DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application 19/075,460, filed on 03/10/2025, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A preliminary amendment, which filed on 05/27/2025 is acknowledged. Claims 1-16 are canceled. New claims 17-36 are added. Thus, claims 17-36 are pending.
Drawings
2. The drawings received on 03/10/2025 are accepted by the Examiner.
Information Disclosure Statement
3. The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 03/10/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Priority
4. Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for continuation applications:
No. 18/629,870 filed on 11/23/2022, Patent No.12248474, which is a continuation of
No. 15/857,440 filed on 12/28/2017, which is abandoned.
No. 14/837,771, filed on 12/19/2008, which is abandoned.
Double Patenting
5. The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory obviousness-type double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); and In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on a nonstatutory double patenting ground provided the conflicting application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with this application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement.
Effective January 1, 1994, a registered attorney or agent of record may sign a terminal disclaimer. A terminal disclaimer signed by the assignee must fully comply with 37 CFR 3.73(b).
Claims 17-36 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory obvious double patenting over claims 1-16 of Patent No.: 12,248,474 B2. The subject matter claimed in the instant application is disclosed in the Patent No.: US 14,248,474 B2. For example:
Patent No.: US 12,248,474 B2
Instant Application.: 19/075,460
1. A computer-implemented method, comprising: under control of one or more computing systems configured with executable instructions,
receiving from a first user a request for an object identifier to include in a communication between the first user and a second user, wherein: the communication includes a first message sent from the first user to the second user; the communication includes a second message sent from the second user to the first user; and the first message and the second message were sent at a time prior to receiving from the first user the request; processing the first message and the second message to determine a context corresponding to the communication; determining a candidate suggestion set that includes a plurality of object identifiers associated with the first user, wherein each of the plurality of object identifiers are determined based at least in part on the context;
removing from the candidate suggestion set a first object identifier of the plurality of object identifiers that is associated with the second user; and
presenting to the first user at least one of the plurality of object identifiers included in the candidate suggestion set for selection by the first user to include in the communication between the first user and the second user.
12. A method,
comprising: receiving at a computing device a request from a first user for a first object identifier to include in a communication from the first user to a second user;
determining a second object identifier associated with the second user; determining a plurality of object identifiers associated with the first user that are similar to the second object identifier;
selecting the first object identifier from the plurality of object identifiers such that the first object identifier is not associated with the second user; and providing, at the computing device, the first object identifier to the first user for inclusion in the communication from the first user to the second user.
17. A method
comprising:
receiving, from a first user, a request for an object identifier;
determining a candidate suggestion set, the suggestion set including a plurality of object identifiers associated with the first user; determining one or more object identifiers of the plurality of object identifiers that are associated with a second user;
removing the one or more object identifiers of the plurality of object identifiers from the candidate suggestion set; and providing for presentation to the first user at least one of
the object identifiers remaining in the candidate suggestion set, the at least one of the object identifiers being provided for selection by the first user.
25. A system comprising: one or more computers having one or more processors and one or more computer-readable storage medium storing program instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising: receiving, from a first user, a request for an object identifier;
determining a candidate suggestion set, the suggestion set including a plurality of object identifiers associated with the first user; determining one or more object identifiers of the plurality of object identifiers that are associated with a second user;
removing the one or more object identifiers of the plurality of object identifiers from the candidate suggestion set; and providing for presentation to the first user at least one of the object identifiers remaining in the candidate suggestion set, the at least one of the object identifiers being provided for selection by the first user.
1.
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.
Claims 17, 19, 21, 24, 25, 27, 29 and 32 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a)(1) as being anticipated by Shi et al. (US 2013/0151539 A1), hereinafter Shi.
