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 .
In the response to this Office action, the Office respectfully requests that support be shown for language added to any original claims on amendment and any new claims. That is, indicate support for newly added claim language by specifically pointing to page(s) and line numbers in the specification and/or drawing figure(s). This will assist the Office in prosecuting this application.
The Office has cited particular figures, elements, paragraphs and/or columns and line numbers in the references as applied to the claims for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings in the art and are applied to the specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested from the applicant, in preparing the responses, to fully consider each of the cited references in entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage disclosed by the Office.
Status of Claims
- Claim(s) 1-8 is/are pending in the application.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
The application is a continuation Application of PCT International Application No. PCT/JP2021/028229 filed on July 30, 2021.
The application has claimed priority based on U.S. Application Serial No. 18174505 (now U.S. Patent No. 12073036) filed on February 24, 2023 and U.S. Application Serial No. 18776134 (now U.S. Patent No. 12578810) filed on July 17, 2024.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on February 10, 2026 and August 25, 2026 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Specification
The specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
The attempt to incorporate subject matter into this application by reference to “All of the U.S. patents, U.S. patent application publications, U.S. patent applications, foreign patents, foreign patent applications and non-patent publications referred to in this specification and/or listed in the Application Data Sheet “ on page 37 of Applicant’s original specification is ineffective because Applicant has not clearly identified all the reference documents as required by 3 CFR1.57(c)(2).
The incorporation by reference will not be effective until correction is made to comply with 37 CFR 1.57(c), (d), or (e). If the incorporated material is relied upon to meet any outstanding objection, rejection, or other requirement imposed by the Office, the correction must be made within any time period set by the Office for responding to the objection, rejection, or other requirement for the incorporation to be effective. Compliance will not be held in abeyance with respect to responding to the objection, rejection, or other requirement for the incorporation to be effective. In no case may the correction be made later than the close of prosecution as defined in 37 CFR 1.114(b), or abandonment of the application, whichever occurs earlier.
Any correction inserting material by amendment that was previously incorporated by reference must be accompanied by a statement that the material being inserted is the material incorporated by reference and the amendment contains no new matter. 37 CFR 1.57(g).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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(s) 1-2, 4, 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kang et al, U.S. Patent Publication No. 20120299813 in view of Jung, U.S. Patent Publication No. 20170123460.
Consider claim 1, Kang teaches an information processing apparatus (see Kang figure 1, element 1 and paragraph 0037 where device may be a mobile phone, a notebook, a tablet Personal Computer (PC), and a Portable Media Player (PMP).) comprising:
a display element including a display screen having a first region (see Kang figure 1, element 12 and figure 13A, element 12 and paragraph 0109 where the messenger program is terminated, and a web browser, which is the task that was executed right before the messenger program was executed, is displayed) and
a second region different from the first region (see Kang figure 1, element 14 and figure 13A, element 14 and paragraph 0109 where the messenger program is terminated, and a web browser, which is the task that was executed right before the messenger program was executed, is displayed);
a first motion sensor disposed on a side of the first region (see Kang figure 7, element 72 and paragraph 0081 where Specifically, the motion sensor 70 includes a first panel motion sensor 72 for detecting a movement of the first panel 2 and a second panel motion sensor 74 for detecting a movement of the second panel 4. The first panel motion sensor 72 and the second panel motion sensor 74 may include an acceleration sensor, a gyro sensor, and/or a vibration sensor);
a second motion sensor disposed on a side of the second region (see Kang figure 7, element 74 and paragraph 0081 where Specifically, the motion sensor 70 includes a first panel motion sensor 72 for detecting a movement of the first panel 2 and a second panel motion sensor 74 for detecting a movement of the second panel 4. The first panel motion sensor 72 and the second panel motion sensor 74 may include an acceleration sensor, a gyro sensor, and/or a vibration sensor); and
a process control circuit (see Kang figure 7, element 20 and paragraph 0084 where controller 20 recognizes the motions and angles sensed by the angle sensor 60 and the motion sensor 70, reads functions matched with the corresponding motions and angles from the memory 30, and controls the device to perform the corresponding functions) that, in operation:
computes, based on a first motion detected by the first motion sensor and a second motion detected by the second motion sensor, a relative motion between the first region and the second region (see Kang paragraph 0081-0084 angle sensor 60 and the motion sensor 70 may be constructed as a six axis sensor, which can detect all of relative angles between two panels and movements of the two panels.); and
performs a predetermined function based on the relative motion computed (see Kang figure 8, element S40, S60 and paragraphs 0086-0090 where controller 20 detects a change in a relative angle between the first panel 2 and the second panel 4 through the angle sensor 60 in step S10. When the controller determines that the relative angle between two panels enters the effective angle range (.DELTA..alpha.) in step S20, is the controller 20 determines whether the relative angle moves out of the effective angle range in a direction opposite to an entry direction to the effective angle range, within the effective time from the entry point, in step S30. When the relative angle moves out of the effective angle range in the direction opposite to the entry direction to the effective angle range, within the effective time from the entry point, in S30, the controller 20 determines that the folding back instruction is input in step S40 and controls the device to perform a function corresponding to the folding back instruction.).
