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 § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claim 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because
From applicant’s specification, a computer-readable medium is open to transitory mediums and thus is non-statutory subject matter. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is obliged to give claims their broadest reasonable interpretation consistent with the specification during proceedings before the USPTO. See In re Zletz, 893 F.2d 319 (Fed. Cir. 1989) (during patent examination the pending claims must be interpreted as broadly as their terms reasonably allow). The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim drawn to a computer/processor readable medium (also called machine readable medium and other such variations) typically covers forms of non-transitory tangible media and transitory propagating signals per se in view of the ordinary and customary meaning of computer readable media, particularly when the specification is silent. See MPEP 2111.01. A claim drawn to such a computer/processor readable medium that covers both transitory and non-transitory embodiments may be amended to narrow the claim to cover only statutory embodiments to avoid a rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 101 by adding the limitation "non-transitory" to the claim. Such an amendment would typically not raise the issue of new matter, even when the specification is silent because the broadest reasonable interpretation relies on the ordinary and customary meaning that includes signals per se. The limited situations in which such an amendment could raise issues of new matter occur, for example, when the specification does not support a non-transitory embodiment because a signal per se is the only viable embodiment such that the amended claim is impermissibly broadened beyond the supporting disclosure. Appropriate corrective action is required.
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.
Claims 1-7, 11-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Iitsuke (US 20230208894) in view of LOVHAUGEN (US 20100073454).
Regarding claim 1, Iitsuke teaches, a conference page display method (abstract: a graphical user interface (GUI) that enables presentation of electronic documents is provided to participants of a conference call), comprising:
receiving a page display operation of a current user for a target conference (Paragraph 25: Conference platform 120 can allow a user to join and participate in a video conference call),
in response to the page display operation, displaying a conference page of the target conference (Fig. 4A: share screen, 6A and Paragraph 66: displaying video of participants, and documents and Fig. 5 and Paragraph 63: answers and questions ), and showing communication information of the target conference in the conference page (Fig. 5 and Paragraph 64 and Fig. 7A), wherein the communication information is sent by a participant of the target conference (Paragraph 64, 68: insert, text box, image, video feed object); and the communication information is visible to each participant in the conference (Fig. 7A and Paragraph 32-33).
Iitsuke does not explicitly teach wherein the target conference comprises at least two conference groups, and the current user is in one conference group of the target conference as claimed.
LOVHAUGEN teaches managing conference (abstract), wherein the target conference comprises at least two conference groups, and the current user is in one conference group of the target conference (Fig. 5, conference group of Mexico City, conference group of Miami, conference group of Milan, so different group of people).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to modify Iitsuke with LOVHAUGEN in order to improve the system and enhance the conference experience.
Regarding claim 2, Iitsuke in view of LOVHAUGEN teaches, playing a voice signal of a first participant, wherein the first participant and the current user are in a same conference group (Iitsuke: Paragraph 24-25: audio from participants).
Regarding claim 3, Iitsuke in view of LOVHAUGEN teaches, wherein the showing communication information of the target conference in the conference page comprises at least one of: showing first communication information of the target conference in a first region of the conference page (Fig. 3B and Paragraph 47); and showing second communication information of the target conference in a second region of the conference page (Iitsuke: Fig. 3B and 5 and Paragraph 47).
Regarding claim 4, Iitsuke in view of LOVHAUGEN teaches, wherein the first communication information is shown in a different manner from the second communication information (Paragraph 63: FIGS. 3A-3C. For example, GUI 500 can include a first portion 510 and a second portion 512, which can correspond to portions 310 and 312 of GUI 300. First portion 510 can include GUI elements 314, which correspond to GUI elements 314 of GUI 300. First portion 510 can also include GUI elements 518 and/or 520, which can correspond to GUI elements 318 and/or 320 of GUI 300. Second portion 512 can include a portion 516 of an electronic document (e.g., electronic document 210 or another electronic document), as described above. GUI 500 can also include one or more GUI elements 522, which can correspond to GUI elements 322 of GUI 300. In some embodiments, GUI 500 can further include one or more GUI elements (not shown) that correspond to GUI elements 324 of GUI 300).
Regarding claim 5, Iitsuke in view of LOVHAUGEN teaches, before the showing communication information of the target conference in the conference page, further comprising: in response to a first information sending operation, sending first communication information input by the current user in a first information input region, wherein the first information input region is within the conference page (Iitsuke: Paragraph 68 and Fig. 7A: a user of electronic document platform 130 can insert one or more text box objects 726, 728 into a portion 716 (e.g., a slide) of electronic document 210, as described above. The user can provide text to be included in the inserted one or more text box objects 726, 728 (e.g., “Greetings!” and “I'm . . . I work on . . . team.”), as described above. In some embodiments, the user can insert an image object into one or more regions 730 of portion 716. For example, the user can engage with insert GUI element 322D, as described above. In response to detecting that the user has engaged with insert GUI element 322D, document management component 132 and/or document editing component 134 can update GUI 700 to include one or more additional GUI elements 324. The additional GUI elements 324 can include an image object GUI element 324B, as described above. In response to detecting that the user has engaged with the image object GUI element 324B, document management component 132 and/or document editing component 134 can update GUI 700 to include another GUI element (not shown) that enable the user to insert a particular image into the region 730 of portion 716. In some embodiments, the GUI element enables the user to select an image that is stored at a local memory of the client device 102 associated with the user. In other or similar embodiments, the GUI element enables the user to search for an image (e.g., via a web browser, etc.) that is to be downloaded or copied to the client device 102 and included in the region 730 of portion 716. The user can provide an indication of the image that is to be included in region 730 and document management component 132 and/or document editing component 134 can update GUI 700 to include the indicated image in region 730. As illustrated in FIG. 7A, document management component 132 and/or document editing component 134 can update GUI 700 to include an image of a person in region 730 of portion 716 of electronic document 210).
