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 .
Specification
Content of Specification
(b) CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS: See 37 CFR 1.78 and MPEP § 211 et seq.
The specification is objected to, because the continuity information is missing from the specification. The current application is a continuation of US Patent Application 17/532199, which has now issued as a US Patent. This information is currently missing from the specification. Correction is required.
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP § 2146 et seq. for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
The filing of a terminal disclaimer by itself is not a complete reply to a nonstatutory double patenting (NSDP) rejection. A complete reply requires that the terminal disclaimer be accompanied by a reply requesting reconsideration of the prior Office action. Even where the NSDP rejection is provisional the reply must be complete. See MPEP § 804, subsection I.B.1. For a reply to a non-final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.111(a). For a reply to final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.113(c). A request for reconsideration while not provided for in 37 CFR 1.113(c) may be filed after final for consideration. See MPEP §§ 706.07(e) and 714.13.
The USPTO Internet website contains terminal disclaimer forms which may be used. Please visit www.uspto.gov/patent/patents-forms. The actual filing date of the application in which the form is filed determines what form (e.g., PTO/SB/25, PTO/SB/26, PTO/AIA /25, or PTO/AIA /26) should be used. A web-based eTerminal Disclaimer may be filled out completely online using web-screens. An eTerminal Disclaimer that meets all requirements is auto-processed and approved immediately upon submission. For more information about eTerminal Disclaimers, refer to www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/applying-online/eterminal-disclaimer.
Claims 1-20 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-20 of U.S. Patent No. 12039996. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because the extra steps in the ‘996 patent are not necessary to realize the functionality of the claims in the instant invention.
In the mapping below, the method claims, claims 1-7, are mapped to the method claims of the ‘996 patent. Claims 8-14 are system claims, that perform the steps of claims 1-7; claims 15-20 are non-transitory computer readable storage medium claims that perform the steps of claims 1-7; as such, the mappings of the ‘996 patent to the method claims 1-7, also apply equally to the system claims 8-14, as well as, applied to the non-transitory computer readable storage medium claims 15-20. The storage/processor/memory elements, in claims 8-20, are functional alone and do not proffer additional distinct claim features; hence, the claims of the ‘996 patent applied to claims 1-7 of the instant invention, also apply to claims 8-20, as explained above.
18/734624
12,039,996
1.A method implemented by one or more processors, the method comprising: receiving, at a computing device, a first portion of a request from a user, wherein the first portion of the request received from the user is included in user input directed to the computing device; determining that the first portion of the request received from the user includes a particular word or phrase that is mapped to a generic container graphical element; in response to determining that the first portion of the request that is received from the user includes the particular word or phrase that is mapped to the generic container graphical element: causing the generic container graphical element to be rendered at a display of the computing device, wherein the generic container graphical element can be dynamically adapted with any one of multiple disparate tailored container graphical elements; receiving, at the computing device, a second portion of the request from the user, wherein the second portion of the request received from the user is included in the user input directed to the computing device that also includes the first portion of the request; causing, based on the second portion of the request, the generic container graphical element rendered at the display of the client device to be dynamically adapted with one or more particular tailored container graphical elements from among the multiple disparate tailored container graphical elements.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein the one or more particular tailored container graphical elements characterizes a slot value for a corresponding parameter associated with the particular intent.
4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: causing the display of the computing device to render natural language content characterizing the first portion of the request simultaneous to rendering the generic container graphical element.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein the natural language content characterizing the first portion of the request is rendered in a separate portion of the display relative to the generic container graphical element.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the one or more particular tailored container graphical elements include a corresponding particular graphical control element that enables the user to interact with each of the one or more particular tailored container graphical elements.
7. The method of claim 6, further comprising: receiving, at the computing device, further user input directed to a given corresponding particular graphical control element from among the corresponding particular graphical control elements; and causing the generic container graphical element rendered at the display of the client device to be further dynamically adapted based on the further user input.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining that the second portion of the request received from the user corresponds to a particular intent from among one or more candidate intents, wherein the one or more particular tailored container graphical elements utilized to dynamically adapt the generic container graphical element rendered at the display of the client device are associated with the particular intent.
