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 .
Oath/Declaration
Applicant is requested to file an Oath/Declaration with the inventor’s signature.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 05/09/2025 and 06/22/2026 is being considered by the examiner.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-6, 10-11, 14-15 and 19-21 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.
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.
Claims 1, 7-9, 17, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hartnett et al. US Patent Publication No. 2022/0116435 in view of April et al. US Patent Publication No. 2020/0021892.
Regarding Claim 1, Hartnett discloses a method for live streaming interaction [Figures 3A-3B], comprising:
displaying a select control for supporting a user in selecting a first participant from a plurality of participants, wherein the plurality of participants are participants associated with a live streaming event in a live streaming channel [0045];
displaying, in response to receiving a user selection for the select control, a plurality of participant icons of the plurality of participants [0107 & Figures 6A& 6B].
Hartnett fails to clearly disclose associating a user account of the user with the first participant and displaying a user input of the user.
In an analogous art, April discloses associating a user account of the user [0204] with the first participant in response to receiving a user selection for the first participant among the plurality of participants [0029, 0065 & 0104; user subscribes to the broadcaster];
and displaying a user input of the user in association with the first participant in a live streaming interface [0017; a viewer following a particular broadcaster may purchase digital beers, various digital concession stand items, ticker tapes, penalty flags, etc.].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the teachings of Hartnett and April, before the effective filing date of the invention, in order to allow a given broadcaster and their associated viewers to communicate with one another and send digital gifts [April 0083].
Regarding Claim 7, the combination of Hartnett and April discloses the method wherein displaying a select control for supporting a user in selecting a participant from a plurality of participants comprises:
displaying, in response to the user having selected to enter the live streaming channel, the live streaming interface to the user, wherein the live streaming interface comprises a live streaming image display area, a comment display area, and interaction controls, wherein the interaction controls comprise the select control, and further comprise at least one of a comment input control, a gift control, or an emoji control [April Figure 1B].
Regarding Claim 8, the combination of Hartnett and April discloses the method wherein displaying, in response to receiving a user selection for the select control, a plurality of participant icons of the plurality of participants comprises: displaying, in response to receiving the user selection for the select control, the plurality of participant icons of the plurality of participants in an area of the live streaming interface other than the live streaming image display area [Hartnett Figure 4].
Regarding Claim 9, the combination of Hartnett and April discloses the method, wherein displaying a user input of the user in association with the first participant in a live streaming interface comprises: displaying, in response to receiving a message that is input by the user for the comment input control, an icon of the first participant in association with the message in the comment display area [April Figure 1B].
Regarding Claim 17, Hartnett discloses an electronic device, comprising:
a processor [0223];
and a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory has instructions stored therein that, when executed by the processor, cause the electronic device to [0361];
display a select control for supporting a user in selecting first participant from a plurality of participants, wherein the plurality of participants are participants associated with a live streaming event in a live streaming channel [0045];
display, in response to receiving a user selection for the select control, a plurality of participant icons of the plurality of participants [0107 & Figures 6A& 6B].
Hartnett fails to clearly disclose associating a user account of the user with the first participant and displaying a user input of the user.
In an analogous art, April discloses associating a user account of the user [0204] with the first participant in response to receiving a user selection for the first participant among the plurality of participants [0029, 0065 & 0104; user subscribes to the broadcaster];
and displaying a user input of the user in association with the first participant in a live streaming interface [0017; a viewer following a particular broadcaster may purchase digital beers, various digital concession stand items, ticker tapes, penalty flags, etc.].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the teachings of Hartnett and April, before the effective filing date of the invention, in order to allow a given broadcaster and their associated viewers to communicate with one another and send digital gifts [April 0083].
Regarding Claim 18, Hartnett discloses a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, having a computer program stored thereon, wherein the program, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to [0223]:
display a select control for supporting a user in selecting a first participant from a plurality of participants, wherein the plurality of participants are participants associated with a live streaming event in a live streaming channel [0045];
display, in response to receiving a user selection for the select control, a plurality of participant icons of the plurality of participants [0107 & Figures 6A& 6B].
