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 .
This Office Action is in response to the submission filed August 5, 2024. Claims 1-20 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on August 5, 2024; October 24, 2024; January 8, 2025; February 21, 2025 is being considered by the examiner.
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 rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-19 of U.S. Patent No. 10,546,023. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because the claims of the instant application are encompassed and/or made obvious within the claims of 10,546,023.
Claims of 18/794,694
Claims of 10,546,023
A method implemented by one or more processors, the method comprising: determining an action initiated by an automated assistant, the action initiated by the automated assistant in response to one or more instances of user interface input provided by a user via one or more automated assistant interfaces that interact with the automated assistant; identifying a plurality of natural language (NL) text descriptions of automated assistant routines that are stored in association with the user, each of the automated assistant routines defining multiple corresponding actions to be automatically performed via the automated assistant in response to initialization of the automated assistant routine, wherein the action is in addition to the actions of the automated assistant routines; comparing a NL text description of the action to the plurality of NL text descriptions of automated assistant routines that are stored in association with the user; selecting, based on the comparing, a subset of the NL text descriptions of automated assistant routines that are stored in association with the user; based on the action being initiated in response to user interface input provided by the user, and based on selecting the subset of the NL text descriptions of automated assistant routines: causing user interface output to be rendered via a client device of the user, wherein the user interface output prompts the user to add the action to one or more of the automated assistant routines of the subset; receiving affirmative user interface input in response to the user interface output, wherein the affirmative user interface input indicates a given routine of the automated assistant routines of the subset; and in response to receiving the affirmative user interface input: automatically adding the action as an additional one of the multiple corresponding actions of the given routine to be automatically performed in response to initialization of the given routine.
A method implemented by one or more processors, the method comprising: identifying assistant interaction data for a user, the assistant interaction data indicating a plurality of historical actions performed for the user by an automated assistant application, each of the historical actions performed in response to corresponding user interface input provided by the user via one or more automated assistant interfaces that interact with the automated assistant application; processing at least part of the assistant interaction data using a trained machine learning model to generate a user action embedding; identifying a plurality of command bundles, each of the command bundles comprising command bundle data that identifies a plurality of corresponding discrete actions that can be performed by the automated assistant application; for each of the command bundles: processing at least part of the command bundle data using the trained machine learning model, or an additional trained machine learning model, to generate a command bundle embedding, and generating a similarity score for the command bundle, wherein generating the similarity score for each of the command bundles comprises comparing the user action embedding to the command bundle embedding for the command bundle; selecting a given command bundle, of the plurality of command bundles, based on the similarity score for the given command bundle; and in response to selecting the given command bundle: causing information related to the given command bundle to be presented as a recommendation to the user via a computing device of the user; wherein invocation of the given command bundle, for the user in response to user interface input, causes the automated assistant application to perform the corresponding discrete actions of the given command bundle.
Claims 1-20 rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-21 of U.S. Patent No. 11,398,231. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because the claims of the instant application are encompassed and/or made obvious within the claims of 11,398,231.
Claims of 18/794,694
Claims of 11,398,231
A method implemented by one or more processors, the method comprising: determining an action initiated by an automated assistant, the action initiated by the automated assistant in response to one or more instances of user interface input provided by a user via one or more automated assistant interfaces that interact with the automated assistant; identifying a plurality of natural language (NL) text descriptions of automated assistant routines that are stored in association with the user, each of the automated assistant routines defining multiple corresponding actions to be automatically performed via the automated assistant in response to initialization of the automated assistant routine, wherein the action is in addition to the actions of the automated assistant routines; comparing a NL text description of the action to the plurality of NL text descriptions of automated assistant routines that are stored in association with the user; selecting, based on the comparing, a subset of the NL text descriptions of automated assistant routines that are stored in association with the user; based on the action being initiated in response to user interface input provided by the user, and based on selecting the subset of the NL text descriptions of automated assistant routines: causing user interface output to be rendered via a client device of the user, wherein the user interface output prompts the user to add the action to one or more of the automated assistant routines of the subset; receiving affirmative user interface input in response to the user interface output, wherein the affirmative user interface input indicates a given routine of the automated assistant routines of the subset; and in response to receiving the affirmative user interface input: automatically adding the action as an additional one of the multiple corresponding actions of the given routine to be automatically performed in response to initialization of the given routine.
A method implemented by one or more processors, the method comprising: determining an action initiated by an automated assistant, the action initiated by the automated assistant in response to one or more instances of user interface input provided by a user via one or more automated assistant interfaces that interact with the automated assistant; identifying a plurality of automated assistant routines that are stored in association with the user, each of the automated assistant routines defining multiple corresponding actions to be automatically performed via the automated assistant in response to initialization of the automated assistant routine, wherein the action is in addition to the actions of the automated assistant routines; comparing the action to the plurality of automated assistant routines that are stored in association with the user, wherein comparing the action to the plurality of automated assistant routines that are stored in association with the user comprises: comparing at least one temporal attribute, of past occurrences of the action, to at least one corresponding temporal attribute of past occurrences of each of the automated assistant routines; selecting, based on the comparing, a subset of the automated assistant routines that are stored in association with the user; based on the action being initiated in response to user interface input provided by the user, and based on selecting the subset of the automated assistant routines: causing user interface output to be rendered via a client device of the user, wherein the user interface output prompts the user to add the action to one or more of the automated assistant routines of the subset; receiving affirmative user interface input in response to the user interface output, wherein the affirmative user interface input indicates a given routine of the automated assistant routines of the subset; in response to receiving the affirmative user interface input: automatically adding the action as an additional one of the multiple corresponding actions of the given routine to be automatically performed in response to initialization of the given routine; and in response to subsequent initialization of the automated assistant routine, causing performance of the multiple corresponding actions of the given routine, including causing performance of the action added as the additional one of the multiple corresponding actions of the given routine.
