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 .
Response to Amendment
The Amendment filed 7/22/2026 has been entered. Claims 1-24 remain pending in the application. Applicant’s amendments to the Claims have overcome the Double Patenting rejection set forth in the previous Office Action.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed with the Amendment, with respect to rejections under prior art have been fully considered and are moot upon a new ground(s) of rejection, as necessitated by amendment, as outlined below.
Prior Art
Listed herein below are the prior art references relied upon in this Office Action:
Eliason et al. (US Patent Application Publication 2020/0296147), referred to as Eliason herein [previously cited].
Zack Qattan, “Collaborative Cursor Chat w/Croquet” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiqTCROdlgw, referred to as Qattan herein [previously cited].
Tew et al. (US Patent Application Publication 2015/0127753), referred to as Tew herein [previously cited].
Huo et al. (US Patent Application Publication 2013/0111338), referred to as Huo herein [previously cited].
Spot (“Suggestions: Radial Menu for Emotions, https://onehouronelife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=4110), referred to as Spot herein.
Examiner’s Note
Strikethrough notation in the pending claims has been added by the Examiner.
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.
Claim(s) 1-24 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Eliason in view of Qattan in further view of Huo in further view of Spot in further view of Tew.
Regarding claim 1, Eliason discloses a network computer system comprising: a memory sub-system to store a set of instructions; one or more processors that operate to communicate the set of instructions to a plurality of user devices, wherein the set of instructions include instructions that when executed by each user device of the plurality of user devices, causes the user device to perform operations comprising (Eliason, ¶0027, ¶0033 – processor executing instructions stored in hardware memory):
enabling each computing device of the plurality of computing devices to participate in a collaborative session where shared content is rendered on a collaborative medium, including enabling a user of each computing device of the plurality of computing devices to use a corresponding pointer device to interact with the collaborative medium (Eliason, Abstract with ¶0100 and Fig. 3B-D with ¶0133-¶0137– real-time collaboration canvas and work environment including shared graphical content, annotation, and sentiment. Fig. 3B with ¶0107 – each display shows the collaborative display region including cursors from multiple participants. Fig. 1 with ¶0026-¶0027 – participant systems. ¶0036 – interface generated by collaborative application);
generating the shared content to include a graphic representation of the pointer device used by the user of each of the plurality of computing devices, the shared content tracking the graphic representation of the pointer device used by the user of each of the plurality of computing devices (Eliason, Fig. 3B with ¶0107 – each display shows the collaborative display region including cursors from multiple participants. Figs. 2A and 3C with ¶0090, ¶0120 and ¶0134 - cursors are used to interact with the collaborative environment. ¶0107 – tracking and updating cursor location);
enabling the user of each of the plurality of computing devices to modify the graphic representation of the
enabling the user of each of the plurality of computing devices to access an
However, Eliason appears not to expressly disclose the limitations shown in strikethrough above. However, in the same field of endeavor, Qattan discloses an interactive environment with shared cursors (Qattan, Pages 1-6 @ 0:01, 0:03, 0:04, 0:05, 0:24, and 0:27 into the video – user’s pointers are shown with moving images of the user following the pointer as it moves through the screen),
enabling the user of each of the plurality of computing devices to modify the graphic representation of the pointer device to include text content for a corresponding message from that user for the other users of the collaborative session, wherein for each user device, a boundary of the graphic representation is dynamic (Qattan, Pages 7-12 @ 0:42, 0:42, 0:43, 0:46, 0:47, and 0:49 – users can add notes in a text input box which tracks the user’s pointer).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the collaborative cursor representations of Eliason to include modifying the cursor representation to include text content based on the teachings of Qattan. The motivation for doing so would have been enable users to assist users in commenting about particular on-screen elements, and to more effectively link chat comments to a user and the user’s current actions.
However, Eliason as modified appears not to expressly disclose the text box expanding in at least one of the horizontal or vertical directions based on the text content specified by the user. However, in the same field of endeavor, Huo discloses an input text box (Huo, Abstract), including
the text box expanding in at least one of the horizontal or vertical directions based on the text content specified by the user (Huo, Figs. 6 and 7 with ¶0026-¶0029 – height and width of the text input box is expanded to accommodate additional text).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the text box of Eliason to include adjusting the size of the text box based on the teachings of Huo. The motivation for doing so would have been to conveniently accommodate larger amounts of text if the user chooses to input more text than can be initially accommodated by the text box size, enabling the users to see the entire text inputted (Huo, Abstract, ¶0023, and ¶0026).
