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 .
DETAILED ACTION
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on December 31, 2025 has been entered.
REMARKS
On page 6, Applicant’s discussion of the Appeal Board decision on October 31, 2025 is noted.
On pages 7-9, Applicant’s argument is not persuasive because Appeal Board decision on October 31, 2025 affirmed the prior art rejection of record. Further, the new limitation of “text descriptive of one or more content items” wherein the “text descriptive of one or more content items” has been interpreted as nonfunctional descriptive material without a functional relationship with the claimed computing device. To be given patentable weight, the printed matter and associated product must be in a functional relationship or the relationship is new and nonobvious. In the instant claims, the new limitation is not given patentable weight because the limitation of “text descriptive of one or more content items” does not have a functional relationship with the claimed device, or the relationship is not new and nonobvious.
On pages 10-13, Applicant’s argument the motivation to combine the references is not supported. Applicant’s argument is not persuasive because Appeal Board decision on October 31, 2025 affirmed the prior art rejection of record. The Appeal Board decision on October 31, 2025 explicitly affirmed the motivation to combine the references.
On pages 11-13, Applicant’s argument the combination of references does not teach the new limitation of “wherein the intermediary device is configured to track an access of the content item." Applicant’s argument is not persuasive as discussed below. The limitation of “wherein the intermediary device is configured to track an access of the content item" was previously recited in claim 10, filed November 27, 2023 and rejected in view of Tiu, Conrad, and Wong in the Final Office, mailed February 06, 2024. The rejection of claim 10 as a whole was confirmed by Appeal Board decision on October 31, 2025. See Patent Board Decision, page 10, mailed October 31, 2025.
On pages 13-14, Applicant’s argument the motivation to combine the references is not supported. Applicant’s argument is not persuasive because Appeal Board decision on October 31, 2025 affirmed the prior art rejection of record. The Appeal Board decision on October 31, 2025 explicitly affirmed the motivation to combine the references.
On pages 14-15, Applicant asserts the dependent claims are non-obvious over the prior art. Applicant’s argument is not persuasive because Appeal Board decision on October 31, 2025 explicitly affirmed the rejections of the “dependent claims.”
Pending Matters
Claims 1 and 3-21, filed December 31, 2025, are examined on the merits.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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, 3-7, 15-18, 20, and 21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Mese (US 2014/0314389 A1) in view of Nitz et al. (Nitz hereafter, Pub No. US 20140310002 A1).
Claim 1 Mese discloses a method, comprising:
receiving, by a computing device, a user input associated with a social media platform (Mese, page 2, [0019], e.g. the user may designate various content markers, by one or more command gestures, for example, which are evaluated by a computing device to generate a segmented resource identifier…the segmented resource identifier may be circulated to one or more parties or posted to a social networking website), wherein the user input…one or more content items (Mese, page 4, [0040], e.g. a user may directly specify a type and attribute for a content marker using one or more entry fields of a user interface via a hardware or software keyboard or other suitable input device. It is noted that the disclosure of “entry fields” and “software keyboard” suggest that user input could comprise text);
determining, based on the user input comprising text associated with the one or more content items, one or more user agnostic identifiers (Mese, page 3, [0033], e.g. segment point may be relied upon by the content reference generator 108 to generate a segmented resource identifier, and [0034], e.g. second segment point may be relied upon by the content reference generator 108 to generate a segmented resource identifier);
suggesting, based on the user input, the one or more user agnostic identifiers for association with an interface element (Mese, page 1, [0015], e.g. if a user of a playback device identifies media content of a particular interest, the user may distribute a link including a uniform resource identifier that identifies the content to a friend or family member);
receiving a selection of the one or more user agnostic identifiers (Mese, page 1, [0015], e.g. if a user of a playback device identifies media content of a particular interest, the user may distribute a link including a uniform resource identifier that identifies the content to a friend or family member. It is noted that the disclosure of “user may distribute a link including a uniform resource identifier” suggests an act of selection);
