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 .
DETAILED ACTION
2. This action is in response to the Application filed February.
3. Claims 1-20 have been examined and are pending with this action.
4. The Information Disclosure Statement filed September 8, 2025 has been considered.
Claim Objections
5. Claim 13 is objected to because of the following informalities: Claim 13 recites the same limitations as claim 3 and therefore fails to further limit. There seems to be a typographical error in claim 13 as it depends on independent claim 1, but actually might depend on independent claim 10. Claim 13 has been examined as depending on claim 10 and not claim 1. Appropriate correction is required.
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
6. Claims 1-5 and 7-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Lee et al. (US 2020/0274841 A1).
INDEPENDENT:
As per claim 1, Lee teaches a method, comprising:
receiving, by a communication services platform via a first application programming interface (API) call from a first client device associated with a first user account, a first request to access a messaging conversation management service that permits the first user account to view and transfer text message conversations between other user accounts of a plurality of user accounts and a plurality of recipient devices (see Lee, [0055]: “With simultaneous reference to both FIGS. 7E and 8, at this point and illustrated at 741, API interface 806 is configured to receive a request from a user to retrieve messages related to the messaging group.”; [0057]: “With simultaneous reference to FIGS. 7F and 8, as illustrated in FIG. 7F, at 751, API interface 806 is configured to receive a request from user Robert to retrieve messages related to the messaging group.”; and [0081]: “Next, at 711, messaging system 800 receives the message at an API interface 806, which is configured to receive one or more messaging incoming from user(s) at a messaging group.”);
responsive to receiving the first request, determining whether the first user account is authorized to access the messaging conversation management service (see Lee, [0055]: “At 742, membership manager 802 is configured to verify that the user is a member included in the membership associated with the messaging group.”; [0057]: “At 752, membership manager 802 is configured to verify that user Robert was a previous member to the messaging group.”; and [0081]: “At 712, membership manager 802 is configured to verify the membership associated with the user to determine that the user is included in the membership associated with the messaging group and to optionally determine that the user has the permission to send a message to the current messaging group.”); and
responsive to determining that the first user account is authorized to access the messaging conversation management service, sending, to the first client device, a first indication of the text message conversations between the other user accounts of the plurality of user accounts and the plurality of recipient devices for display at the first client device (see Lee, [0055]: “At 743, channel manager 804 is configured to identify all the messages related to the messaging group. For example, the messages can include the entire message history associated with the messaging group or a recent portion thereof. Channel manager 804 is further configured to filter the messages to determine the messages that are accessible to the user.”; and [0057]: “Next at 753, archiver 818 is optionally configured to archive a copy of all the messages that are accessible to user Robert at the messaging group.”).
As per claim 10, Lee teaches a method, comprising:
sending, to a communication services platform via a first application programming interface (API) call by a first client device associated with a first user account, a first request to access a messaging conversation management service that permits the first user account to view and transfer text message conversations between other user accounts of a plurality of user accounts and a plurality of recipient devices (see Claim 1 rejection above);
receiving, by the first client device, a first indication of the text message conversations between the other user accounts of the plurality of user accounts and the plurality of recipient devices (see Claim 1 rejection above); and
displaying, at the first client device, the text message conversations between the other user accounts of the plurality of user accounts and the plurality of recipient devices (see Lee, [0042]: “Messaging system 102 may enable an interface to display messages received by members of the messaging group. Members of the messaging group that are present for the conversation may, in some embodiments, scroll through past messages of the messaging group.”; and [0044]: “In particular, messages of thread of message history 203 are displayed in a chronological order from top to bottom where the oldest previous message is displayed at the top of GUI 202 and the most recent previous message is displayed at the bottom of GUI 202. It will be appreciated that messages may be displayed in chronological order, reverse chronological order, based on a search or filter criteria, and/or the like.”).
As per claim 17, Lee teaches a system, comprising:
a memory (see Lee, [0007]: “An example system comprises processor and a memory coupled with the processor. The memory may be configured to provide the processor with instructions which when executed cause the processor to”; and [0124]: “the computer equipment comprises one or more processors (CPUs), input/output interfaces, network interfaces, and memory. Memory may include such forms as volatile storage devices in computer-readable media”); and
a processing device, coupled to the memory, configured to perform operations (see Lee, [0007]: “An example system comprises processor and a memory coupled with the processor. The memory may be configured to provide the processor with instructions which when executed cause the processor to”; and [0124]: “the computer equipment comprises one or more processors (CPUs), input/output interfaces, network interfaces, and memory. Memory may include such forms as volatile storage devices in computer-readable media”) comprising:
receiving, by a communication services platform via a first application programming interface (API) call from a first client device associated with a first user account, a first request to access a messaging conversation management service that permits the first user account to view and transfer text message conversations between other user accounts of a plurality of user accounts and a plurality of recipient devices (see Claim 1 rejection above);
responsive to receiving the first request, determining whether the first user account is authorized to access the messaging conversation management service (see Claim 1 rejection above); and
responsive to determining that the first user account is authorized to access the messaging conversation management service, sending, to the first client device, a first indication of the text message conversations between the other user accounts of the plurality of user accounts and the plurality of recipient devices for display at the first client device (see Claim 1 rejection above).
DEPENDENT:
As per claims 2, 12, and 18, which respectively depend on claims 1, 11, and 17, Lee further teaches wherein the first user account is not a participant in at least some of the text message conversations (see Lee, Abstract: “receiving a request to add a new member to the messaging group, the request including identity information of the new member and insertion information, the messaging group being associated with a thread of message history… adding the new member to the messaging group to enable the new member to communicate with other members of the messaging group and to see messages up to the insertion point.”; and [0078]: “At 765, delivery module 807 is configured to send a notification to the user to acknowledge the receipt and processing of the teleportation request, send a new membership notification to user Tim (e.g., in a real time manner or an asynchronous manner), and send a real time notification to the other members of the messaging group that user Tim has been added to the messaging group.”).