Referring to claims 17 and 25, Shi discloses a method (See para. [0065] and Figure 7, one or more computers having processor(s) and a tangible computer readable medium storing computer executable instructions) comprising:
receiving, from a first user, a request for an object identifier (See para. [0028], para. [0041], para. [0042] and Figure 4, receiving from a user of a social network system requests a page of content, the system’s web server 101 forwards a set of information pertaining to the request to recommendation engine 112, the request is associated with requester’s user ID, a page ID of the requested page and a set of objects that have identifiers, attributes and etc.);
determining a candidate suggestion set, the suggestion set including a plurality of object identifiers associated with the first user (See para. [0038], para. [0041] - para. [0044] and Figure 4, the recommendation engine 112 transmits the user ID, the page ID and calculates expected values for each individual candidate object received from recommendation candidate index 301, note the individual candidate IDs are transmitted as large vectors or arrays, note in para. [0038], determining a list of candidates and a recommendation candidate index transmits identifiers for the candidate objects);
determining one or more object identifiers of the plurality of object identifiers that are associated with a second user (See para. [0038], para. [0043], the recommendation engine 112 determines a set of objects to be recommended by the user ID and the users [e.g. second and other users] contained within the requested page); removing the one or more object identifiers of the plurality of object identifiers from the candidate suggestion set (See para. [0043], the recommendation engine 112 communicates with a recommendation candidate index 301 to filter the set of objects to be recommended by the user ID and the users contained within the request page, for example, for a particular page context only objects of a certain type that are owned by friends of the request user may be suggested); and
providing for presentation to the first user at least one of the object identifiers remaining in the candidate suggestion set, the at least one of the object identifiers being provided for selection by the first user (See para. [0044]-para. [0049], recommendation engine 112 ranks all the candidate objects and renders a predetermined number of the candidate objects having the highest expected value to the user. In particular embodiments, the highest ranked candidate objects may be displayed on the right-hand column of a profile page).
As to claims 19 and 27, Shi discloses wherein determining the one or more object identifiers associated with the second user comprises determining whether any object identifiers of the plurality of object identifiers were previously viewed by the second user (See para. [0030] and para. [0034], the social networking system 100 utilizes a heuristic model based on the viewing user's previous viewing history to calculate an expected value for each user object candidate to be displayed to the viewing user).
As to claims 21 and 29, Shi discloses determining a set associated with the second user that includes at least one second object identifier (See para. [0043], the recommendation engine 112 determines a set of objects to be recommended by the user ID and the users contained within the requested page); determining a context corresponding to the set; and determining the plurality of object identifiers associated with the first user that are also associated with the context (See para. [0030] and Figures 2 and 2A, when a user is viewing his or her profile page, the user may be most interested in connecting with new users, rather than, for example, browsing his or her existing connections' photo albums. In particular embodiments, social networking system takes into account the user's current page context in determining the type of objects to recommend to the user. Even having filtered the potential objects, for didactic purposes in FIG. 2, to new users, social networking system 100 must determine which users the viewing user will find the most interesting, or, in other words, which users the viewing user is most likely to click on).
As to claims 24 and 32, Shi discloses wherein determining the candidate suggestion set comprises determining object identifiers relevant to the first user, and wherein a relevance of an object identifier to the first user is based on one or more of user interactions with object identifier, a number of sets associated with the first user that include the object identifier, or a frequency with which the object identifier is shared with other users (See para. [0030] and Figure 2 and 2A, the right-hand column 205 includes a specific object within social networking system 100 that may be scored and ranked specifically for the user such that the most interesting content is delivered on the right-hand column. For example, when a user is viewing his or her profile page, the user may be most interested in connecting with new users, rather than, for example, browsing his or her existing connections' photo albums. In particular embodiments, social networking system takes into account the user's current page context in determining the type of objects to recommend to the user. Even having filtered the potential objects, for didactic purposes in FIG. 2, to new users, social networking system 100 must determine which users the viewing user will find the most interesting, or, in other words, which users the viewing user is most likely to click on. In particular embodiments, social networking system utilizes a heuristic model based on the viewing user's previous viewing history to calculate an expected value for each user object candidate to be displayed to the viewing user).
