in a fashion that that is similar to the user so that the user can better empathise with the pet. Preferably, the instant messaging system analyses the personality type of the user and matches information with the determined personality type of the user and displays the information to the user.” and page 5, lines 9-10, “Characters may also include images of everyday items, such as tools, trains, cars, trees, aliens, angels, etc, or of abstract shapes and artwork.”)
18. As per claim 9, Fong in view of Gal, further in view of Wang-630, and further in view of Matsuda discloses: The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:
identifying a message exchanged by the first user and the second user; (Fong, page 7, lines 17-18, “As another alternative, the pet may serve as an observer to messages sent by the original user to other real users ...”)
processing the message in a large language model to identify context of the message; and (Fong, page 29, lines 7-12, “At step (1210), the messages are processed and understood by a natural language processor (NLP) which then determines whether the one or more messages are positive or negative in nature. For example, use of the word dislike or hate may (in certain contexts) be determined to be negative in nature, whereas use of the word like, or messages that convey hope or desires, may be determined to be positive in nature.”)
applying the identified context and the virtual pet to a generative artificial intelligence model to generate a modified virtual pet corresponding to the context of the message between the first user and the second user. (Fong, page 7, lines 17-23, “As another alternative, the pet may serve as an observer to messages sent by the original user to other real users, and respond to outgoing messages sent by the user, for instance. Or it may react to all the messages, according to their emotional content, or subject content. As a simple example, the meanings of messages can be divided into a number of emotions, such as happy, sad, angry and bored. With happy-type meanings, the pet can smile, or wag its tail (assuming it has one), with sad one, it may cry or look sad, with angry ones, it can shake a fist or snarl, and with bored ones, may sit down, or look bored.” and page 5, lines 18-22, “The change in the appearance should be in accordance with the meaning, in at least one aspect. The link between the change in appearance and the meaning determined from the messages may be direct or indirect. For instance, if the message refers to a car or a model of car, then an image of a car may appear in the background, or the user's avatar may change to show a figure sitting in a car.”)
19. As per claim 10, Fong in view of Gal, further in view of Wang-630, and further in view of Matsuda discloses: The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:
identifying a characteristic of the first user based on a first user's participation in a second interaction function; and (Fong, page 8, lines 21-31, “For example, if the user sends a message to its pet "Do you know anything about tropical fish?" then the system can analyse the meaning of this message. ... As a further embodiment of the invention, the analysis of the meaning of the messages are stored in a system, and analysed to determine a user's profile. The profile may be used also to change said aspect of appearance or to generate a message.” and page 8, lines 10-20, “As a further embodiment, the pet can interact with one or more external sources of information. ... For example the system may utilise Internet search engines such as "GoogleTM" or "Ask JeevesTM" for example ... The results of the search can then be provided by the pet to its owner in the form of a message, and optionally reformatted or mined for specific data. The appearance of the pet may change also, such as according to the success of the search, or the time taken to get a result.” and page 10, lines 15- 18, “Should a user have a particular interest in certain areas, the system, through the pet, is not only able to provide useful information that it automatically retrieves from the net, but is also able to store such data, to remember user preferences, habits, traits, etc, and to update this knowledge progressively.” and page 29, lines 3-7, “Figure 12 illustrates a flow chart of one possible method (1200) for profiling a user, via a neural network, in an instant messaging system. At step (1205) one or more messages are received from a user. The messages may be received from the user during use of the instant messaging system or may be via a questionnaire associated with the system (such as when signing up to use the system or to create an account on the messaging system).”)
