Prosecution Insights
Last updated: August 17, 2026
Application No. 18/727,323

METHODS, APPARATUS, ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND STORAGE MEDIA FOR INFORMATION PROCESSING

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Jul 08, 2024
Priority
Jan 07, 2022 — CN 202210019513.1 +1 more
Examiner
DEBROW, JAMES J
Art Unit
2174
Tech Center
2100 — Computer Architecture & Software
Assignee
Beijing Zitiao Network Technology Co., Ltd.
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
70%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
1y 2m
Est. Remaining
95%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 70% — above average
70%
Career Allowance Rate
359 granted / 512 resolved
+15.1% vs TC avg
Strong +25% interview lift
Without
With
+25.2%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
3y 3m
Avg Prosecution
15 currently pending
Career history
537
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
10.9%
-29.1% vs TC avg
§103
59.1%
+19.1% vs TC avg
§102
22.2%
-17.8% vs TC avg
§112
4.6%
-35.4% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 512 resolved cases

Office Action

§103
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 . This Office Action is responsive to: Application filed 08 Jul. 2024 Claims 36-55 are pending in this case. Claims 36, 54 and 55 are independent claims 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. Claims 36-55 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Borchetta et al. (Pub. No.: US 2017/0103432 A1; Filed: Nov. 18, 2016) (hereafter “Borchetta”) in view of Hughes et al. (Pub. No.: US 2017/0361214 A1; Filed: Aug. 14, 2017) (hereinafter ”Hughes”). Regarding independent claims 36, 54 and 55, Borchetta disclose a method of information processing, comprising: in response to a first trigger operation, obtaining information of at least one team, a team comprising more than two team members (0048; 0052; Borchetta disclose an identifier of one or more third party organizations with which the user is associated (e.g., an identifier of one or more employers, charities, sports teams/organization, classes and/or scout groups with which the user is associated); (vi) an identifier of one or more groups within a third party organization with which the user is associated); determining, based on the information of the at least one team, at least one group associated with the team for information exchange among team members of the team, wherein group information of a group is stored within a predetermined database, the group information comprising group avatar information and other information of the group (0050; 0060; Borchetta disclose an avatar may be utilized in materials, documents, marketing messages or videos used to train persons associated with campaigns (e.g., parents of school children, team, group or troop members; volunteers; students; organization leaders or organizers; etc.).); presenting team information of the team within a first display area of a first information display interface, the presented team information comprising team avatar information and other information of the team (0049; 0054; 0060; Borchetta disclose an avatar wearing a uniform of a first third party organization (sports teams/organization) when it is used in marketing content for a campaign of the first third party); and Borchetta does not expressly disclose presenting first group information of the group associated with the team in a second display area that satisfies a predetermined positional relationship with the first display area of the first information display interface, the first group information comprising information other than the group avatar information. Hughes teach presenting first group information of the group associated with the team in a second display area that satisfies a predetermined positional relationship with the first display area of the first information display interface, the first group information comprising information other than the group avatar information (Fig. 16). Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Hughes with Borchetta for the benefit of preventing the loss of performance for the user's sports contest roster (0014). Regarding dependent claim 37, Borchetta in view of Hughes disclose the method of claim 36, wherein the first display area comprises a team avatar display area and a team other information display area (Borchetta 0090; Fig 6); and/or, the second display area comprises at least one sub-display area each for presenting first group information of a group (Hughes Fig. 16). Regarding dependent claim 38, Borchetta disclose the method of claim 36, wherein for a team, a position of the second display area is determined based on a display position of a team avatar within the first display area or a display position of other information of the team, a display position of the first group information being presented with an indentation relative to the display position of the team avatar (0090; Fig 6). Regarding dependent claim 39, Borchetta in view of Hughes disclose the method of claim 36, wherein the first trigger operation comprises: a selection operation on a team filtering tag, wherein the method further comprises: presenting a first number of messages in a display area of the team filtering tag, the first number being acquired based on the number of messages of a second predetermined type of messages in a first predetermined type of groups for all teams (0112). Regarding dependent claim 40, the method of claim 39, wherein the first predetermined type of groups comprises all groups, or comprises groups with a message reminder turned on; and wherein the second predetermined type of messages comprises unread messages, or messages mentioning a predetermined user. Regarding dependent claim 41, the method of claim 39, wherein the first information display interface is a session flow area in a communication client interface. Regarding dependent claim 42, the method of claim 36, wherein the team presented in the first information display interface is associated with an expanded state and a collapsed state; wherein the method further comprises: in response to a collapsing operation on the team, presenting team information of a team in the first information display interface and hiding first group information of a group associated with the team; and in response to an expanding