Prosecution Insights
Last updated: October 02, 2026
Application No. 18/737,774

NEURAL NETWORK-BASED LOCATION IDENTIFICATION TO PLACE OBJECTS IN A GRAPHICALLY RENDERED SCENE

Non-Final OA §103§112
Filed
Jun 07, 2024
Examiner
BROOME, SAID A
Art Unit
2612
Tech Center
2600 — Communications
Assignee
NVIDIA Corporation
OA Round
3 (Non-Final)
82%
Grant Probability
Favorable
3-4
OA Rounds
6m
Est. Remaining
99%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 82% — above average
82%
Career Allowance Rate
629 granted / 768 resolved
+19.9% vs TC avg
Strong +17% interview lift
Without
With
+17.3%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 9m
Avg Prosecution
13 currently pending
Career history
789
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
23.9%
-16.1% vs TC avg
§103
47.1%
+7.1% vs TC avg
§102
13.6%
-26.4% vs TC avg
§112
12.1%
-27.9% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 768 resolved cases

Office Action

§103 §112
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 . Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114 A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 09/14/26 has been entered. Status of the Claims Claims 1, 2, 6-8, 13-15 and 19-20 have been amended. Claims 3-5, 9-12 and 16-18 have been previously presented. 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. Claims 1-20 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. Claims 1, 3, 8, 10, 15 and 17 each recite the phrase “at least in part” without providing any context or definitive indication that discloses how one skilled in the art could produce an amount or measurement of “at least in part” as claimed in Claims 1, 3, 8, 10, 15 and 17. Therefore claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) for reciting indefinite language. 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 1, 2, 6-9, 13-16 and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Poole et al.(hereinafter “Poole”, “Dreamfusion: Text-to-3D using 2D Diffusion”) in view of Kant et al.(hereinafter “Kant”, “Housekeep: Tidying Virtual Households using Commonsense Reasoning”). Regarding claims 1, 8 and 15, Poole teaches a processor (sec. 1 1st para. lines 1-14 and sec. 5 1st para. lines 1-4, in which systems are utilized to implement rendering of 3D models from text prompts, as also shown in Figs. 1 & 4. Therefore one skilled in the art would clearly recognize that those systems and rendering engines comprise processors to implement the rendering shown in Figs. 1 & 4.), a method (sec. 1 1st para. lines 1-14) and a system (sec. 1 1st para. lines 1-14), comprising: one or more circuits to cause one or more neural networks (sec. 1 2nd para. lines 1-8) to: generate, using a large language model, information corresponding to a layout of a graphical scene from one or more text or speech inputs that describe the graphical scene (capt. of Fig. 1 lines 1-4); generate, using one or more generative text-to-3D models, respective 3D information of the one or more objects based, at least in part on descriptive information of the one or more objects generated by the large language model (capt. of Fig. 1 lines 1-4 and capt. of Fig. 3 lines 1-10); and cause an image of the graphical scene to be rendered that depicts the one or more objects based, at least in part, on the respective 3D information of the one or more objects (sec. 3 lines 1-11 and Fig. 4). However, Poole fails to teach identify, using the large language model based on the information, a respective location for each of one or more objects in the graphical scene in which to place the one or more objects within the graphical scene, and the graphical scene to be rendered that depicts the one or more objects at their respective locations. Kant teaches identify, using the large language model based on the information, a respective location for each of one or more objects in the graphical scene in which to place the one or more objects within the graphical scene (capt. of Fig. 1 lines 1-5), and the graphical scene to be rendered that depicts the one or more objects at their respective locations (sec. 1 3rd para. lines 1-16). Therefore it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art at the time of invention to modify the 3D text generated objects of Poole with the object placement techniques of Kant because this combination would produce several complex three dimensional scenes from several angles through placing objects in different available locations to improve arrangement of several objects. Regarding claims 2 and 9, Poole teaches the information comprises a scene graph comprising one or more sub-areas comprising different ones of the one or more objects (Fig. 3). Regarding claims 6, 13 and 19, Poole fails to teach store the one or more objects with the identified respective location in a scene description file format. Kant teaches store the one or more objects with the identified respective location in a scene description file format (Table 1 & 2). Therefore it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art at the time of invention to modify the 3D text generated objects of Poole with the object placement techniques of Kant because this combination would produce several complex three dimensional scenes from several angles through placing objects in different available locations to improve arrangement of several objects. Regarding claims 7, 14 and 20, Poole teaches wherein at least two of the one or more objects are generated in parallel (Figs. 1 & 4, in which several objects are generated together in the same scene). Allowable Subject Matter Claims 3-5, 10-12 and 17-18 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the 35 U.S.C. 112(b) rejection of claims 1, 8 and 15, and if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Said Broome whose telephone number is (571)272-2931. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:30am-5pm. 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) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /Said Broome/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2612
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Jun 07, 2024
Application Filed
Dec 05, 2025
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §103, §112
Apr 07, 2026
Response Filed
May 13, 2026
Final Rejection mailed — §103, §112
Sep 14, 2026
Request for Continued Examination
Sep 16, 2026
Response after Non-Final Action
Sep 22, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §103, §112 (current)

Precedent Cases

Applications granted by this same examiner with similar technology

Patent 12743841
NEURAL HEAD AVATAR CONSTRUCTION FROM AN IMAGE
2y 4m to grant Granted Sep 22, 2026
Patent 12620223
IDENTIFYING VARIATION IN SURGICAL APPROACHES
2y 7m to grant Granted May 05, 2026
Patent 12620163
High-Fidelity Micro-Doppler Effect Simulator
2y 3m to grant Granted May 05, 2026
Patent 12620145
LUMINANCE-PRESERVING AND TEMPORALLY STABLE DALTONIZATION
2y 6m to grant Granted May 05, 2026
Patent 12611255
SURGICAL SYSTEMS, METHODS, AND DEVICES EMPLOYING AUGMENTED REALITY (AR) FOR PLANNING
3y 1m to grant Granted Apr 28, 2026
Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

Strategy Recommendation AI-generated — please review before filing

Get a prosecution strategy drawn from examiner precedents, rejection analysis, and claim mapping.
Typically takes 5-10 seconds — AI-generated, attorney review required before filing

Prosecution Projections

3-4
Expected OA Rounds
82%
Grant Probability
99%
With Interview (+17.3%)
2y 9m (~6m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
High
PTA Risk
Based on 768 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

Sign in with your work email

Enter your email to receive a magic link. No password needed.

Personal email addresses (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) are not accepted.

Free tier: 3 strategy analyses per month