Ex Parte Aguilar, Jr. et al

Patent Trial and Appeal BoardNov 29, 2012

11380021 (P.T.A.B. Nov. 29, 2012)

UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE United States Patent and Trademark Office Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS P.O. Box 1450 Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450 www.uspto.gov APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE FIRST NAMED INVENTOR ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO. 11/380,021 04/25/2006 MAXIMINO AGUILAR, JR. AUS920060029US1 1873 50170 7590 11/29/2012 IBM CORP. (WIP) c/o WALDER INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW, P.C. 17330 PRESTON ROAD SUITE 100B DALLAS, TX 75252 EXAMINER KIM, KEVIN Y ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER 3716 MAIL DATE DELIVERY MODE 11/29/2012 PAPER Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding. The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication. PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07) UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE ____________ BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD ____________ Ex parte MAXIMINO AGUILAR, JR., CHARLES R. JOHNS and MARK R. NUTTER ____________ Appeal 2010-009962 Application 11/380,021 Technology Center 3700 ____________ Before ANTON W. FETTING, JOSEPH A. FISCHETTI, and MICHAEL W. KIM, Administrative Patent Judges. FISCHETTI, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON APPEAL STATEMENT OF THE CASE Appellants seek our review under 35 U.S.C. § 134 of the Examiner’s final rejection of claims 1, 11, 15 and 21-37. We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b)(2002). Appeal 2010-009962 Application 11/380,021 2 Claim 1, reproduced below, is representative of the subject matter on appeal. 1. A method for generating event notifications from within a persistent world game, the method comprising: activating a player agent for an offline player, wherein the player agent has an associated set of offline player rules; monitoring, by the player agent, events maintained by a game server, wherein the game server observes and generates game events for a persistent virtual world; responsive to a given event triggering one or more of the set of offline player rules, generating a notification event message; and sending the notification event message to a messaging client associated with the offline player, wherein generating a notification event message comprises: composing a text message; obtaining an image, sound, or video associated with the given event from a game client device associated with an online player; and adding the image, sound, or video to the text message to form the notification event message. THE REJECTION The Examiner relies upon the following as evidence of unpatentability: Gabai Arthur Labrie US 6,773,344 B1 US 2005/0245317 A1 US 2006/0135263 A1 Aug. 10, 2004 Nov. 3, 2005 Jun. 22, 2006 Appeal 2010-009962 Application 11/380,021 3 The following rejections are before us for review. The Examiner rejected claims 1, 11, 15, 21-23, 25, 27-29, 31, 33, 34, and 36 under 35 U.S.C. § 102(e) as anticipated by Labrie. The Examiner rejected claims 24, 30, and 35 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over Labrie and further in view of Arthur. The Examiner rejected claims 26, 32, and 37 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over Labrie and further in view of Gabai. FINDINGS OF FACT 1. We adopt the Examiner’s findings as set forth on pages 4-10 of the Answer. 2. Appellants’ Specification does not specifically define the term associated, nor does it utilize the term contrary to its customary meaning. 3. The ordinary and customary definition of the term associated as defined by Merriam Webster’s Dictionary is: “to bring together or into relationship in any of various intangible ways.” (found at: http://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/associated). 4. The Specification describes that a “…player is considered online when the player is logged into the Appeal 2010-009962 Application 11/380,021 4 game server through a game client.” (Specification 2:20- 21). 5. Labrie discloses that a “player receives an SMS or MMS (Short or Multimedia Messaging Service, respectively) message from the village-with a still(SMS) or animated(MMS) image of the virtual villages placing one of your tiles on the structure they're building.” Para. [0048]. ANALYSIS Appellants’ arguments to each of independent claims 1, 11 and 15 are based on perceived deficiencies of Labrie. Inasmuch as Appellants raise the same issues with respect to each of these claims, we discuss them together, addressing each of Appellants’ arguments in turn. We begin our analysis by construing the pertinent subject matter of the claims. Each of independent claims 1, 11 and 15 requires “obtaining an image, sound, or video associated with the given event from a game client device associated with an online player.” We construe the term “associated” to mean items or persons brought together or into relationship in any of various intangible ways. (FF 2, 3). Hence, we construe the phrase, from a game client device associated with an online player, to mean any device associated with an online player placed into relationship to one another though the intermediary of the persistent world game. The Examiner found that the village to whom the offline player donates his or her winnings is the online player and from whom the message Appeal 2010-009962 Application 11/380,021 5 originates, as the claim requires. (Answer 3). We agree with the Examiner because as set forth above, we construe any device brought into relationship with the online player as being associated with him or her, and thus agree with the Examiner’s finding that the message from the village game client device (Answer 3, 4) would be in relationship with an online player by virtue of their common connection via the persistent world game. Appellants next argue that “Labrie does not teach that the persistent world game has online players.” (Appeal Br. 9). We disagree with Appellants. First, according to the Specification, a “…player is considered online when the player is logged into the game server through a game client.” (Specification 2:20-21). Thus, according to either the claims or the Specification, no distinction is made between the type of function which the game server produces, namely, a server in which all content is generated by the server, or otherwise. Thus, the distinction fails from the outset because it is not based on limitations appearing in the claims which merely require an online user to be logged onto a server, regardless of whether all or some of the content is generated by the server. See In re Self, 671 F.2d 1344, 1348 (CCPA 1982). Representative claim 25 recites in pertinent part, receiving a series of screen captures from the game client device associated with the online player. The Examiner found that the sending of a SMS image from the village rebuilt meets the requirement of claim 25. (Answer 4). We agree Appeal 2010-009962 Application 11/380,021 6 because as found supra, the image sent by the village icon is from a client device associated with an online player because of its relationship with an online player through the game, and hence meets the claim requirements. Representative claim 24 recites in pertinent part, receiving a voice recording from the game client device associated with the online player. We are not persuaded of error by the Examiner in looking to Arthur or Gabai for a teaching to modify Labrie to include a voice recording or a text to speech converter in addition to or in substitution for the SMS image from the village rebuild of Labrie since for some people, such as with visual impairments, an audible message would be preferable. CONCLUSIONS OF LAW We conclude the Examiner did not err in rejecting claims 1, 11, 15, 21-23, 25, 27-29, 31, 33, 34, and 36 under 35 U.S.C. § 102. We conclude the Examiner did not err in rejecting claims 24, 26, 30, 32, 35, and 37 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a). DECISION The decision of the Examiner is AFFIRMED. AFFIRMED mls