generating the virtual pet using a generative artificial intelligence model by inputting the identified characteristic of the first user into the generative artificial intelligence model. (Fong, page 30, lines 11-20, “In a preferred form, the method of profiling a user is used in combination with the method of generating an object. The method further includes the step of changing at least one aspect of an object associated with the instant messaging system, based on the result of the personality type. For example, a pet created by the user may change to better compliment or reflect the personality type of the user. In the case of a user which has been determined to have an ISTJ (Introverted Sensing Thinking Judging) Myers-Briggs personality type, the system may alter the pet to behave or appear in a fashion that that is similar to the user so that the user can better empathise with the pet. Preferably, the instant messaging system analyses the personality type of the user and matches information with the determined personality type of the user and displays the information to the user.” and page 28, lines 25-27, “Once a user has created a particular object with default personalities, characterisation, intelligence etc., a user can either be chatting to a friend, or a group of friends of his/her creation.” and page 5, lines 9-10, “Characters may also include images of everyday items, such as tools, trains, cars, trees, aliens, angels, etc, or of abstract shapes and artwork.”)
20. As per claim 12, Fong in view of Gal, further in view of Wang-630, and further in view of Matsuda discloses: The system of claim 1, wherein the first state comprises a visual indicator applied to the avatar of the second user indicating that the second user is typing. (Gal, [0060], “In some embodiments, while a participant is typing a message into the message composing field within their spatial chat UI, the system will display a chat bubble adjacent to the spatialized avatar for that participant, indicating that the participant is currently typing a message. For example, a chat bubble displaying an animated, moving ellipses (“ . . . ”) may appear within a chat bubble, indicating that the participant is currently typing.” and Fong, page 3, lines 20-22, “Another embodiment concerns an interactive instant messaging application that reacts and responds intelligently and emotionally to a user's dialogue or conversation as they chat to a friend or another person.” and Fong, page 5, lines 22-30, “As another example, if a user sends message with language that indicates he is unhappy, a character's face that is the user's avatar may change to look unhappy, or the background may show a cloudy sky, or the character's shirt may change to a blue colour. ... A change may occur once, or each time a message is received or transmitted, or several times during the course or a message. The change in appearance may replace one image with another, including adding or subtracting image elements, or slowly evolve from one image to another, or involve combinations of these.”)
The motivation for this modification is the same as claim 1.
21. As per claim 13, Fong in view of Gal, further in view of Wang-630, and further in view of Matsuda discloses: The system of claim 12, wherein the first state further comprises a modification of the virtual pet illustrating a response to the second user typing. (Gal, [0060], “In some embodiments, while a participant is typing a message into the message composing field within their spatial chat UI, the system will display a chat bubble adjacent to the spatialized avatar for that participant, indicating that the participant is currently typing a message. For example, a chat bubble displaying an animated, moving ellipses (“ . . . ”) may appear within a chat bubble, indicating that the participant is currently typing.” and Fong, page 3, lines 20-22, “Another embodiment concerns an interactive instant messaging application that reacts and responds intelligently and emotionally to a user's dialogue or conversation as they chat to a friend or another person.” and Fong, page 5, lines 22-30, “As another example, if a user sends message with language that indicates he is unhappy, a character's face that is the user's avatar may change to look unhappy, or the background may show a cloudy sky, or the character's shirt may change to a blue colour. ... A change may occur once, or each time a message is received or transmitted, or several times during the course or a message. The change in appearance may replace one image with another, including adding or subtracting image elements, or slowly evolve from one image to another, or involve combinations of these.”)
The motivation for this modification is the same as claim 1.
22. As per claim 14, Fong in view of Gal, further in view of Wang-630, and further in view of Matsuda discloses: The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:
receiving a message from the second user;
determining that the first user is not currently active on the interaction function; and
initiating a message to be displayed to the interaction function, the message being displayed as sent by the virtual pet. (Fong, page 11, lines 24-25, “The pet feature can be configured as an office assistant, and can hold and relay information while the user is busy ...” and page 7, lines 1-5, “The original user may use the instant messaging system to communicate with his or her "pet" character, when there are no other users available, or when there are. The user may communicate with their own pet or with the pets belonging to other users. The pet may be able to receive messages from and/or send messages to another user apart from the user to whom the pet belongs.”)