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.
Claims 18, 20, 26, 28 and 33-36 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shi (US 2013/0151539 A1) and in view of Rodriguez et al. (US 2018/0367483 A1), hereinafter Rodriguez.
As to claims 18 and 26, Shi discloses determine a context corresponding to a communication; and determining the candidate suggestion set based at least in part on the determined context (See para. [0031] and 2A, a social networking system 100 may filter the list of candidate objects based on the currently requested page context).
Shi does not explicitly disclose determining a communication between the first user and the second user, the communication including: a first message sent from the first user to the second user; and a second message sent from the second user to the first user
Rodriguez discloses determining a communication between the first user and the second user, the communication including: a first message sent from the first user to the second user; and a second message sent from the second user to the first user (See para. [0009] and para. [0346], determining a suggestion event in a communication between a first user and a second user, receiving second user input received from the first user in the first chat).
Therefore, it 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 was made to modify the Shi’s system to include a communication between a first user and the second user, the communication including a first message sent from the first user to the second user; and a second message sent from the second user to the first user, as taught by Rodriguez. Skilled artisan would have been motivated to enable users to respond quickly to messages when user selects a suggest item. The suggested items enable faster interaction., e.g., by reducing or eliminating the need for a user to type a response (See Rodriquez, para. [0072]). In addition, both references (Rodriquez and Shi) teach features that are directed to analogous art and they are directed to the same field of endeavor, such as suggesting items to users. This close relation between both references highly suggests an expectation of success.
As to claims 20 and 28, Shi discloses determining a first object identifier previously included in a communication […]; determining a context associated with the first object identifier; and determining the plurality of object identifiers associated with the first user that are also associated with the context (See para. [0043], the recommendation engine 112 determines a set of objects to be recommended by the user ID and the users contained within the requested page context).
Shi does not explicitly disclose determining a communication between the first user and the second user.
Rodriguez discloses determining a communication between the first user and the second user (See para. [0009] and para. [0346], determining a suggestion event in a communication between a first user and a second user, receiving second user input received from the first user in the first chat).
Therefore, it 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 was made to modify the Shi’s system to include a communication between a first user and the second user, the communication including a first message sent from the first user to the second user; and a second message sent from the second user to the first user, as taught by Rodriguez. Skilled artisan would have been motivated to enable users to respond quickly to messages when user selects a suggest item. The suggested items enable faster interaction., e.g., by reducing or eliminating the need for a user to type a response (See Rodriquez, para. [0072]). In addition, both references (Rodriquez and Shi) teach features that are directed to analogous art and they are directed to the same field of endeavor, such as suggesting items to users. This close relation between both references highly suggests an expectation of success.
Referring to claim 33, Shi discloses a system comprising: one or more computers having one or more processors and one or more computer-readable storage medium (See para. [0065]-para. [0067] and Figure 7, a computer system comprises a processor 702, a cache memory 704, and one or more executable modules and drivers, stored on a tangible computer readable medium) storing program instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:
receiving from a first user a request for an object identifier […] (See para. [0028], para. [0041], para. [0042] and Figure 4, receiving from a user of a social network system requests a page of content, the system’s web server 101 forwards a set of information pertaining to the request to recommendation engine 112, the request is associated with requester’s user ID, a page ID of the requested page and a set of objects that have identifiers, attributes and etc.);
determining a candidate suggestion set that includes a plurality of object identifiers associated with the first user (See para. [0038], para. [0041] - para. [0044] and Figure 4, the recommendation engine 112 transmits the user ID, the page ID and calculates expected values for each individual candidate object received from recommendation candidate index 301, note the individual candidate IDs are transmitted as large vectors or arrays, note in para. [0038], determining a list of candidates and a recommendation candidate index transmits identifiers for the candidate objects), wherein each of the plurality of object identifiers are determined based at least in part on the context (See para. [0030] and Figures 2 and 2A, when a user is viewing his or her profile page, the user may be most interested in connecting with new users, rather than, for example, browsing his or her existing connections' photo albums. In particular embodiments, social networking system takes into account the user's current page context in determining the type of objects to recommend to the user. Even having filtered the potential objects, for didactic purposes in FIG. 2, to new users, social networking system 100 must determine which users the viewing user will find the most interesting, or, in other words, which users the viewing user is most likely to click on);
removing from the candidate suggestion set a first object identifier of the plurality of object identifiers that is associated with the second user (See para. [0043], the recommendation engine 112 communicates with a recommendation candidate index 301 to filter the set of objects to be recommended by the user ID and the users contained within the request page, for example, for a particular page context only objects of a certain type that are owned by friends of the request user may be suggested); and
providing, for presentation to the first user, at least one of the plurality of object identifiers included in the candidate suggestion set for selection by the first user to include in the communication between the first user and the second user (See para. [0044]-para. [0049], recommendation engine 112 ranks all the candidate objects and renders a predetermined number of the candidate objects having the highest expected value to the user. In particular embodiments, the highest ranked candidate objects may be displayed on the right-hand column of a profile page).
