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 § 101 – Non-Transitory
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The United States Patent and Trademark Office is obliged to give claims their broadest reasonable interpretation consistent with the specification during proceeding before the USPTO. See In re Zletz, 893 F.2d 319 (Fed. Cir. 1989) (during patent examination the pending claims must be interpreted broadly as their terms reasonably allow). The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim drawn to a computer-readable storage medium (also called machine readable medium and other such variations) typically covers forms of non-transitory tangible media and transitory propagating media, particularly when the specification is silent. See MPEP 2111.01. When the broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim covers a signal per se, the claim must be rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 101 as covering non-statutory subject matter. See In re Nuitjen, 500 F.3d 1346, 1356-1357 (Fed. Cir. 2007) (transitory embodiments are not directed to statutory subject matter). A claim drawn to such a computer 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.
Prior Art
There are currently no prior art rejections against claims 1-20.
The closest prior art includes “Steam (service)” from Wikipedia (hereinafter Steam Service) and “Steam Support: Setting Game Launch Options” (hereinafter Steam Support).
Together Steam Service and Steam Support describe the Steam client, a PC application that manages a user’s library of games, lets users organize/sort/add games, and provides an in-game overlay through which a player can manager selected Steam settings without exiting the game.
Steam Service differs from the claimed invention because it discloses an in-game overlay for accessing setting generally, but contains no disclosure of a “setting card” with discrete per-function controls, or of any mechanism synchronizing a setting’s state between an app-level UI and an in-game panel.
Steam Support differs from the claimed invention because its single freeform Launch Options text box is not a set of discrete setting controls corresponding to one of more functions, and it describes pre-launch configuration rather than a live, two-way synchronized setting shared between an app-level setting card and an in-game setting panel.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WERNER G GARNER whose telephone number is (571)270-7147. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:30-15:30 EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, DAVID LEWIS can be reached at (571) 272-7673. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/WERNER G GARNER/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715
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