operation on the team, presenting team information of a team and first group information of each group associated with the team in the first information display interface. Regarding dependent claim 43, the method of claim 42, wherein the method further comprises: presenting a state switching control within the first display area; and in response to the state switching control of the team being triggered, switching a display state of the team; wherein a present form of the state switching control of the team is different if information of a team is in a different display state. Regarding dependent claim 44, the method of claim 42, wherein, if information of a team is in an expanded state, the number of unread messages is excluded from the presented team information; or, if information of a team is in a collapsed state, the presented team information of the team comprises: a total number of unread messages in groups of the team, or a total number of unread messages in a group of the team with a message reminder turned on, wherein if information of a team is in an expanded state, presented first group information of a group associated with the team comprises a total number of unread messages of the group. Regarding dependent claim 45, the method of claim 36, wherein the first group information comprises at least one of: a group name, the number of unread messages in a group, and the number of members in the group. Regarding dependent claim 46, the method of claim 36, wherein in accordance with a determination that a first linkage condition is satisfied, the team avatar matches a team name of the team, wherein the first linkage condition indicates a condition in which the team avatar changes along with the team name, wherein the team avatar matching a team name comprises presenting all or part of the team name in the team avatar, Regarding dependent claim 47, the method of claim 46, wherein the method further comprises: in accordance with a determination that the first linkage condition is satisfied and in response to a change of the team name, changing the team avatar to match the changed team name; and/or, in response to the team avatar being changed, remaining the team name unchanged. Regarding dependent claim 48, the method of claim 46, wherein the first linkage condition comprises: the team avatar remaining unedited by a user before a current point of time. Regarding dependent claim 49, the method of claim 36, wherein in accordance with a determination that a second linkage condition is satisfied, a group avatar of a default communication group of the team is consistent with the team avatar of the team, wherein the second linkage condition indicates a condition in which the group avatar of the default communication group changes along with the team avatar, wherein the method further comprises: in accordance with a determination that the second linkage condition is satisfied and in response to a change of the team avatar of the team, changing the group avatar of the default communication group to be consistent with the changed team avatar; and/or, in response to the group avatar of the default communication group is changed, remaining the team avatar of the team unchanged. Regarding dependent claim 50, the method of claim 49, wherein the second linkage condition comprises: the group avatar of the default communication group remaining unedited by a user before a current point of time. Regarding dependent claim 51, the method of claim 36, wherein the method further comprises one or more of the following: if a new group belonging to the team is created in a group creation page of the team, generating a group avatar of the new group based on a group name of the new group, or based on a group avatar setting operation of a user; and if an existing group is added to the team, remaining an original group avatar of the existing group unchanged, or generating a group avatar of the existing group based on a group avatar setting operation of the user. Regarding dependent claim 52, the method of claim 36, wherein the method further comprises: in response to an operation of presenting a second information interface, presenting group avatar information of the group associated with the team within a specified area in the second information interface. Regarding dependent claim 53, the method of claim 51, wherein the second information interface comprises one or more of the following: a session flow area, if a filtering tag other than a team filtering tag is selected; a session details interface for the group associated with the team; or an interface presenting a group card of the group associated with the team. NOTE It is noted that any citations to specific, pages, columns, lines, or figures in the prior art references and any interpretation of the reference should not be considered to be limiting in any way. A reference is relevant for all it contains and may be relied upon for all that it would have reasonably suggested to one having ordinary skill in the art. See MPEP 2123. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAMES J DEBROW whose telephone number is (571)272-5768. The examiner can normally be reached on 09:00 - 06:00. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, William Bashore can be reached on 571-272-4088. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from Patent Center and the Private Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from Patent Center or Private PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Patent Center or Private PAIR to authorized users only. Should you have questions about access to Patent Center or the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). 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) Form at https://www.uspto.gov/patents/uspto-automated- interview-request-air-form. /James J Debrow/ Primary Patent Examiner Art Unit 2174 571-272-5768
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Jul 08, 2024
Application Filed
Jul 15, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §103 (current)

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Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
70%
Grant Probability
95%
With Interview (+25.2%)
3y 3m (~1y 2m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 512 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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