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 has been issued in response to Applicant’s Communication of application S/N 18/944,292 filed on Nov. 11, 2024. Claims 1 to 20 are currently pending with the application.
Claim Objections
Claim 3 should likely say “the second display region” instead of “a second display region.”
Claims 5 and 6 objected to because of the following informalities: use “fourth input” and “fifth input” despite depending only from claim 1, which may create numbering confusion.
Claim 7 is grammatically unclear as to how the first and second operations are sequenced.
Appropriate correction is required.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. CN202210602272.3, filed on 05/30/20
22, and relationship to 371 PCT/CN2023/096094, filed on 05/224/2023.
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.
Claims 1, 4, 8 , 11, 15, 18, 19 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Wang (US CN 104142779 A) Published on Nov. 12, 2014.
As per Claims 1, 8 , 15, 19 and 20, A display control method, wherein the method comprises: in a case that a first interface is displayed, receiving a first input by a user, wherein the first interface comprises a first control; (See para.52, the user interface is displayed, when receiving the predetermined signal hiding at least one II control. See para.53, a predetermined signal may be an action of the user, gesture, or other predetermined trigger signal. For example, displayed on the user interface after receiving the user double-clicks the screen generated by predetermined signal hiding UI control; as taught by Wang)
canceling, in response to the first input, display of the first control and establishing an association between the first control and a first display region in the first interface; (See para.59, wherein the input control is hidden and is associated with a trigger area; as taught by Wang)
and performing a first operation corresponding to the first control in response to a second input by the user to the first display region; (See para.60, terminal the at least one widget is hidden by the corresponding trigger area for receiving the trigger signal, the trigger signal can be generated is the finger of user clicks touch screen trigger signal of mobile telephone, or computer display interface by user through mouse click trigger signal generated by the machine; as taught by Wang)
As per Claims 4, 11 and 18, Wang teaches The method according to claim 1, wherein the second input comprises a third sub-input and a fourth sub-input; and the performing a first operation corresponding to the first control in response to a second input by the user to the first display region comprises: displaying the first control in the first interface in response to the third sub-input by the user to the first display region; (See para.95, 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second input comprises a third sub-input and a fourth sub-input; and the performing a first operation corresponding to the first control in response to a second input by the user to the first display region comprises: displaying the first control in the first interface in response to the third sub-input by the user to the first display region; and performing the first operation corresponding to the first control in response to the fourth sub-input by the user to the first control; as taught by Wang)
and performing the first operation corresponding to the first control in response to the fourth sub-input by the user to the first control; (See para.94, terminal after obtaining the control logic of the II control, control logic of the execution control. terminal can trigger control logic of the game application program executing the hidden II control by operating system. For example, user clicks button generating a trigger signal, the trigger signal to trigger the button control instruction of the original control in the game character jump.; as taught by Wang)
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 2, 3, 5-7, 9, 10, 12-14 16, 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang (US CN 104142779 A) Published on Nov. 12, 2014 in view of Zhang (CN 106951143 A) Published on Jul. 14, 2017.
As per Claims 2, 9 and 16, the method according to claim 1, wherein the first input comprises a first sub-input and a second sub-input; the receiving a first input by a user comprises: receiving the first sub-input by the user to the first control;(See para.0052-0053, when the user interface is displayed, the terminal receives a predetermined signal to hide at least one UI control; the predetermined signal may be a user action, gesture, or double-click. as taught by Wang.)
and canceling, in response to the second sub-input, display of the first control in the first interface and establishing an association between the first control and the first display region in the first interface; wherein the second display region is a region corresponding to the first display region; (See para.59, wherein the input control is hidden and is associated with a trigger area; See para.60, terminal the at least one widget is hidden by the corresponding trigger area for receiving the trigger signal, the trigger signal can be generated is the finger of user clicks touch screen trigger signal of mobile telephone, or computer display interface by user through mouse click trigger signal generated by the machine; as taught by Wang)
Wang does not explicitly teach displaying a second interface corresponding to the first interface in response to the first sub-input; receiving the second sub-input by the user to a second display region in the second interface.