Claims 1-20 rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-18 of U.S. Patent No. 11,749,278. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because the claims of the instant application are encompassed and/or made obvious within the claims of 11,749,278.
Claims of 18/794,694
Claims of 11,749,278
A method implemented by one or more processors, the method comprising: determining an action initiated by an automated assistant, the action initiated by the automated assistant in response to one or more instances of user interface input provided by a user via one or more automated assistant interfaces that interact with the automated assistant; identifying a plurality of natural language (NL) text descriptions of automated assistant routines that are stored in association with the user, each of the automated assistant routines defining multiple corresponding actions to be automatically performed via the automated assistant in response to initialization of the automated assistant routine, wherein the action is in addition to the actions of the automated assistant routines; comparing a NL text description of the action to the plurality of NL text descriptions of automated assistant routines that are stored in association with the user; selecting, based on the comparing, a subset of the NL text descriptions of automated assistant routines that are stored in association with the user; based on the action being initiated in response to user interface input provided by the user, and based on selecting the subset of the NL text descriptions of automated assistant routines: causing user interface output to be rendered via a client device of the user, wherein the user interface output prompts the user to add the action to one or more of the automated assistant routines of the subset; receiving affirmative user interface input in response to the user interface output, wherein the affirmative user interface input indicates a given routine of the automated assistant routines of the subset; and in response to receiving the affirmative user interface input: automatically adding the action as an additional one of the multiple corresponding actions of the given routine to be automatically performed in response to initialization of the given routine.
A method implemented by one or more processors, the method comprising: identifying one or more occurrences of initiation of an action by an automated assistant, each of the occurrences being in response to corresponding user interface input provided by a user via one or more automated assistant interfaces that interact with the automated assistant; identifying an automated assistant routine that is stored in association with the user, wherein the automated assistant routine defines multiple existing actions that are automatically performed via the automated assistant in response to initialization of the automated assistant routine, and wherein the action is in addition to the multiple existing actions of the automated assistant routine; determining a correlation between the automated assistant routine stored in association with the user and the action initiated by the automated assistant in the one or more occurrences; based on determining the correlation between the automated assistant routine and the action: causing user interface output to be rendered via a client device of the user, wherein the user interface output prompts the user to add the action to the automated assistant routine; receiving affirmative user interface input in response to the user interface output; in response to receiving the affirmative user interface input: automatically adding the action, to the automated assistant routine, to cause the action to be automatically performed via the automated assistant in response to initialization of the automated assistant routine, wherein automatically adding the action to the automated assistant routine comprises: automatically adding the action with a determined position, for performing the action in the automated assistant routine, that is relative to positions of performing of the multiple existing actions in the automated assistant routine; and in response to subsequent initialization of the automated assistant routine, causing performance of the multiple existing actions and of the action added to the automated assistant routine, including causing performance of the action with the determined position.
Claims 1-20 rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1-20 of U.S. Patent No. 12,057,120. Although the claims at issue are not identical, they are not patentably distinct from each other because the claims of the instant application are encompassed and/or made obvious within the claims of 12,057,120.
Claims of 18/794,694
Claims of 12,057,120
A method implemented by one or more processors, the method comprising: determining an action initiated by an automated assistant, the action initiated by the automated assistant in response to one or more instances of user interface input provided by a user via one or more automated assistant interfaces that interact with the automated assistant; identifying a plurality of natural language (NL) text descriptions of automated assistant routines that are stored in association with the user, each of the automated assistant routines defining multiple corresponding actions to be automatically performed via the automated assistant in response to initialization of the automated assistant routine, wherein the action is in addition to the actions of the automated assistant routines; comparing a NL text description of the action to the plurality of NL text descriptions of automated assistant routines that are stored in association with the user; selecting, based on the comparing, a subset of the NL text descriptions of automated assistant routines that are stored in association with the user; based on the action being initiated in response to user interface input provided by the user, and based on selecting the subset of the NL text descriptions of automated assistant routines: causing user interface output to be rendered via a client device of the user, wherein the user interface output prompts the user to add the action to one or more of the automated assistant routines of the subset; receiving affirmative user interface input in response to the user interface output, wherein the affirmative user interface input indicates a given routine of the automated assistant routines of the subset; and in response to receiving the affirmative user interface input: automatically adding the action as an additional one of the multiple corresponding actions of the given routine to be automatically performed in response to initialization of the given routine.
A method implemented by one or more processors, the method comprising: identifying one or more occurrences of initiation of an action, each of the occurrences being in response to corresponding user interface input provided by a user via one or more computer interfaces; identifying an automated assistant routine that is stored in association with the user, wherein the automated assistant routine defines multiple existing actions that are automatically performed via the automated assistant in response to initialization of the automated assistant routine, and wherein the action is in addition to the multiple existing actions of the automated assistant routine; determining a correlation between the automated assistant routine stored in association with the user and the action in the one or more occurrences, wherein determining the correlation is based on comparing: at least one temporal attribute, of past occurrences of the action, to at least one corresponding temporal attribute of past occurrences of the automated assistant routine; based on determining the correlation between the automated assistant routine and the action: causing user interface output to be rendered via a client device of the user, wherein the user interface output prompts the user to add the action to the automated assistant routine; receiving affirmative user interface input in response to the user interface output; in response to receiving the affirmative user interface input: automatically adding the action, to the automated assistant routine, to cause the action to be automatically performed in response to initialization of the automated assistant routine.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANGELA A ARMSTRONG whose telephone number is (571)272-7598. The examiner can normally be reached M,T,TH,F 11:30-8:00.
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ANGELA A. ARMSTRONG
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2659
/ANGELA A ARMSTRONG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2659
Prosecution Insights