DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Procedural Summary
This is responsive to the claims filed 03/28/2024.
The Examiner acknowledges the preliminary amendment filed on 03/28/2024 in which amendments were submitted.
Applicant’s IDS submission is acknowledged and provided herewith.
The Drawings filed on 03/28/2024 are noted.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claim 42 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. Claim 42 recites a “computer program” product comprising computer program code. The claim fails to define any structure or hardware. Accordingly, the recited “program” is computer software per se and is not a “process,” a “machine,” a “manufacture” or a “composition of matter,” as defined in 35 U.S.C. 101.
AIA Notice
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 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 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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-2, 4, 7-14, 23-24, 28-30, 33, 39-40, and 42 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by WIPO International Publication Number WO 2020/074869 A1 to Morrison et al. (hereinafter Morrison).
Regarding Claim 1, (Currently Amended), and similarly recited Claim 42, Morrison discloses an interactive device (figs. 1, 26-27) comprising:
a base display element (page 19, line 17 “the touchscreen 150 includes a touch panel and an underlying display),
the base display element comprising one or more sensors to detect a user touch (page 18, line 38 to page 19, line 5 discloses “a touch panel of a touchscreen recognizes an actual touch or touches as a touch event or multiple touch events on a surface of the touch panel and thereafter outputs signals representative of this information to a host device”), and
a user interaction element mounted to the base display element (figs. 1 button 160, 26-27, page 20, lines 17-18 discloses “the button 160 passes through a through hole 225 in a glass substrate 230 of the touch panel of the touchscreen),
the user interaction element being configured to facilitate at least partial control of the device by user touch (page 21, lines 19-22 “A user observing the displayed imagery or other such visual cues touches relative points on the upper surface of the touch panel and/or presses a button within the active area of the touch panel to thereby provide user input which effectively makes respective user selections; see also page 20 lines 10-22),
at least part of the user interaction element protruding outwardly from a surface of the base display element (figs. 2, depicts button element 160 from the gaming surface; see also figs. 26-27), and
the user interaction element being fixed relative to the base display element (figs. 2, 26-27 depicts the button affixed to the base display surface).
Regarding Claim 2, (Currently Amended) Morrison discloses the device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the user interaction element is a separately formed component from the base display element (figs. 11, 13-20 page 27 lines 24-27 recites “Figure 11 illustrates a button 160 in a round format mounted to the glass substrate and 25 illustrates the touch sensitive surface 140 of the substrate”)(user interaction element is the button), and the user interaction element is attached to the base display element to mount the user interaction element to the base display element (figs. 11, 13-20, page 31 lines 5-8 “Figure 14 illustrates an example of apparatus 1400 for releasably mounting a user input device at a touch panel 1405. The apparatus comprises a user input device such as a user input button 1410 and a mounting collar 1420. The mounting collar may further comprise an upper collar member and a lower collar member (not shown)”; page 34 lines 15-21), or wherein the user interaction element is integrally formed with at least part of the base display element to mount the user interaction element to the base display element (figs. 1, 26, 27).
Regarding Claim 4, (Currently Amended) Morrison discloses the device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the base display element comprises a display, and a first control part for receiving a user touch, the first control part being configured to facilitate at least partial control of the device by user touch (figs. 1, 26, 27, page 18 lines 25-26, a display is configured to display a graphical user interface (GUI) which provides user information to a user; page 19 lines 15-17, the gaming machine includes upper gaming surface 135 is provided by a touch surface 140 of a touchscreen 150. The touchscreen 150 includes a touch panel and an underlying display; page 21 lines 17-22, a display (not shown) lies underneath the touch panel. In this way information displayed from the upper surface of the display can be seen by a human user through the touch panel located above the display. A 20 user observing the displayed imagery or other such visual cues touches relative points on the upper surface of the touch panel and/or presses a button within the active area of the touch panel to thereby provide user input which effectively makes respective user selections).
Regarding Claim 7, (Currently Amended) Morrison discloses the device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the user interaction element is of a capacitive coupling material to facilitate the one or more sensors detecting a user touch to the user interaction element (page 21 lines 24-30, page 24 lines 27-35, page 27 lines 17-22).
Regarding Claim 8, (Currently Amended) Morrison discloses the device as claimed in claim 4, wherein the first control part is of a capacitive coupling material to facilitate the one or more sensors detecting a user touch to the first control part (page 13, lines 35-40, touch panel and a touchscreen including a touch panel in which the touch panel includes an active area able to sense user touches via a capacitive coupling methodology as well as including one or more user input devices, in the form of buttons or joysticks or the like, within the active area and thus within the footprint of an underlying display; see also page 21 lines 24-27).