1. A method implemented by one or more processors, the method comprising: receiving, at a computing device, a first portion of a request from a user that is included in a spoken utterance, wherein the spoken utterance is directed to an automated assistant that is accessible via the computing device; determining, based on processing the first portion of the request, one or more candidate intents that are associated with the first portion of the request, wherein processing the first portion of the request comprises processing, using a streaming automatic speech recognition (ASR) model, a stream of audio data to generate a first streaming transcription corresponding to first natural language content for the first portion of the request, and wherein determining the one or more candidates intents is based on processing the first streaming transcription corresponding to the first natural language content for the first portion of the request; causing, based on the one or more candidate intents, a generic container graphical element to be rendered, along with the first streaming transcription corresponding to the first natural language content for the first portion of the request, at a display interface of the computing device, wherein the generic container graphical element can be dynamically adapted with any one of multiple disparate tailored container graphical elements, and wherein each of the multiple disparate tailored container graphical elements is associated with a corresponding one of the one or more candidate intents; receiving, at the computing device, a second portion of the request from the user that is also included in the spoken utterance or that is included in an additional spoken utterance that is received subsequent to the spoken utterance; determining, based on processing the second portion of the request, that the request corresponds to a particular intent of the one or more candidate intents, wherein processing the second portion of the request comprises processing, using the streaming ASR model, the stream of audio data to generate a second streaming transcription corresponding to second natural language content for the second portion of the request, and wherein determining that the request corresponds to the particular intent is based on processing the second streaming transcription corresponding to the second natural language content for the second portion of the request; and causing, based on the particular intent, the generic container graphical element rendered at the display interface to be dynamically adapted with a particular tailored container graphical element, of the multiple disparate tailored container graphical elements.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the particular tailored container graphical element characterizes a slot value for a corresponding parameter associated with the particular intent, and wherein the first portion of the request and the second portion of the request do not identify the slot value.
3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: causing, in response to receiving the first portion of the request, the display interface of the computing device to visually render natural language content characterizing the first portion of the request, wherein the display interface renders the natural language content of the first portion of the request simultaneous to rendering the generic container graphical element.
4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, subsequent to receiving the first portion of the request, that a threshold duration of time has lapsed, wherein causing the generic container graphical element to be rendered at the display interface is performed based on the threshold duration of time lapsing.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein causing the generic container graphical element rendered at the display interface to be dynamically adapted to the particular tailored container graphical element comprises: selecting the particular tailored container graphical element, from among the multiple disparate tailored container graphical elements, based on a type of slot value identified in the second spoken utterance, wherein the type of slot value corresponds to numerical value that is limited to a range of numerical values.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the generic container graphical element is rendered at the display interface of the computing device prior to receiving the second portion of the request.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the generic container graphical element is rendered at the display interface of the computing device while the second portion of the request is being received.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the one or more candidate intents based on processing the first streaming transcription corresponding to the first natural language content for the first portion of the request comprises: processing, using a natural language understanding (NLU) model, the first streaming transcription corresponding to the first natural language content to generate first NLU output; and determining, based on
the first NLU output, the one or more candidate intents that are associated with the first portion of the request.
9. The method of claim 8, wherein determining that the request corresponds to the particular intent based on processing the second streaming transcription corresponding to second natural language content for the second portion of the request comprises: processing, using the NLU model, the second streaming transcription corresponding to second natural language content for the second portion of the request to generate second NLU output; and selecting, based on the second NLU output, the particular intent.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein the particular tailored container graphical element includes a particular graphical control element that is associated with a current state of one or more settings of the computing device or one or more additional computing devices in communication with the computing device.
11. The method of claim 10, further comprising: receiving, at the computing device, a third portion of the request from the user that is also included in the spoken utterance, the additional spoken utterance, or a further additional spoken utterance that is received subsequent to the spoken utterance or the additional spoken utterance, the third portion of the request including an updated state for the one or more settings; and causing, by the automated assistant, the one or more settings of the computing device or one or more of the additional computing devices to be changed from the current state to the updated state.
12. A method implemented by one or more processors, the method comprising: receiving, at a computing device, a portion of a request submitted by a user, the portion of the request being included in a spoken utterance that is directed to an automated assistant accessible via the computing device; determining, by the automated assistant and based on processing the portion of the request, that the portion of the request is associated with modifying a current state of one or more settings of the computing device or one or more additional computing devices in communication with the computing device via the automated assistant wherein processing the portion of the request comprises processing, using a streaming automatic speech recognition (ASR) model, a stream of audio data to generate a streaming transcription corresponding to natural language content for the portion of the request, and wherein determining that the portion of the request is associated with modifying the current state of the one or more setting is based on processing the streaming transcription corresponding to the natural language content for the portion of the request; determining, based on the current state of the one or more settings, tailored container graphical element data that characterizes the current state of the one or more settings; causing, based on the tailored container graphical element data, a display interface of the computing device to render: one or more tailored container graphical elements that indicate the current state of the one or more settings, and the streaming transcription corresponding to the natural language content for the portion of the request; and in response to causing the display interface of the computing device to render the one or more tailored container graphical elements that indicate the current state of the one or more settings: receiving, at the computing device, an additional portion of the request submitted by the user, the additional portion of the request being included in the spoken utterance or an additional spoken utterance that is received subsequent to the spoken utterance; determining, by the automated assistant and based on processing the additional portion of the request, that the additional portion of the request includes an updated state for the one or more settings, wherein processing the additional portion of the request comprises processing, using the streaming ASR model, the stream of audio data to generate an additional streaming transcription corresponding to additional natural language content for the additional portion of the request, and wherein determining that the additional portion of the request includes the updated state for the one or more settings is based on processing the additional streaming transcription corresponding to the additional natural language content for the additional portion of the request; and causing, by the automated assistant, the one or more settings of the computing device or one or more of the additional computing devices to be changed from the current state to the updated state.