However, Eliason as modified appears not to expressly disclose an emoticon wheel. However, in the same field of endeavor, Spot discloses an interface for expression a sentiment in a collaborative environment (Spot, Page 1 – expressing an emotion in a collaborative game),
enabling the user of each of the plurality of computing devices to access an emoticon wheel on the collaborative medium to view and select among a plurality of emoticons or graphics displayed on the emoticon wheel for insertion into the collaborative medium, wherein the user toggles the emoticon wheel between an active state and an inactive state (Spot, Pages 1-3 – toggling the radial menu and selecting a corresponding emotion from the radial menu such as “/joy” results representing the emotion in the environment).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the collaborative sentiment expression of Eliason as modified to include a radial menu for selecting emotion based on the teachings of Spot. The motivation for doing so would have been to implement a more intuitive interface (Spot, Page 6), and to save time (Spot, Page 3).
However, Eliason as modified appears not to express emoticons. However, in the same field of endeavor, Tew discloses an interface for expression a sentiment in a collaborative environment (Tew, Abstract with ¶0001-¶0002), including
emoticons (Tew, Fig. 4-1, ¶0001-¶0002, ¶0055).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the collaborative sentiment expression of Eliason as modified to include emoticons based on the teachings of Tew. The motivation for doing so would have been to express a wider range of sentiments, and sentiments which are more universally recognized.
Regarding claim 2, Eliason as modified discloses the elements of claim 1 above, and further discloses wherein the corresponding message specified by the user of each of the plurality of computing devices moves based on a movement of that user’s pointer device (Qattan, Pages 1-6 @ 0:01, 0:03, 0:04, 0:05, 0:24, and 0:27 into the video – user’s pointers are shown with moving images of the user following the pointer as it moves through the screen).
Regarding claim 3, Eliason as modified discloses the elements of claim 1 above, and further discloses wherein for each user device, the corresponding message of the graphic representation disappears automatically after a given time interval (Eliason, ¶0121 – annotations disappear after a fixed timeout).
Regarding claim 4, Eliason as modified discloses the elements of claim 1 above, and further discloses wherein the corresponding message of any of the graphic representations can be stamped onto the collaborative medium automatically or in response to a user input (Qattan, Figs. 13-15 @ 1:05, 1:12, and 1:12 into the video – website link is stamped automatically onto the collaborative medium. The user’s pointer moves away independently from the link after it is stamped onto the space).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the collaborative cursor representations of Eliason as modified to include enabling the content to be stamped onto the medium based on the teachings of Qattan. The motivation for doing so would have been to assist users in sharing content in a suitable location while enabling them to subsequently move their pointer to another location.
Regarding claim 5, Eliason as modified discloses the elements of claim 1 above, and further discloses detecting any one of multiple triggers embedded with the text content, wherein each of the multiple triggers is defined by a corresponding set of at least one alphanumeric characters (Tew, Fig. 4-1 through 4-7 with ¶0059-¶0064 – when the user types a trigger word that is recognized as corresponding to an ideograph (including emoticons, emojis, and stickers), the system offers the ideograph to be included with or in place of the input text. In this case, the command is to present the ideograph).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the chat and sentiment interface Eliason as modified to include recognizing and inserting ideographs based on the teachings of Tew. The motivation for doing so would have been enable users to more easily find the ideograph that best represents the sentiment the user wishes to convey (Tew, ¶0001).
Regarding claim 6, Eliason as modified discloses the elements of claim 5 above, and further discloses altering the shared content, separate from the rendered text content, in response to detecting the trigger (Tew, Fig. 4-1 through 4-7 with ¶0059-¶0064 – when the user types a trigger word that is recognized as corresponding to an ideograph (including emoticons, emojis, and stickers), the system offers the ideograph to be included with or in place of the input text. The rendered message may or may not include text (see Figs. 4-2 and 4-8). The text is separate from the emojis/stickers).