packaging the user input, the interface element, and the selected one or more user agnostic identifiers into a message (Mese, page 1, [0015], e.g. the user may distribute a link including a uniform resource identifier by posting the link to a social networking website, page 3, [0036], e.g. channel for circulation may include one or more e-mail addresses or short messaging service (SMS) or multimedia messaging service (MMS) addresses. Alternatively or additionally, the channel for circulation may include one or more of the social networking websites or distribution channels 160, for example, among other network distribution or circulation means. After the content reference publisher 110 has identified a party and channel for circulation of a segmented resource identifier, the content reference publisher 110 is configured to publish the segmented resource identifier to the party via the channel for circulation);
sending, to one or more user devices of users associated with the social media platform, the message (Mese, page 1, [0015], e.g. the user may distribute a link including a uniform resource identifier that identifies the content to a friend or family member. It is noted that the disclosure of “distribute” has been interpreted as “sending”); and
causing, based on an interaction with the interface element via a user device of the one or more user devices, the selected one or more user agnostic identifiers and a user specific identifier of a user associated with the user device of the one or more user devices (Mese, page 6, [0060], e.g. each party A, B, C, and D may be associated with a particular marker command input identifier), to be sent to an intermediary device (pages 2-3, [0027], e.g. content server 134, generally, stores media content for distribution. Because the content server 134 is coupled to other devices via the network 150, the content server 134 can distribute stored content to various devices, such as the interface device 100, the local display 120, and the playback device 140).
Mese discloses the user may designate various content markers, by one or more command gestures, for example, which are evaluated by a computing device to generate a segmented resource identifier (Mese, page 2, [0019]). However, Mese does not disclose “the user input comprises text” and “via natural language processing.” Nitz discloses the user input comprises text (Nitz, page 3, [0027], e.g. components of the multi-modal user interface 120 may convert analog signals to digital form, translate mouse clicks or gestures to a text command or data, or resolve data and/or instructions received from other computer applications according to conversion specifications using, for example existing or readily available techniques) as processed by via natural language processing (Nitz, page 3, [0026], e.g. inputs may include, for example, mouse clicks, taps, swipes, pinches, and/or others. In some cases, the multi-modal interface 120 may capture "off-device" body movements or other gesture-type inputs (such as hand waves, head nods, eye movements, etc.) by, e.g., a camera, motion sensor and/or kinetic sensor, which may be integrated with or otherwise in communication with the computing system 100. In any event, the captured user inputs are at least temporarily stored in memory of the computing system 100. While the VPA 112 is often mainly concerned with processing the natural language (NL) dialog inputs, any or all of the other forms of user inputs may be used by the VPA 112 to aid in its understanding of the NL dialog inputs, to determine the intent of the NL dialog inputs, to determine a suitable response to the NL dialog inputs, or for other reasons).
Nitz discloses an improvement that correctly interprets conversational user input, executes a task on the user's behalf, determines an appropriate response to the input, and presents system output in a way that the user can readily understand and appreciate as being responsive to the input (Nitz, page 1, [0002]). One of ordinary skill in the art at the time prior to the effective filing date of the instant invention would have been motivated by Nitz to improve the system Mese. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to use with the gesture command converters of Nitze. The benefit would be to correctly interprets conversational user input, executes a task on the user's behalf, determines an appropriate response to the input, and presents system output in a way that the user can readily understand and appreciate as being responsive to the input.
The new limitation of “text descriptive of one or more content items” wherein the “text descriptive of one or more content items” has been interpreted as nonfunctional descriptive material without a functional relationship with the claimed computing device. To be given patentable weight, the printed matter and associated product must be in a functional relationship or the relationship is new and nonobvious. In the instant claims, the new limitation is not given patentable weight because the limitation of “text descriptive of one or more content items” does not have a functional relationship with the claimed computing device, or the relationship is not new and nonobvious.
