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 § 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) 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Derek Bromenshenkel Et. Al. (Pat. Pub. US-20100122182-A1, herein after “Bromenshenkel”) in view of Akihiko Shirai Et. Al. (Pat. Pub. US-20230254449-A1, herein after “Shirai”).
In regard to claims 1, 12, & 17, Bromenshenkel teaches [a] computer system comprising:
a processor set “each client computer 110 includes a central processing unit (CPU) 102, which obtains instructions and data via a bus 111 from client memory 107 and client storage 104” (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0024]) additionally, it is noted that the processor can be in any form as required ¶ [0022];
one or more computer-readable storage media “Storage 124 includes hard-disk drives, flash memory devices, optical media and the like. In addition, memory 126 and storage 124 may be considered to include memory physically located elsewhere in a server 120” (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0022]); and
program instructions stored on the one or more computer-readable storage media to cause the processor set “CPU 102 is a programmable logic device that performs all the instruction, logic, and mathematical processing in a computer” (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0024]) which is stored to perform operations comprising:
determining an attention direction “user interaction may include, e.g., touching an object, picking up an object, looking at an object” (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0047]) where the field of view is the attention direction associated with the object being looked at ¶ [0027] associated with an avatar in a virtual space having two or more groups of additional avatars rendered therein “The avatar of the user is generally visible to other users in the virtual world, and the user may view avatars representing the other users” (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0027]) where users are present, wherein each of two or more conversations is associated with a respective group of the two or more groups;
determining, based on the attention direction, an interest prediction indicative of a predicted group of interest of the two or more groups “characteristics may be used to determine how much the user interacted with a virtual object 132, and thus to determine how much interest the user has in that particular virtual object 132” (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0031]) where characteristics, such as field of view or line of sight, are used to predict how interested a user is regarding a given virtual object; and
providing, based on the interest prediction and to a client associated with the avatar, experience enhancement data to cause an output device associated with the client to output an experience enhancement “client application 109 may determine that this type of car is of interest to the user, and may thus search for and identify any web content related to this type of car” (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0050]) for example, a car may be observed, then determined as an object of interest, and finally used for an experience enhancement for the client corresponding to a conversation associated with the predicted group of interest.
Bromenshenkel fails to explicitly teach a virtual space having two or more groups of additional avatars rendered therein
wherein each of two or more conversations is associated with a respective group of the two or more groups; and
where the experience enhancement is corresponding to a conversation associated with the predicted group of interest.
Shirai teaches a virtual space having two or more groups of additional avatars rendered therein “one talk room may be separated when a plurality of talk themes are specified in one talk room” (Shirai, ¶ [0194]) where a talk room is a virtual space of avatars based on a theme, the talk room can be read as a group of avatars, however, the talk room may additionally be split into groups of different conversation themes.
wherein each of two or more conversations is associated with a respective group of the two or more groups “one talk room may be separated when a plurality of talk themes are specified in one talk room (that is, when one talk room is divided into groups and conversations on different themes occur individually” (Shirai, ¶ [0194]) where each conversation is associated with a respective talk room or separate group from the plurality; and
where the experience enhancement is corresponding to a conversation associated with the predicted group of interest “ a display medium (for example, the display medium 302R in FIG. 3) or a theme display (for example, the theme display G1302 in FIG. 13) showing the guidance target talk theme may be emphasized more than others. As the specification of emphasis, for example, changing the color, enlarging the text, enlarging the picture, and attaching a recommendation mark may be applied” (Shirai, ¶ [0202]) where a talk theme of the group may be emphasized based on the guidance system for the user. Additionally, the term experience enhancement may be read as supplying notifications based on interest in the group (Shirai, ¶ [0195]), or a number of features that impact the user since the term is broad.
PNG
media_image1.png
510
442
media_image1.png
Greyscale
Shirai, Fig. 4, depicting a virtual presentation space (item 400R) as a talk room, where virtual users (items M1) are experiencing a presentation with a display medium (item 402R) outputting the theme. This may be read as a virtual space with a group of users having a conversation, there may be multiple talk rooms, and based on the talk room, an experience enhancement such as the theme, may be displayed to the user.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the method of interest predictions and attention tracking taught by Bromenshenkel with the method of group experiences taught by Shirai to automatically assign or provide enhanced experiences to a user based on the user’s attention and predicted interest. The suggestion/motivation to do so would have been to allow for the user to automatically join conversations based on their interest and avoid extra manual steps.