Regarding claim 7, Eliason as modified discloses the elements of claim 6 above, and further discloses wherein detecting the trigger includes detecting a designated keyword or a command entry (Tew, Fig. 4-1 through 4-7 with ¶0059-¶0064 – when the user types a trigger word that is recognized as corresponding to an ideograph (including emoticons, emojis, and stickers), the system offers the ideograph to be included with or in place of the input text. In this case, the command is to present the ideograph).
Regarding claim 8, Eliason as modified discloses the elements of claim 7 above, and further discloses wherein altering the shared content includes generating dynamic content separate from the rendered text content, wherein the dynamic content is pre-associated with the designated keyword (Tew, Fig. 4-1 through 4-7 with ¶0059-¶0064 – when the user types a trigger word that is recognized as corresponding to an ideograph (including emoticons, emojis, and stickers), the system offers the ideograph to be included with or in place of the input text. In this case, the command is to present the ideograph).
Regarding claim 9, Eliason discloses a computer-implemented method comprising (Eliason, ¶0027, ¶0033 – processor executing instructions stored in hardware memory):
enabling each computing device of the plurality of computing devices to participate in a collaborative session where shared content is rendered on a collaborative medium, including enabling a user of each computing device of the plurality of computing devices to use a corresponding pointer device to interact with the collaborative medium (Eliason, Absract with ¶0100 and Fig. 3B-D with ¶0133-¶0137– real-time collaboration canvas and work environment including shared graphical content, annotation, and sentiment. Fig. 3B with ¶0107 – each display shows the collaborative display region including cursors from multiple participants. Fig. 1 with ¶0026-¶0027 – participant systems. ¶0036 – interface generated by collaborative application);
generating the shared content to include a graphic representation of the pointer device used by the user of each of the plurality of computing devices, the shared content tracking the graphic representation of the pointer device used by the user of each of the plurality of computing devices (Eliason, Fig. 3B with ¶0107 – each display shows the collaborative display region including cursors from multiple participants. Figs. 2A and 3C with ¶0090, ¶0120 and ¶0134 - cursors are used to interact with the collaborative environment. ¶0107 – tracking and updating cursor location);
enabling the user of each of the plurality of computing devices to modify the graphic representation of the
enabling the user of each of the plurality of computing devices to access an
However, Eliason appears not to expressly disclose the limitations shown in strikethrough above. However, in the same field of endeavor, Qattan discloses an interactive environment with shared cursors (Qattan, Pages 1-6 @ 0:01, 0:03, 0:04, 0:05, 0:24, and 0:27 into the video – user’s pointers are shown with moving images of the user following the pointer as it moves through the screen),
enabling the user of each of the plurality of computing devices to modify the graphic representation of the pointer device to include text content for a corresponding message from that user for the other users of the collaborative session, wherein for each user device, a boundary of the graphic representation is dynamic (Qattan, Pages 7-12 @ 0:42, 0:42, 0:43, 0:46, 0:47, and 0:49 – users can add notes in a text input box which tracks the user’s pointer).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the collaborative cursor representations of Eliason to include modifying the cursor representation to include text content based on the teachings of Qattan. The motivation for doing so would have been enable users to assist users in commenting about particular on-screen elements, and to more effectively link chat comments to a user and the user’s current actions.
However, Eliason as modified appears not to expressly disclose the text box expanding in at least one of the horizontal or vertical directions based on the text content specified by the user. However, in the same field of endeavor, Huo discloses an input text box (Huo, Abstract), including
the text box expanding in at least one of the horizontal or vertical directions based on the text content specified by the user (Huo, Figs. 6 and 7 with ¶0026-¶0029 – height and width of the text input box is expanded to accommodate additional text).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the text box of Eliason to include adjusting the size of the text box based on the teachings of Huo. The motivation for doing so would have been to conveniently accommodate larger amounts of text if the user chooses to input more text than can be initially accommodated by the text box size, enabling the users to see the entire text inputted (Huo, Abstract, ¶0023, and ¶0026).