In regard to claim 3, Mese as modified discloses the media one or more content items comprise one or more of audio, video (Mese, page 1, [0014], e.g. the distribution and circulation of media content such as video and audio content), a webpage, or an advertisements.
In regard to claim 4, Mese as modified discloses the intermediary device is associated with a content provider of the one or more content and wherein the intermediary device is configured to provide, based on the selected one or more user agnostic identifiers, an option for accessing the one or more items (Mese, page 1, [0015], e.g. one form of a uniform resource identifier, a computing device may rely upon a link that refers to content stored on a content server, to request the content for playback. The link may include a uniform resource locator or uniform resource name that identifies content stored on a content server. Using the link, the content may be requested from the content server for playback on a playback device).
In regard to claim 5, Mese as modified discloses suggesting the one or more user agnostic identifiers comprises determining one or more keyword matches between the user input and a database of keywords associated with a plurality of user agnostic identifiers (Nitz, page 6, [0046], e.g. each or any of these components may be embodied as information, data structures (e.g., searchable databases or knowledge bases).
In regard to claim 6, Mese as modified discloses the intermediary device is further configured to track, based on the user specific identifier, an access of a content item of the one or more content items (Mese, page 1, [0015], e.g. one form of a uniform resource identifier, a computing device may rely upon a link that refers to content stored on a content server, to request the content for playback. The link may include a uniform resource locator or uniform resource name that identifies content stored on a content server. Using the link, the content may be requested from the content server for playback on a playback device).
In regard to claim 7, Mese as modified discloses the one or more content items comprises one or more of a webpage or an advertisement (Mese, page 1, [0015], e.g. the user may distribute a link including a uniform resource identifier by posting the link to a social networking website).
In regard to claim 15, Mese as modified discloses receiving, by a computing device, a message (Mese, pages 1-2, [0017], e.g. a user of a playback device that receives a link to content, rather than viewing the content in its entirety, the user may wish to watch or listen to only a certain portion or segment of the content) comprising a first user specific identifier of a first user of a social media platform and text descriptive of a content (Mese, page 6, [0061], e.g. each individual A, B, C, and D may be associated with a particular marker command input identifier) (It is noted the new limitation of “text descriptive of one or more content items” wherein the “text descriptive of one or more content items” has been interpreted as nonfunctional descriptive material without a functional relationship with the claimed computing device. To be given patentable weight, the printed matter and associated product must be in a functional relationship or the relationship is new and nonobvious. In the instant claims, the new limitation is not given patentable weight because the limitation of “text descriptive of one or more content items” does not have a functional relationship with the claimed device, or the relationship is not new and nonobvious);
determining, based on processing of the message, a user agnostic identifiers of the content item (Mese, page 3, [0033], e.g. segment point may be relied upon by the content reference generator 108 to generate a segmented resource identifier, and [0034], e.g. second segment point may be relied upon by the content reference generator 108 to generate a segmented resource identifier);
causing, via a social media page of a social media platform, display of the message and an interface element associated with the user agnostic identifier (Mese, page 6, [0065], e.g. upon viewing the content under display at reference numeral 602, a user may desire to share a reference or link to the content to a friend or family member. Further, the user may wish to identify one or more particular segments of the content for sharing. Thus, the user may input one of the content marker command input gestures 220, 222, and 224 illustrated in FIGS. 2A-2C, for example, to mark one or more start times, end times, or playback ranges associated with the content under display);
determining an interaction with the interface element (Mese, page 1, [0015], e.g. one form of a uniform resource identifier, a computing device may rely upon a link that refers to content stored on a content server, to request the content for playback. The link may include a uniform resource locator or uniform resource name that identifies content stored on a content server. Using the link, the content may be requested from the content server for playback on a playback device)
sending to an intermediary device (Mese, page 1, [0015], e.g. the user may distribute a link including a uniform resource identifier that identifies the content to a friend or family member. It is noted that the disclosure of “distribute” has been interpreted as “sending”), based on the interaction, a request comprising the user agnostic identifier and the second user specific identifier, wherein, based on the user agnostic identifier and the second user specific identifier (Mese, page 6, [0061], e.g. each individual A, B, C, and D may be associated with a particular marker command input identifier).