In regard to claim 12, claim 1 is substantially similar to claim 12, hence the rejection analysis for claim 1 is also applied to claim 12. Bromenshenkel in view of Shirai teach the additional limitations of [a] computer-implemented method comprising:
determining an attention direction (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0027] & [0047]) associated with an avatar in a virtual space having two or more groups of additional avatars rendered therein (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0027]), wherein each of two or more conversations is associated with a respective group of the two or more groups (Shirai, ¶ [0194]);
determining, based on the attention direction, an interest prediction (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0031]) indicative of a predicted conversation of interest of the two or more conversations (Shirai, ¶ [0202]); and
providing, based on the interest prediction and to a client associated with the avatar, experience enhancement data to cause an output device associated with the client to output an experience enhancement corresponding to the predicted conversation of interest (Shirai, ¶ [0195] & [0202]).
In regard to claim 17, claim 1 is substantially similar to claim 17, hence the rejection analysis for claim 1 is also applied to claim 17. Bromenshenkel in view of Shirai teach the additional limitations of [a] computer program product comprising:
one or more computer-readable storage media “The program(s) of the program product defines functions of the embodiments (including the methods described herein) and can be contained on a variety of computer-readable storage media” (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0019]); and
program instructions stored on the one or more computer-readable storage media to perform operations “Such communications media, when carrying computer-readable instructions that direct the functions of the present invention” (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0019]) comprising:
determining an attention direction (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0027] & [0047]) associated with an avatar in a virtual space having two or more groups of additional avatars rendered therein (Shirai, ¶ [0194]);
determining, based on the attention direction, an interest prediction (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0031]) indicative of a predicted group of interest of the two or more groups of additional avatars (Shirai, ¶ [0194]); and
providing, based on the interest prediction and to a client associated with the avatar, experience enhancement data to cause an output device associated with the client to output an experience enhancement corresponding to the predicted group of interest (Shirai, ¶ [0195] & [0202]).
In regard to claims 2 & 13, Bromenshenkel in view of Shirai teach [t]he computer system of claim 1, wherein determining the attention direction comprises:
determining a gaze direction of the avatar, wherein the attention direction is based on the gaze direction “user interaction may include, e.g., touching an object, picking up an object, looking at an object” (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0047]) where the field of view, or gaze direction, is the attention direction associated with the object being looked at ¶ [0027].
In regard to claim 13, claim 2 is substantially similar to claim 13, hence the rejection analysis for claim 2 is also applied to claim 13. Bromenshenkel in view of Shirai teach the additional limitations of [t]he method of claim 12, wherein determining the attention direction comprises:
determining a gaze direction of the avatar, wherein the attention direction is based on the gaze direction (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0047]).
In regard to claims 3 & 14, Bromenshenkel in view of Shirai teach [t]he computer system of claim 1, wherein determining the attention direction comprises:
determining a direction of movement of the avatar, wherein the attention direction is based on the direction of movement “Such a user interaction may include, e.g., touching an object, picking up an object, looking at an object, walking into a virtual building, operating an object, etc.” (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0047]) where walking into a building, or entering a building in virtual space can be read as a direction of movement that determines an attention direction. Additionally, picking up an object may be read as a direction of movement, where the attention direction is based on the movement, as picking up an object is a movement that has an interaction with an object.
In regard to claim 14, claim 3 is substantially similar to claim 14, hence the rejection analysis for claim 3 is also applied to claim 14. Bromenshenkel in view of Shirai teach the additional limitations of [t]he method of claim 12, wherein determining the attention direction comprises:
determining a direction of movement of the avatar, wherein the attention direction is based on the direction of movement (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0047]).
In regard to claims 4 & 15, Bromenshenkel in view of Shirai teach [t]he computer system of claim 1, wherein determining the interest prediction comprises:
obtaining profile data associated with at least one of the avatar or a user associated with the avatar “client storage 104 may store a client profile 106 and a web profile 116” (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0031]) where profile data can be collected and stored for the user; and
determining the interest prediction using a machine learning component that takes, as input, the attention direction and the profile data “Client profile 106 may be a data structure describing a user's interactions with virtual objects 132 while using client application 109” (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0031]) where the profile data is a structure of interests and interactions, and may be used in an algorithm to generate corresponding content “a virtual object 132 may be considered to be of interest to the user based on the interaction with the virtual object, including the type of interaction, duration of interaction, etc. For example, assume client profile 106 indicates that the user spent a given amount of time interacting with a virtual representation of a particular type of car while using client application 109. In this case, client application 109 may determine that this type of car is of interest to the user” (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0050]).