13. The method of claim 12, wherein each of the one or more tailored container graphical elements include a graphical icon for representing the current state of the one or more settings.
14. The method of claim 12, further comprising: causing, in response to receiving the portion of the request, the display interface of the computing device to visually render natural language content that characterizes the portion of the request, wherein the one or more tailored graphical container elements are rendered simultaneous to the display interface rendering the natural language content.
15. The method of claim 12, wherein the portion of the request does not include the current state of the one or more settings.
16. The method of claim 12, wherein causing, based on the tailored container graphical element data, the display interface of the computing device to render the one or more tailored container graphical elements that indicate the current state of the one or more settings comprises: causing a first tailored container graphical element, of the one or more tailored container graphical elements, to be rendered that indicates a first setting, of the one or more settings, of a first computing device, of the one or more additional computing devices, that is separate from the computing device; and causing a second tailored container graphical element, of the one or more tailored container graphical elements, to be rendered that indicates a second setting, of the one or more settings, of a second computing device, of the one or more additional computing devices, that is separate from the computing device.
17. The method of claim 16, wherein the first setting of the first computing device corresponds to a volume setting of the first computing device, and wherein the second setting of the second computing device corresponds to a volume setting of the second computing device.
18. The method of claim 16, wherein the first setting of the first computing device corresponds to a brightness setting of the first computing device, and wherein the second setting of the second computing device corresponds to a brightness setting of the second computing device.
19. The method of claim 12, further comprising: determining, based on processing the portion of the request, that the user has paused in providing of the request, wherein causing the display interface of the computing device to render the one or more tailored container graphical elements that indicate the current state of the one or more setting is in response to determining that the user has paused in providing of the request.
20. A method implemented by one or more processors, the method comprising: receiving, at a computing device, a first portion of a request from a user that is included in a spoken utterance, wherein the spoken utterance is directed to an automated assistant that is accessible via the computing device; determining, based on processing the first portion of the request, the portion of the request includes a particular word or phrase associated with controlling the computing device or one or more additional computing devices in communication with the computing device, wherein processing the first portion of the request comprises processing, using a streaming automatic speech recognition (ASR) model, a stream of audio data to generate a first streaming transcription corresponding to first natural language content for the first portion of the request, and wherein determining the portion of the request includes the particular word or phrase is based on processing the first streaming transcription corresponding to the first natural language content for the first portion of the request; causing, based on the first portion of the request including the particular word or phrase, a generic container graphical element to be rendered, along with the first streaming transcription corresponding to the first natural language content for the first portion of the request, at a display interface of the computing device, wherein the generic container graphical element can be dynamically adapted with any one of multiple disparate tailored container graphical elements, and wherein each of the multiple disparate tailored container graphical elements is associated with a corresponding intent determined based on processing the first portion of the spoken utterance; receiving, at the computing device, a second portion of the request from the user that is also included in the spoken utterance or that is included in an additional spoken utterance that is received subsequent to the spoken utterance; determining, based on processing the second portion of the request, that the request corresponds to a particular intent, of one or more candidate intents, for controlling the computing device or one or more of the additional computing device in communication with the computing device, wherein processing the second portion of the request comprises processing, using the streaming ASR model, the stream of audio data to generate a second streaming transcription corresponding second natural language content for the second portion of the request, and wherein determining that the request corresponds to the particular intent is based on processing the second streaming transcription corresponding the second natural language content for the second portion of the request; and causing, based on the particular intent, the generic container graphical element rendered at the display interface to be dynamically adapted with a particular tailored container graphical element, of the multiple disparate tailored container graphical element
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
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)(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.
Claim(s) 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Yoon et al (20180285070).
