Ex Parte Yamamoto

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

Oct 22, 2012

10408113 (P.T.A.B. Oct. 22, 2012)

UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
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BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
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Ex parte KENJI YAMAMOTO
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Appeal 2010-007521
Application 10/408,113
Technology Center 3700
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Before CHARLES N. GREENHUT, MICHAEL L. HOELTER, and
JAMES P. CALVE, Administrative Patent Judges.

CALVE, Administrative Patent Judge.

DECISION ON APPEAL

STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Appellant appeals under 35 U.S.C. § 134 from the rejection of claims
2-9, 11-19, 24-27, and 32-34. App. Br. 5. Claims 20-23 and 28-31 have
been withdrawn. Claims 1 and 10 have been cancelled. Id. We have
jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b).
We REVERSE.
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Application 10/408,113

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CLAIMED SUBJECT MATTER
Claim 5 is illustrative of the claimed subject matter on appeal:
5. A game machine that executes a game program
causing a player object to appear in a virtual space, comprising:
a pose control processing programmed logic circuitry for
determining a pose of the player object;
an overturn determination processing programmed logic
circuitry for determining that the player object is to be
overturned if the player object is determined to be in a
predetermined pose;
an overturn processing programmed logic circuitry for
overturning the player object if it is determined that the player
object is to be overturned by the overturn determination
processing programmed logic circuitry;
an overturn recovery processing programmed logic
circuitry for controlling the pose of the player object overturned
by the overturn processing programmed logic circuitry and
recovering the player object to a state for restarting the game;
traveling direction storage locations for storing a
traveling direction of the pre-overturned player object if it is
determined that the player object is to be overturned by the
overturn determination processing programmed logic circuitry,
wherein
the overturn recovery processing programmed logic
circuitry uses the traveling direction of the pre-overturned
player object stored in the traveling direction storage locations
to control the pose of the overturned player object so as to bring
the traveling direction of the overturned player object gradually
and continuously close to the traveling direction stored in the
traveling direction storage locations.

REJECTIONS
Claims 27 and 32-34 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 101 as being
directed to non-statutory subject matter.

Appeal 2010-007521
Application 10/408,113

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Claims 2-9, 11-19, 24-27, and 32-34 are rejected under 35 U.S.C.
§ 103(a) as being unpatentable over First Generation NFS - The Need for
Speed: Special Edition, 1-6 (http://firstgennfs.rscsites.org/tnfsse.php) (last
visited Aug. 30, 2007) (hereinafter “NFS”) and Screenshots from
Splashdown (www.gamespot.com/video/478899/2822141/splashdown-
trailer-1) (hereinafter “Splashdown”).
ANALYSIS
Claims 27 and 32-34 as directed to non-statutory subject matter
The Examiner rejected claims 27 and 32-34 for lacking the necessary
physical articles or objects to constitute a machine or a manufacture under
35 U.S.C. § 101. Ans. 5.1 In response, Appellant cancelled these claims by
Amendment filed August 18, 2009. The Examiner entered the Amendment.
Misc. Comm. mailed Apr. 20, 2010; see 37 C.F.R. § 41.33(b)(1). As such,
this rejection is not before us for review. See Reply Br. 1.
Claims 2-9, 11-19, and 24-26 as unpatentable over NFS and Splashdown2
Independent claims 5, 9, and 19 recite a game machine with traveling
direction storage locations (claims 5 and 9) and traveling direction storage
means (claim 19) for storing a traveling direction of a pre-overturned player
object or pre-rotated race kart. After overturning or rotation, an overturn/
rotation recovery processing programmed logic circuitry (claims 5 and 9) or
overturn recovery means (claim 19) uses the stored traveling direction to
bring the traveling direction of the overturned player object or rotated kart