In regard to claim 15, claim 4 is substantially similar to claim 15, hence the rejection analysis for claim 4 is also applied to claim 15. Bromenshenkel in view of Shirai teach the additional limitations of [t]he method of claim 12, wherein determining the interest prediction comprises:
obtaining profile data associated with at least one of the avatar or a user associated with the avatar (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0031]); and
determining the interest prediction based on the attention direction and the profile data (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0031] & [0050]).
In regard to claim 5, Shirai teaches [t]he computer system of claim 1, the operations further comprising:
generating the experience enhancement data based on the interest prediction, wherein the experience enhancement data comprises a summary of the conversation of the predicted group of interest “the talk theme specified by the theme specifying unit 152 does not always have to be a specific word, and may be a summary of the content of the conversation or a partial excerpt of the conversation” (Shirai, ¶ [0165]) where the talk theme is data regarding the conversation topic of the talk room, ant the talk theme can be a summary of the talk room contents.
Shirai fails to teach of an interest prediction.
Bromenshenkel teaches of an interest prediction “characteristics may be used to determine how much the user interacted with a virtual object 132, and thus to determine how much interest the user has in that particular virtual object 132” (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0031]).
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the method of interest prediction taught by Bromenshenkel with the method of group experience enhancement data taught by Shirai to automatically provide a conversation summary to a user based on the user’s predicted interest. The suggestion/motivation to do so would have been to allow for the user to quickly understand exactly what the group conversation is about once they are interested.
In regard to claims 6 & 16, Shirai teaches [t]he computer system of claim 1, the operations further comprising:
generating the experience enhancement data based on the interest prediction, wherein the experience enhancement data comprises a keyword of the conversation of the predicted group of interest “the talk theme may be specified by extracting a keyword in a conversation held in a talk room” (Shirai, ¶ [0089]) where the talk theme is used to label the talk rooms for users to join and can be output to the user in various ways as an experience enhancement.
Shirai fails to teach of an interest prediction.
Bromenshenkel teaches of an interest prediction “characteristics may be used to determine how much the user interacted with a virtual object 132, and thus to determine how much interest the user has in that particular virtual object 132” (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0031]).
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the method of interest prediction taught by Bromenshenkel with the method of group experience enhancement data taught by Shirai to automatically provide a conversation keyword to a user based on the user’s predicted interest. The suggestion/motivation to do so would have been to allow for the user to quickly understand exactly what the group conversation is about once they are interested.
In regard to claim 16, claim 6 is substantially similar to claim 16, hence the rejection analysis for claim 6 is also applied to claim 16. Bromenshenkel in view of Shirai teach the additional limitations of [t]he method of claim 12, further comprising:
generating the experience enhancement data based on the interest prediction, wherein the experience enhancement data comprises at least one of a summary of the conversation of interest or a keyword of the conversation of interest (Shirai, ¶ [0089] & [0165]) & (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0031]).
In regard to claims 7 & 18, Shirai teaches [t]he computer system of claim 1, the operations further comprising:
obtaining conversation data associated with the conversation of the predicted group of interest “FIG. 17 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of data in a talk history storage unit 140” (Shirai, ¶ [0126]) where communication data and talk room data are captured and stored;
PNG
media_image2.png
810
478
media_image2.png
Greyscale
Shirai, Figs. 16-19, depicting various storage and capture of talk room and conversation data.
determining that a first language associated with the avatar is different than a second language corresponding to the conversation data “ in the talk history storage unit 140, items of theme information, location information, avatar information, time information, and language information are associated with each talk ID” (Shirai, ¶ [0129]) and “when the conversation is held in two or more languages, the language information may include two or more languages” (Shirai, ¶ [0136]); and
generating, based on the conversation data, a translation of at least a portion of the conversation of the predicted group of interest, wherein the experience enhancement data comprises the translation “when the language of the conversation held in the talk room is different from the language of the self-user, the auxiliary information output unit 268 may output a translation” (Shirai, ¶ [0263]) where translating the conversation is possible, in addition to using subtitles or altering the room ID to include the spoken languages.
Shirai fails to teach of an interest prediction.
Bromenshenkel teaches of an interest prediction “characteristics may be used to determine how much the user interacted with a virtual object 132, and thus to determine how much interest the user has in that particular virtual object 132” (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0031]).
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the method of interest prediction taught by Bromenshenkel with the method of conversation translation taught by Shirai to automatically provide a conversation translation to a user based on the user’s language. The suggestion/motivation to do so would have been to allow for the user to quickly understand exactly what the group conversation is about once they are interested.
