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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55. Claims have priority to foreign filing date 09/28/2021.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 3/21/2024, 1/16/2025 and 5/8/2024 are being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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) 1-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as anticipated by US 20190260872 A1 LEE; Uichin et al.
Lee teaches a system, device and method where “a user is provided with an opportunity to self-reflect his or the present excessive use situation due to inconvenience of interactivity by improving a degree of use awareness and additionally provided with an extra task in order to reduce interactivity. Accordingly, a user's craving for the use of a smart device can be effectively reduced. That is, the user is encouraged to perform an extra task because it uses short-term memory of the brain which has a very limited capacity for processing information. Accordingly, a craving for the use of a smart device, and its associated imagery can be effectively suppressed because the short-term memory of the brain is reallocated to the extra task, and thus, the craving for usage may be vanished.” ¶109.
Claim 1.
Lee discloses A user terminal that is operated by a user (Lee, Abstract “a persuasive interaction restriction method and system for the intervention of smart device overuse based on context-awareness”), the user terminal comprising:
a usage amount acquisition unit (Lee abstract “an app installed on the smart device”) configured to acquire information indicating an amount of usage of the user terminal by the user in a predetermined period (Lee abstract “recognizing whether context requires intervention based on predetermined interactivity restraint setting information”, Fig. 2 230, ¶¶64—68 “the interactivity setting information may include a time interval and number”); and
a control unit configured to reduce operability of the user terminal when the amount of usage exceeds a predetermined threshold value (Lee Abstract “restricting the use of the app based on the intervention method set if the context is recognized to require intervention”; Fig. 2 step 240, ¶¶69-72; ¶91 “he context restriction controller 114 may perform control so that a restriction element set based on intervention strength belonging to the specific app is applied based on at least one of frequency of use (i.e., time interval and/or execution number) and a use time”).
Claim 4.
Lee discloses The user terminal according to claim 1 (see claim 1 supra), wherein the control unit is configured to reduce the operability of the user terminal by making a first period longer than a second period, wherein the first period is from when a user operation to instruct execution of predetermined processing is performed after the amount of usage exceeds the threshold value to when the predetermined processing is executed, and the second period is from when the user operation to instruct the execution of the predetermined processing is performed before the amount of usage exceeds the threshold value to when the predetermined processing is executed (See e.g., Lee Fig. 6; ¶93 “the context restriction controller 114 may perform control so that the time taken to display “r” on a screen 620 after “r” is entered in the dialogue input window 611 of the screen 610 is delayed for a preset time (e.g., 10 seconds) and “r” is displayed (621). That is, in normal context, when “r” is entered in the dialogue input window 611 of the screen 610, “r” is displayed on the screen 620 within 0.1 second. In contrast, if interactivity restriction is applied, “r” may be displayed on the screen 620 in 1 second, 5 seconds or 10 seconds, for example, based on intervention strength after “r” is entered.”; Fig. 7, ¶95—97; Fig. 8, ¶99; )
Claim 5
Lee discloses The user terminal according to claim 4 (see claim 4 supra), wherein the control unit is configured to make a degree of extending the first period with respect to the second period (‘intervention strength’) greater when a degree of excess of the amount of usage with respect to the threshold value (‘a level for each selected restriction element’) is greater (See e.g., Lee Fig. 4; ¶¶87—88 “intervention strength may be differently set based on a level for each selected restriction element. For example, if the start time of an app is selected, the intervention strength may be set to apply 20-second delay when a time interval is within 10 minutes, 10-second delay when the time interval is within 20 minutes, and 5-second delay when the time interval is within 30 minutes.”)
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
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.
Claim(s) 2-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as anticipated by or, in the alternative, under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over
Claim 2.
Lee discloses The user terminal according to claim 1 (see claim 1 supra), wherein the control unit is configured to reduce the operability of the user terminal by making first scroll operability lower than second scroll operability (Lee Fig. 2, ¶86—87 (emphasis added) “for the purpose of interactivity restriction on Facebook, the start time and interface transition time of Facebook may be selected as restriction elements. In addition, an extra task and/or an interface transition time may be selected as the restriction element”; See also Fig. 7 ¶94 “a screen configuration in which an interface transition time is restricted” ¶95, ¶96 “.., if a corresponding app requires intervention, when the page transfer is performed, that is, when the page A switches to the page B, the context restriction controller 114 may perform control so that the page A does not immediately switch to the page B, but switches to the page B after delay corresponding to a predetermined delay time is applied as in a screen 720..”),
Examiner takes official notice, as it is widely known and common knowledge in the art, that the Facebook app (Lee ¶86—87), at the time of the Lee’s invention, contained a “feed” of content which users can operate via scrolling. See MPEP 2144.03. Thus, Lee’s teaching of restricting the “interface transition time” or “extra task” of Facebook, Lee ¶¶86—87, anticipates, or in the alternative, renders obvious the claim element wherein the first scroll operability is related to at least one of a scroll width and a scroll speed when a user operation to scroll a screen of the user terminal is performed after the amount of usage exceeds the threshold value, and the second scroll operability is related to at least one of a scroll width and a scroll speed when the user operation to scroll the screen is performed before the amount of usage exceeds the threshold value.
Lee, relatedly, also teaches a training algorithm to set the restriction (See Lee Figs. 1—2 and ¶¶56—58) where “[step 210] the training unit 111 may train a computational load necessary to perform a task related to a corresponding user interface and the time taken to complete the calculation with respect to a plurality of user interfaces predetermined in relation to a specific app . . . [and step 220] setting unit 222 may set an intervention method related to use restriction on the app based on the trained interactivity.”
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art, to modify the invention of Lee to include the noted teachings of Lee in order to reduce addiction to phone apps. Lee ¶109.
Claim 3.