Mese discloses the user may designate various content markers, by one or more command gestures, for example, which are evaluated by a computing device to generate a segmented resource identifier (Mese, page 2, [0019]).
However, Mese does not disclose “via natural language processing.” Nitz discloses inputs may include, for example, mouse clicks, taps, swipes, pinches, and/or others. In some cases, the multi-modal interface 120 may capture "off-device" body movements or other gesture-type inputs (such as hand waves, head nods, eye movements, etc.) by, e.g., a camera, motion sensor and/or kinetic sensor, which may be integrated with or otherwise in communication with the computing system 100. In any event, the captured user inputs are at least temporarily stored in memory of the computing system 100. While the VPA 112 is often mainly concerned with processing the natural language (NL) dialog inputs, any or all of the other forms of user inputs may be used by the VPA 112 to aid in its understanding of the NL dialog inputs, to determine the intent of the NL dialog inputs, to determine a suitable response to the NL dialog inputs, or for other reasons (Nitze, page 3, [0026]).
Nitz discloses an improvement that correctly interprets conversational user input, executes a task on the user's behalf, determines an appropriate response to the input, and presents system output in a way that the user can readily understand and appreciate as being responsive to the input (page 1, [0002]). One of ordinary skill in the art at the time prior to the effective filing date of the instant invention would have been motivated by Nitz to improve the system Mese. Therefore, it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to use with the gesture command converters of Nitze. The benefit would be to correctly interprets conversational user input, executes a task on the user's behalf, determines an appropriate response to the input, and presents system output in a way that the user can readily understand and appreciate as being responsive to the input.
In regard to claim 16, Mese as modified discloses the first user is an originator of the message (Mese, page 6, [0061], e.g. each individual A, B, C, and D may be associated with a particular marker command input identifier).
In regard to claim 17, Mese as modified discloses the second user specific identifier is associated with a second user receiving the message (Mese, page 6, [0061], e.g. each individual A, B, C, and D may be associated with a particular marker command input identifier).
In regard to claim 18, Mese as modified discloses the content item comprises one or more of video, audio, a webpage, or an advertisement (Mese, page 1, [0014], e.g. the distribution and circulation of media content such as video and audio content).
In regard to claim 20, Mese as modified discloses the request comprises time information indicative of a time the interaction occurred (Mese, Abstract, e.g. attribute of the marker may be evaluated as a playback start time or end time, for example. With reference to the start or end time, a segmented resource identifier is generated).
In regard to claim 21, Mese as modified discloses wherein the user input comprises one or more of a post, status, tweet, instant message, text message, or update (Mese, page 1, [0015], e.g. the user may distribute a link including a uniform resource identifier by posting the link to a social networking website).
Claims 8 and 10-14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tiu, Jr. et al., (Tiu hereafter, US 7,680,882 B2) in view of Conrad et al. (Conrad hereafter, US 7809695 B2) and Wong et al. (Wong hereafter, US 2013/0305287 A1).
