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 .
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, 9, and 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Dark Souls II (as shown by NPL documents “Dark Souls II Wikipedia” and “Phantoms”, hereinafter referred to as Dark Souls).
Regarding claims 1, 9, and 17, Dark Souls discloses a virtual world-based character interaction method performed by a computer device, the method comprising:
displaying a first virtual character in a physical state in a first virtual world (see Dark Souls II Wikipedia pg. 1, 4th par., “Dark Souls II is an action role-playing game in which the player explores Drangleic, fights enemies with weapons and magic, and improves their character by collecting souls”);
in response to a first control operation on the first virtual character by a user of the computer device, controlling the first virtual character to perform physical interaction with a world element in the physical state in the first virtual world and updating the world element in the first virtual world in accordance with the physical interaction (see Phantoms pg. 2, 2nd par., “The host chooses to summon a phantom by activating the white soul sign that was place on the ground by another player”);
displaying a second virtual character in a ghost state in the first virtual world, the second virtual character being a character in a second virtual world controlled by a second computer device (see Phantoms pg. 1, 1st par., “When connected to other players online for co-op or PvP, players who are guests in a host's world will appear as a phantom”); and
in response to a second control operation on the first virtual character by the user of the computer device, controlling the first virtual character to perform non-physical interaction with the second virtual character, wherein no physical interaction is performed on the second virtual character in the first virtual world and a physical interaction is performed on the second virtual character in the second virtual world during the non-physical interaction (see Dark Souls II Wikipedia pg 2, 4th par., “While connected to the game server, players can see apparitions of other players, read and rate messages, view bloodstains showing how other players died, and place summon signs that allow them to be summoned into another player's world”; hence a non-physical interaction would be seeing the other phantom characters and the physical interaction would be the phantom characters being summoned to assist with tasks/battles).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-8, 10-16, and 18-20 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: None of the references, alone or in combination, teach or suggest wherein the controlling the first virtual character to perform non-physical interaction with the second virtual character comprises in response to an action cast operation on the first virtual character, controlling the first virtual character to perform a target action in the first virtual world and transmitting the target action to the second virtual world to enable the second virtual character to observe the target action of the first virtual character in the second virtual world, wherein the target action comprises at least one of a limb action and an expression action; displaying an interactive element in vicinity of the second virtual character in the first virtual world, the interactive element being configured for indicating that the second virtual character has an interaction requirement; changing the second virtual character from the ghost state to the physical state in the first virtual world in response to an agree operation on the interaction requirement; and controlling the first virtual character to perform physical interaction with the second virtual character; and controlling the first virtual character to move in the first virtual world; displaying the first virtual character and a third virtual character that are in the physical state in response to that the first virtual character moves into a target region of the first virtual world, the target region being a region allowing different virtual characters to perform physical interaction with a world element in a multiplayer region; and displaying the first virtual character in the physical state and canceling display of the third virtual character in the physical state in response to that the first virtual character moves out of the target region of the first virtual world.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Farmer et al. (US 6,229,533 B1), Motokura et al. (US 9,616,342 B2), Damian et al. (US 2022/0339542 A1; Examiner note: this reference was incorrectly cited on the June 10th, 2026 IDS so the Examiner is including the correct publication number here)
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/ALLEN CHAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715 6/25/2026
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