DETAILED ACTION
The non-final office action is responsive to the preliminary amendment to U.S. Patent Application 18/727,327 filed on 07/08/2024. Claims 1-13 and 15-21 are pending; claims 1-13 and 15-21 are rejected.
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.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 07/09/2024 was filed after the mailing date of the non-final office action. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 9-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
As to claims 9-11, the claims recite “and/or” in the claim limitations. It is not clear which one of claimed “and/or” is to be used in the limitation. As people with ordinary skill in the art would know that the result of (x AND y) is true if both x and y evaluate to true and the result of (x OR y) is true if either x or y evaluates to true. So “AND” and “OR” work differently. That render the claims indefinite. Examiner will treat “and/or” as “or” for examination purpose.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1-13 and 15-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application Publication 2019/0036989 A1 to Eirinberg et al. (hereinafter Eirinberg) in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication 2018/0336569 A1 to Ritchie et al. (hereinafter Ritchie).
As to claim 1, Eirinberg teaches a method for information interaction (embodiments of the present disclosure improve the functionality of electronic messaging systems by enabling users in an electronic chat conversation to run applications together. In some embodiments, when one user in a chat launches an application, an icon or other visual representation of the application appears in a portion of the chat window (e.g., in a “chat dock”) for other users in the chat to access, Eirinberg, Abstract), comprising:
displaying information screenshot of chat app shows “Brunch Club” as group/channel name, and members of the group, “MAX”, “WILL”, “DAVE”, Eirinberg, Fig. 5A – 5H, [0043]-[0049]), wherein the information the users selects the “add” button to bring up a software application launcher interface depicted in FIG. 5B, Eirinberg, Fig. 5A – 5H, [0043]-[0049]. Note: “Send a chat” field and “Send” button in Fig. 5A and “Apps” field and “Launch” button in Fig. 5B read on claimed “structured identifier”), and the structured identifier comprises at least one first field (the users selects the “add” button to bring up a software application launcher interface depicted in FIG. 5B, Eirinberg, Fig. 5A – 5H, [0043]-[0049]. Note: “Send a chat” field and “Send” button in Fig. 5A and “Apps” field and “Launch” button in Fig. 5B read on claimed “structured identifier”); and
based on a received first preset operation performed on a target first field, displaying an information page associated with the target first field (the users selects the “add” button to bring up a software application launcher interface depicted in FIG. 5B. Continuing this example, the user selects the exemplary “App Name” application (e.g., by selecting the name of the application or the icon in the menu). In response to the selection, the user's computing device transmits an electronic communication to the system containing a request to create a software application session for the selected software application, Eirinberg, Fig. 5A – 5H, [0043]-[0049]).
Eirinberg does not explicitly disclose the information displayed is associated a session.
Ritchie discloses displaying information of a session (The messaging session can begin as shown in FIG. 7A with the user interface of the messaging application on the device or smartphone 401 shown or displayed on the screen of the device or smartphone 401. The user interface includes an on-screen keyboard 402 and an area immediately above the on-screen keyboard for entry of text, and an area above that for the display of a message transcript. Near the top of the screen is a “to” text entry field 403 into which a user can enter a name associated with the messaging account in the messaging system, Ritchie, [0048]-[0056]).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to establish a messaging session with collected information from users and business/organization as taught by Ritchie to modify the method of Eirinberg in order to allow users to have multiple entry points into a messaging session with each of the registered businesses in the messaging system.
As to claim 2, Eirinberg-Ritchie discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the structured identifier of the first session comprises a session identifier of the first session and an entity identifier of an entity to which the first session belongs (screenshot of chat app shows “Brunch Club” as group/channel name, and members of the group, “MAX”, “WILL”, “DAVE”, Eirinberg, Fig. 5A – 5H, [0043]-[0049]); and based on the received first preset operation performed on the target first field, performing a jump operation corresponding to the target first field, comprising: based on the received first preset operation performed on the session identifier in the information of the first session, jumping to display an information page corresponding to a session identifier indicated by the first preset operation; or, based on the received first preset operation performed on the entity identifier in the information of the first session, jumping to display an information page corresponding to an entity identifier indicated by the first preset operation (Eirinberg, Fig. 5A – 5H, [0043]-[0049]; Ritchie, [0048]-[0056]).
As to claim 3, Eirinberg-Ritchie discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein displaying the information of the at least one first session comprises: displaying the information of the at least one first session in an information flow area of an interface of an instant messaging client; or displaying the information of the at least one first session in a session interface of an interface of an instant messaging client; or displaying the information of the at least one first session in a cloud document (Eirinberg, Fig. 5A – 5H, [0043]-[0049]; Ritchie, [0048]-[0056]).
As to claim 4, Eirinberg-Ritchie discloses the method according to claim 2, wherein in the information of the first session, the session identifier and the entity identifier respectively correspond to respective first fields (Eirinberg, Fig. 5A – 5H, [0043]-[0049]; Ritchie, [0048]-[0056]).