Hartnett fails to clearly disclose associating a user account of the user with the first participant and displaying a user input of the user.
In an analogous art, April discloses associating a user account of the user [0204] with the first participant in response to receiving a user selection for the first participant among the plurality of participants [0029, 0065 & 0104; user subscribes to the broadcaster];
and displaying a user input of the user in association with the first participant in a live streaming interface [0017; a viewer following a particular broadcaster may purchase digital beers, various digital concession stand items, ticker tapes, penalty flags, etc.].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the teachings of Hartnett and April, before the effective filing date of the invention, in order to allow a given broadcaster and their associated viewers to communicate with one another and send digital gifts [April 0083].
Claim 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hartnett et al. US Patent Publication No. 2022/0116435 in view of April et al. US Patent Publication No. 2020/0021892 in further view of Goldman et al. US Patent Publication No. 2012/0115585.
Regarding Claim 12, the combination of Hartnett and April fails to clearly disclose updating a resource amount associated with the user account in response to the performance of the first participant in the live streaming event meeting a predetermined condition.
In an analogous art, Goldman discloses a method that further comprises: updating a resource amount associated with the user account in response to the performance of the first participant in the live streaming event meeting a predetermined condition [0005-0006 & 0017].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the teachings of Hartnett, April, and Goldman, before the effective filing date of the invention, in order to provide an interactive social gaming community [Goldman 0007].
Claim 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hartnett et al. US Patent Publication No. 2022/0116435 in view of April et al. US Patent Publication No. 2020/0021892 in further view of Morris et al. US Patent Publication No. 2022/0086203.
Regarding Claim 13, the combination of Hartnett and April fails to clearly disclose displaying a switch control for supporting the user in reselecting a participant; and displaying, in response to receiving a user selection for the switch control, the plurality of participant icons of the plurality of participants.
In an analogous art, Morris discloses a method that further comprises: displaying a switch control for supporting the user in reselecting a participant; and displaying, in response to receiving a user selection for the switch control, the plurality of participant icons of the plurality of participants [0060 & Figure 1].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the teachings of Hartnett, April, and Morris, before the effective filing date of the invention, in order to allow spectating users to follow the stream from the point of view or perspective of the selected active user and may be particularly desirable for multiplayer games or other events with celebrities or star players [Morris 0060].
Relevant Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Baron et al. US Patent Publication No. 2009/0063991 - The graphic user avatar also enables the user presence component to support diverse range of applications. The user presence component offers multiple layout options for groups of graphic user avatars. For example, the graphic user avatars may stack into rows, and shrink in size as group size of the participants involved grows. Each graphic user avatar may support a pop-up rollover menu comprising participant name, participant information comprising age, gender, and location, interactive avatar, link to a participant profile, personal ringtone. The graphic user avatar may also comprise moderation controls, for example, "block", "eject", and "make moderator", social networking controls, for example, "add friend" and "gift", and communication controls, for example, "chat" and "message".
Bloom et al. US Patent Publication No. 2021/0409787 - A graphical representation of each sub-group may be generated at any suitable time. As a non-limiting example, a graphical representation may include images, video, and/or avatars corresponding to each participant in a sub-group. An avatar can include any suitable icon or figure representing a particular person. Although not depicted in FIG. 1, a graphical representation of a sub-group could include stationary and/or non-stationary avatar representations of each participant in the sub-group. Each avatar may be selected from a number of pre-generated avatars, or at least some of the avatars may be defined by user input provided a corresponding participant. In some embodiments, the avatars may be stationary or animated to some degree. The animation provided may be predetermined and/or according to a predetermined protocol for combining and animating avatars. In some embodiments, a video feed provided by the participant's computing device may be utilized to generate an animation for the avatar.
Conclusion
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/SAHAR AQIL RIAZ/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2424
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