However, Eliason as modified appears not to expressly disclose an emoticon wheel. However, in the same field of endeavor, Spot discloses an interface for expression a sentiment in a collaborative environment (Spot, Page 1 – expressing an emotion in a collaborative game),
enabling the user of each of the plurality of computing devices to access an emoticon wheel on the collaborative medium to view and select among a plurality of emoticons or graphics displayed on the emoticon wheel for insertion into the collaborative medium, wherein the user toggles the emoticon wheel between an active state and an inactive state (Spot, Pages 1-3 – toggling the radial menu and selecting a corresponding emotion from the radial menu such as “/joy” results representing the emotion in the environment).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the collaborative sentiment expression of Eliason as modified to include a radial menu for selecting emotion based on the teachings of Spot. The motivation for doing so would have been to implement a more intuitive interface (Spot, Page 6), and to save time (Spot, Page 3).
However, Eliason as modified appears not to express emoticons. However, in the same field of endeavor, Tew discloses an interface for expression a sentiment in a collaborative environment (Tew, Abstract with ¶0001-¶0002), including
emoticons (Tew, Fig. 4-1, ¶0001-¶0002, ¶0055).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the collaborative sentiment expression of Eliason as modified to include emoticons based on the teachings of Tew. The motivation for doing so would have been to express a wider range of sentiments, and sentiments which are more universally recognized.
Regarding claim 10, Eliason as modified discloses the elements of claim 9 above, and further discloses wherein the corresponding message specified by the user of each of the plurality of computing devices moves based on a movement of that user’s pointer device (Qattan, Pages 1-6 @ 0:01, 0:03, 0:04, 0:05, 0:24, and 0:27 into the video – user’s pointers are shown with moving images of the user following the pointer as it moves through the screen).
Regarding claim 11, Eliason as modified discloses the elements of claim 9 above, and further discloses wherein for each user device, the corresponding message of the graphic representation disappears automatically after a given time interval (Eliason, ¶0121 – annotations disappear after a fixed timeout).
Regarding claim 12, Eliason as modified discloses the elements of claim 9 above, and further discloses wherein the corresponding message of any of the graphic representations can be stamped onto the collaborative medium automatically or in response to a user input (Qattan, Figs. 13-15 @ 1:05, 1:12, and 1:12 into the video – website link is stamped automatically onto the collaborative medium. The user’s pointer moves away independently from the link after it is stamped onto the space).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the collaborative cursor representations of Eliason as modified to include enabling the content to be stamped onto the medium based on the teachings of Qattan. The motivation for doing so would have been to assist users in sharing content in a suitable location while enabling them to subsequently move their pointer to another location.
Regarding claim 13, Eliason as modified discloses the elements of claim 9 above, and further discloses detecting any one of multiple triggers embedded with the text content, wherein each of the multiple triggers is defined by a corresponding set of at least one alphanumeric characters (Tew, Fig. 4-1 through 4-7 with ¶0059-¶0064 – when the user types a trigger word that is recognized as corresponding to an ideograph (including emoticons, emojis, and stickers), the system offers the ideograph to be included with or in place of the input text. In this case, the command is to present the ideograph).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the chat and sentiment interface Eliason as modified to include recognizing and inserting ideographs based on the teachings of Tew. The motivation for doing so would have been enable users to more easily find the ideograph that best represents the sentiment the user wishes to convey (Tew, ¶0001).
Regarding claim 14, Eliason as modified discloses the elements of claim 13 above, and further discloses altering the shared content, separate from the rendered text content, in response to detecting the trigger (Tew, Fig. 4-1 through 4-7 with ¶0059-¶0064 – when the user types a trigger word that is recognized as corresponding to an ideograph (including emoticons, emojis, and stickers), the system offers the ideograph to be included with or in place of the input text. The rendered message may or may not include text (see Figs. 4-2 and 4-8). The text is separate from the emojis/stickers).
Regarding claim 15, Eliason as modified discloses the elements of claim 14 above, and further discloses wherein detecting the trigger includes detecting a designated keyword or a command entry (Tew, Fig. 4-1 through 4-7 with ¶0059-¶0064 – when the user types a trigger word that is recognized as corresponding to an ideograph (including emoticons, emojis, and stickers), the system offers the ideograph to be included with or in place of the input text. In this case, the command is to present the ideograph).