As to claim 5, Eirinberg-Ritchie discloses the method according to claim 2, wherein the at least one first session comprises a multi-entity first session, and each multi-entity first session corresponds to at least two entities (screenshot of chat app shows “Brunch Club” as group/channel name, and members of the group, “MAX”, “WILL”, “DAVE”, Eirinberg, Fig. 5A – 5H, [0043]-[0049]); and entity identifiers in information of a session corresponding to a multi-entity first session comprise entity identifiers that respectively correspond to the at least two entities corresponding to the first session (Eirinberg, Fig. 5A – 5H, [0043]-[0049]; Ritchie, [0048]-[0056]).
As to claim 6, Eirinberg-Ritchie discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the entity to which the first session belongs comprises one of the following: a team associated with the first session; or an organization to which a user corresponding to the first session belongs (Eirinberg, Fig. 5A – 5H, [0043]-[0049]; Ritchie, [0048]-[0056]).
As to claim 7, Eirinberg-Ritchie discloses the method according to claim 2, wherein the entity identifier and the session identifier share one display space, and in information of the first session, a first display length used for displaying the entity identifier and the session identifier is less than or equal to a first preset length threshold; or the entity identifier and the session identifier respectively correspond to independent display spaces, and in information of the first session, a display length used for displaying the session identifier is less than or equal to a second preset length threshold, and a display length used for displaying the entity identifier is less than or equal to a third preset length threshold (Eirinberg, Fig. 5A – 5H, [0043]-[0049]; Ritchie, [0048]-[0056]. Note: screen width reads on claimed “length threshold” and the lengths of identifiers in Eirinberg and Ritchie are less than screen width, so the limitation is disclosed).
As to claim 8, Eirinberg-Ritchie discloses the method according to claim 7, wherein if the entity identifier and the session identifier share one display space, the first preset length threshold corresponds to a display space of two rows or three rows; and if the entity identifier and the session identifier respectively correspond to independent display spaces, a total of a display space corresponding to the third preset length threshold and a display space corresponding to the second preset length threshold is a display space of two rows or three rows.
As to claim 9, Eirinberg-Ritchie discloses (Ritchie, [0048]-[0056]. Note: it is known that if a length of a display field (for example only display 10 characters) is less than a length of a string (string “Apple Support - John” includes 20 characters), device screen shows only first 10 characters, “Apple Supp” in this case). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to establish a messaging session with collected information from users and business/organization as taught by Ritchie to modify the method of Eirinberg-Ritchie in order to allow users to have multiple entry points into a messaging session with each of the registered businesses in the messaging system.)
As to claim 10, Eirinberg-Ritchie discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one first session comprises a one-to-one chat session and/or a group chat session (Eirinberg, Fig. 5A – 5H, [0043]-[0049]; Ritchie, [0048]-[0056]).
As to claim 11, Eirinberg-Ritchie discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein an information page corresponding to the session identifier comprises a session detail page; and/or the entity is a team, and an information page corresponding to the entity identifier comprises an information page of a target team indicated by the entity identifier (the users selects the “add” button to bring up a software application launcher interface depicted in FIG. 5B. Continuing this example, the user selects the exemplary “App Name” application (e.g., by selecting the name of the application or the icon in the menu). In response to the selection, the user's computing device transmits an electronic communication to the system containing a request to create a software application session for the selected software application, Eirinberg, Fig. 5A – 5H, [0043]-[0049]; Ritchie, [0048]-[0056]).
As to claim 12, Eirinberg-Ritchie discloses the method according to claim 1, the method further comprising: based on a received page jump setting operation performed on a target identifier corresponding to the target first field, associating the target identifier with an information page corresponding to the page jump setting operation (Eirinberg, Fig. 5A – 5H, [0043]-[0049]; Ritchie, [0048]-[0056]).
As to claim 13, Eirinberg-Ritchie discloses the method according to claim 1, the method further comprising: based on a received disassociation operation performed by a user on a target identifier corresponding to the target first field, canceling an association relationship between the target field and an associated association information page, and setting the target first field to a common field (a messaging session between a user and a business can exist (and remain stored in a transcript on the user's device) until the session is closed by the user, Ritchie, [0048]-[0056]. Note: “Apple Support- John” in Ritchie, Fig. 9I changed to “XYZ Co.” in Ritchie, Fig. 10B for a new messaging session, thus reads on claimed “common field”). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to establish a messaging session with collected information from users and business/organization as taught by Ritchie to modify the method of Eirinberg-Ritchie in order to allow users to have multiple entry points into a messaging session with each of the registered businesses in the messaging system.
As to claims 15-21, the same reasoning applies mutatis mutandis to the corresponding device claims 15 and 17-21 and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium (hereinafter CRM) claim 16 (Note: Eirinberg discloses processor and memory/CRM in [0076]-[0077]). Accordingly, claims 15-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Eirinberg in view of Ritchie.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RUOLEI ZONG whose telephone number is (571)270-7522. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:30AM-4:30PM IFP.
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/RUOLEI ZONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2441 12/18/2025