In regard to claim 18, claim 7 is substantially similar to claim 18, hence the rejection analysis for claim 7 is also applied to claim 18. Bromenshenkel in view of Shirai teach the additional limitations of [t]he computer program product of claim 17, the operations further comprising:
obtaining conversation data associated with a conversation of the predicted group of interest (Shirai, ¶ [0126]) & (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0031]);
determining that a first language associated with the avatar is different than a second language corresponding to the conversation data (Shirai, ¶ [0129] & [0136]); and
generating, based on the conversation data, a translation of at least a portion of the conversation of the predicted group of interest (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0031]), wherein the experience enhancement data comprises the translation (Shirai, ¶ [0263]).
In regard to claims 8 & 19, Shirai teaches [t]he computer system of claim 1, the operations further comprising:
determining a first regional profile based on a profile associated with the avatar “the avatar information may include a participation attribute of each participating avatar M1 (attribute as to whether each participating avatar M1 is located in the region R1 …” (Shirai, ¶ [0134]) where avatar information, read as a profile, can include a region;
obtaining gesture data associated with a gesture performed by an additional avatar of the predicted group of interest “the input unit 24 may be capable of receiving non-contact user input such as voice input, gesture input, and line-of-sight input” (Shirai, ¶ [0079]) where certain inputs or body movements are gesture inputs;
determining a second regional profile based on at least one of a profile associated with the additional avatar or a set of contextual data associated with the conversation of the predicted group of interest “the avatar information may include attribute information indicating attributes of each avatar. For example, attribute information may be generated based on information registered in the account or profile (gender, preferences, and the like)” (Shirai, ¶ [0134]) where avatar information can be for each avatar, and include region of location; and
generating, based on a difference between the first regional profile and the second regional profile, contextual gesture information associated with the gesture, wherein the experience enhancement data comprises the contextual gesture information “participating avatars may “clap” or send a “peace” sign in the direction of another user who is approaching, all at once or individually. In addition to this, for example, it is possible to ask for a “handshake” or pose such as “beckoning” or “hug”. On the other hand, when another user leaves the circle, the participating avatars may wave their hands to say “bye-bye”, put their hands together to say “sorry”, or raise their hands to say “see you later”” (Shirai, ¶ [0293]) where users may gesture, or emote, to other avatars based on their proximity and movement, additionally, “the same pose may be perceived differently depending on the country (for example, a pose that is harmless in one country may be perceived as an insulting pose in another country). Therefore, for each nationality of other users, consideration may be given to appropriately correspond to the emotional expression at that time” (Shirai, ¶ [0293]) where based on a user’s location, offensive gestures can be altered given context.
Shirai fails to teach of an interest prediction; and
Bromenshenkel teaches of an interest prediction “characteristics may be used to determine how much the user interacted with a virtual object 132, and thus to determine how much interest the user has in that particular virtual object 132” (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0031]).
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the method of interest prediction taught by Bromenshenkel with the method of gestures or emotes based on a user’s location taught by Shirai to allow avatars to gesture to each other within the virtual space. The suggestion/motivation to do so would have been to allow for an enhanced experience where avatars can create physical motions to communicate.
In regard to claim 19, claim 8 is substantially similar to claim 19, hence the rejection analysis for claim 8 is also applied to claim 19. Bromenshenkel in view of Shirai teach the additional limitations of [t]he computer program product of claim 17, the operations further comprising:
determining a first regional profile based on a profile associated with the avatar (Shirai, ¶ [0134]);
obtaining gesture data associated with a gesture performed by an additional avatar of the predicted group of interest (Shirai, ¶ [0079]) & (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0031]);
determining a second regional profile based on at least one of a profile associated with the additional avatar or a set of contextual data associated with a conversation of the predicted group of interest (Shirai, ¶ [0134]); and
generating, based on a difference between the first regional profile and the second regional profile, contextual gesture information associated with the gesture, wherein the experience enhancement data comprises the contextual gesture information (Shirai, ¶ [0293]).
In regard to claims 9 & 20, Bromenshenkel in view of Shirai teach [t]he computer system of claim 1, the operations further comprising:
detecting a movement of the avatar towards the predicted group of interest “client application 109 (shown in FIG. 1) may detect a user interacting with a virtual object 132 included in virtual world 130. Such an user interaction may include, e.g., touching an object, picking up an object, looking at an object, walking into a virtual building” (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0047]) where movement towards an object of interest can be detected; and
providing, based on the movement and to the client, additional experience enhancement data to cause the output device to output an additional experience enhancement corresponding to the predicted group of interest.