23. As per claim 15, Fong in view of Gal, further in view of Wang-630, and further in view of Matsuda discloses: The system of claim 14, wherein determining that the first user is not currently active on the interaction function is based on a time since a last user action on the interaction function. (Gal, [0064], “In some embodiments, the availability status for each of the plurality of participants corresponds to some period of time of activity or inactivity. For example, the availability status may indicate that the participant was last active within the chat session 15 minutes ago.” and [0062], “An availability status represents whether the participant in question is currently available or not within the chat session. In various embodiments, unavailability may mean one or more of ... the system identifying that the participant has been idle and inactive within the chat session or at their client device for a period of time ...”)
24. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify the system of claim 14 of Fong in view of Wang-630, and further in view of Matsuda to include determining that the first user is not currently active on the interaction application is based on their last action, of Gal. The motivation for this modification could have been to dynamically alert other users to the status of others and determine if a user is actively participating. In this case, this could be used to add an additional, animated “status” to the virtual pet and avatar for entertainment and informational reasons related to the user’s status.
25. As per claim 16, Fong in view of Gal, further in view of Wang-630, and further in view of Matsuda discloses: The system of claim 14, wherein determining that the first user is not currently active on the interaction function is based on
(1) determining whether an application that is executing the interaction function has been closed on a user device of the first user, (Gal, [0062], “An availability status represents whether the participant in question is currently available or not within the chat session. In various embodiments, unavailability may mean one or more of ... the system identifying that the participant is not present within the chat session ... or any other similar indication that the participant is unable to currently participate in the chat session or is not viewing messages or participating at the moment.”)
(2) touch screen or movements on the user device of the first user, or (Gal, [0064], “In some embodiments, the availability status for each of the plurality of participants corresponds to some period of time of activity or inactivity. For example, the availability status may indicate that the participant was last active within the chat session 15 minutes ago.” and [0062], “An availability status represents whether the participant in question is currently available or not within the chat session. In various embodiments, unavailability may mean one or more of ... the system identifying that the participant has been idle and inactive within the chat session or at their client device for a period of time ...” and [0068], “In some embodiments, a participant interacting with the spatial chat UI may interact with one of the spatial avatars within the interface by, e.g., clicking, touching, or tapping on the avatar, depending on the preferred control input being used by the participant.”)
(3) a “Do Not Disturb” mode on the user device of the first user. (Gal, [0062], “An availability status represents whether the participant in question is currently available or not within the chat session. In various embodiments, unavailability may mean one or more of ... the participant indicating that they are in “do not disturb” mode and should not be contacted within the chat session or receive notifications pertaining to it, or any other similar indication that the participant is unable to currently participate in the chat session or is not viewing messages or participating at the moment.”)
26. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify the system of claim 14 of Fong in view of Wang-630, and further in view of Matsuda to include determining that an inactive user is based on not being connected to the interactive application, no touch screen or movement activity, and/or the user is in “Do Not Disturb” mode, of Gal. The motivation for this modification could have been to dynamically alert other users to the status of others and determine if a user is actively participating. In this case, this could be used to add an additional, animated “status” to the virtual pet and avatar for entertainment and informational reasons related to the user’s status.