As per claims 3, 13, and 19, which respectively depend on claims 1, 11, and 17, Lee teaches further comprising:
receiving, via a second API call from the first client device, a second request to identify, among the plurality of user accounts, a subset of user accounts that are available to receive a transfer of a text messaging conversation that exchanged text messages between a second client device associated with a second user account of the other user accounts and a recipient device of the plurality of recipient devices (see Lee, [0077]: “With simultaneous reference to FIGS. 7G and 8, upon the user interacting with the “Add to Chat” button 438b, at 761, API interface 806 is configured to receive a request from the user to teleport user Tim to the messaging group. The request includes the user identity information of the new member to be teleported (e.g., Tim the plumber), as well as the insertion information with regard to at which point user Tim is to be teleported.”); and
responsive to receiving the second request, sending, to the first client device, a response identifying the subset of user accounts that are available to receive the transfer of the text messaging conversation (see Lee, [0078]: “At 765, delivery module 807 is configured to send a notification to the user to acknowledge the receipt and processing of the teleportation request, send a new membership notification to user Tim (e.g., in a real time manner or an asynchronous manner), and send a real time notification to the other members of the messaging group that user Tim has been added to the messaging group.”).
As per claim 4, which depends on claim 3, Lee teaches further comprising: identifying, among the plurality of user accounts permitted to receive the text messaging conversation, the subset of user accounts that are associated with an activity status indicating currently active to determine the subset of user accounts that are available to receive the transfer of the text messaging conversation (see Lee, [0052]: “In some embodiments, the adding user (e.g., Michelle) of the messaging group may confirm that the user to be added (e.g., Robert) is active (e.g., has an active status) and may be added to an existing conversation of the messaging group.”).
As per claims 5, 14, and 20, which respectively depend on claims 3, 13, and 19, Lee further teaches further comprising:
receiving, via a third API call from the first client device, a third request to transfer the text messaging conversation to a third user account identified among the subset of user accounts (see Claim 3 rejection above); and
responsive to receiving the second request, transferring the text messaging conversation including the text messages exchanged between the second client device and the recipient device to the third user account associated with a third client device to facilitate a continuation of the text messaging conversation with the recipient device (see Claim 3 rejection above).
As per claim 7, which depends on claim 1, Lee further teaches wherein at least some content of text messages of the text message conversations between the other user accounts of the plurality of user accounts and the plurality of recipient devices are to display at the first client device based on the first indication (see Lee, Abstract: “receiving a request to add a new member to the messaging group, the request including identity information of the new member and insertion information, the messaging group being associated with a thread of message history… adding the new member to the messaging group to enable the new member to communicate with other members of the messaging group and to see messages up to the insertion point.”).
As per claims 8 and 15, which respectively depend on claims 1 and 10, Lee teaches further comprising: sending, in real-time to the first client device, a second indication of a new text message of at least one of the text message conversations between the other user accounts of the plurality of user accounts and the plurality of recipient devices to update the display at the first client device (see Lee, [0002]: “With messages, users can communicate in a real-time or near real-time manner, as well as in many types of environments (e.g., homes, offices, restaurants, and the like).”).
As per claims 9 and 16, which respectively depend on claims 1 and 10, Lee further teaches wherein the text messaging conversations comprise text messages using one of a short messaging service (SMS) channel, a multimedia messaging service (MMS) channel, or an instant messaging service channel (see Lee, [0002]: “With messages, users can communicate in a real-time or near real-time manner, as well as in many types of environments (e.g., homes, offices, restaurants, and the like).”).
As per claim 11, which depends on claim 10, Lee further teaches wherein displaying, at the first client device, the text message conversations between the other user accounts of the plurality of user accounts and the plurality of recipient devices comprises: displaying at least some content of text messages of the text message conversations (see Lee, [0002]: “In order to share a portion of the historical messages of a conversation with the new user to the conversation, an existent user on the conversation has to manually capture (e.g., copy) a record of the conversation of interest between users prior to the point of time when a new user joined the conversation.”; and [0051]: “Next, at 726, teleporter 810 is configured to add Robert as a new member to the membership associated with the messaging group, as well as record which portion of the thread of message history of the messaging group is going to be accessible to the new member Robert.”).
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.
7. Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee et al. (US 2020/0274841 A1) in view of McGee et al. (US 2004/0019701 A1).
As per claim 6, which depends on claim 5, although Lee further teaches transferring the text messaging conversation to the third user account, Lee does not explicitly teach that the transferring is an unannounced transfer that refrains from providing a notification associated with the text messaging conversation indicating that the transfer has occurred.
McGee teaches an unannounced transfer that refrains from providing a notification associated with the text messaging conversation indicating that the transfer has occurred (see McGee, [0011]: “forwarding an invitation to blindly join the instant messaging session to an anonymous participant; and, if the anonymous participant accepts the invitation, forwarding subsequently posted messages to the anonymous participant without notifying the visible participants that the subsequently posted messages have been forwarded to the anonymous participant.”).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the system of Lee in view of McGee so that the transferring is an unannounced transfer that refrains from providing a notification associated with the text messaging conversation indicating that the transfer has occurred. One would be motivated to do so because McGee teaches such an implementation enables anonymous participants.
Conclusion
8. For the reasons above, claims 1-20 have been rejected and remain pending.
9. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL Y WON whose telephone number is (571)272-3993. The examiner can normally be reached on Wk.1: M-F: 8-5 PST & Wk.2: M-Th: 8-7 PST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Nicholas R Taylor can be reached on 571-272-3889. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Michael Won/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2443
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