As per claim 1, Yoon et al (20180285070) teaches a method implemented by one or more processors (fig. 10a), the method comprising:
receiving, at a computing device, a first portion of a request from a user, wherein the first portion of the request received from the user is included in user input directed to the computing device (as, receiving user input via user utterance including an intention or a command, with an intelligence agent transmitting the interpretation of the user utterance to a server – para 0177);
determining, that the first portion of the request that is received from the user includes the particular word or phrase that is mapped to the generic container graphical element (as determining the intention of the user input – para 0178);
causing the generic container graphical element to be rendered at a display of the computing device, where the generic container graphical element can be dynamically adapted with any one of multiple disparate tailored container graphical elements (as, generating and displaying, a first GUI output which could be an object or tap including specific text, phrase, symbol, letter, etc. and displaying in an area corresponding to an attribute of parameter information – para 0180);
receiving, at the computing device, a second portion of the request from the user, wherein the second portion of the request received from the user is included in the user input directed to the computing device that includes the first portion of the request (as receiving additional user input via utterance – para 0181);
causing, based on the second portion of the request, the generic container graphical element rendered at the display interface to be dynamically adapted with one or more particular tailored container graphical elements from among the multiple disparate tailored container graphical elements (as generating a second GUI based on the first GUI and the additional derived information from the additional utterance – para 0182).
As per claim 2, Yoon et al (20180285070) teaches the method of claim 1, further comprising:
determining that the second portion of the request received from the user corresponds to a particular intent from among one or more candidate intents (as receiving additional information input performed by the user when the initial utterance does not contain enough information – para 0181; see also (as providing/determining the user intentions – para 0177, 0178, reflecting back on the detail of the derivation of user intentions – see para 0100-0102, for the details of the NLU processing the utterance)),
wherein the one or more particular tailored container graphical elements utilized to dynamically adapt the generic container graphical element rendered at the display of the client device are associated with the particular intent (as generating a second GUI based on the first GUI and the additional derived information from the additional utterance – para 0182; wherein the additional information is used to determine the user intentions – para 0177, 0178).
As per claim 3, Yoon et al (20180285070) teaches the method of claim 2, wherein the one or more particular tailored container graphical elements characterizes a slot value for a corresponding parameter associated with the particular intent as, identifying that the input contains parameter information is not valid or omitted – para 0179).
As per claim 4, Yoon et al (20180285070) teaches the method of claim 1, further comprising:
causing the display of the computing device to render natural language content
characterizing the first portion of the request simultaneous to rendering the generic container
graphical element as rendering both the first portion, on the display and the graphic element – para 0180).
As per claim 5, Yoon et al (20180285070) teaches the method of claim 4, wherein the natural language content characterizing the first portion of the request is rendered in a separate portion of the display relative to the generic container graphical element ((as rendering both the first portion, on the display and the graphic element – para 0180); and generating a second GUI based on the first GUI and the additional derived information from the additional utterance – para 0182).
As per claims 6,7, Yoon et al (20180285070) teaches the method of claim 1, wherein each of the one or more particular tailored container graphical elements include a corresponding particular graphical control element that enables the user to interact with each of the one or more particular tailored container graphical elements and in claim 7, receiving, at the computing device, further user input directed to a given corresponding particular graphical control element from among the corresponding particular graphical control elements; and causing the generic container graphical element rendered at the display of the client device to be further dynamically adapted based on the further user input. (see para 0101 as mapped above and see also para 0088 collecting states of apps of the device; and further, para 0102 using a personal language module to determine personalized information for, as an example, a music list – end of para 0102) towards apps of the device, including reproduction of music – para 0177, para 0065, as an example; the settings of the apps are monitored and updated according to the recognized intent of the user utterance).
Claims 8-14 are system claims, that perform the steps of method claims 1-7 above and as such, claims 8-14 are similar in scope and content to claims 1-7; therefore, claims 8-14 are rejected under similar rationale as presented against claims 1-7 above. Furthermore, Yoon et al (20180285070) teaches storage of the instructions in a memory – para 0239, and processors – para 0241.
Claims 15-20 are non-transitory computer readable storage medium claims that perform the steps of claims 1-7 and as such, claims 15-20 are similar in scope and content to claim 1-7; therefore, claims 15-20 are rejected under similar rationale as presented against claims 1-7 above. Furthermore, Yoon et al (20180285070) teaches a computer storage readable medium storing the instructions – para 0241.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Please see related art listed on the PTO-892 form.
Furthermore, in detail, the following references were found, being applicable to applicants claim scope as well as specification:
Pandiri (20220253277) teaches user query input and displayed in multi-type fields (abstract).
Coimbra et al (20190340200) teaches user interfacing with multiple assistants (Fig. 3), including a display interface (Fig. 5).
Ni et al (20190361575 teaches knob-like brightness control tied to numerical values – fig. 2b, para 0034.
Novitchenko et al (20200380973) teaches the suggestion of apps according to the recognized input (see fig. 9c)
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Michael Opsasnick, telephone number (571)272-7623, who is available Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Mr. Richemond Dorvil, can be reached at (571)272-7602. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Michael N Opsasnick/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2658 02/03/2026