DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
2. Claims 1-16 and 20-23 are pending. All the pending claims are examined herein.
3. This Office Action is in response to the Preliminary Amendment filed on 05/13/2024.
4. The IDSs filed on 08/07/2024 and 02/13/2025 are considered and entered into the application file.
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.
5. Claims 1, 8, 9, 16 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Wu (US 20140237405 A1).
Wu is directed to Method And Apparatus For Taking Screenshot Of Screen Of Application In Mobile Terminal.
As per claim 1, Wu discloses a method (see flowchart of Figs. 1-3) comprising:
obtaining a first application switching instruction, wherein the first application switching instruction instructs to switch a target application from running in a background to running in a foreground ([0024] Receive an instruction for closing a screen of a designated application. [0025] In this embodiment, at least one application runs on the mobile terminal, and the application may be in a full-screen state currently. The instruction for closing the screen of the designated application is a switching instruction for switching the designated application to running in background, or a switching instruction for switching another application to running in foreground, or a closing instruction for closing the designated application. When the instruction is the switching instruction for switching the designated application to running in background, the instruction may be triggered manually by a user of the mobile terminal, and is for example, minimizing the designated application. The instruction may also be triggered according to a preset condition. For example, if a designated application is in an idle state for 20 minutes, the switching instruction for switching the designated application to running in background is triggered);
obtaining a first length-width ratio of a target display area based on the first application switching instruction, wherein 0038] Step 202 specifically includes obtaining, by the mobile terminal, the size of the local display and the preset zoom ratio, and zooming the designated area of the screen of the designated application according to the preset zoom ratio by using the size of the local display as an original size of the screen of the designated application, so as to obtain the thumbnail after the zooming, and capturing the thumbnail after the zooming to obtain the screenshot of the designated area.
obtaining a target snapshot of the target application, wherein a second length-width ratio of the target snapshot corresponds to the first length-width ratio; [0038] Step 202 specifically includes obtaining, by the mobile terminal, the size of the local display and the preset zoom ratio, and zooming the designated area of the screen of the designated application according to the preset zoom ratio by using the size of the local display as an original size of the screen of the designated application, so as to obtain the thumbnail after the zooming, and capturing the thumbnail after the zooming to obtain the screenshot of the designated area. Also see [0042] ); and
displaying the target snapshot in the target display area ([0043] When an instruction for viewing the designated application is received, obtain the screenshot of the designated area, and display the screenshot of the designated area).
As per apparatus claim 9, and storage-medium claim 20, these claims include limitations similar to that of method claim 1, respectively. Thus, the apparatus and the medium claims are also rejected under similar citations given to the method claim 1.
As per claim 8, Wu discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein obtaining the first application switching instruction comprises: obtaining the first application switching instruction based on an operation performed in a multi-task interface; or receiving a hot start operation to obtain the first application switching instruction ([0025] The instruction for closing the screen of the designated application is a switching instruction for switching the designated application to running in background, or a switching instruction for switching another application to running in foreground, or a closing instruction for closing the designated application. [0031] In this embodiment, after saving the screenshot of the designated area, the mobile terminal closes the screen of the designated application, and according to the received instruction, closes the designated application or switches the designated application to running in background. [0044] the mobile terminal may perform operations such as browsing, switching, and releasing on the designated application according to a received operational instruction. [0051] The instruction for closing the screen of the designated application is a switching instruction for switching the designated application to running in background, or a switching instruction for switching another application to running in foreground, or a closing instruction for closing the designated application.
As per apparatus claim 16, the apparatus claim includes limitation similar to that of method claim 8, Thus, the apparatus claim is also rejected under similar citations given to the method claim.
Allowable Subject Matter
6. The prior art of records does not teach the limitations of method of dependent claim 2, the limitations of apparatus of dependent claim 10, and the limitations of storage medium of dependent claim 21. Thus, claims 2-7, 10-15 and 21-23 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
7. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
US 20190205160 A1 discloses an application process management method and a terminal device. The method includes: starting an application on a terminal device (410); and updating a group status of a process of the application when an event that the application switches from the foreground to the background occurs, so that at least some of target processes of the application are transferred from a foreground process group to a background process group (420), where the target process is a process that still meets, after the application switches to the background, a condition for staying in the foreground process group. The method can mitigate frame freezing of a foreground application (Abstract).
US 20170123625 A1 Methods, devices, and computer-readable medium are disclosed for application switching between background and foreground on the display interface of a terminal device. In one embodiment, a method includes: maintaining a correspondence relationship between each of one or more opened background applications and each of one or more predetermined touch operations on a rear touch screen of a terminal, detecting a user touch operation on the rear touch screen, switching to background a foreground application on a current display interface of a front display screen of the terminal, and switching to foreground an application selected from the one or more opened background applications based on the correspondence relationship and the detected user touch operation (Abstract).
US 20160048412 A1 A method and an apparatus for switching applications are described. An embodiment of the method comprises the following steps: setting a first application as a resident application; displaying contemporaneously both a second application running in the foreground and an indication associated with the set resident application; and switching from the second application to the resident program so that the resident application runs in the foreground according to a preset condition for switching applications (Abstract).
8, Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TADESSE HAILU whose telephone number is (571)272-4051; and the email address is Tadesse.hailu@USPTO.GOV. The examiner can normally be reached Monday- Friday 9:30-5:30 (Eastern time).
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Bashore, William L. can be reached (571) 272-4088. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/TADESSE HAILU/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2174