In regard to claim 8, Tiu discloses a method, comprising:
receiving, by a computing device, a search query (column 5, line 26, e.g. a query is issued);
determining, based on the search query, search results (column 4, lines 36-37, e.g. process the query and return the query results to the application server 251); and
causing, based on an interaction with the interface element, the user agnostic identifier and a user specific identifier to be sent to an intermediary device (column 6, lines 41-58, e.g. the user navigates to an external video site and selects a video for viewing. In response to this selection, the video is streamed to the user's computer and displayed to the user (step 512). The user's display includes a hyperlink "Post to Friendster." This hyperlink permits the user to feature this video on the user's landing page at the online social network, Friendster…the external video site transmits this information along with the particulars of the video file, such as the source ID (which identifies the external video site that is hosting the video file) and the content ID (which is an identifier of the video file used by the external video site) to the online social network, and various other data (step 518). Steps 516 and 518 are carried out using the API 290 provided by the online social network), wherein the intermediary device is configured to track an access of the content item (Tiu, page 8, [0106], e.g. the sites would be similarly complemented with certain adcodes or other identifiers that would track or recognize that particular user back to the holder of that adcode or other identifier once a user visits that site, advertisement, game, virtual world, or application via that link).
Tiu discloses this page may be opened up to web crawlers of search engines and accessed when a user clicks on a search result that is hyperlinked to this page (column 5, lines 4-2). However, Tiu does not explicitly disclose causing display of the search results and an interface element associated with the identifier. Conrad discloses causing display of the search results and an interface element associated with the identifier (column 14, line 66, to column 15, line 21, e.g. Results listing region 730 includes one or more document citations or hyperlinks, such as identifiers 732 and 734, which are selectable to invoke retrieval and display of all or a portion of each corresponding document. In some embodiments, selection of one of the hyperlinks immediately causes retrieval of the corresponding document in a browser window. In others the selection results in display of a sign-on screen in the browser window, prompting the user to enter appropriate login and/or client-matter-identification data prior to document display. Associated with document identifier 732 is a set 7322 of one or more selectable duplicate-document identifiers or links). The hyperlinks of Conrad has been interpreted as an interface element as described by the instant specification.
Conrad discloses an improvement that addresses a need to effectively address how information-retrieval systems, such as the Westlaw system, handle the existence of duplicate documents in their document collections, and more importantly within the search results of their users (column 1, lines 54-58). One of ordinary skill in the art at the time prior to the effective filing date of the instant invention would have been motivated by Nitz to improve the system Tiu. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to use the method of Tiu with the displaying of Conrad to effectively address how information-retrieval systems, such as the Westlaw system, handle the existence of duplicate documents in their document collections, and more importantly within the search results of their users. The benefit would be to effectively address how information-retrieval systems
However, Tiu as modified does not disclose determining, based on one or more of the search query or the search results, and via natural language processing associated with one or more of the search query or the search results, a user agnostic identifier of a content item.
Wong discloses determining, based on one or more of the search query or the search results, and via natural language processing associated with one or more of the search query or the search results, a user agnostic identifier of a content item (page 10, [0080], e.g. the media source may perform a semantic or contextual (natural language processing) search of the text or subtitles determine that the uploaded user-generated content is related to sports. Accordingly, the media source may then associate a Sports identifier with the uploaded user-generated content).
Wong discloses an improvement that allows users to efficiently navigate content selections and easily identify content that they may desire (page 1, [0018]). One of ordinary skill in the art at the time prior to the effective filing date of the instant invention would have been motivated Wong to improve the method of Tiu as modified that allows users to efficiently navigate content selections and easily identify content that they may desire. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the method of Tiu as modified with the natural language processing and suggested identifiers of Wong that allows users to efficiently navigate content selections and easily identify content that they may desire. The benefit would be to efficiently navigate content selections and easily identify content that they may desire.
In regard to claim 10, Tiu as modified discloses the intermediary device is configured to provide, based on the user agnostic identifier, an option for accessing the content item (Tiu, column 5, lines 4-2, this page may be opened up to web crawlers of search engines and accessed when a user clicks on a search result that is hyperlinked to this page).
In regard to claim 11, Tiu as modified discloses determining the user agnostic identifier comprises analyzing textual content of one or more of the search query or the search results (Tiu, column 4, lines 36-37, e.g. process the query and return the query results to the application server 251).