Shi does not explicitly disclose receiving from a first user a request for an object identifier to include in a communication between the first user and a second user, wherein: the communication includes a first message sent from the first user to the second user; the communication includes a second message sent from the second user to the first user.
Rodriguez discloses receiving from a first user a request for an object identifier to include in a communication between the first user and a second user (See para. [0360] – para. [0366] and Figures 8A-8D, receiving a chat conversation “hangingout” and a command specifies an embedded interface to be displayed in association with the chat conversation), wherein: the communication includes a first message sent from the first user to the second user; the communication includes a second message sent from the second user to the first user; and the first message and the second message were sent at a time prior to receiving from the first user the request (See para. [0360] -para. [0366], Figures 8A-8D, the chat conversation [e.g., how’re things going, Sarah?] can be sent before receiving the command request); processing the first message and the second message to determine a context corresponding to the communication (See para. [0335] and para. [0360]-para. [0366], suggested responses can be determined and presented to multiple member users (and/or chat users) based on the suggestion event, e.g., displayed on each member device or chat device (or selected member devices or chat devices). In some examples, the suggested responses can be the same suggested commands and/or suggested messages provided on each of the multiple member devices, or different suggested responses can be provided to each of two or more of the member devices. In some examples, member devices of Users 1, 2 and 3 receive a chat message from User 4 of the chat conversation, and each member device (or multiple member devices) of Users 1, 2, and 3 may present a different set of suggested responses (e.g., each set having at least one response different from one or more of the other sets). Each set of suggested responses can be based on the context of the member device presenting the set, e.g., based on the associated chat messages input by the associated user in the chat conversation, a history of chat messages of the associated user (if user consent has been obtained), and/or other factors as described herein.); providing, for presentation to the first user, at least one of the plurality of object identifiers for selection by the first user to include in the communication between the first user and the second user (See para. [0335] and para. [0360]-para. [0366] and Figures 8A-8D).
Therefore, it 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 was made to modify the Shi’s system to include a communication between a first user and the second user, the communication including a first message sent from the first user to the second user; and a second message sent from the second user to the first user, as taught by Rodriguez. Skilled artisan would have been motivated to enable users to respond quickly to messages when user selects a suggest item. The suggested items enable faster interaction., e.g., by reducing or eliminating the need for a user to type a response (See Rodriquez, para. [0072]). In addition, both references (Rodriquez and Shi) teach features that are directed to analogous art and they are directed to the same field of endeavor, such as suggesting items to users. This close relation between both references highly suggests an expectation of success.
As to claim 34, Rodriquez discloses wherein processing the first message and the second message includes: analyzing first textual information included in the first message to determine a first keyword; analyzing second textual information included in the second message to determine a second keyword; and determining the context based on at least the first keyword and the second keyword (See para. [0158], para. [0265], When a user has previously input a chat message saying, “I want to play the white side” in the chat conversation about starting an embedded chess game application, then the messaging application can detect this message, determine its meaning (e.g., via comparisons to keywords or key phrases and/or using machine learning techniques).