Lee discloses The user terminal according to claim 2 (see claim 2 supra), wherein the control unit is configured to make a degree of reducing the first scroll operability with respect to the second scroll operability greater as a degree of excess of the amount of usage with respect to the threshold value is greater (See e.g., Lee Fig. 4; ¶¶87—88 “intervention strength may be differently set based on a level for each selected restriction element. For example, if the start time of an app is selected, the intervention strength may be set to apply 20-second delay when a time interval is within 10 minutes, 10-second delay when the time interval is within 20 minutes, and 5-second delay when the time interval is within 30 minutes.”).
Pertinent Prior Art(s)
The prior art made of record though not relied upon in the current rejection is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
US 20130311939 A1 HSU; YI-PING et al. – BRI applicable prior art since “usage amount” is open ended as claims filed
1. An input device adapted for connecting to a computer, comprising: a scrolling unit, rolling one or more notches according to an operation, each notch being rolled by the scrolling unit corresponding to a number of scrolling lines associated with a document in the computer; and a control unit, connected to the scrolling unit, calculating a time duration between two adjacent notches rolled by the scrolling unit so as to determine whether the scrolling unit is rolling in a fast-rolling mode or in a slow-rolling mode, accumulating the respective numbers of scrolling lines corresponding to the respective notches being rolled by the scrolling unit to generate an accumulated number of lines, and outputting a control command to the computer to instruct the computer to scroll the document according to a designated number of lines, wherein when the time duration is smaller than or equal to a threshold time, the control unit determines that the scrolling unit rolls in the fast-rolling mode, and progressively increases the number of scrolling lines corresponding to each notch being rolled by the scrolling unit in the fast rolling mode, and wherein the control unit subtracts the designated number of lines instructed by the control command from the accumulated number of lines.
2. The input device according to claim 1, wherein when the time duration is larger than the threshold time, the control unit determines that the scrolling unit rolls in the slow-scrolling mode, and assigns a basic number of lines to the number of scrolling lines corresponding to each notch rolled by the scrolling unit in the slow-rolling mode.
CN 106210332 A JIANG, Guo-qiang et al. 2016-12-07
Claim 1: A control method for controlling an electronic device, wherein the electronic device is installed with application program, the control method comprises: setting the use time limit; During normal use of the electronic device or a predetermined application timing and reduce the using time limit according to the timing when the electronic device wait time and increase the use time limit according to the timing, and the usage time limit is 0 when controlling the electronic device stand or disabling the application program.
KR 20150124707 A PARK JUNG MAN 2015-11-06
The memory 160 may store data. At this time, the data stored in the memory 160 may store input information regarding at least one application and a function. Wherein the input information includes a command to limit execution of at least one application and function, a command to limit an operation time of the at least one application and function, a permission to remotely execute execution of at least one application and function, A password for manually activating / deactivating the security mode, time information for automatically switching to the security mode, location information, and an NFC signal. For example, the memory 160 may store at least one of the time information, location information, and NFC signal of the device 100. For example, the memory 160 may store a plurality of application execution restriction or release commands (e.g., "Facebook Usage Restriction", "Facebook Usage Restriction", "All SNS Application Usage Restrictions" "Restrict use of KakaoTalk," "Restrict use of KakaoTalk," "Restrict use of all messenger applications," "Disable all messenger applications," "Restrict use of Anifang," " , "Restrict all game application use", "Disable all game application use restriction", "Internet use restriction", "Disable internet use restriction" , "Limit the camera function", "Disable the camera function restriction", etc.), the restriction of the call volume and the character amount (For example, "Limit 10 minutes on a call", "Limit on 10 characters", etc.), limit the amount of data commands have. One example of such a memory 160 is a hard disk drive, a flexible disk drive, a ROM (Read Only Memory), a RAM (Random Access Memory), a flash memory, and a memory card And the like.
In step S520, the device 100 may determine whether the automatic mode switching of the operating system is necessary.
In step S530, the device 100 switches the mode of the operating system from the first mode to the second mode when automatic mode switching is required based on the time information, the position information, the NFC signal, the remote control command, The execution of at least one of the plurality of applications can be restricted. Furthermore, the device 100 may release the execution restriction of at least one of the plurality of applications.
The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the execution time of the at least one application in the second mode is limited to within a predetermined time interval.
The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the at least one application comprises a text application or a call application,
And wherein in the second mode, the character application or some function of the call application is restricted.
The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the amount of data input to or output from the device by the at least one application in the second mode is limited to a predetermined amount.
CN 110121006 A ZHANG, Zhao-feng et al.
“the invention has two control modes, the control mode when the timing time reaches the preset mobile phone using time threshold T, mobile phone is automatically switched to the restricted mode, closing the screen, control the mode when the timing time reaches the preset mobile phone using time threshold T of, not immediately switching the mobile phone to the restricted mode”
US 10602976 B2 Cunico; Hernan A. et al.
A method, a system and a computer program product are provided. A posture of an individual is measured while the individual is using an application. The measuring a posture includes making multiple measurements. An amount of time that the individual is using the application is measured. The multiple measurements and the measured amount of time are analyzed to derive a posture quotient. At least one action is performed by a computing device based on the derived posture quotient. The at least one action includes adjusting execution of the application to enable correction of the posture.
11. The system of claim 7, wherein the at least one action comprises remedial actions including one or more from a group of: dimming the display, performing posture realignment checks every predetermined time interval, suspending use of the application for a predetermined amount of time, and suspending the use of the application until the individual corrects the posture.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to UMAIR AHSAN whose telephone number is (571)272-1323. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 10-5 PM EST or by emailing UMAIR.AHSAN@USPTO.GOV.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Alison Slater can be reached at (571) 270-0375. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/UMAIR AHSAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2647