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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 7/3/24, 9/17/25 was acknowledged. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
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)(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.
Claim(s) 1-3, 5-10, 12-17, 19-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Chen Zongmin (CN113398573).
Re Claim 1,
Chen discloses a method for controlling a virtual object in a virtual environment performed by a computer device (pg 1; a displacement control method of a virtual character and a displacement control device of a virtual character), the method comprising:
displaying a joystick control for controlling movement of the virtual object in the virtual scene, the joystick control comprising a plurality of trigger regions, each trigger regions having a unique sensitivity (Fig 3A-4K, pg 3-6; the virtual joystick area provided by the game interface includes a plurality of divided touch response areas, i.e., a plurality of trigger regions, further, each touch response area detects the touch operation performed by the player, i.e., a unique sensitivity associated with each touch area);
detecting a first sliding operation whose start position is located in a first trigger region of the plurality of trigger regions (Fig 3A-4K, pg 3-9; in response to the touch operation acting on the virtual joystick area, the system determines the touch operation type of the touch operation based on the touch speed and touch direction of the touch operation such as the time period between the touch start point and the touch end point of the touch operation);
determining a first movement speed of the virtual object based on a sensitivity of the first trigger region; and controlling the virtual object to move at the first movement speed (Fig 3A-4K, pg 3-9; the touch speed and touch direction are used to determine a virtual character’s movement, for instance, the virtual character performs different movements based on the preset speed threshold and the touch direction).
Re Claims 2, 9, 16,
Chen discloses the determining a first movement speed of the virtual object based on a sensitivity of the first trigger region comprises: determining the first movement speed of the virtual object based on the sensitivity of the first trigger region and a distance between a real-time position and the start position that are of the first sliding operation (Fig 3A-4K, pg 3-9).
Re Claims 3, 10, 17,
Chen discloses an overlapping region exists between at least two of the plurality of trigger regions, and the method further comprises: determining a distance between the start position of the first sliding operation and a reference point of each of the trigger regions; and determining, from the plurality of trigger regions, a trigger region having a smallest distance as the first trigger region (Fig 3A-4K, pg 3-9).
Re Claims 5, 12,
Chen discloses positions of the plurality of trigger regions are arranged in one of ascending order and descending order of sensitivities respectively corresponding to the plurality of trigger regions (Fig 3A-4K, pg 3-9).
Re Claims 6, 13, 19,
Chen discloses the joystick control comprises a plurality of direction scopes corresponding to different movement directions; and the method further comprises: determining, from the plurality of direction scopes, a first direction scope based on a real-time position of the first sliding operation relative to the joystick control; and controlling the virtual object to move toward a movement direction corresponding to the first direction scope (Fig 3A-4K, pg 3-9).
Re Claims 7, 14, 20,
Chen discloses obtaining a distance between a real-time position and the start position of the first sliding operation; when the distance is greater than or equal to a first threshold, displaying an automatic movement control configured to trigger automatic running of the virtual object; and after determining that the automatic movement control is in a display state, canceling the displaying of the automatic movement control when the distance is less than or equal to a second threshold, wherein the second threshold is less than the first threshold (Fig 3A-4K, pg 3-9).
Re Claims 8, 15,
Claims are substantially similar to claim 1. See claim 1 for rejection.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 4, 11, 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen Zongmin (CN113398573) in view of May III et. al. (2015/0182856).
Re Claims 4, 11, 18,
Chen discloses all limitations as set forth above including the plurality of trigger regions but is silent on obtaining real-time competitive data related to the virtual object, determining a recommended trigger region based on the real-time competitive data, and displaying prompt information corresponding to the recommended trigger region. However, May teaches obtaining real-time competitive data related to the virtual object, determining a recommended trigger region based on the real-time competitive data, and displaying prompt information corresponding to the recommended trigger region (¶¶0091, 0095-0096). May further teaches such a configuration helps the player to overcome particular challenges within a game (¶0095). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to utilize the teaching of May into the game of Chen in order to help the player to overcome particular challenges within a game.
Conclusion
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/JASON T YEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715