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
This action is responsive to amendment filed December 4, 2025.
Status of Claims
Applicant amended the claims in the filed amendment, and canceled claims 2-4,6,8,9,12-14,16,18,19, and added new claims 21-32. Claims 1,5,7,10,11,15,17,20-32 remain pending.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, filed 12/4/25, have been fully considered and are persuasive. The previous rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new grounds of rejection is made based on He in view of Baron.
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 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 1,5,7,10,11,15,17,20,22-27,29-32 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over He (US Publication 20230329962) in view of Baron et al (US Publication 20070206086).
In reference to claim 1, He teaches an interactive online entertainment system, comprising: a processor; and a memory device having stored thereon a set of instructions wherein, the set of instructions which, when operating on the at least one processor, cause the system to:
establish a session association between viewer terminals of a plurality of viewers and a live stream room of a host on a live stream platform, wherein the viewer terminals of the plurality of viewers establish corresponding communication connections with sexual stimulation devices of the plurality of viewers, respectively; (see at least ¶ 29,53,77, which teaches establishing a session between multiple viewers and a model device with a toy/stimulation device via a live streaming platform for establishing communication between the viewers and devices)
establish a control connection between a host terminal of the host and one or more viewer terminals of one or more viewers, from among the plurality of viewers, who have provided a number of tokens to the host, for a preset duration of time that corresponds to the number of tokens, (see at least ¶s 47,57,59,65,78, which teaches establishing a control connection between the model and viewer devices when the user accesses the control link, where viewers provide tip tokens enabling access and control for a preset duration of time)
in response to the number of tokens satisfying a predetermined threshold, wherein the control connection is configured to enable the host terminal to control the sexual stimulation device of the one or more viewers; in response to additional tokens being provided to the host during the preset duration of time by any viewer among the plurality of viewers, (see at least ¶s 59,64, which teaches viewers providing additional tokens)
generate a control command in response to receiving a control input from the host terminal while the control connection is active; (see at least ¶ 72, which teaches generating the control link comprising a URL for a control interface) and
transmit the control command to corresponding viewer terminals that are connected to the host terminal via the control connection, to cause the corresponding viewer terminals to forward the control command to corresponding sexual stimulation devices, thereby causing the corresponding sexual stimulation devices to perform a sexual stimulation operation (see at least ¶s 65,72-74 & Figs 12,13, which teaches transmitting the control link to the user device where the user device hosts live chat and video, and receiving activation/interactive commands from the user input, and relaying the command to the model device).
He teaches applying the time duration to all viewers who have provided adequate tokens (as shown above). He fails to explicitly teach extend the control connection for an extended duration of time and apply the extended control connection to all viewer terminals of viewers who have provided tokens, wherein the extended duration of time is proportional to a number of the additional tokens. However, Baron teaches online sessions between devices (see Baron, at least Abstract), and discloses extending session time for users who provide additional payments (see Baron, at least ¶ 72). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify He based on the teachings of Baron for the purpose of enabling viewers to continue consuming content.
In reference to claim 5, this is taught by He, at least ¶s 59,68,69, which teaches displaying connection status information of the device, and based on device queue; and also teaches the model user setting control parameters for the stimulation device.
In reference to claim 7, this is taught by He, at least ¶s 29,31, which teaches providing a list of connected devices that can be controlled via the control page and for selecting target stimulation devices.
In reference to claim 10, this is taught by He, at least ¶s 27,47, which teaches establishing bidirectional communication for chat and audio/video transmission between the model and second user devices.
In reference to claim 22, this is taught by He, at least ¶s 34,39,50,59, which teaches receiving and transmitting text and audio messages.
In reference to claim 23, this is taught by He, at least ¶s 34,39,50,59, which teaches confirmation message to the viewers regarding the amount of tokens based on the threshold token amount.
In reference to claim 25, this is taught by He, at least ¶s 31,51,52,62, which teaches verifying the duration status of access and enabling the model device to approve the requesting user, and establishing a bidirectional connection between the model and user devices.
In reference to claim 26, this is taught by He, at least ¶s 34,39,50,59, which teaches stimulation operations comprising a variety of actions.
In reference to claim 27, this is taught by He, at least ¶s 34,39,50,59, which teaches a threshold amount of tokens for a predetermined amount of time.
Claims 11,15,17,20,29-32 are slight variations of the rejected claims 1,5,7,10,22-27 above, and are therefore rejected based on the same rationale.
Claims 21,28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over He (US Publication 20230329962) in view of Baron et al (US Publication 20070206086) in further view of Metz et al (US Publication 20190213519).
In reference to claim 21, this is taught by He fails to explicitly teach extend the control connection for an extended duration of time and apply the extended control connection to all viewer terminals of viewers who have provided tokens, wherein the extended duration of time is proportional to a number of the additional tokens. However, Metz teaches online sessions between devices (see Metz, at least Abstract), and discloses displaying a countdown timer for the session (see Metz, at least ¶s 69-71). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify He based on the teachings of Metz for the purpose of keeping viewers informed of when their service time expires.
Claim 28 is a slight variation of the rejected claim 21 above, and is therefore rejected based on the same rationale.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
For any subsequent response that contains new/amended claims, Applicant is required to cite its corresponding support in the specification. (See MPEP chapter 2163.03 section (I.) and chapter 2163.04 section (I.) and chapter 2163.06) Applicant may not introduce any new matter to the claims or to the specification.
In formulating a response/amendment, Applicant is encouraged to take into consideration the prior art made of record but not relied upon, as it is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See attached Form 892.
Contact & Status
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RAMY M OSMAN whose telephone number is (571)272-4008. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri, 9AM-5PM.
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/Ramy M Osman/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2457
February 10, 2026