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
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 January 27, 2026 has been entered.
REMARKS
On pages 9-12, Applicant argues the prior art of record, Lerner et al. (Lerner hereafter, US 20140358773 A1) in view of Cudak et al. (Cudak hereafter, US 9,183,523 B2), does not disclose the new limitation of “unread chapter in the at least one target read book, and the key information corresponding to the unread chapter comprises content corresponding to at least one unread chapter in the target read book“ is persuasive. The 35 U.S.C. 103 rejection in view of Lerner et al. (Lerner hereafter, US 20140358773 A1) in view of Cudak et al. (Cudak hereafter, US 9,183,523 B2) as applied to claims 14-18, 20, 21, 23-25, 26-28, 30, 31, and 33 is withdrawn. The limitation has been addressed by the citation of Gaul et al. (Gaul hereafter, US 20220148066 A1) as necessitated by claim amendments.
Claims 1-13 are cancelled.
Claims 14-33, filed December 29, 2025, are examined on the merits.
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.
Claim(s) 14-18, 20, 21, 23-28, 30, 31, and 33 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lerner et al. (Lerner hereafter, US 20140358773 A1) in view of Gaul et al. (Gaul hereafter, US 20220148066 A1).
Claim 14, Lerner discloses a method of processing book information, comprising:
in response to a target trigger operation ([0085], e.g. For example, from the home interface 216, a user may select (e.g., click, touch, etc.) the "Manage Library" area 218 of the home interface 216 to display a curation interface as shown in FIGS. 11-14. Additionally, a user may select the "Library" area 220 of the tool bar region 212 to display the curation interface as shown in FIGS. 11-14), displaying a book page, wherein the book page is configured to display book attribute information of a plurality of books (Figures 10-14); and
displaying recommendation information of at least one target read book in the book page, wherein a read book is a book and the recommendation information at least comprises key information of an unread chapter in the at least one target read book ([0073], e.g. home interface 116 may further include a "Recommended eBooks" area 122 configured to display recommended electronic books that a user may check-out and/or read. The recommend electronic books that are displayed in the area 122 may be, e.g., based upon a user's preferences, an administrator's suggestion, a user's checkout history, etc. The home interface 116 may further include a "New eBooks" area 124 configured to display newly available electronic books (e.g., available to the user, available to all users, etc.) that a user may check-out and/or read).
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However, Lerner does not disclose “wherein a read book is a book that has been read hut of which an entire book content has not been completely read, the recommendation information at least comprises key information of an unread chapter in the at least one target read book, and the key information corresponding to the unread chapter comprises content corresponding to at least one unread chapter in the target read book.”
Gaul discloses wherein a read book is a book that has been read hut of which an entire book content has not been completely read, the recommendation information at least comprises key information of an unread chapter in the at least one target read book, and the key information corresponding to the unread chapter comprises content corresponding to at least one unread chapter in the target read book ([0106], e.g. selector 245 selects at least one recommended chapter (a recommended content) according to time remaining until a start date and time set by the setter 242. In other words, the selector 245 selects, as a recommended chapter, an unread chapter specified by the specifier 243, and [0106], e.g. the selector 245 repeats selection of a recommended chapter while specification of an unread chapter by the specifier 243 and estimation of required time by the estimator 244 are continued, until accumulated required time estimated by the estimator 244 becomes equal to or more than remaining time).
Gaul discloses it has been desired to prevent withdrawal from an e-book system by allowing a user to use another e-book until time when a subsequent chapter is made available [0009]. One of ordinary skill in the art at the time prior to the effective filing date of the instant invention would have been motivated by Gaul to improve the method of Lerner. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to use the method of Learner with the teachings of Gaul. The benefit would be to allow a user to use another e-book until time when a subsequent chapter is made available.