Regarding claim 16, Eliason as modified discloses the elements of claim 15 above, and further discloses wherein altering the shared content includes generating dynamic content separate from the rendered text content, wherein the dynamic content is pre-associated with the designated keyword (Tew, Fig. 4-1 through 4-7 with ¶0059-¶0064 – when the user types a trigger word that is recognized as corresponding to an ideograph (including emoticons, emojis, and stickers), the system offers the ideograph to be included with or in place of the input text. In this case, the command is to present the ideograph).
Regarding claim 17, Eliason discloses a non-transitory computer-readable medium that stores instructions, which when executed by one or more processors of a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising (Eliason, ¶0027, ¶0033 – processor executing instructions stored in hardware memory):
enabling each computing device of a plurality of computing devices to participate in a collaborative session where shared content is rendered on a collaborative medium, including enabling a user of each computing device of the plurality of computing devices to use a corresponding pointer device to interact with the collaborative medium (Eliason, Absract with ¶0100 and Fig. 3B-D with ¶0133-¶0137– real-time collaboration canvas and work environment including shared graphical content, annotation, and sentiment. Fig. 3B with ¶0107 – each display shows the collaborative display region including cursors from multiple participants. Fig. 1 with ¶0026-¶0027 – participant systems. ¶0036 – interface generated by collaborative application);
generating the shared content to include a graphic representation of the pointer device used by the user of each of the plurality of computing devices, the shared content tracking the graphic representation of the pointer device used by the user of each of the plurality of computing devices (Eliason, Fig. 3B with ¶0107 – each display shows the collaborative display region including cursors from multiple participants. Figs. 2A and 3C with ¶0090, ¶0120 and ¶0134 - cursors are used to interact with the collaborative environment. ¶0107 – tracking and updating cursor location);
enabling the user of each of the plurality of computing devices to modify the graphic representation of the
enabling the user of each of the plurality of computing devices to access an
However, Eliason appears not to expressly disclose the limitations shown in strikethrough above. However, in the same field of endeavor, Qattan discloses an interactive environment with shared cursors (Qattan, Pages 1-6 @ 0:01, 0:03, 0:04, 0:05, 0:24, and 0:27 into the video – user’s pointers are shown with moving images of the user following the pointer as it moves through the screen),
enabling the user of each of the plurality of computing devices to modify the graphic representation of the pointer device to include text content for a corresponding message from that user for the other users of the collaborative session, wherein for each user device, a boundary of the graphic representation is dynamic (Qattan, Pages 7-12 @ 0:42, 0:42, 0:43, 0:46, 0:47, and 0:49 – users can add notes in a text input box which tracks the user’s pointer).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the collaborative cursor representations of Eliason to include modifying the cursor representation to include text content based on the teachings of Qattan. The motivation for doing so would have been enable users to assist users in commenting about particular on-screen elements, and to more effectively link chat comments to a user and the user’s current actions.
However, Eliason as modified appears not to expressly disclose the text box expanding in at least one of the horizontal or vertical directions based on the text content specified by the user. However, in the same field of endeavor, Huo discloses an input text box (Huo, Abstract), including
the text box expanding in at least one of the horizontal or vertical directions based on the text content specified by the user (Huo, Figs. 6 and 7 with ¶0026-¶0029 – height and width of the text input box is expanded to accommodate additional text).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the text box of Eliason to include adjusting the size of the text box based on the teachings of Huo. The motivation for doing so would have been to conveniently accommodate larger amounts of text if the user chooses to input more text than can be initially accommodated by the text box size, enabling the users to see the entire text inputted (Huo, Abstract, ¶0023, and ¶0026).
However, Eliason as modified appears not to expressly disclose an emoticon wheel. However, in the same field of endeavor, Spot discloses an interface for expression a sentiment in a collaborative environment (Spot, Page 1 – expressing an emotion in a collaborative game),
enabling the user of each of the plurality of computing devices to access an emoticon wheel on the collaborative medium to view and select among a plurality of emoticons or graphics displayed on the emoticon wheel for insertion into the collaborative medium, wherein the user toggles the emoticon wheel between an active state and an inactive state (Spot, Pages 1-3 – toggling the radial menu and selecting a corresponding emotion from the radial menu such as “/joy” results representing the emotion in the environment).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the collaborative sentiment expression of Eliason as modified to include a radial menu for selecting emotion based on the teachings of Spot. The motivation for doing so would have been to implement a more intuitive interface (Spot, Page 6), and to save time (Spot, Page 3).
