Amy Leigh. Rose et al.Download PDFPatent Trials and Appeals BoardMay 19, 20202018008669 (P.T.A.B. May. 19, 2020) Copy Citation 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. 14/502,404 09/30/2014 Amy Leigh Rose RPS920140213USNP(710.426) 4925 58127 7590 05/19/2020 FERENCE & ASSOCIATES LLC 409 BROAD STREET PITTSBURGH, PA 15143 EXAMINER GENACK, MATTHEW W ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER 2645 MAIL DATE DELIVERY MODE 05/19/2020 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 AMY LEIGH ROSE, JENNIFER LEE-BARON, NATHAN J. PETERSON, BRYAN L. YOUNG, and JOHN SCOTT CROWE Appeal 2018-008669 Application 14/502,404 Technology Center 2600 Before JENNIFER S. BISK, LARRY J. HUME, and JULIET MITCHELL DIRBA, Administrative Patent Judges. BISK, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON APPEAL1 1 Throughout this Decision we have considered the Specification filed September 30, 2014 (“Spec.”), the Final Rejection mailed January 9, 2018 (“Final Act.”), the Appeal Brief filed June 11, 2018 (“Appeal Br.”), the Examiner’s Answer mailed July 3, 2018 (“Ans.”), and the Reply Brief filed September 4, 2018 (“Reply Br.”). Appeal 2018-008669 Application 14/502,404 2 STATEMENT OF THE CASE Pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 134(a), Appellant2 appeals from the Examiner’s decision to reject claims 1–24. See Final Act. 1. We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b). We reverse. CLAIMED SUBJECT MATTER The claims are directed to a selecting an operating mode for an information handling device that modulates the noise of user notifications. Spec. Abstract. Operating mode may be selected based on detected availability of an input and the type of notification. Id. Claim 1, reproduced below, is illustrative of the claimed subject matter: 1. A method, comprising: detecting, using a processor, a notification at an information handling device; detecting, using a processor, availability of an input associated with a user at the information handling device, wherein the detecting an availability of an input comprises detecting an interaction of the user with the information handling device; and selecting, using a processor, an operating mode of the information handling device, wherein the selected operating mode of the information handling device comprises a mode that modulates a noise and wherein the selecting an operating mode is based upon a user defined rule set associated with the detected availability of an input and a type of the notification. 2 We use the term “Appellant” to refer to “applicant” as defined in 37 C.F.R. § 1.42. Appellant identifies the real party in interest as is Lenovo (Singapore) PTE. LTD. Appeal Br. 3. Appeal 2018-008669 Application 14/502,404 3 REFERENCES The prior art relied upon by the Examiner as evidence is: Name Reference Date Glatzer U.S. 2005/0078090 A1 Apr. 14, 2005 Li U.S. 2008/0214246 A1 Sept. 4, 2008 Luciani U.S. 2008/0242287 A1 Oct. 2, 2008 Pinto U.S. 2011/0022666 A1 Jan. 27, 2011 Lee U.S. 2014/0156269 A1 June 5, 2014 Varghese U.S. 2014/0273974 A1 Sept. 18, 2014 Kao U.S. 2014/0289384 A1 Sept. 25, 2014 Walley U.S. 2015/0134801 A1 May 14, 2015 REJECTIONS Claims 1, 2, 9, 10, 12–14, 21, 23, and 24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Li, Varghese, Pinto, and Glatzer. Final Act. 6–17. Claims 3, 5, 11, 15, 17, and 22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Li, Varghese, Pinto, Glatzer, and Lee. Final Act. 17–22. Claims 4 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Li, Varghese, Pinto, Glatzer, and Kao. Final Act. 22–24. Claims 6 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Li, Varghese, Pinto, Glatzer, and Luciani. Final Act. 24– 26. Claims 7, 8, 19, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Li, Varghese, Pinto, Glatzer, and Walley. Final Act. 26– 30. OPINION We review the appealed rejections for error based upon the issues Appeal 2018-008669 Application 14/502,404 4 identified by Appellant, and in light of the arguments and evidence produced thereon. Ex parte Frye, 94 USPQ2d 1072, 1075 (BPAI 2010) (precedential). To the extent Appellant has not advanced separate, substantive arguments for particular claims, or other issues, such arguments are waived. 37 C.F.R. § 41.37(c)(1)(iv). We have considered all of Appellant’s arguments and any evidence presented. We highlight and address specific findings and arguments for emphasis in our analysis below. Claim 1 The Examiner finds that claim 1 would have been obvious over the combination of Li, Varghese, Pinto, and Glatzer. Final Act. 6–9. Specifically, the Examiner cites to Li as teaching the bulk of the limitations, but relies on Varghese as teaching or suggesting “wherein the selecting an operating mode is based upon a user defined rule set associated with the detected availability of an input,” on Pinto for teaching “a type of the notification,” and on Glatzer for teaching “wherein the detecting an availability of an input comprises detecting an interaction of the user with the information handling device.” Id. In explaining the combination of Varghese with Li, the Examiner points to Varghese’s disclosure that, in order to receive simultaneous independent communications on a mobile device configured for dual-SIM dual active (DSDA) operation, the device’s memory may “store application data, such as pre-determined user preference setting and/or rules for automatically determining when to commence voice/text conversation mode” and “may determine whether user input to use voice/text conversation mode was received for processing the incoming voice call.” Appeal 2018-008669 Application 14/502,404 5 Final Act. 8; Varghese ¶¶ 35, 45. According