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 .
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 1-3, 6-9, 11 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kleppin, et al (Pub. No. US 2024/0106781 A1, hereinafter referred to as Kleppin), and further in view of InMotion ("Discord Friends List Management", 15 April 2021, InMotion Hosting (https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/edu/discord/discord-friends-list/)).
Claim 1 is an independent claim and Kleppin discloses a community message interaction method comprising:
presenting a message interaction interface in an initial form, the message interaction interface displaying a plurality of message nodes associated with a target object (see FIG. 2A – icons on left pane such as 202), and the plurality of message nodes including one or more community nodes (icons represent servers with messaging channels, para. [0040]); and
switching, in response to a selection operation for a target community node of the one or more community nodes, the message interaction interface from the initial form to a target form (select a server icon to display messaging channels for the server in the interface, see para. [0040]) in which at least one screened community node associated with the target object is determined by screening, the target form displaying a node identification of the at least one screened community node and at least one sub-community contained in the target community node, and the at least one screened community node including the target community node (selected server updates interface with information for selected server (e.g.. “announcements” for the users of the selected server shows a screened community node including the target community node as claimed) and associated topics for the selected server displayed (e.g. “#tea-drinkers” showing a sub-community as claimed), para. [0040] and FIG. 2A).
Kleppin does not specifically disclose, but InMotion teaches, one or more instant messaging (IM nodes) in the interface (Discord home screen shows friends for direct private messages, see page 3).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the applicant’s claimed invention to incorporate InMotion’s Discord interface with Kleppin’s Discord interface because it would have allowed for known Discord application interface functionality.
As per claim 2, claim 1 is incorporated and Kleppin further discloses wherein:
in the initial form, in response to one community node of the one or more community nodes having one or more first real-time activities, first message prompt information of the one community node is displayed on the message interaction interface, the first message prompt information including an ongoing state identification corresponding to one of the one or more first real-time activities that has a priority of a first specified level (while a user session is active, client application can request updates regarding one or more servers to which the user account operating client application belongs, para. [0030]); or
in the target form, in response to one screened community node of the at least one screened community node has one or more second real-time activities, an ongoing state identification corresponding to a second real-time activity whose priority among one of the one or more second real-time activities that has a priority of a second specified level is displayed at a related position of a node identification of the community node on the message interaction interface (this optional limitation is not being considered by the examiner).
As per claim 3, claim 1 is incorporated and Kleppin further discloses further comprising: jumping, in response to a selection operation for one sub-community of the at least one sub-community, from the message interaction interface to a chat interface of the one sub- community (selection of different messaging channels shows different messaging thread in panel 212, see FIG. 2A and para. [0040]).
As per claim 6, claim 1 is incorporated and Kleppin further discloses wherein: the message interaction interface in the target form includes a first area, a second area, and a third area; and displaying the node identification of the at least one screened community node and the at least one sub-community contained in the target community node includes:
displaying title information of the target community node in the first area (“The Hydration club”, see FIG. 2A - 206);
displaying the node identification of the at least one screened community node in the second area (“announcements” in interface, see FIG. 2A); and
displaying the at least one sub-community contained in the target community node in the third area (“#tea-drinkers” in interface, see FIG. 2A).
As per claim 7, claim 6 is incorporated and Kleppin further discloses further comprising, in response to a new message being generated by a target IM node associated with the target object: presenting, in the second area, a temporary node identification of the target IM node; and presenting, in response to a trigger operation for the temporary node identification, chat information of the target IM node (new message from users displayed in interface 214 with icon and identification of authoring user, see FIG. 2A).
As per claim 8, claim 7 is incorporated and Kleppin further discloses wherein presenting the chat information of the target IM node includes: switching the third area from displaying the at least one sub-community to displaying the chat information of the target IM node (optional limitation not being considered by the examiner); or presenting a chat sub-interface corresponding to the target IM node in the message interaction interface in the target form, and displaying the chat information of the target IM node in the chat sub-interface (show updated message conversation with new message is displayed, see FIG. 2A).