Claim 15, Lerner as modified discloses before the displaying recommendation information of at least one target read book in the book page, the method further comprises:
obtaining historically read books (Lerner, [0073], e.g. The recommend electronic books that are displayed in the area 122 may be, e.g., based upon a user's preferences, an administrator's suggestion, a user's checkout history, etc.), and sorting the historically read books based on a preset sorting dimension, wherein the preset sorting dimension comprises at least one of a reading progress, an unread duration and a book category matching degree, and the book category matching degree is used to represent a matching degree between a book category to which the historically read books belong and a category of interest (Lerner, [0075], e.g. The "bookbag" can be sorted using one or more sort options located in the sort area 130 located to the left of the books 128. For example, a user may sort the electronic books using the sort area 130 by what the user wants to read, what the user is currently reading, what the user has finished reading, and/or by interest such as, e.g., Animals, Sports, Science Fiction, English, Science, etc.); and
screening the sorted historically read books based on a preset number to determine the target read book, and generating the recommendation information corresponding to the target read book based on information of the unread chapter in the target read book, wherein the preset number is an integer greater than or equal to 1 (Lerner, [0088], e.g. the status region 230 may include the "Top 5 Most Read Titles," the "Top 5 Titles to Convert" (e.g., which may be a list of the top 5 electronic books that have reached and/or exceeded a checkout threshold such that the exemplary system may recommend, or suggest, that they be purchased as opposed to being charged for each checked out), etc., and Figure 10).
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Claim 16, Lerner as modified discloses wherein the displaying recommendation information of at least one target read book in the book page comprises: displaying a banner control in a peripheral region of the book page, and displaying the recommendation information of one target read book in the banner control (Lerner, Figure 5, e.g. Recommended eBooks, and Figure 10, e.g. Publisher Recommended Titles).
Claim 17, Lerner as modified discloses the displaying the recommendation information of one target read book in the banner control comprises:
in response to that a number of the at least one target read book is one, displaying the recommendation information of the target read book in the banner control; and in response to that the number of the at least one target read book is more than one, displaying the recommendation information of each of the at least one target read book in the banner control one by one (Lerner, Figure 5, e.g. Recommended eBooks, and Figure 10, e.g. Publisher Recommended Titles).
Claim 18, Lerner as modified discloses the displaying recommendation information of at least one target read book in the book page comprises:
in response to that a number of the at least one target read book is more than one, displaying a book entry control in the book page, and displaying prompt information for viewing the recommendation information in the book entry control; and in response to a trigger operation for the book entry control, displaying the recommendation information of each of the at least one target read book at a first preset position of the book page (Lerner, Figure 5, e.g. Recommended eBooks, and Figure 10, e.g. Publisher Recommended Titles).
Claim 20, Lerner as modified discloses the displaying recommendation information of at least one target read book in the book page comprises:
in response to a number of the target read books is more than one, determining a first region and a second region in the book page, and displaying the recommendation information of the respective target read books in the first region, and displaying the respective book attribute information in the second region (Lerner, [0073], e.g. home interface 116 may further include a "Recommended eBooks" area 122 configured to display recommended electronic books that a user may check-out and/or read. The recommend electronic books that are displayed in the area 122 may be, e.g., based upon a user's preferences, an administrator's suggestion, a user's checkout history, etc. The home interface 116 may further include a "New eBooks" area 124 configured to display newly available electronic books (e.g., available to the user, available to all users, etc.) that a user may check-out and/or read, and [0079], e.g. As shown, the cover 142 of the electronic book may be displayed, a synopsis 144 of the electronic book may be displayed, one or more action areas 146 may be displayed, and additional information 148 (e.g., author, pages, ISBN, series, interest level, reading level, age recommendation, etc.) with respect to the electronic book may be displayed in the book detail interface 140).
Claim 21, Lerner as modified discloses wherein after the displaying recommendation information of at least one target read book in the book page, the method further comprises:
in response to a trigger operation for the target read book, displaying a reading page, and displaying book contents corresponding to a reading progress of the triggered target read book and an overview information viewing control in the reading page: and in response to a trigger operation for the overview information viewing control, displaying book overview information of the triggered target read book at a second preset position of the reading page, wherein the book overview information at least comprises a book introduction and a book comment (Lerner, [0079], e.g. When a user selects an electronic book from the home interface 116 or the "bookbag" interface 129 of FIGS. 5-7, a book detail interface 140 may be depicted in the main region 114 of the graphical user interface 110 as shown in FIG. 8. As shown, the cover 142 of the electronic book may be displayed, a synopsis 144 of the electronic book may be displayed, one or more action areas 146 may be displayed, and additional information 148 (e.g., author, pages, ISBN, series, interest level, reading level, age recommendation, etc.) with respect to the electronic book may be displayed in the book detail interface 140, and Figure 8).