Therefore, it 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 was made to modify the Shi’s system to include a communication between a first user and the second user, the communication including a first message sent from the first user to the second user; and a second message sent from the second user to the first user, as taught by Rodriguez. Skilled artisan would have been motivated to enable users to respond quickly to messages when user selects a suggest item. The suggested items enable faster interaction., e.g., by reducing or eliminating the need for a user to type a response (See Rodriquez, para. [0072]). In addition, both references (Rodriquez and Shi) teach features that are directed to analogous art and they are directed to the same field of endeavor, such as suggesting items to users. This close relation between both references highly suggests an expectation of success.
As to claim 35, Rodriguez disclose wherein processing the first message and the second message includes: analyzing first information included in the first message to determine a first object represented by the first information; analyzing second information included in the second message to determine a second object represented by the second information; and determining the context based on at least the first object and the second object (See para. [0158], para. [0265], chat messages can be parsed and one or more predetermined topics, words or keywords, and/or phrases can be detected to determine a suggestion event [e.g., “go out to eat,” “let's invite User4,” “let's watch MovieA,” a particular name, address, location, etc.]. In some implementations, a machine learning model can be trained in a training stage with synthetic or actual training data and, in an inference, stage used in method 700, can be used to process a set of chat messages to predict if a suggestion event has occurred. For example, the model can predict if any particular user actions [e.g., commands or further messages] are likely to be initiated or provided by users based on the content of the set of chat messages, and if such commands are within a threshold probability of occurrence, the input of the set of chat messages [e.g., the input of the last chat message of the set] can be considered a suggestion event).
Therefore, it 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 was made to modify the Shi’s system to include a communication between a first user and the second user, the communication including a first message sent from the first user to the second user; and a second message sent from the second user to the first user, as taught by Rodriguez. Skilled artisan would have been motivated to enable users to respond quickly to messages when user selects a suggest item. The suggested items enable faster interaction., e.g., by reducing or eliminating the need for a user to type a response (See Rodriquez, para. [0072]). In addition, both references (Rodriquez and Shi) teach features that are directed to analogous art and they are directed to the same field of endeavor, such as suggesting items to users. This close relation between both references highly suggests an expectation of success.
As to claim 36, Shi discloses weighting the plurality of object identifiers included in the candidate suggestion set; and wherein presenting to the first user at least one of the plurality of object identifiers includes: presenting to the first user a second object identifier of the plurality of object identifiers included in the candidate suggestion set having a highest weight (See para. [0044]-para. [0049], recommendation engine 112 ranks all the candidate objects and renders a predetermined number of the candidate objects having the highest expected value to the user. In particular embodiments, the highest ranked candidate objects may be displayed on the right-hand column of a profile page).
Claims 22 and 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shi (US 2013/0151539 A1) and in view of Gross et al. (US 2014/0081965 A1), hereinafter Gross.
As to claims 22 and 30, Shi discloses determining a first set associated with the first user that includes a first plurality of object identifiers (See para. [0041] - para. [0044] and Figure 4, the recommendation engine 112 transmits the user ID, the page ID and calculates expected values for each individual candidate object received from recommendation candidate index 301, note the individual candidate IDs are transmitted as large vectors or arrays); determining a second set associated with the second user that includes a second plurality of object identifiers (See para. [0043], the recommendation engine 112 determines a set of objects to be recommended by the user ID and the users contained within the requested page).
Shi does not explicitly disclose determining that at least one second object and at least one third object correspond to a same object; and determining the candidate suggestion set to include object included in the first set that are not included in the second set.