Bromenshenkel fails to teach a group of interest; and
providing, based on the movement and to the client, additional experience enhancement data to cause the output device to output an additional experience enhancement corresponding to the predicted group of interest.
Shirai teaches a group of interest “each user can freely participate in the talk room, but the talk room in which each user can participate may differ depending on the attributes of the user” (Shirai, ¶ [0286]) where talk rooms are virtual spaces for groups of avatars to communicate; and
providing, based on the movement and to the client, additional experience enhancement data to cause the output device to output an additional experience enhancement corresponding to the predicted group of interest “a region R1 with a first attribute and a region R2 with a second attribute may be provided in the virtual space. The region R1 may be a region where the user can view the details (conversation voice, chat text, and the like) of the conversation in the virtual space and can have his or her own conversation, while the region R2 is a region where the user can view the details of the conversation in the virtual space but cannot have his or her own conversation” (Shirai, ¶ [0095]) once a user is in a closer region to the virtual room, they are able to view the details of the room or participate respectively which is read as an experience enhancement based on movement.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the method of movement detection taught by Bromenshenkel with the method of providing a conversation details based on proximity taught by Shirai to enhance the user experience based on which groups they are near. The suggestion/motivation to do so would have been to allow for the user to move within the virtual space and enjoy an enhanced experience based on proximity to other groups.
In regard to claim 20, claim 9 is substantially similar to claim 20, hence the rejection analysis for claim 9 is also applied to claim 20. Bromenshenkel in view of Shirai teach the additional limitations of [t]he computer program product of claim 17, the operations further comprising:
detecting a movement of the avatar (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0047]) towards the predicted group of interest (Shirai, ¶ [0286]); and
providing, based on the movement and to the client, additional experience enhancement data to cause the output device to output an additional experience enhancement corresponding to the predicted group of interest (Shirai, ¶ [0095]).
In regard to claim 10, Bromenshenkel in view of Shirai teach [t]he computer system of claim 1, the operations further comprising:
obtaining, from the client, a user input comprising an indication of disinterest in the conversation associated with the predicted group of interest “when an avatar presumed to be wandering around without finding a desired talk room is detected, the user extraction unit 164 may extract the avatar” (Shirai, ¶ [0196]) where an idle user may be guided to a room to participate in;
determining, based on the user input, an additional interest prediction associated with an additional predicted group of interest “The user extraction unit 164 may extract a user to be guided based on a guidance request input from the user, or automatically extract an avatar to be guided based on the movement of the avatar in the virtual space” (Shirai, ¶ [0196]) where a user may request to be guided to a room, which is read as a user input providing an interest associated with an additional group; and
providing, based on the additional interest prediction, additional experience enhancement data to cause the output device to output an additional experience enhancement corresponding to the additional predicted group of interest “When the guidance target talk theme is determined for one user to be guided, the guidance processing unit 166 may perform guidance processing so that the avatar associated with the one user to be guided … can easily reach the talk room associated with the guidance target talk theme” (Shirai, ¶ [0202]) where a talk theme for the user is determined and the user is guided to a room with the determined talk theme.
In regard to claim 11, Bromenshenkel in view of Shirai teach [t]he computer system of claim 1, the operations further comprising:
obtaining avatar tracking information associated with at least one of the attention direction, a movement of the avatar, or a participation of the avatar in the conversation associated with the predicted group of interest “user interaction may include, e.g., touching an object, picking up an object, looking at an object” (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0047]) where user interactions are recieved, which includes an attention direction, or direction where the avatar is looking, and is fed to system; and
providing the avatar tracking information to a profile engine to cause the profile engine to update a profile associated with the avatar based on the avatar tracking information “client application 109 may store data describing the user's interaction with virtual object 132 in client profile 106” (Bromenshenkel, ¶ [0048]) where the object interaction data, such as looking at the object, is added to the client profile.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Vishal Punwani Et. Al. (Pat. Pub. US-20220124130-A1) discloses a virtual environment with conversation interfaces for avatars to interact within, as well as a grouping aspect (abstract).
Benjamin Boesel Et. Al. (Pat. Pub. WO-2023200813-A1) discloses a virtual space with avatars that may interact within the environment, as well as a system capable of locating and tracking the avatars.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CAIDEN ALEXANDER USSERY whose telephone number is (571)272-1192. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday* 7:30AM - 5PM.
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, Tammy Goddard can be reached at (571) 272-7773. 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.
/C.A.U./Examiner, Art Unit 2611
/TAMMY GODDARD/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2611
Prosecution Insights