27. As per claim 17, Fong in view of Gal, further in view of Wang-630, and further in view of Matsuda discloses: The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:
identifying a characteristic of the first user based on data collected from a computing device of the first user; and (Fong, page 10, lines 8-24, “The invention may also utilise knowledge mining and learning capabilities. The implementation of the language analysis and its seemingly artificial intelligence type of interaction within the system allows this to be used in the natural language search, advertising and user customizability for learning features in the instant messaging application. Knowledge mining and learning generates an information resource bank from two sources. Firstly, from the Internet, through such resources like the "British National Corpus", the "Wikipedia" or "Google", for instance. A second resource is from the user itself. This means that the system is able to do the following. Should a user have a particular interest in certain areas, the system, through the pet, is not only able to provide useful information that it automatically retrieves from the net, but is also able to store such data, to remember user preferences, habits, traits, etc, and to update this knowledge progressively. Having memory means that a user's profile, likes and dislikes, etc, can be remembered by the system and based on this data and preferences, then selective advertising messengers, again through the pet, can be delivered in timely fashions according to the situation. The system is also able to progressively learn from the user in connection with specialised information that can be stored, retrieved, updated (either by the user or new information added from the web), and can also be conveyed across to other users connected to the network.” and page 29, lines 3-7, “Figure 12 illustrates a flow chart of one possible method (1200) for profiling a user, via a neural network, in an instant messaging system. At step (1205) one or more messages are received from a user. The messages may be received from the user during use of the instant messaging system or may be via a questionnaire associated with the system (such as when signing up to use the system or to create an account on the messaging system).”)
initiating an animation of the virtual pet corresponding to the characteristic of the first user. (Fong, page 8, lines 10-20, “As a further embodiment, the pet can interact with one or more external sources of information. ... For example the system may utilise Internet search engines such as "GoogleTM" or "Ask JeevesTM" for example ... The results of the search can then be provided by the pet to its owner in the form of a message, and optionally reformatted or mined for specific data. The appearance of the pet may change also, such as according to the success of the search, or the time taken to get a result.” and page 28, line 24-page 29, line 2, “Figure 11 illustrates a flow chart of one possible method for creating real time responses, reactions and artificial intelligence within a 2- or 3- dimensional object. Once a user has created a particular object with default personalities, characterisation, intelligence etc., a user can either be chatting to a friend, or a group of friends of his/her creation. The dialogue session and all natural language will be processed and analysed (1120) and can either learn new knowledge, information, slang, lingo etc. through a machine learning module (1130), the created object may respond in natural dialogue (1140), may learn new actions or respond to certain natural language inputs through triggered animations in real time (1150), receive instructions from a user to connect to the Internet to search for information or knowledge (1160). At the end of each session, all new information, actions, animations etc. will contributed to enhanced or new intelligence within the created object and updates and notifications are sent to all pertinent servers and buddy notifications systems (1170).”)
28. As per claim 18, Fong in view of Gal, further in view of Wang-630, and further in view of Matsuda discloses: The system of claim 17, wherein the characteristic includes a GPS location of the first user, a velocity of the first user, or health data of the first user. (Gal, [0064], “In some embodiments, the system may determine based on GPS or other locational detection on the participant's client device that the client is “out of office” for a specified location of a physical office space, for example, or other specified location, and determine unavailability based on this physical location detected for the participant.” and [0062], “An availability status represents whether the participant in question is currently available or not within the chat session. In various embodiments, unavailability may mean one or more of ... the system identifying that the participant is on paid time off or sick leave for the day ...”)
29. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify the system of claim 17 of Fong in view of Wang-630, and further in view of Matsuda to include Identifying characteristic data such as a GPS location, a velocity, or health data of the first user, of Gal. The motivation for this modification could have been to dynamically alert other users to the status of others and determine if a user is actively participating. In this case, this could be used to add an additional, animated “status” to the virtual pet and avatar for entertainment and informational reasons related to the user’s status (such as GPS location or health condition in this case).
30. Claim 19, which is similar in scope to claim 1, is thus rejected under the same rationale as described above. The motivation for this modification is the same as claim 1.
31. Claim 20, which is similar in scope to claim 1, is thus rejected under the same rationale as described above. The motivation for this modification is the same as claim 1.
32. Claims 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fong et al. (WO-2007/134402-A1, hereinafter "Fong") in view of Gal et al. (US-2023/0082002-A1, hereinafter "Gal"), further in view of Wang et al. (CN-116983630-A, hereinafter "Wang-630"), and further in view of Matsuda et al. (US-2002/0133592-A1, hereinafter "Matsuda"), and further in view of Lee (KR-102101311-B1).