In regard to claim 12, Tiu as modified discloses sending to the intermediary device, based on the interaction with the interface element, the search query (Tiu, column 6, lines 41-58, e.g. the user navigates to an external video site and selects a video for viewing. In response to this selection, the video is streamed to the user's computer and displayed to the user (step 512). The user's display includes a hyperlink "Post to Friendster." This hyperlink permits the user to feature this video on the user's landing page at the online social network, Friendster…the external video site transmits this information along with the particulars of the video file, such as the source ID (which identifies the external video site that is hosting the video file) and the content ID (which is an identifier of the video file used by the external video site) to the online social network, and various other data (step 518). Steps 516 and 518 are carried out using the API 290 provided by the online social network).
In regard to claim 13, Tiu as modified discloses the content item comprises one or more of video, audio, a webpage, or an advertisement (Tiu, column 6, lines 62-65, e.g. the particulars of the video file are stored in the multimedia content database of the online social network along with the user ID (step 522), and column 7, lines 15-16, e.g. Source ID indicates the external video site and Content ID indicates the unique ID used by the external video site to identify this video file).
In regard to claim 14, Tiu as modified discloses receiving the search query comprises receiving the search query from a social media page (Tiu, column 5, line 26, e.g. a query is issued).
Claim 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tiu, Jr. et al., (Tiu hereafter, US 7,680,882 B2) and Wong et al. (Wong hereafter, US 2013/0305287 A1), as applied to claims 8 and 10-14 above, in further view of Halliday et al. (Halliday hereafter, US 2015/0058957 A1).
In regard to claim 9, Tiu as modified discloses the claimed invention except for the limitation of the interface element is a user-selectable button. Halliday discloses the interface element is a user-selectable button (page 7, [0159], e.g. when a post presented by the streamer is authored by the user of the mobile device (100), the user may select the icon corresponding to the number (113) of comments received for the post to obtain a user interface showing the list of comments and the users who authored comments; and the user may select the icon corresponding to the count (111) of likes/dislikes to see the list of users who activated the respective like button (117) for the post while viewing the post on their respective mobile devices).
Halliday discloses an improvement to control of access to messages provided in a computing system for social networking (page 1, [0002]). One of ordinary skill in the art at the time prior to the effective filing date of the instant invention would have been motivated by Halliday to improve the method of Tiu as modified to control of access to messages provided in a computing system for social networking. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the a user-selectable button of Halliday with the method of Tiu as modified to control of access to messages provided in a computing system for social networking. The benefit would be to improve to control of access to messages provided in a computing system for social networking.
Claim 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pirnazar (US 2011/0289157 A1) and Wong et al. (Wong hereafter, US 2013/0305287 A1), as applied to claims 1, 3-7, 15-18, 20, and 21 above, in further view of Halliday et al. (Halliday hereafter, US 2015/0058957 A1).
In regard to claim 19, Pirnazar as modified discloses the claimed invention except for the limitation of the interface element is a user-selectable button. Halliday discloses the interface element is a user-selectable button (page 7, [0159], e.g. when a post presented by the streamer is authored by the user of the mobile device (100), the user may select the icon corresponding to the number (113) of comments received for the post to obtain a user interface showing the list of comments and the users who authored comments; and the user may select the icon corresponding to the count (111) of likes/dislikes to see the list of users who activated the respective like button (117) for the post while viewing the post on their respective mobile devices).
Halliday discloses an improvement to control of access to messages provided in a computing system for social networking (page 1, [0002]). One of ordinary skill in the art improvement to control of access to messages provided in a computing system for social networking would have been motivated by Halliday to improve the method of Pirnazar as modified to control of access to messages provided in a computing system for social networking. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use the user-selectable button of Halliday with the method of Pirnazar as modified to control of access to messages provided in a computing system for social networking. The benefit would be to improve to control of access to messages provided in a computing system for social networking
CONCLUSION
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/Cheyne D Ly/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2152
1/10/2026