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 § 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.
Claim(s) 1-8, 10, 12-15, and 17-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Age of Empires 2 video game including The Conquerors expansion released 8/25/2000 (hereinafter referred to as AOE2) (as evidenced by AOE2 manual, AOE2 wiki resources page, AOE2: conquerors expansion Wikipedia page).
In claim 1, 19, and 20, AOE2 discloses
Generating, at a first location in a virtual space, a first set of resource collection virtual units of a user in the virtual space, (AOE manual page 30 “creating villagers at the town center”) each resource collection virtual unit of the first set of resource collection virtual units being configured to automatically collect at least one resource associated with the first location (AOE2 manual page 30 “set a gather point at a forage bush so the villagers automatically forage for food as soon as they are created”)
Accumulating, for the first user, the at least one resource collected by the first set of resource collection virtual units based on a number of resource collection virtual units in the first set of resource collection virtual units and resource collection rates of the resource collection virtual units in the first set of resource collection virtual units (AOE resources page shows gather rates in AOE 2 as well as civilization bonuses, these affect the accumulation of resources)
In claim 2, AOE2 discloses a maximum number of the resource collection virtual units for the first location (AOE manual page 30, the maximum number of resource collection virtual units is set based on the maximum population number)
In claim 3, AOE2 discloses wherein a location of each of the first set of virtual units is fixed (AOE manual page 30 “set a gather point at a forage bush so the villagers automatically forage for food as soon as they are created”)
In claim 4, AOE2 discloses the resource collection rates at a time point in the game is proportional to the number of resource collection virtual units in the game at that time point and an elapsed time (AOE resources page shows gather rates in AOE 2 as well as civilization bonuses, these affect the accumulation of resources, and the gather rate is per villager, meaning that the collection rate is proportional to the number of resource collection virtual units)
In claim 5, AOE2 discloses the first set of resource collection virtual units is generated in association with generation of a core building of the user in the virtual scene, wherein the first location is associated with the core building (AOE2 wiki page 30, “town center”)
In claim 6, AOE2 discloses the first set of virtual units is generated at a start of a round in the virtual scene (it is noted by examiner that a “round” is an extremely broad phrase, and the prior art shows generations of units which is at the beginning of a round under BRI, such as at the beginning of a refresh within the game.)
In claim 7, AOE2 discloses each of the virtual units in the first set is configured to collect a first resource at a first collection rate (AOE2 wiki page 30 discloses collection of food, which is collected at the rate shown in the AOE resources page)
In claim 8, AOE2 discloses each of the virtual units in the first set is further configured to collect a second resource associated with the first location at a second resource collection rate (AOE2 resources pages shows other resources, such as wood)
In claim 10, AOE2 discloses displaying a real time status of an accumulated amount of the at least one resource (page 4)
In claim 12, AOE2 discloses generating an expansion virtual building in the virtual space and generating at a second location in the virtual scene, a second set of virtual units associated with the expansion virtual building and configured to automatically collect the at least one resource associated with the second location wherein the second location is associated with the expansion virtual building (AOE2 conquerors “Micromanagement is made easier by an improved scripted artificial intelligence of villagers and siege weapons. Villagers will now automatically commence gathering resources if they have completed the construction of a resource-gathering site”, examiners note, these resource gathering sites are sites such as lumber yards and mining camps)
In claim 13, AOE2 discloses each of the virtual units in the second set is configured to collect a first resource at a third resource collection rate and further comprising accumulating, for the user, the at least one resource collected by the second set of virtual units based on a number of the virtual units and the second set of virtual unijts and resource collection rates of the virtual units in the second set of virtual units (AOE2 wiki: resources)
In claim 14, AOE2 discloses each of the virtual units of the second set is configured to collect a second resource associated with the second location at a fourth resource collection rate (at mining camps, virtual units can collect both gold and stone)
In claim 15, AOE2 discloses the second set of virtual units is generated after a second predetermined period of time has elapsed after the generation of the expansion virtual building in the virtual scene (it is noted by examiner that the predetermined period of time may be 0, however the villagers take a preset amount of time to be generated)
In claiom 17, AOE2 discloses a maximum number of the resource collection units for the second locations is less than the maximum number of the resource collection virtual units for the first location (pages 26-27 teaches farm and fishing traps which have a maximum number of resource collection virtual units set to 1 rather than the maximum number of citizens)
In claim 18, AOE2 discloses the first set of resource collection virtual units continues to collect the at least one resource until a predetermined time elapses (First, it is noted by examiner that this limitation is taught by simply collecting a resource for a predetermined period of time, such as 1 second of time, and then just continuing to collect the resource, as the claims do not require the collection to end after the predetermined period of time, however further page 17 of AOE manual discloses that when a timer expires the game ends. The other way for the collection to potentially end is if a resource disappears, see page 26, the disappearance of a resource would be a predetermined time based on the collection rates and number of units.)
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.
Claim(s) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over AOE2.
In claim 9, AOE2 discloses the claimed invention except for simultaneous gathering of resources, however Official notice is taken that it was notoriously well known to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made that characters within games can perform multiple tasks at once, and it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine AOE2 with this well known technique in order to streamline and simplify gameplay (such as by accumulating stone and gold at the same time with a miner)
Claim(s) 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over AOE2 in view of Hawk (US 9511280).
In claim 11, AOE2 discloses the claimed invention except in response to reaching a first predetermined playing time of the user in the virtual scene, eliminating the first set of virtual units at the first location in the virtual scene, however Hawk discloses in response to reaching a first predetermined playing time of the user in the virtual scene, eliminating the first set of virtual units at the first location in the virtual scene (column 5 lines 59-67, column 6 lines 1-9 discloses a lifespan of a character). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine AOE2 with Hawk in order to provide a lifespan to the villagers to increase realism.
Claim(s) 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over AOE2 in view of Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim released March 21 2000 (as evidenced by Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim Wikipedia page)
In claim 16, AOE2 discloses the claimed invention except for the first set of resource collection virtual units are generated automatically independent of user control and are not controllable by the user, however Majesty discloses virtual units which cannot be controlled by the user (page 1 “In a major divergence from most real-time strategy games, the player does not have direct control over their units.”) and are not generated based on a user command (page 1, the users do not control the virtual units) It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine AOE2 with Majesty in order to allow for the mechanics of AOE2 to be implemented in a different known RTS gameplay style.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THOMAS HAYNES HENRY whose telephone number is (571)270-3905. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10-6.
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/THOMAS H HENRY/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715
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