33. As per claim 2, Fong in view of Gal, further in view of Wang-630, and further in view of Matsuda discloses: The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:
determining a threshold of time has elapsed; and
in response to determining that the threshold of time has elapsed, [[initiating display of a second state in the interaction function, the first state being between the uncollapsed state and a collapsed state of the]] virtual pet with the avatar of the first user. (Fong, page 11, line 34-page 12, line 2, “The instant messaging system may also include a section on the display device that shows any characters created by any one or all of the users, and/or any virtual characters created by any one or all of the users.” and Fong, page 7, lines 5-9, “The pet characters may be designated in the instant messaging system along with real users, preferably linked to the users they belong to, or else may be kept separate from real users. Ideally, some method of identifying the pets and keeping them separate can be employed. A user may also have more than one pet, if they wish. A user may use a different pet at different times, of several pets at the same time.” and Gal, [0064], “In some embodiments, the availability status for each of the plurality of participants corresponds to some period of time of activity or inactivity. For example, the availability status may indicate that the participant was last active within the chat session 15 minutes ago.” and Gal, [0062], “An availability status represents whether the participant in question is currently available or not within the chat session. In various embodiments, unavailability may mean one or more of ... the system identifying that the participant has been idle and inactive within the chat session or at their client device for a period of time ...”)
34. Fong in view of Gal, further in view of Wang-630, and further in view of Matsuda doesn't explicitly disclose but Lee discloses: [[in response to determining that the threshold of time has elapsed,]] initiating display of a second state in the interaction function, the first state being between the uncollapsed state and a collapsed state of the [[virtual pet with the avatar of the first user.]] (Lee, Abstract, “Provided are a method and apparatus for providing a virtual reality platform including a virtual pet.” and page 8, [0015], “A method for providing a virtual reality platform according to an embodiment of the present invention for solving the above technical problem may include the steps of: receiving an animal embodiment creation command from a user; creating an animal embodiment based on the creation command; ... displaying an activity area space in which each of the animal embodiments is displayed on the user's terminal when approval is received from the other user; creating and displaying an automatic conversation between each of the animal embodiments in the activity area space; and displaying information matching a preset word among the contents of the automatic conversation as an icon.” and page 9, [0031], “In one embodiment, the step of displaying with the icon may include the step of temporarily stopping the display of a new conversation after outputting an icon for displaying information matching the preset word to the user terminal, and the step of causing the icon to disappear and resuming the display of the new conversation when the user does not select the icon and a preset period of time has passed.”; Examiner’s note: The “icon” of the interactive application is in between an “uncollapsed” and “collapsed” state when first presented before a user clicks on it. Then, it can either be fully “uncollapsed” if the user clicks on it, or it disappears if the user ignores it.)
35. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify the system of claim 1 of Fong in view of Gal, further in view of Wang-630, and further in view of Matsuda to include initiating display of a second state in the interaction application that is between a uncollapsed and collapsed state, of Lee. The motivation for this modification could have been to provide a status notification update in a subtle, unobtrusive way in regard to user status or information of interest within the chat.
36. Claims 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fong et al. (WO-2007/134402-A1, hereinafter "Fong") in view of Gal et al. (US-2023/0082002-A1, hereinafter "Gal"), further in view of Wang et al. (CN-116983630-A, hereinafter "Wang-630"), and further in view of Matsuda et al. (US-2002/0133592-A1, hereinafter "Matsuda"), and further in view of Wang et al. (CN-101064693-B, hereinafter "Wang-693").
37. As per claim 4, Fong in view of Gal, further in view of Wang-630, and further in view of Matsuda discloses: The system of claim 1, wherein the interaction function includes a messaging application configured to enable the first user and the second user to send messages to each other, [[wherein the virtual pet is displayed between one or more messages between the first and second user and a keyboard for typing the messages.]] (Fong, page 4, lines 4-9, “The invention in one broad form relates to an instant messaging system, which has the usual features of such systems, namely that the system has a message sender and message receiver to send and receive instant messages to and from one or more other users, and a display device to display or communicate these messages. If necessary the system may also display some identification for the users, so that conversations with multiple users can be easily managed on the display device.”)
