DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to an application filed on December 27, 2024, in which claims 1 through 20 are pending, and ready for examination.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on November 25, 2025 was filed before the mailing date of a first Office Action on the merits. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Priority
Acknowledgement is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority based on an application filed in China, on or about November 25, 2021.
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
Claim Objections
Claims 1, 18, 19, and 20 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 1 recites, “an0”, which appears to be a typo.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claims 1, 18, 19, and 20 each recite, “… a chatroom set to be available to a subscriber account that subscribes to a chatroom usage pass…”.
For the sake of claim clarity (and to preclude an interpretation of the recited “chatroom set” being a single claim element), it appears that the claim(s) should include commas to recite, “… a chatroom, set to be available to a subscriber account that subscribes to a chatroom usage pass, …”.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 and 17-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Sung, et al., U.S. Pub. No. 2022/0210159 (hereinafter referred to as Sung).
With regard to claim 1, Sung discloses a method performed by a server (Sung, Fig. 1, Ref. 101), the method comprising: receiving a chatroom generation request from an0 operator terminal corresponding to an operator account (Sung, [0054]-[0075]); generating a chatroom set to be available to a subscriber account that subscribes to a chatroom usage pass in response to the chatroom generation request (Sung, [0054]-[0075]; under the broadest reasonable interpretation, disclosed certificate information is a “chatroom usage pass”); receiving a request to access the chatroom from a user terminal corresponding to a user account (Sung, [0054]-[0075]); and granting an access right for the chatroom to the user account based on the chatroom usage pass subscribed by the user account (Sung, [0054]-[0075]).
With regard to claim 17, Sung discloses a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform (Sung, [0108]) the method of claim 1 (See citations for claim 1).
With regard to claim 18, Sung discloses a server (Sung, Fig. 1, Ref. 101) comprising: one or more processors (Sung, [0107]-[0110]) configured to: receive a chatroom generation request from an operator terminal corresponding to an operator account (Sung, [0054]-[0075]); generate a chatroom set to be available to a subscriber account that subscribes to a chatroom usage pass in response to the chatroom generation request (Sung, [0054]-[0075]; under the broadest reasonable interpretation, disclosed certificate information is a “chatroom usage pass”); receive a request to access the chatroom from a user terminal corresponding to a user account (Sung, [0054]-[0075]); and grant an access right for the chatroom to the user account based on the chatroom usage pass subscribed by the user account (Sung, [0054]-[0075]).
With regard to claim 19, Sung discloses a method performed by a user terminal (Sung, Fig. 1, Ref. 102/103), the method comprising: transmitting a request to access a chatroom set to be available to a subscriber account that subscribes to a chatroom usage pass to a server (Sung, [0054]-[0075]; under the broadest reasonable interpretation, disclosed certificate information is a “chatroom usage pass”); and receiving an access right for the chatroom based on the chatroom usage pass subscribed by a user account corresponding to the user terminal, wherein the chatroom is generated in response to a chatroom generation request received from an operator terminal corresponding to an operator account (Sung, [0054]-[0075]).
With regard to claim 20, Sung discloses a user terminal comprising: one or more processors (Sung, [0107]-[0110]) configured to: transmit a request to access a chatroom set to be available to a subscriber account that subscribes to a chatroom usage pass to a server (Sung, [0054]-[0075]; under the broadest reasonable interpretation, disclosed certificate information is a “chatroom usage pass”); and receive an access right for the chatroom based on the chatroom usage pass subscribed by a user account corresponding to the user terminal, wherein the chatroom is generated in response to a chatroom generation request received from an operator terminal corresponding to an operator account (Sung, [0054]-[0075]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-16 are 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: See PTO-892.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to J. Brant Murphy whose telephone number is (571)272-6433. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 8am - 4pm.
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, Amir Mehrmanesh can be reached at 571-270-3351. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/J. BRANT MURPHY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2435
August 5, 2026
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