On the other hand Zhang teaches displaying a second interface corresponding to the first interface in response to the first sub-input; (See Zhang claim 6; FIG. 9 step 902; FIG. 10, “when the movement operation is finished, if the first icon and the third icon overlap, display selection interface.”)
receiving the second sub-input by the user to a second display region in the second interface; (See Zhang claim 6; FIG. 10; description of step 903, “if detecting the hidden option in the selection interface of the triggering operation, then the first icon is hidden in the third icon.”)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the teachings of the cited references and modify the invention as taught by Wang, by including the teachings of Zhang relating to the explicit association and multiple input sequences to create such association to provide a easy process of reducing the clutter while preserving control and functionality improving user operation efficiency
As per Claims 3, 10 and 17, The combination of Wang and Zhang teaches The method according to claim 2, wherein before the receiving the second sub-input by the user to a second display region in the second interface, the method further comprises: receiving a third input by the user to the second interface; (See para.92, the terminal corresponding to at least one II control the hidden trigger area after receiving the trigger signal, the acquisition control logic of UI control corresponding to the trigger signal of the trigger area.; as taught by Wang)
and determining the second display region in response to the third input; (See para.95, For example, when the finger of the user touches the touch screen and trigger button control, displaying the button control, and when the finger of the user leaves the touch screen again hiding the button controls. this can clearly inform the user that triggered by UI control which, and displaying the UI interface without affecting the state of the trigger signal under the action effect; as taught by Wang)
As per Claims 5, and 12, the method according to claim 1, wherein after the establishing an association between the first control and a first display region in the first interface, the method further comprises:
receiving a fourth input by the user to the first display region;(See claim 4; description of step 204; FIG. 6, “if detecting that a specified operation to the second icon,” where the second icon is associated with the hidden first icon; specified operation may include two touch points with increasing relative distance. As taught by Zhang.)
and displaying the first control at a target position in the first interface and canceling the association between the first control and the first display region in response to the fourth input; (See claim 4; description of step 205, “when the specified operation is finished, if the first icon and the second icon do not overlap, said first icon is displayed, and releasing said first icon and the association relation between the second icon”; terminal “recover[s] the first icon displayed on the desktop.” As taught by Zhang.)
As per Claims 6 and 13, the method according to claim 1, wherein after the establishing an association between the first control and a first display region in the first interface, the method further comprises: receiving a fifth input by the user to the first display region;(See claim 4; description of step 204; FIG. 6, “if detecting that a specified operation to the second icon,” the second icon being associated with the hidden first icon. As taught by Zhang.) and updating a display state of the first display region in response to the fifth input; wherein the display state comprises at least one of the following: position information, size information, or color information. (See description of FIG. 8, “when the terminal detects that the second icon specifying operation, the terminal can amplify the second icon, that is to increase the display size of the second icon to highlight display”; thus updating size information of the first display region; as taught by Zhang)
As per Claims 7 and 14, the method according to claim 1, wherein in a case that the first interface further comprises a third display region and the third display region has an association with a second control in the first interface, the method further comprises:
receiving a sixth input by the user to the first display region and the third display region;(See Wang, claim 1; ¶¶0054-0056, music interface includes multiple UI controls such as progress bar, previous button, pause/play button, next button that may be hidden; ¶0076, game control interface hides two operation button controls in lower-left and lower-right corners; ¶¶0038-0040, hidden UI controls have corresponding trigger areas that receive trigger signals. See also Zhang, claim 4; FIG. 6, specified operation has two touch points and relative distance between touch points increases continuously. As taught by Wang in view of Zhang.)
and performing, in response to the sixth input and based on an input parameter of the sixth input, the first operation corresponding to the first control in a target sequence and performing a second operation corresponding to the second control;(See Wang, claim 1; ¶¶0040-0043, terminal obtains and executes control logic corresponding to the hidden UI control whose trigger area receives the trigger signal; ¶0066 and ¶0094 provide examples of hidden controls executing corresponding operations. See Zhang, claims 4-5, outcome depends on input parameters such as whether the first icon and second icon overlap at the end of the specified operation..)
wherein the target sequence has an association with the input parameter of the sixth input; (See Wang para.94, terminal after obtaining the control logic of the II control, control logic of the execution control. terminal can trigger control logic of the game application program executing the hidden II control by operating system. For example, user clicks button generating a trigger signal, the trigger signal to trigger the button control instruction of the original control in the game character jump, See Zhang, claim 4; claim 5, the operation performed depends on gesture/input parameters such as overlap or non-overlap at the end of the specified operation; as taught by Zhang)
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHERIEF BADAWI whose telephone number is (571)272-9782. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 8:00am - 5:30pm, Alt Friday, EST.
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/SHERIEF BADAWI/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2169
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