38. Fong in view of Gal, further in view of Wang-630, and further in view of Matsuda doesn't explicitly disclose but Wang-693 discloses: … wherein the virtual pet is displayed between one or more messages between the first and second user and a keyboard for typing the messages. (Wang-693, page 6, [0062], “The above-described embodiments enable the synchronized presentation of virtual pet animations between client users in an IM system. This allows client users and their contacts to not only watch the virtual pet's virtual feeding process simultaneously, but also to interact with and feed the virtual pet. Furthermore, the virtual pet dynamically reflects the user's chat content.”)
39. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify the system of claim 1 of Fong in view of Gal, further in view of Wang-630, and further in view of Matsuda to include displaying the virtual pet within a chat room, between messages of two users, of Wang-693. The motivation for this modification could have been to provide a way for users to interact with the virtual pet so that both the pet and chat messages can be seen and not obstructed.
40. Claims 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fong et al. (WO-2007/134402-A1, hereinafter "Fong") in view of Gal et al. (US-2023/0082002-A1, hereinafter "Gal"), further in view of Wang et al. (CN-116983630-A, hereinafter "Wang-630"), and further in view of Matsuda et al. (US-2002/0133592-A1, hereinafter "Matsuda"), and further in view of Wolf (US-2008/0215995-A1).
41. As per claim 5, Fong in view of Gal, further in view of Wang-630, and further in view of Matsuda discloses: The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise: (see rejection for claim 1)
42. Fong in view of Gal, further in view of Wang-630, and further in view of Matsuda doesn't explicitly disclose but Wolf discloses: dynamically adjusting a pixel value for the first state based on a characteristic of a computing device of the first user. (Wolf, [0221]-[0222], “The mobile device may still be smaller than a usual computer screen. For this reason the screen of the mobile device may display only a single Web page. The avatars may be positioned differently than on a computer screen. While usually associated with the Web browser window, they may also be displayed in a list above, below, right, or left of the Web browser of the mobile device. The avatars may also be displayed smaller than they are displayed on a usual computer screen. The avatars may be displayed in reduced quality by reducing their size, pixel depth, 3D model complexity, or texture size.” and [0151]-[0152], “A very important function is text based chat. Users can enter text into a text window. Other users on the same Web page can see the text window and read the text. In FIG. 13, 14, there is at least one text window per avatar (3) (5).”)
43. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify the system of claim 6 of Fong in view of Gal, further in view of Wang-630, and further in view of Matsuda to include dynamically adjusting a pixel value for the first state based on a characteristic of a computing device of the first user, of Wolf. The motivation for this modification could have been to allow other devices, either with limited power or screen resolution, to render a virtual pet at a smaller scale and quality in order to not waste computing resources.
44. Claims 7 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fong et al. (WO-2007/134402-A1, hereinafter "Fong") in view of Gal et al. (US-2023/0082002-A1, hereinafter "Gal"), further in view of Wang et al. (CN-116983630-A, hereinafter "Wang-630"), and further in view of Matsuda et al. (US-2002/0133592-A1, hereinafter "Matsuda"), and further in view of Jia (CN-114712862-A).
45. As per claim 7, Fong in view of Gal, further in view of Wang-630, and further in view of Matsuda discloses: The system of claim 6, wherein generating the virtual pet comprises applying the pet characteristic to a generative artificial intelligence model [[as a prompt to receive an image of a pet, the generative artificial intelligence model trained to generate images based on corresponding inputted prompts.]] (see rejection for claim 6).
