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 § 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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-6, 9, 11-16, 18, and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Yabuki (US 20090093313).
In claims 1, 11, and 20, Yabuki discloses
Obtaining a current location of a first virtual character in a scene of a virtual game while the first virtual character participates in a current game task of the virtual game under control by a client (in figure 16 #S16 the device determines the type of ghost data to be requested, and paragraph 110 discloses that this includes determining the course that is being raced, wherein the course is the current location of the first virtual character, and the current game task is racing against a ghost racer. Paragraph 91 discloses the driver of the racing car, although this driver is in reference to the ghost data, when the game is played as per S10, this game would also have a driver, as ghost data is generated at S11 during play of the game, meaning that there was a driver during gameplay)
Determining that the current location matches a virtual vehicle provided by the current game task (paragraph 91 discloses a driver of a racing car, meaning that the driver is in the racing car and races along the course)
Displaying a virtual projection corresponding to a second virtual character that meets a projection condition among virtual characters participating in the virtual game (paragraph 119, #S18, the ghost data is displayed based on projection conditions, such as “accomplishment time near the user’s own record” and “the course number of the racecourse for which the ghost data is requested”, as well as the condition of the ghost data being requested in the first place.)
In claims 2 and 12, Yabuki discloses determining that the current location matches the virtual vehicle when the current location is in the virtual vehicle (paragraph 91, a driver of a racing car is inside the virtual vehicle)
In claims 3 and 13, Yabuki discloses determining that the current location is int eh virtual vehicle provided by the current game task at an initial stage (paragraph 110, 112, right after the ghost data is received, the “competing with ghost mode” may immediately begin) and displaying a virtual projection corresponding to a first target virtual character in a first current screen on the client, the first target virtual character being the second virtual character set to enter the virtual scene of the current game task through the mobile vehicle (paragraph 112, ghost data for up to 32 users may be stored)
In claims 4 and 14, Yabuki discloses before displaying the virtual projection corresponding to the first target virtual character in the first current screen of the client: obtaining virtual projection resources held by virtual characters participating in the current game task and determining a virtual character corresponding to virtual projection resource whose resource amount is greater than or equal to a projection threshold as the first target virtual character meeting the projection condition (paragraph 21, a score is provided to the race time which indicates the skill level, and this score data is used in the ghost data request, such as paragraph 15 discloses receiving the best of all score data, or paragraph 7 only the ghost data for the top 1000 players are stored)
In claims 5 and 15, Yabuki discloses obtaining first battle information of the virtual characters participating in the current game task, determining, according to the first battle information, the first target virtual character meeting the projection condition from the virtual characters participating in the current game task and displaying the virtual projection corresponding to the first target virtual character in the first current screen on the client (paragraph 110 discloses various information of the virtual characters which determines which ghost information to download and display. With respect to the word “battle”, the player and the ghost are battling/competing to win the race)
In claims 6 and 16, Yabuki discloses determining that the current location is in the virtual vehicle is a control vehicle provided by the current game task for the first virtual character at a battle stage and displaying a virtual projection corresponding to a second target virtual character in a second current screen on the client, the second target virtual character being a virtual character meeting the projection condition among virtual characters participating in the current game task (paragraph 91, the race car is provided as part of the task of racing with the ghost car, and with respect to “a second current screen”, this screen may simply be a portion of the display, and under BRI, the display location of the virtual characters may simply be interpreted as the portion of the display which corresponds to the first screen and second screen, as the screens may merely be an abstraction of portions of the display of the prior art.)
In claims 9 and 18, Yabuki discloses in response to a termination instruction triggered for the virtual vehicle, terminating an association relationship between the first virtual character and the virtual vehicle and canceling the display of the virtual projection corresponding to the second virtual character (Fig 16, s20, “yes”, “end”)
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) 7, 8, and 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yabuki.
In claims 7, 8, and 17, Yabuki discloses the claimed invention except obtaining a first model corresponding to the second virtual character, mounting the first model on a mesh of a second model corresponding to the virtual vehicle to obtain a mounted second model, and rendering the mounted second model to display the virtual projection corresponding to the second virtual character, as well as creating an initial model of the second virtual character and mounting at least one projection component associated with the second virtual character to obtain the first model however Yabuki discloses the virtual characters and virtual vehicles within a virtual world, Yabuki simply does not go into detail as to the particulars on how the virtual objects are rendered, however Official notice is taken that displaying virtual objects/characters thru use of mesh and models was notoriously well known before the effective filing date of the invention, and it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Yabuki with this well known technique in order to provide rendering of the virtual characters and vehicles in a manner that allows for high quality of graphics and/or low memory or processing requirements.
Claim(s) 10 and 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yabuki in view of Smith (US 20070060359).
In claims 10 and 19, Yabuki fails to disclose displaying character information corresponding to the second virtual character in response to a view instruction triggered for the virtual projection corresponding to the second virtual character, displaying an interactive interface corresponding to the second virtual character in response to an interaction instruction triggered for the virtual projection corresponding to the second virtual character or playing a battle screen of the second virtual character in the virtual game in response to a watch instruction triggered for the virtual projection corresponding to the second virtual character, instead Yabuki discloses that the ghost data is stored (fig. 11, 12) and that the CPU selects the ghost data based on the distribution request (paragraph 123), however Smith discloses allowing for a user selection thru a menu showing the options of ghost data (paragraph 57, 116), and it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine Yabuki with Smith in order to allow for the user to have a greater level of control over which ghost data is received.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Hightower (US 6488505).
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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/THOMAS H HENRY/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715
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