Regarding Claim 9, (Currently Amended) Morrison discloses the device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the device comprises a control element to detect a user touch by determining a change in capacitance based on one or more signals from the one or more sensors (page 13, lines 30-39, page 14 lines 16-24, touch panel and a touchscreen including a touch panel in which the touch panel includes an active area able to sense user touches via a capacitive coupling methodology … a touch panel for a touchscreen which includes a transparent capacitive sensing medium able to detect multiple touches simultaneously together with at least one mechanical user input device such as a button).
Regarding Claim 10, (Currently Amended) Morrison discloses the device as claimed in claim 9 wherein the control element is configured to determine a change in capacitance by comparing the one or more signals relative to one or more pre-defined threshold values (page 26, lines 15-38).
Regarding Claim 11, (Currently Amended) Morrison discloses the device as claimed in claim 10 wherein the control element is configured to detect a user touch to the base display element by comparing one or more signals from a first set of sensors relative to a first pre-defined threshold value (fig. 3, page 21 lines 24-30), and the control element is configured to detect a user touch to the user interaction element by comparing one or more signals from a second set of sensors relative to a second pre-defined threshold value (fig. 3, page 21 lines 24-30).
Regarding Claim 12, (Currently Amended) Morrison discloses the device as claimed in claim 11 wherein the first pre-defined threshold value is greater than the second pre-defined threshold value (fig. 3, page 21 lines 24-30).
Regarding Claim 13, (Currently Amended) Morrison discloses the device as claimed in claim 11 wherein the control element is configured to compare an averaged signal value from the second set of sensors relative to the second pre-defined threshold value (fig. 3, page 21 lines 24-30).
Regarding Claim 14, (Currently Amended) Morrison discloses the device as claimed in claim 13 wherein the control element is configured to perform high pass filtering of the averaged signal value (fig. 3, page 21 lines 24-30).
Regarding Claim 23, (Currently Amended) Morrison discloses the device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the user interaction element comprises a base part for mounting to the base display element, and a second control part for receiving a user touch (figs. 1, 11, 18, page 33 line 18 – page 34 line 27).
Regarding Claim 24, (Currently Amended) Morrison discloses the device as claimed in claim 23 wherein the second control part is configured to facilitate at least partial control of the device by user touch (figs. 1, 11, 18, page 33 line 18 – page 34 line 27).
Regarding Claim 28, (Currently Amended) Morrison discloses the device as claimed in claim 4, wherein the user interaction element comprises a second control part for receiving a user touch and a third control part for receiving a user touch, the first control part being configured to facilitate a first type of control of the device by user touch at the first control part, the second control part being configured to facilitate a second type of control of the device by user touch at the second control part, the third control part being configured to facilitate a third type of control of the device by user touch at the third control part (fig. 1, page 19 line 38 to page 20, line 8).
Regarding Claim 29, (Currently Amended) Morrison discloses the device as claimed in claim 28 wherein the second type of control results in a different operation of the device to the third type of control (fig. 1, page 19 line 38 to page 20, line 8).
Regarding Claim 30, (Currently Amended) Morrison discloses the device as claimed in claim 28 wherein the first type of control results in the same operation of the device as the third type of control (fig. 1, page 19 line 38 to page 20, line 8).
Regarding Claim 33. (Currently Amended) Morrison discloses the device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the user interaction element comprises a recess part (fig. 1, page 19 line 38 to page 20, line 8).
Regarding Claim 39. (Currently Amended) Morrison discloses the device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the base display element comprises an inactive support part, and the user interaction element is mounted to the inactive support part (fig. 1, page 19 line 38 to page 20, line 8).
Regarding Claim 40 (Currently Amended), Morrison discloses the device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the base display element comprises a touch screen (page 37 lines 27-31).
Regarding Claim 42, (Currently Amended) Morrison discloses a computer program product comprising computer program code capable of causing a computer system to control the interactive device as claimed in claim 1, when the computer program product is run on a computer system (page 4, lines 22-28 discloses computer system including processor configured to execute instructions and carry out operations associated with a computer system). See also the rejection of Claim 1 above.
Conclusion
Claims 1-2, 4, 7-14, 23-24, 28-30, 33, 39-40, and 42 are examined above.
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/S.N.H/Examiner, Art Unit 3715 /DAVID L LEWIS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3715