Gross discloses determining that at least one second object and at least one third object correspond to a same object; and determining the candidate suggestion set to include object included in the first set that are not included in the second set (See claim 13, presenting first content to a first member of a social network within a graphical interface, which first content is automatically determined by the computing system for said first member based in part on: i) first interest information identified explicitly by a first set of ratings given by said first member to a first set of items; and ii) second interest information determined implicitly from actions taken by said first member interacting with a second set of items; (b) specifying a set of topics as related to a set of items that can be recommended by the computing system; (c) mapping said first interest information and said second interest information and said first set of items and second set of items for said first member to a set of first member topics using said first set of ratings, said actions and a natural language engine; wherein a first member topic profile of first member topics is generated at least in part by classifying content reviewed and/or created by said first member that does not have explicit references to said set of topics; (d) receiving and processing a first request for a recommendation from said first member directed to a first subject; (e) mapping said first subject to said set of topics to determine a recommended set of items responsive to said first request; (f) customizing said recommended set of items presented to said first member responsive to said first request, such that said set of recommended items includes one or more member recommended items predicted to be of interest to said first member based on said first member topic profile).
Therefore, it 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 was made to modify the Shi’s system to determine a candidate suggestion set to include object included in the first set that are not included in the second set, as taught by Goss. Skilled artisan would have been motivated to evaluate multiple data sources to generate more accurate and relevant predictions concerning data items and other users within a community (See Gross, para. [0006]). In addition, both references (Gross and Shi) teach features that are directed to analogous art and they are directed to the same field of endeavor, such as suggesting items to users. This close relation between both references highly suggests an expectation of success.
Claims 23 and 31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shi (US 2013/0151539 A1) and in view of Gross (US 2014/0081965 A1) and further in view of Rodriguez (US 2018/0367483 A1).
As to claims 23 and 31, Shi does not explicitly disclose discloses determining a context corresponding to a communication between the first user and the second user, wherein the first set corresponds to the context and the second set corresponds to the context.
Rodriguez discloses determining a context corresponding to a communication between the first user and the second user, wherein the first set corresponds to the context and the second set corresponds to the context (See para. [0009] and para. [0346], determining a suggestion event in a communication between a first user and a second user, receiving second user input received from the first user in the first chat, also note in para. [0279] determining context of the suggestion event).
Therefore, it 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 was made to modify the Shi’s system to include a communication between a first user and the second user, the communication including a first message sent from the first user to the second user; and a second message sent from the second user to the first user, as taught by Rodriguez. Skilled artisan would have been motivated to enable users to respond quickly to messages when user selects a suggest item. The suggested items enable faster interaction., e.g., by reducing or eliminating the need for a user to type a response (See Rodriquez, para. [0072]). In addition, all references (Gross, Rodriquez and Shi) teach features that are directed to analogous art and they are directed to the same field of endeavor, such as suggesting items to users. This close relation between both references highly suggests an expectation of success.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Whale et al. (US 2011/0264528 A1) discloses knowledge of a user's profile (contextual and behavioral) can be used to predict the likely current real-time needs of the user. Confirmation of that need can be achieved by suggesting a number of personalized status updates [based on known profile information] in a form suitable for posting to micro-blogging sites. From this list, the user selects the most appropriate one to submit to a micro-blog. In doing so, valuable profile information is confirmed which allows real-time contextual recommendations to be generated to meet the recently identified need of the user. In one aspect, these recommendations comprise revenue generating opportunities.
Lindsay et al. (US 20140244621 A1) discloses a composer interface allows a user to provide input, such as text data, to the social networking system. Based on context information associated with the user and received input, the social networking system presents candidate data items to the user. Selecting a candidate data item allows the user to include the candidate data item in the input. Examples of context information include: users connected to the user, profile information associated with the user, and geographic information associated with the user. The candidate data items may be presented based on the probability of the user selecting a candidate data item.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YUK TING CHOI whose telephone number is (571) 270-1637. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9am-6pm.
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, AMY NG can be reached at 5712701698. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/YUK TING CHOI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2164
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