Kang does not specifically disclose “computes” relative motion. In a related field of endeavor, Jung teaches a folding angle calculator to calculate a folding angle based on signals from sensors formed on adjacent portions of a flexible display (see Jung figure 4, element S1, S2, figure 10, element 700, 820 and paragraphs 0070, 0101-0103, 0126 specifically for example paragraph 0103 where folding angle calculator 820 may calculate the folding angle θp based on the first coordinate signal Gt1′ and the second coordinate signal Gt2′.).
One of ordinary skill would have been motivated to have incorporated a folding angle calculator as disclosed by Jung so as to compute relative angles using known techniques with predictable results.
Consider claim 2, Kang as modified by Jung teaches all the limitations of claim 1 and further teaches further comprising: an outer casing including a first frame member (see Kang figure 1, element 2, 12),
a second frame member (see Kang figure 1, element 4, 14), and
a connecting portion between the first and second regions (see Kang figure 1, element 6),
wherein the connecting portion includes hinge portions that form a flexibly displaceable part configured to enable the first region and the second region of the display screen to be opened and closed relative to each other (see Kang paragraph 0037 where first panel 2 and the second panel 4 are coupled with each by a hinge 6, to open and close from and to each other.).
Consider claim 4, Kang as modified by Jung teaches all the limitations of claim 1 and further teaches wherein each of the first motion sensor and the second motion sensor comprises at least one of a gyro sensor that, in operation, measures angular velocity or an acceleration sensor that, in operation, measures acceleration (see Kang paragraph 0081 where first panel motion sensor 72 and the second panel motion sensor 74 may include an acceleration sensor, a gyro sensor, and/or a vibration sensor).
Consider claim 6, Kang as modified by Jung teaches all the limitations of claim 1 and further teaches further comprising: a position detection sensor that, in operation, detects a position indicated by an indicator on the display screen, wherein a position detection region of the position detection sensor includes the first region and the second region of the display screen (see Kang paragraph 0040 where user instruction can be directly input to a screen, e.g., using a touch screen is disclosed).
Claim(s) 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kang et al, U.S. Patent Publication No. 20120299813 and Jung, U.S. Patent Publication No. 20170123460 in view of Seo et al, U.S. Patent Publication No. 20120242599.
Consider claim 3, Kang as modified by Jung teaches all the limitations of claim 2. Kang is silent regarding wherein the connecting portion comprises a band shaped flexible member configured to enable the first region and the second region to fold together with the display element.
In a related field of endeavor, Seo teaches connecting displays including an interval formed in a flexible display correspond to connecting region so as to facilitate an opening/closing connected displays (see Seo figure 2C, element 100d, 100e and paragraphs 0028, 0037, 0045, 0091- where a distance from the first touch screen 190a of the device 100 to an edge 100e of the first housing 100a is 1/2 of the interval 100d and single housing may include a flexible housing which is easy to bend).
One of ordinary skill would have been motivated to have incorporated a flexible housing including a connecting region so as to facilitate an opening/closing connected displays using known techniques with predictable results.
Claim(s) 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kang et al, U.S. Patent Publication No. 20120299813 and Jung, U.S. Patent Publication No. 20170123460 in view of O’Gorman U.S. Patent Publication No. 20070120762.
Consider claim 5, Kang as modified by Jung teaches all the limitations of claim 1 and further teaches and further teaches further comprising: a power supply circuit (implicit), wherein the process control circuit, in operation, controls Uthe device to perform a function
Kang is silent regarding controlling the power supply circuit to turn on or off when the relative motion computed exceeds a predetermined threshold.
In a related field of endeavor, O’Gorman teaches powering down screens based on the screen position relative to a viewing angle a user may have of the screen so as to conserve power (see O’Gorman paragraph 0039-0041 specifically for example figure 3B, element 306 and paragraph 0040 in configuration 306, the panels 103, 106 and 109 are "closed." That is, the panels are stacked compactly on top of each, such that none of the four display screens is visible. In some implementations, when the information display device 100 is in this configuration 306, all of the screens 131, 132, 133 and 134 may be powered off).