Regarding claim 6, Iitsuke in view of LOVHAUGEN teaches, before the showing communication information of the target conference in the conference page, further comprising: acquiring first communication information sent by other participants than the current user (Iitsuke Paragraph 21: in response to receiving the request to initiate the document sharing operation, the conference platform can identify the electronic document and can provide the first portion and/or the second portion of the electronic document for presentation via the conference platform GUI and Paragraph 41: client device 102A can transmit a request to electronic document platform 130 (e.g., via network 108) to access electronic document 210, as described above. In other or similar embodiments, client device 102A can transmit a request to create and/or edit electronic document 210, as described above. Client device 102A can transmit the request(s) in response to detecting an interaction with one or more GUI elements of the content viewer GUI by a user associated with client device 102A, in some embodiments. Responsive to receiving the request(s), document management component 132 and/or document editing component 134 can provide the user with access to the requested electronic document 210 via the content viewer GUI).
Regarding claim 7, Iitsuke in view of LOVHAUGEN teaches, before the showing communication information of the target conference in the conference page, further comprising: in response to a second information sending operation, sending the second communication information input by the current user in a second information input region, wherein the second information input region is within the conference page (Iitsuke Paragraph 41: GUI 300 can include a first portion 310 and a second portion 312, in some embodiments. In some embodiments, the first portion 310 can include one or more GUI elements 314 that provide a user with a preview of one or more portions of electronic document 210. For example, electronic document 210 can be a slide presentation document, in some embodiments, first portion 310 can include one or more GUI elements 314 (e.g., thumbnails, etc.) that each include a preview of one or more slides of the slide presentation document. A user can select (e.g., click on, etc.) a particular GUI element 314 to access a respective portion of electronic document 210 via the second portion 312 of GUI 300. As illustrated in FIG. 3A, a particular GUI element 314 included in the first portion 310 of GUI 300 is highlighted, indicating that a user has selected the particular GUI element 314. Accordingly, the user can access the portion of electronic document 210 that is associated with the selected GUI element 314 via the second portion 312 of GUI 300 (e.g., illustrated in FIG. 3A as portion 316).
Regarding claim 11, see claim 1 rejection. And see (Iitsuke client device, el. 104).
Regarding claim 12, see claim 1 rejection. And see (client device, el. 104).
Regarding claim 13, see claim 1 rejection.
Claims 8, 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Iitsuke (US 20230208894) in view of LOVHAUGEN (US 20100073454) in view of Avrunin (US 20230033852).
Regarding claim 8, Iitsuke in view of LOVHAUGEN teaches, wherein the second communication information comprises answer information (Iitsuke: Fig. 5, el. 526 and Paragraph 64: The user can provide text to be included in the one or more text boxes (e.g., “Question and Answer Session”), showing second communication information of the target conference in a second region of the conference page (Fig. 6B and 5).
Iitsuke in view of LOVHAUGEN does not teach showing, in a first showing style, second communication information successfully matching a current answer in the second region of the conference page, and showing, in a second showing style, second communication information failing to match the current answer in the second region, wherein the current answer is a preset answer of a current question in the target conference.
Avrunin in the same art of endeavor teaches (abstract: method for mediating participant interactions during a video webinar meeting includes establishing a video webinar meeting; admitting a host and a plurality of participants to the video webinar meeting), Avrunin teaches showing, in a first showing style, second communication information successfully matching a current answer in the second region of the conference page (Fig. 6, and Paragraph 95) showing, in a second showing style, second communication information failing to match the current answer in the second region, wherein the current answer is a preset answer of a current question in the target conference (Fig. 6, Paragraph 83-84, 95: answer question, identify score based on answer).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to modify Iitsuke with Avrunin in order to improve the system and enhance the conference experience.
Regarding claim 10, Iitsuke in view of LOVHAUGEN in view of Avrunin teaches, wherein the conference page further comprises a third region for showing question information of the current question (Avrunin Fig. 6, el. 642) and/or a fourth region for showing score information of each conference group (Avrunin Fig. 6, el. 630).
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Iitsuke (US 20230208894) in view of LOVHAUGEN (US 20100073454) in view of Avrunin (US 20230033852) in view of Leinonen (US 20120100519).
Regarding claim 9, Iitsuke in view of LOVHAUGEN in view of Avrunin teaches, different conference groups and that users belong to different groups (see LOVHAUGEN Fig. 5).
Iitsuke in view of LOVHAUGEN in view of Avrunin does not teach updating score information of a target conference group, wherein the target conference group is a conference group to which a second participant belongs, and the second participant comprises a first sender of the second communication information successfully matching the current answer as claimed.
Leinonen teaches sharing information between host and audience (abstract), update the score when information successfully matching the current answer (Paragraph 38 The processor may be further configured to modify the score indicative of a correct answer for each correctly answered detail only if the answer comprised only correctly answered details).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to modify Iitsuke with Leinonen in order to improve the system and enhance the conference experience.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MARIA EL-ZOOBI whose telephone number is (571)270-3434. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 7-4.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Carolyn Edward can be reached at (571)270-7136. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MARIA EL-ZOOBI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2692
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