46. Fong in view of Gal, further in view of Wang-630, and further in view of Matsuda doesn't explicitly disclose but Jia discloses: … as a prompt to receive an image of a pet, the generative artificial intelligence model trained to generate images based on corresponding inputted prompts. (Jia, page 5, [n0043], “For example, pet information can be obtained by analyzing images of real pets. Specifically, the analysis process may involve first extracting feature regions and/or feature points from the images of real pets, and then inputting the feature regions and/or feature points into a neural network model for processing and recognition, thereby obtaining pet information.” and page 5, [n0036], “Based on the pet information of the real pet, a virtual pet 100 corresponding to the real pet is generated.” and page 3, [n0003], “The main purpose of this application is to provide a virtual pet interaction method that can generate a virtual pet that closely resembles a real pet. This virtual pet can adaptively interact with the user based on the user's emotions, thereby replacing the real pet to provide companionship and soothe the user's emotions.”)
47. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify the system of claim 6 of Fong in view of Gal, further in view of Wang-630, and further in view of Matsuda to include receiving an image of a pet so that the generative artificial intelligence can generate images based on the original pet image, of Jia. The motivation for this modification could have been to allow a user to potentially create virtual pets based on real pets they own, other people’s pets, or even pets they would like to own one day. This would help further customize the user’s virtual pet as the generative artificial intelligence would be generating a new, novel image of a pet based on the images provided by the user.
48. As per claim 11, Fong in view of Gal, further in view of Wang-630, further in view of Matsuda, and further in view of Jia discloses: The system of claim 1, identifying a characteristic of a real world pet owned by the first user based on a first user's participation in a second interaction function; and (Fong, page 8, lines 21-31, “For example, if the user sends a message to its pet "Do you know anything about tropical fish?" then the system can analyse the meaning of this message. ... As a further embodiment of the invention, the analysis of the meaning of the messages are stored in a system, and analysed to determine a user's profile. The profile may be used also to change said aspect of appearance or to generate a message.” and page 8, lines 10-20, “As a further embodiment, the pet can interact with one or more external sources of information. ... For example the system may utilise Internet search engines such as "GoogleTM" or "Ask JeevesTM" for example ... The results of the search can then be provided by the pet to its owner in the form of a message, and optionally reformatted or mined for specific data. The appearance of the pet may change also, such as according to the success of the search, or the time taken to get a result.” and page 10, lines 15- 18, “Should a user have a particular interest in certain areas, the system, through the pet, is not only able to provide useful information that it automatically retrieves from the net, but is also able to store such data, to remember user preferences, habits, traits, etc, and to update this knowledge progressively.” and page 29, lines 3-7, “Figure 12 illustrates a flow chart of one possible method (1200) for profiling a user, via a neural network, in an instant messaging system. At step (1205) one or more messages are received from a user. The messages may be received from the user during use of the instant messaging system or may be via a questionnaire associated with the system (such as when signing up to use the system or to create an account on the messaging system).”)
generating the virtual pet using a generative artificial intelligence model by inputting the identified characteristic of the real world pet owned by the first user into the generative artificial intelligence model. (Jia, page 5, [n0043], “For example, pet information can be obtained by analyzing images of real pets. Specifically, the analysis process may involve first extracting feature regions and/or feature points from the images of real pets, and then inputting the feature regions and/or feature points into a neural network model for processing and recognition, thereby obtaining pet information.” and page 5, [n0036], “Based on the pet information of the real pet, a virtual pet 100 corresponding to the real pet is generated.” and page 3, [n0003], “The main purpose of this application is to provide a virtual pet interaction method that can generate a virtual pet that closely resembles a real pet. This virtual pet can adaptively interact with the user based on the user's emotions, thereby replacing the real pet to provide companionship and soothe the user's emotions.”)
49. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify the system of claim 1 of Fong in view of Gal, further in view of Wang-630, and further in view of Matsuda to include generating the virtual pet using a generative artificial intelligence model by inputting the identified characteristic of the real world pet owned by the first user into the generative artificial intelligence model, of Jia. The motivation for this modification could have been to allow a user to potentially create a virtual pet based on their real owned pet. This could be fun for the user as it would provide a virtual and interactive representation of their pet as they are chatting with other users.
