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 Objections
Claim 8 is objected to because of the following informalities: the claim recites “based on to” on lines 5 and 8, which is grammatically incorrect. The examiner suggests amending the claim to recite “based on. 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.
Claims 1-3, 5, 7, 10-12 and 16-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Wei (Pub. No. US 2018/0270183 A1, hereinafter referred to as Wei).
Claim 1 is an independent claim and Wei discloses a method of displaying a message, performed by a user terminal, the method comprising:
receiving, from a server, information about a message through a chatroom of a user account and a sender account (receiving messages sent to a user, para. [0106]);
checking a type of the message using the information about the message, wherein the type of the message is one of a plurality of types comprising an advertisement type and an information type (determining whether the messages sent to the user meet a pre-set condition…determining that the messages sent to the user are important messages (information as claimed), para. [0106], [0107]); and
displaying the message through a chatroom page corresponding to the chatroom and restricting display of at least a portion of content provided in the chatroom, based on the type of the message being an information type (see para. [0116], [0117] and FIGs. 3a-300 and 4).
As per claim 2, claim 1 is incorporated and Wei further discloses wherein the displaying of the message and restricting of the display of at least a portion of the content comprises restricting display of advertising content provided in the chatroom (prompt for important information covers part of chat window, see FIGs. 3a and 4) or display of a button to enter a service page provided by the sender account in the chatroom (optional limitation not being considered by the examiner).
As per claim 3, claim 1 is incorporated and Wei further discloses wherein: the checking of the type of the message comprises checking a subtype of the message based on the type of the message being an information type, wherein the subtype of the message is selected from a plurality of subtypes including at least a general information type and an important information type, and the displaying of the message and restricting of the display of at least a portion of the content comprises displaying, based on the subtype of the message being an important information type, a graphical representation that represents the important information type along with the message (prompt user about important messages among messages sent to the user, para. [0115], [0116], see FIGs. 3a and 4).
As per claim 5, claim 1 is incorporated and Wei further discloses wherein: the checking of the type of the message comprises checking the type of a last message among messages transmitted through the chatroom, and the displaying of the message and restricting of the display of at least a portion of the content comprises restricting display of at least a portion of the content based on the type of the last message being an information type (all messages (including last message) sent to user are analyzed whether they are important for prompting the user, para. [0115]).
As per claim 7, claim 1 is incorporated and Wei further discloses wherein: the checking of the type of the message comprises checking a type of a focused message among a plurality of messages transmitted through the chatroom (one of the sent messages being analyzed, para. [0106]), and the displaying of the message and restricting of the display of at least a portion of the content comprises restricting display of at least a portion of the content provided in the chatroom, based on the type of the focused message being an information type (determining if each sent message is important and displaying in interface over conversation, para. [0106], see also FIG. 3a – 300 and FIG. 4).
Claim 10 is an independent claim and Wei discloses a method of providing a message, performed by a server, the method comprising:
receiving, from a sender terminal of a sender account, a message transmission request that requests delivery of a message to a user account through a chatroom (instant messaging, para. [0003], [0004]; server configured to receive messages sent to a user, para. [0225]);
determining a type of the message to be one of a plurality of types comprising an advertisement type and an information type, based on the message transmission request (determine whether the messages sent to the user meet a pre-set condition and whether they are important, para. [0225], see also para. [0106], [0107]); and
transmitting information indicating restriction on display of at least a portion of content provided in the chatroom along with the message to a user terminal of the user account, based on a determination that the type of the message is an information type (forward the important messages to the instant messaging tool, para. [0225], display important messages for user over chat interface, para. [0224], see also FIGs. 3a and 4).
As per claim 11, claim 10 is incorporated and Wei further discloses wherein the transmitting of the information along with the message comprises transmitting information indicating restriction on display of advertising content provided in the chatroom or display of a button to enter a service page provided by the sender account in the chatroom to the user terminal (message prompt indicator virtual button selected to display unread message in expanded message viewing area and to bring the user to a corresponding conversation, para. [0052]-[0054], [0105]).
As per claim 12, claim 10 is incorporated and Wei further discloses wherein: the determining of the type of the message comprises determining a subtype of the message to be one of a plurality of subtypes comprising a general information type and an important information type, based on a determination that the type of the message is an information type, and the transmitting of the information comprises transmitting, to the user terminal based on a determination that the subtype of the message is an important information type, information indicating display of a graphical representation that represents the important information type along with the message (prompt user about important messages among messages sent to the user, para. [0115], [0116], see FIGs. 3a and 4).
Claim 16 is an independent claim corresponding to independent claim 1 and is therefore rejected for similar reasoning. Wei further 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 the method (see para. [0010], [0242]).
Claim 17 is an independent claim corresponding to independent claim 1 and is therefore rejected for similar reasoning. Wei further discloses one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the method (see para. [0242]).
As per claim 18, claim 1 is incorporated and Wei further discloses wherein restricting the display of at least a portion of content comprises: displaying a button to display at least a portion of the content instead of the content itself, wherein the content is displayed in a folded state (message prompt indicator virtual button selected to display unread message, para. [0052]-[0054]).
As per claim 19, claim 18 is incorporated and Wei further discloses further comprising: displaying the content in an unfolded state based on user input selecting the button (selecting message prompt indicator displays unread messages, para. [0052]-[0054]).
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.
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wei as applied above, and further in view of Zhang, et al (NPL "Method For Displaying Instant Messaging Content, Related Device And System", 20 December 2019, CN 110598143 A (English Translation)).
As per claim 20, claim 1 is incorporated and Wei does not specifically disclose, but Zhang teaches, wherein checking the type of the message comprises extracting a type flag from metadata associated with the message and mapping the flag to a predefined message type (message type label of an instant message for determining display style of the message, see abstract and page 2, last 4 paragraphs and page 3, first paragraph).
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 Zhang’s instant message handling with Wei’s instant message handling because it would have allowed for more efficient notifications of pertinent messages to a user.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4, 6, 8, 9 and 13-15 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, whether alone or in combination, fail to teach or suggest the claim limitations found in claims 4, 6, 8, 9 and 13-15 when considered in their entirety and in conjunction with the claims from which they depend.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Pub. No. US 2009/0094343 A1 – generally teaches a user flagging an instant message as important to send to another user to display to display in two instant messaging session windows for the user.
Pub. No. US 2025/0106059 A1 – generally teaches determining a target display mode for a target session message according to the media type.
Pub. No. US 2012/0243948 A1 – generally teaches displaying a message with a message display style specific to a message type of the message.
WO 2015/142007 A1 – generally teaches displaying a message over a chat window when the message is a certain type.
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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