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Claim 23, Lerner as modified discloses if the book page is a historical book page, the displaying a book page in response to a target trigger operation comprises:
in response to a historical book access operation, displaying the historical book page and displaying the book attribute information of the respective historically read book in the historical book page, wherein the book attribute information comprises book identification information and additional information; the additional information comprises at least one of a reading progress (Lerner, Figure 5, e.g. 118 Currently Reading), an unread duration, a book category, a book completion status, a book update status, book popularity, and key information corresponding to an unread chapter (Lerner, [0088], e.g. graphical user interface 210 may further include a status region 230 located to the right of the main region 214. The status region 230 may depict one or more status, or informational, items related to the status of the electronic book service. As shown, budget information 232 for the account that the administrator is managing is displayed in the status region 230. More specifically, a graphical element 234 (e.g., a pie chart) representing a budget limit of the account and an amount of the budget limit that has been spent over a budget time period such as a month is depicted. Further, the budget information 232 further includes an alphanumeric representation 236 of an amount of the budget limit that is remaining for the budget time period. Additionally, the status region 230 may include the "Top 5 Most Read Titles," the "Top 5 Titles to Convert" (e.g., which may be a list of the top 5 electronic books that have reached and/or exceeded a checkout threshold such that the exemplary system may recommend, or suggest, that they be purchased as opposed to being charged for each checked out), etc.).
Claims 24-28, 30, 31, and 33, Lerner as modified recite a device and a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising the above cited limitations. Therefore, claims 24-28, 30, and 31 are rejected for the same citations and rationale above.
Claim 19, 22, 29 and 32 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lerner et al. (Lerner hereafter, US 20140358773 A1) and Gaul et al. (Gaul hereafter, US 20220148066 A1), as applied to claims 14-18, 20, 21, 23-28, 30, 31, and 33 above, in further view of Bataresh et a. (Bataresh hereafter, US 20130179823 A1).
Claim 19, Lerner as modified discloses the claimed invention except for the limitation of the displaying the recommendation information of the at least one target read book at a first preset position of the book page comprises: creating a floating window in the book page, and displaying the respective recommendation information in the floating window; or moving the respective book attribute information in the book page, and displaying the respective recommendation information in a moved blank region; or switching from the book page to a new page, and displaying the respective recommendation information in the new page. Bataresh discloses the displaying the recommendation information of the at least one target read book at a first preset position of the book page comprises: creating a floating window in the book page, and displaying the respective recommendation information in the floating window; or moving the respective book attribute information in the book page, and displaying the respective recommendation information in a moved blank region ([0173], e.g. user can take out the right or left page and make it floating page, this will create another page instance (keeping the book as it is). The user can move the floating page as another window, as a movable image rendered over the eBook, etc.) or switching from the book page to a new page, and displaying the respective recommendation information in the new page.
Bataresh discloses an improvement to address the need for solutions to the problems with the prior art, namely, the need for a software platform that handle the display and interactive interaction of readers with the technical book contents ([0016]). One of ordinary skill in the art at the time prior to the effective filing date of the instant invention would have been motivated by Bataresh to improve the system of Lerner. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to use the floating page of Bataresh with the system of Lerner. The benefit would be to address the need for solutions to the problems with the prior art, namely, the need for a software platform that handle the display and interactive interaction of readers with the technical book contents.
Claim 22, Lerner as modified disclose after the displaying book contents corresponding to a reading progress of the triggered target read book and an overview information viewing control in the reading page, the method further comprises:
in response to that no trigger operation for the overview information viewing control is detected within a preset duration, hiding the overview information viewing control (Bataresh, [0182], e.g. user may select text and highlight it, and the text can span multiple objects. More than one highlighting color may be used (defined by the theme as described previously in Feature 5). All the highlights in the invention can be controlled by a show/hide highlights option, this way the user can view his book without the highlights whenever he wants to).
Claims 29 and 32 recite a device and a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising the above cited limitations. Therefore, claims 19, 22, 29 and 32 are rejected for the same citations and rationale above.
CONCLUSION
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.
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Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to C. Dune Ly, whose telephone number is (571) 272-0716. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday from 8 A.M. to 4 PM ET.
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/Cheyne D Ly/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2152
2/6/2026