50. Claims 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fong et al. (WO-2007/134402-A1, hereinafter "Fong") in view of Gal et al. (US-2023/0082002-A1, hereinafter "Gal"), further in view of Wang et al. (CN-116983630-A, hereinafter "Wang-630"), and further in view of Matsuda et al. (US-2002/0133592-A1, hereinafter "Matsuda"), further in view of Jia (CN-114712862-A), and further in view of Taylor (US-2024/0233231-A1).
51. As per claim 8, Fong in view of Gal, further in view of Wang-630, further in view of Matsuda, and further in view of Jia discloses: The system of claim 7, wherein the generative artificial intelligence model [[includes a stable diffusion model that introduces noise iteratively to update pixel values in a generated image based on neighboring pixels to generate the virtual pet.]] (Fong, page 3, lines 11-19, “In another embodiment, a user is able to create and design their own virtual character or "pet" which seemingly acts independently to the user. ... A user may interact with his or her own pet, or with that belonging to other users.” and page 23, lines 12-18, “The chat application system (200) operates not only as an instant messaging client but also allows the user to continue to adapt, interact, alter and modify his/her creations in real time with continual updates occurring through an event router that sends updated notifications to the instant messaging client as well as a user database (UDB) (190). This system therefore enables complete control over emoticons, characters, images, wallpapers, etc, including intelligent response, reactions, actions, animations and emotion through the constant mining of information through the NLP.” and page 29, lines 3-7, “Figure 12 illustrates a flow chart of one possible method (1200) for profiling a user, via a neural network, in an instant messaging system. At step (1205) one or more messages are received from a user. The messages may be received from the user during use of the instant messaging system or may be via a questionnaire associated with the system (such as when signing up to use the system or to create an account on the messaging system).”)
52. Fong in view of Gal, further in view of Wang-630, further in view of Matsuda, and further in view of Jia doesn't explicitly disclose but Taylor discloses: … includes a stable diffusion model that introduces noise iteratively to update pixel values in a generated image based on neighboring pixels to generate the virtual pet. (Taylor, [0045], “A diffusion process is executed by diffusion process stages 240, wherein the input is processed through a number of stages to add noise to the input image or images associated with the input text. This is a progressive process, where at each stage, e.g., 10-50 or more stages, noise is added.” and [0043], “A conditioning process is also applied to guide a machine learning model to remove noise and arrive at an image that represents closely to what was requested via user input. A decoder 212 then transforms a resulting output from the latent space back to the pixel space. The output 214 may then be processed to improve the resolution. The output 214 is then passed out as the result, which may be an image, graphics, 3D data, or data that can be rendered to a physical form or digital form.” and [0026], “FIG. 1 illustrates a system 100 configured for the automatic modification of all motion profiles to be consistent with a parameter defining a physiological characteristic and or a motion profile of an avatar that has been edited, and the generation of an image or sequence of images showing the avatar in motion using an AI image generation model implementing latent diffusion techniques based on the changes to the avatar, such as motion profiles that have been modified and/or generated, in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure.”)
53. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify the system of claim 7 of Fong in view of Gal, further in view of Wang-630, further in view of Matsuda, and further in view of Jia to include using a stable diffusion model that introduces noise iteratively to update pixel values in a generated image based on neighboring pixels to generate the virtual pet, of Taylor. The motivation for this modification could have been to produce higher quality results through the introduction of noise to an image and then goes through a process of “denoising.” Doing so would generate better final results of images of virtual pets.
Conclusion
54. 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.
55. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MATTHEW CLOTHIER whose telephone number is (571)272-4667. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 8:00am-4:00pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kent Chang can be reached at (571)272-7667. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MATTHEW CLOTHIER/Examiner, Art Unit 2614
/KENT W CHANG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2614
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