DETAILED ACTION
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 –
(b) the invention was patented or described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country or in public use or on sale in this country, more than one year prior to the date of application for patent in the United States.
Claim(s) 1 and 39-40 is/are rejected under pre-AlA 35 U.S.C. 102(b) as being anticipated by Van Wie et al (hereinafter Van Wie), US Patent Publication 2010/0146085
With regard to claim(s) 1, 39, 40, Van Wie discloses a method, comprising:
in association with a virtual area, an intermediate network node establishing a first network connection with a first network node present in the virtual area and establishing a second network connection with a second network node present in the virtual area (Van Wie: [0017], FIG. 1: , FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view of an embodiment of a virtual area communication environment that includes a first client network node, a second client network node, and an area server network node 16 (i.e., intermediate node) that are interconnected by a network);
based on stream routing instructions, the intermediate network node creating between the first network node and the second network node a stream router comprising a directed graph of processing elements operable to receive network data (Van Wie: {0010]: a directed graph that includes ones of the instantiated realtime stream handling objects are created in accordance with the specification), process the received network data, and output the processed network data (Van Wie: [0082-0083], FIG. 2: area service 26 configures realtime kernel to process realtime data streams (which is received [0075] in the virtual area, containing intermediate node and is connected with the client nodes, for a specific session [0012-0013]) to produce a respective output that either may be stored on a computer-readable medium or converted into a human-perceptible output),
on the first network connection (Van Wie: FIG. 22 [0369] Node: 360 or 358), the intermediate network node receiving an input data stream derived from output data generated by the first network node in association with the virtual area (Van Wie: FIG. 22 Node: 356);
the intermediate network node processing the input data stream through the stream router to produce an output data stream; and on the second network connection, the intermediate network node sending the output data stream to the second network node (Van Wie: [0264], [0369], [0281], [0394-0397], FIG. 18-22: AudioMix (intermediate node) is a definition of a combination AudioSource (first network node) and AudioSink (second network node) plug-in).
Claim(s) 39, 40 recite(s) substantially the same limitations as claim 1, is/are distinguishable only by its/their statutory category (apparatus, non-transitory CRM), and accordingly rejected on the same basis.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GLENFORD J MADAMBA whose telephone number is (571)272-7989. The examiner can normally be reached on Mondays to Fridays, from 9am to 5pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Christopher Parry, can be reached at telephone number 571-272-8328. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/GLENFORD J MADAMBA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2451
