CTNF 18/891,394 CTNF 83518 Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia 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 07-07-aia AIA 07-07 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 – 07-12-aia AIA (a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. 07-15-03-aia AIA Claim s 1-10 and 12-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by US 2023/0024836 A1 to Bennett . Summary: Bennett is a video game inventory coach AI model that can suggest video game inventory items to discard based on a user’s gameplay style and clusters of other players (see abstract, [0003]-[0013]. Re claim 1, Bennett teaches: a method comprising: receiving, by a computing device, a first operation on an item management control on a user interface when a virtual item owned by a virtual object is not selected, Fig. 2 diagrams that, during execution of a video game, gameplay is analyzed, reference groups/clusters of elite gameplayers are used for reference, an inventory coach model is trained and used to associate the player with one or more clusters, and ultimately, in step 210, the inventory coach is used to suggest video game assets to discard (or obtain, or use) based on gameplay style and portions of gameplay remaining. the item management control being configured to trigger management of the virtual item; [0043] describes an embodiment wherein the inventory coach determines that a player has a certain combat style and triggering the out put of a suggestion in weapons changes. [0044] describes another embodiment wherein the inventory coach determines a player is carrying too many extraneous virtual items, and if so, triggering a prompt to discard or sell certain items. [0068] describes that a suggestion engine 612 takes output 610 from a cluster classifier as input to identify one or more suggestions to make to a target player to which in-game data 604 pertains. Then in [0069], recommendations or suggestions are to be provided to a target player, in relation to optimizing existing resources in a player’s game inventory, wherein suggestions may include dropping (discarding) items. [0076]-[0077], describing Fig. 9, illustrates an indication 902 being output responsive to a certain stage of the game being reached at which elite players are known to drop a certain weapon. [0078] describes a player’s certain progress level triggering virtual inventory management, in this case to drop/discard a certain potion that is determined to be no longer needed for the remainder of play. displaying discard prompt information based on a determination that the virtual item is unusable by the virtual object; and controlling the virtual object to discard the virtual item in response to an end of the first operation. Fig. 10 diagrams a suggestion user interface prompting the player “You won’t need Magic Potion 53 for the rest of the game.” and advises the player to “Drop it so you can make room to pick up a pickaxe”. The player can, based on this advice, select UI element 1004, drop potion, to discard the potion item. Fig. 11 is an additional embodiment of a UI prompt that advises that a sniper rifle is unusable for this player who has been determined to prefer close-quarters combat. The user can correspondingly select UI element 1108 “Drop Sniper Rifle” to discard the sniper rifle item. Refer to text descriptions of these figures in [0078]-[00810]. Re claims 2, 13, because this claim does not provide any detail as to what features, functions, structure, or step limitations make up a “backpack interface”, a broadest reasonable interpretation is that any interface related to managing a player’s inventory, such as weapons carried, meets this limitation. A discard control operation in a backpack interface, then, is met by the examples such as Fig. 10. Re claims 3, 14, 16, in the examples shown in Figs. 9, 10, 11 a discard quantity of one of certain items can be determined and controlled – one pistol, one potion, and one sniper rifle, respectively. Re claims 4, 6, 15, [0057]-[0058] discuss recommending a player discard a plurality of exemplary items (small potions, cleansed water, bamboo) they are judged to have too many of when compared to clusters of reference players. This teaches sorting items and recommending discarding items held in highest or excess quantities. Re claims 5, 17, because this claim does not provide any detail as to what comprises a “pickup list window”, the UI displaying a list of user selectable options, see Figs. 9, 10 or 11, meets this limitation. Choosing, in Fig. 10, UI function no. 1004, “Drop Potion”, effects controlling a virtual character to discard the potion. Re claim 7, in Fig. 9, function no. 906 in which a player selects to switch to “Armor Y” is a use control in a display box. Similarly, in Fig. 10, function no. 1006, “Pickup Pickaxe” is a use control in a display box. Re claim 8, Fig. 9 illustrates suggesting that players who play similar to the player-of interest tend to pick up a sword at this point in the game. This teaches determining a supply type in the pickup window (sword) based on an object attribute of the virtual object (play style attribute of the player character) Re claims 9, 18, a discard prompt can be made based on the player’s current progress in the game including based on timestamp information and game progress (both indications of game duration). Re claims 10, 19, refer to the item discard prompt of Fig. 10. Re claim 12, 20, refer to the rejection of claim 1, wherein an apparatus and computer readable media for enabling the method are necessarily discussed in the rejection of the method . Allowable Subject Matter 12-151-08 AIA 07-43 12-51-08 Claim 11 is 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. Conclusion 07-96 AIA The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to STEVEN J HYLINSKI whose telephone number is (571)270-1995. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 10-530. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Dmitry Suhol can be reached at (571) 272-4430. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /STEVEN J HYLINSKI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715 Application/Control Number: 18/891,394 Page 2 Art Unit: 3715 Application/Control Number: 18/891,394 Page 3 Art Unit: 3715 Application/Control Number: 18/891,394 Page 4 Art Unit: 3715
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