to the Examiner, a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing would have been motivated to combine Li’s system for controlling the audio alarm of a communication device with this teaching of Varghese “in order to facilitate a user simultaneously participating in two separate telephone calls.” Id. (citing Varghese ¶ 4). Appellant argues the Examiner has not provided sufficient motivation to combine Varghese with Li. Appeal Br. 19–21. Specifically, Appellant contends the Examiner’s proffered motivation—facilitating participation in two separate telephone calls—“is not applicable to the claimed limitations.” Id. at 20. According to Appellant, “the teachings of Varghese and Li are directed to a completely different problem than that of the claimed limitations.” Id. at 21. In response to Appellant’s arguments, the Examiner explains that “both Li and Varghese relate to mobile device notifications (specifically, incoming call notifications . . . )” and “[a]n individual using the terminal of Li who is currently participating in a telephone call would benefit from the pre-determined user rules of Varghese when receiving an incoming telephone call during said first telephone call.” Ans. 5–6. Although we agree with the Examiner that Li and Varghese are directed to analogous art, we nevertheless agree with Appellant that the Examiner has not sufficiently explained why a person of ordinary skill in the art would have combined the teachings of Li and Varghese. The Examiner does not point to any disclosure in Li, nor do we see any, describing its communication device as supporting multiple installed SIMs or simultaneous independent communications. Thus, it is unclear why a person Appeal 2018-008669 Application 14/502,404 6 of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to add a solution tailored for such a setup. Paragraph 4 of Varghese, relied upon by the Examiner for this rationale does not appear to strengthen the position that a person would be motivated to modify Li’s system “in order to facilitate a user simultaneously participating in two separate telephone calls.” Varghese ¶ 4 (describing the ability of dual-SIM devices to allow both SIMs to be active simultaneously and noting that “a user cannot generally participate in two separate telephone calls at the same time”); Final Act. 8. Moreover, even assuming a person of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that a second call may arrive while a first call is in progress on Li’s communication device, it is unclear why this scenario would motivate a person of ordinary skill in the art to add pre-determined user preferences to address the situation instead of applying the solutions explicitly described in Li for dealing with notifications. See, e.g., Li ¶¶ 26–28 (describing embodiments for determining what alarm mode to use for incoming notifications, including changing the alarm mode based on proximity of a user). Other than citing to paragraph 4 of Varghese, which as discussed above, does not support the Examiner’s proffered reasoning, the Examiner does not provide any support or explanation for this rationale for combining Li and Varghese.3 3 Although we recognize a person of ordinary skill at the relevant time may have had other reasons to add pre-determined user preferences to specify how to deal with notifications, for example as a convenient method of allowing a user to customize behavior leading to higher satisfaction of the product, the Examiner has not made any such reasoning part of this rejection, nor do we see any evidence in the record to support such a finding. See Final Act. 7–8; Ans. 5–8. Instead, the Examiner relies solely on the rationale of facilitating “simultaneous participa[tion] in two separate Appeal 2018-008669 Application 14/502,404 7 Accordingly, we are persuaded of error in the Examiner’s rejection of claim 1 as obvious over the combination of Li, Varghese, Pinto, and Glatzer. Claims 2–24 Independent claims 13 and 24 contain similar limitations to those of claim 1, and their rejection suffers from the same problems identified with the rejection of claim 1. Compare Final Act. 8 (articulating motivation to combine Li and Varghese for claim 1), with id. at 11, 14 (articulating same motivation to combine these references for claims 13 and 24). Claims 2, 9, 10, 12, 14, 21, and 23 depend from claims 1 and 13, and therefore, their rejections also suffer from the same deficiencies discussed above. Claims 3–5, 7, 8, 11, 15–20, and 22, each of which depend, directly or indirectly, from claims 1 and 13, are rejected over Li, Varghese, Pinto, and Glatzer combined with either Lee, Kao, Luciani, or Walley. Final Act. 17– 30. Each of these rejections relies on the same reasoning regarding the combination of Li and Varghese, and therefore, their rejections suffer from the same deficiencies discussed above. CONCLUSION We reverse the Examiner’s rejections. telephone calls.” Final Act. 8; Ans. 5–8. Should there be further prosecution of claims 1–24, we leave to the Examiner to consider the appropriateness of further rejection(s) of claims 1–24 under 35 U.S.C. § 103. Appeal 2018-008669 Application 14/502,404 8 DECISION SUMMARY Claims Rejected 35 U.S.C. § Basis/Reference(s) Affirmed Reversed 1, 2, 9, 10, 12– 14, 21, 23, 24 103 Li, Varghese, Pinto, Glatzer 1, 2, 9, 10, 12– 14, 21, 23, 24 3, 5, 11, 15, 17, 22 103 Li, Varghese, Pinto, Glatzer, Lee 3, 5, 11, 15, 17, 22 4, 16 103 Li, Varghese, Pinto, Glatzer, Kao 4, 16 6, 18 103 Li, Varghese, Pinto, Glatzer, Luciani 6, 18 7, 8, 19, 20 103 Li, Varghese, Pinto, Glatzer, Walley 7, 8, 19, 20 Overall Outcome 1–24 REVERSED Copy with citationCopy as parenthetical citation