As per claim 9, claim 7 is incorporated and Kleppin further discloses further comprising: cancelling, in response to a return operation triggered after the chat information is viewed (clicking on a different messaging channel in the interface after viewing, see FIG. 2A, 2B), displaying of the temporary node identification of the target IM node in the second area (clicking on a different messaging channel in the server shows different conversations, see FIG. 2A, 2B).
As per claim 11, claim 6 is incorporated and Kleppin further discloses further comprising:
in response to a community switching operation triggered through one node identification in the second area (another server selected, see para. [0040] and FIG. 2A), switching the first area to display title information of one community node corresponding to the one node identification, and switching the third area to present at least one sub-community contained in the one community node (selected server name displayed, see para. [0040] and FIG. 2A); and
presenting, in response to a selection operation for one sub-community of the at least one sub-community contained in the one community node, a chat interface of the one sub-community (selected channel in server presents messages and user interface to input content, see para. [0040] and FIG. 2A and 2B).
Claim 20 is an independent claim corresponding to independent claim 1 and is therefore rejected for similar reasoning. Kleppin further discloses the claimed computer processor and memory as claimed (see para. [0068], [0070], [0071]).
Claims 4 and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kleppin and Inmotion as applied above, and further in view of Wu, et al (Pub. No. US 2021/0216203 A1, hereinafter referred to as Wu).
As per claim 4, claim 1 is incorporated and Kleppin and InMotion do not specifically disclose, but Wu teaches, further comprising: displaying, in response to a new message being generated in a sub-community of one community node of the one or more community nodes, message prompt information of the one community node on the message interaction interface, the message prompt information including title information, presented in a text link style supporting interface jumping, of the sub- community (see FIG. 6A - 600); and jumping, in response to a trigger operation for the title information, from the message interaction interface to a chat interface of the sub-community (open chat item and jump to the selected chat item, para. [0185]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the applicant’s claimed invention to incorporate Wu’s chat display with Kleppin and InMotion’s community and messaging channel displays because it would have allowed for more intuitive information to be displayed to a user.
As per claim 10, claim 7 is incorporated and Kleppin discloses a message input box and displaying, in response to new message inputting and a publishing operation triggered through a keyboard, published new message in the chat information (see FIG. 2A, para. [0072]).
Kleppin and Inmotion do not specifically disclose, but Wu teaches, a virtual keyboard for message input (see para. [0007], [0008], [0020]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the applicant’s claimed invention to incorporate Wu’s chat display with Kleppin and InMotion’s community and messaging channel displays because it would have allowed for more intuitive information to be displayed to a user.
Claim 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kleppin and InMotion as applied above, and further in view of Hong (Pub. No. US 2017/0329465 A1, hereinafter referred to as Hong).
As per claim 12, claim 11 is incorporated and Kleppin and InMotion do not specifically disclose, but Hong teaches, further comprising, in response to the community switching operation: displaying the one node identification of the one community node through a preset zoom animation, the preset zoom animation representing that the one node identification is zoomed out from an original scale to a target scale and then zoomed in from the target scale to the original scale (the “Warning” button animation starts by initially shrinking then enlarging to the default button size, para. [0118]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the applicant’s claimed invention to incorporate Hong’s button animation with Kleppin and InMotions selected icon in an interface because it would have allowed for visual indications of selected icons/buttons, enhancing the user experience overall.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5 and 13-19 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The prior arts fail to teach or suggest the subject matter of claims 5, 13, 15, 18 and 19 when considered in their entirety and in conjunction with the claims from which they depend. Claims 14, 16 and 17 are allowable based at least on their dependency of claims 13 and 15.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Pub. No. US 2021/0044559 A1 – generally teaches an interface for displaying individual and group chats of a user.
Pub. No. US 2017/0109013 A1 – generally teachers organizing group icons in a messenger interface for user navigation between individual and group chats.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JONATHAN A BUI whose telephone number is (571)270-7168. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri: 9AM - 530PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Nicholas R Taylor can be reached at (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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/JONATHAN A BUI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2443
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