However, Eliason as modified appears not to express emoticons. However, in the same field of endeavor, Tew discloses an interface for expression a sentiment in a collaborative environment (Tew, Abstract with ¶0001-¶0002), including
emoticons (Tew, Fig. 4-1, ¶0001-¶0002, ¶0055).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the collaborative sentiment expression of Eliason as modified to include emoticons based on the teachings of Tew. The motivation for doing so would have been to express a wider range of sentiments, and sentiments which are more universally recognized.
Regarding claim 18, Eliason as modified discloses the elements of claim 17 above, and further discloses wherein the corresponding message specified by the user of each of the plurality of computing devices moves based on a movement of that user’s pointer device (Qattan, Pages 1-6 @ 0:01, 0:03, 0:04, 0:05, 0:24, and 0:27 into the video – user’s pointers are shown with moving images of the user following the pointer as it moves through the screen).
Regarding claim 19, Eliason as modified discloses the elements of claim 17 above, and further discloses wherein for each user device, the corresponding message of the graphic representation disappears automatically after a given time interval (Eliason, ¶0121 – annotations disappear after a fixed timeout).
Regarding claim 20, Eliason as modified discloses the elements of claim 17 above, and further discloses wherein the corresponding message of any of the graphic representations can be stamped onto the collaborative medium automatically or in response to a user input (Qattan, Figs. 13-15 @ 1:05, 1:12, and 1:12 into the video – website link is stamped automatically onto the collaborative medium. The user’s pointer moves away independently from the link after it is stamped onto the space).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the collaborative cursor representations of Eliason as modified to include enabling the content to be stamped onto the medium based on the teachings of Qattan. The motivation for doing so would have been to assist users in sharing content in a suitable location while enabling them to subsequently move their pointer to another location.
Regarding claim 21, Eliason as modified discloses the elements of claim 17 above, and further discloses wherein the operations includes: detecting any one of multiple triggers embedded with the text content, wherein each of the multiple triggers is defined by a corresponding set of at least one alphanumeric characters (Tew, Fig. 4-1 through 4-7 with ¶0059-¶0064 – when the user types a trigger word that is recognized as corresponding to an ideograph (including emoticons, emojis, and stickers), the system offers the ideograph to be included with or in place of the input text. In this case, the command is to present the ideograph).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the chat and sentiment interface Eliason as modified to include recognizing and inserting ideographs based on the teachings of Tew. The motivation for doing so would have been enable users to more easily find the ideograph that best represents the sentiment the user wishes to convey (Tew, ¶0001).
Regarding claim 22, Eliason as modified discloses the elements of claim 21 above, and further discloses altering the shared content, separate from the rendered text content, in response to detecting the trigger (Tew, Fig. 4-1 through 4-7 with ¶0059-¶0064 – when the user types a trigger word that is recognized as corresponding to an ideograph (including emoticons, emojis, and stickers), the system offers the ideograph to be included with or in place of the input text. The rendered message may or may not include text (see Figs. 4-2 and 4-8). The text is separate from the emojis/stickers).
Regarding claim 23, Eliason as modified discloses the elements of claim 22 above, and further discloses wherein detecting the trigger includes detecting a designated keyword or a command entry (Tew, Fig. 4-1 through 4-7 with ¶0059-¶0064 – when the user types a trigger word that is recognized as corresponding to an ideograph (including emoticons, emojis, and stickers), the system offers the ideograph to be included with or in place of the input text. In this case, the command is to present the ideograph).
Regarding claim 24, Eliason as modified discloses the elements of claim 23 above, and further discloses wherein altering the shared content includes generating dynamic content separate from the rendered text content, wherein the dynamic content is pre-associated with the designated keyword (Tew, Fig. 4-1 through 4-7 with ¶0059-¶0064 – when the user types a trigger word that is recognized as corresponding to an ideograph (including emoticons, emojis, and stickers), the system offers the ideograph to be included with or in place of the input text. In this case, the command is to present the ideograph).
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DANIEL W PARCHER whose telephone number is (303)297-4281. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 9:00am - 5:00pm, Mountain Time.
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/DANIEL W PARCHER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2174