1 The Examiner entered this rejection as a New Ground of Rejection. Ans.
3-4. The Examiner also withdrew the rejection of claims 5, 9, 14, 18, and 27
under 35 U.S.C. § 112, first paragraph. Ans. 3.
2 Because claims 10, 27, and 32-34 have been cancelled, we do not review
the Examiner’s rejection of those claims under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a). Ans. 5.
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gradually and continuously close to the stored traveling direction.
Independent claims 14 and 18 recite a computer readable medium encoded
with a game program that causes a game machine to execute a storage
operation for storing a traveling direction of a pre-overturned player object
(claim 14) or pre-rotated player kart (claim 18) and performing overturn
recovery using the stored traveling direction. These features restart a game
smoothly after the player object is overturned or spun. Spec., para. [0001].
The Examiner relied on NFS to disclose a game program including “a
pose control step, overturn / rotation determination and overturn / rotation
processing step.” Ans. 6. The Examiner found that NFS does not disclose
what happens after a vehicle is flipped or caused to go off course (Ans. 6)
but Splashdown “teaches using the traveling direction stored in the game
program to define the direction of a player object after an overturning and to
display that overturning continuously.” Ans. 7 (citing
(http://www.gamespot.com/video/478899/2822141/splashdown-trailer-1 end
of the video), 9. The Examiner interpreted “traveling direction” as “the
direction of the motion of the player object regardless of the orientation of
the player object.” Ans. 8. The Examiner found that the Splashdown video
clip shows a jet ski “emerging sideways from the water but continuing to
move in substantially the same direction, generally forward, as before the
collision.” Ans. 9. “Throughout the entire overturning, the jet ski continues
moving forward until it finishes overturning, where the final traveling
direction before the jet ski continues on is substantially the same as the
initial traveling direction (forward and on plane).” Ans. 10.

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Appellant argues that Splashdown and the other videos
do not teach using the traveling direction of the pre-overturned
player object stored in the traveling direction storage locations
to control the pose of the overturned player object so as to bring
the traveling direction of the overturned player object gradually
and continuously close to traveling direction stored in the
traveling direction storage locations.
App. Br. 12; see also Reply Br. 2-3. Appellant argues that “it appears that in
all the prior art game clips, the overturned player object is automatically
positioned so that its direction is the same as the direction of the road, not
the direction of the player object just before the overturn.”3 App. Br. 12. As
a result, Appellant argues that Splashdown shows the jet ski “facing in a
direction sideways, almost perpendicular to the original forward direction
(i.e., just before the overturn). The video clip then ends at that point, with
the jet ski still facing sideways (see picture 7).” App. Br. 11.
The Examiner has not established by a preponderance of evidence that
Splashdown discloses storage locations for storing a traveling direction of a
pre-overturned player object or race kart as called for in claims 5, 9, 14, 18,
and 19. The Examiner has not identified any express disclosure of storage
locations in Splashdown. The Examiner has not adequately explained how a
jet ski that moves in a forward orientation before an overturn and reemerges
from underwater in a sideways orientation after an overturn necessarily
indicates that a pre-overturned traveling direction of the jet ski was stored
and used to correct the traveling direction of the jet ski after the overturn
gradually and continuously close to the stored traveling direction. It is
unclear how a sideways orientation of the jet ski was stored from before the

3 Appellant discloses traveling direction as the Z-axis of the kart coordinate
system. Spec., para. [0042]; fig. 5; Spec., para. [0021]; Spec., para. [0025].
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overturn. Even if the traveling direction of the jet ski can be considered the
direction of movement as the Examiner interpreted that term, a jet ski that
moves forward continuously in substantially the same direction as before an
overturn in Splashdown (Ans. 9) does not necessarily indicate the use of
storage locations that store a pre-overturned traveling direction of the jet ski
before an overturn. The game may simply use a single traveling direction
for the jet ski or follow a prescribed course route. Reply Br. 2-3; App. Br.
12. As such, we cannot sustain the rejection of claims 5, 9, 14, 18, and 19 or
their dependent claims 2-4, 6-8, 11-13, 15-17, and 24-26.

DECISION
We REVERSE the rejections of claims 2-9, 11-19, and 24-26.

REVERSED

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