One of ordinary skill would have been motivated to have modified Kang with the teachings of O’Gorman to control a power supply circuit to turn on or off when relative motion computed exceeds a predetermined threshold so as to conserve power.
Claim(s) 7-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kang et al, U.S. Patent Publication No. 20120299813 and Jung, U.S. Patent Publication No. 20170123460 in view of Rose, U.S. Patent Publication No. 8850301.
Consider claim 7, Kang as modified by Jung teaches all the limitations of claim 6 and further teaches wherein the process control circuit includes a state change detection circuit (see Kang figure 7, element 20, figures 8-14 and paragraph 0014 where for example a controller for determining an input of the operation instruction based on whether the relative angle between the first panel and the second panel is within an effective angle range. Paragraphs 0084-0103 specifically for example paragraph 0093 where when the requirements of the folding hold instruction, e.g., in the flowchart of FIG. 8, are satisfied (i.e., when step S50 proceeds to "YES"), the controller 20 determines whether there is a screen touch or a function button press within the effective time in step S52. Here, when there is no additional input by the user, a function corresponding to the folding hold only instruction is performed in step S62. However, when there is an additional input by the user, the folding hold combination instruction is performed in step S64 and figures 11 and 16 illustrating example mappings of commands to different inputs),
a memory (see Kang figure 7, element 30 and paragraph 0083 where memory 30 stores mapping of the functions performed when the folding back instruction or the folding hold instruction is input. Functions according to the only instruction and the combination instruction are subdivided and stored. When a performed application varies depending on a driven application, subdivided functions according to the driven application are mapped and stored. Further, when the effective angle range is subdivided into a plurality of effective angle ranges and performed functions vary, subdivided functions according to each effective angle range are mapped and stored. Furthermore, when performed functions vary depending on which panel is moved, subdivided functions according to which panel is moved are mapped and stored. Descriptions for the mapping and storage of the functions will be described in more detail below with reference to FIG. 11.) , and
wherein the process control circuit, in operation, holds (i) coordinate data detected by the position detection sensor (see Kang figures 9A-9B, elements S32, S52) and
(ii) motion data detected by the first and second motion sensors (see Kang figure 8, element S10-S80) with time information (see Kang paragraph 0056, 0086-0093 where effective time associates the combination instructions) such that the coordinate data and motion data are associated with each other.
Kang is silent regarding a page buffer. Kang teaches interactions for e-book input (see Kang figure 11 page turning effect, change chapter, change to another book, etc)
In a related field of endeavor, Rose teaches buffering a few pages ahead so as to scan for potentially interesting terms so as to present contextually relevant hyperlinks overlaid over text being rendered by the eReader and improve user experience (see Rose column 5, line 38-62 where eReader may buffer ahead a few pages from where a user is reading, scanning for potentially interesting terms, and sending those selected terms off to the server for more extensive processing. The server then returns data resulting from the in-depth, dynamically updated search of various databases and web sites to the client to be presented in contextually relevant hyperlinks overlaid over the text being rendered by the eReader.).
One of ordinary skill would have been motivated to have modified Kang with the teachings of Rose so as to present contextually relevant hyperlinks overlaid over text being rendered by the eReader and improve user experience.
Consider claim 8, Kang as modified by Jung and Rose teaches all the limitations of claim 6 and further teaches wherein the process control circuit, in operation, controls displaying of an image constructed based on positions detected by the position detection sensor, in response to computing the relative motion between the first region and the second region (see Kang figure 11-16 specifically for example figures 13A-13C and paragraphs 0108-0111 where various instructions are illustrated such as the messenger program is terminated, and a web browser, which is the task that was executed right before the messenger program was executed, is displayed).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Koppel et al, U.S. Patent Publication No. 20120198330 (electronic book systems), Miraj et al, U.S. Patent Publication No. 20220100453 (contextual workflow triggering on devices), Kilpatrick, II et al, U.S. Patent Publication No. 20100064244 (multi-fold mobile device), Narita, U.S. Patent Publication No. 20100134412 (information processing apparatus), Seo et al, U.S. Patent Publication No. 20120306782 (multiple touch screens), Caskey et al, U.S. Patent Publication No. 9009984 (multi-panel electronic device), Fujiwara, U.S. Patent Publication No. 20220066502 (display control device).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Dorothy H Harris whose telephone number is (571)270-7539. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8am - 4pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, William Boddie can be reached at 571-272-0666. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/Dorothy Harris/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2625
