DETAILED ACTION
Status of Claims
The Request for Continued Examination failed 12/19/2025 has been acknowledged. Claims 1, 11, 16 are amended. Claims 2, 5-9, 12, 15, 17, 19-20 are cancelled. Claims 21-31 are added/ Claims 1, 3-4, 10-11, 13-14, 16, 18, 21-31 are currently pending and have been examined.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 1, 3-4, 10-11, 13-14, 16, 18, 21-31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention. As currently claimed, independent claims 1, 11, and 16 recite “the container is established independently of the data for the first product placement, the data for the second product placement, or the data for the third product placement.” As discussed in pages 4-6 of the originally filed specification, although the properties of and features of the null space and containers are described such as time, location, and dimension of the container in the media content, the originally filed specification only recites “The null space can be created either through original animation, animation imposed on a background of animation or on a background consisting of a still or moving photographic image (film or digital source), or through the photography of a designated motion capture object within a still or moving photographic image (film or digital source). Once the null space is established within the media file, its space can then be populated with the content of a designated commercial product or any other visual reference.” The originally filed specification does not specifically define the creation/establishment of the null space and container to be independent of the product placements and one skill in the art would not have reasonably concluded that the inventor(s) had possession of the claimed concept of the containers to be established independently of the product placements as the establishment/creation of the null space and containers are only described as shown above, which does not particular exclude the involvement of the product placement. As such, the claims fail to comply with the written description requirement.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1, 3-4, 10-11, 13-14, 16, 18, 21-31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more. The claims recites a machine and process for performing the steps of storing profile information, receiving requests for media content from first and second client, retrieving the requested media content and respective client profiles, retrieving product placement information for the first and second clients based on the respective profiles, mixing the placements with the media contents, and transmitting the mixed content to the respective clients. The invention further receiving the number of times a product placement has occurred and replace the product placement with a third product placement. The invention further detect and respond to inputs on a display object on the client device.
The limitations, but the recitation of generic computer components/technology, is directed towards a certain method of organizing human activity, specifically fundamental economic practice and commercial interactions of advertising/marketing activity. As currently claimed, and as discussed in the originally filed abstract, the invention is directed towards providing mixed media content which includes both a requested content and additional marketing content in the form of product placement. As shown in “Understanding Product Placement: Key Concepts and Examples”, the concept of product placement into other media is a fundamental economic practice and advertising/marketing activity. As such the Examiner asserts the invention, but the generic computer components, are directed towards a judicial exception.
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. In particular, the claim only recites the additional elements of generic computer components performing the steps. The generic computer components are recited at a high-level of generality (i.e., as a generic processor performing a generic computer function of receiving/retrieving information, combining/replacing information, and sending/receiving information over a network, and generic storage for storing and accessing information) such that it amounts no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic computer component. Accordingly, this additional element does not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because it does not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea. The claim is directed to an abstract idea.
The claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. As discussed above with respect to integration of the abstract idea into a practical application, the additional element of using a processor to perform the steps amounts to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic computer component. Mere instructions to apply an exception using a generic computer component cannot provide an inventive concept. Still furthermore, although the invention further recites limitations directed towards the formatting of information, this is not significantly more as this is still electronic record keeping. The claim is not patent eligible.
The dependent claims are further directed towards the judicial exception without significantly more. The dependent claims provide limitations on the generic computer processor performing analysis/comparison on information (such as claim 3, 26-27), the formatting of information being presented (such as claims 4, 10, 22, 25), the format/arrangement of abstract information (such as claim 21, 23-34). These are still directed towards the judicial exception as these further define the abstract elements such as further defining the information and relationship between the information. They are not significantly more as they do not further integrate the judicial exception into a practical application and the additional element amounts to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic computer component. The dependent claims is not patent eligible.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1, 3-4, 10-11, 13-14, 16, 18, 21-31 is/are rejected under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Hosea et al. (US 20020059094 A1) (hereafter Hosea), in view of McKenna et al. (US 20080033803 A1) (hereafter McKenna), in view of Macaluso (US 20050215238 A1) (hereafter Macaluso), in view of Dempski et al. (US 20030033157 A1) (hereafter Dempski).
As per claim 1:
A system comprising a server coupled over a communication network to a plurality of clients, the server comprising:
a database storing a first user profile associated with a first user of a first client among the plurality of clients and a second user profile associated with a second user of a second client associated with the plurality of clients; (See Hosea ¶0227, “The data analysis system takes advertising profile data from the ad campaign database 60 and matches it to user profiles from the master user profile database 50. Such a master user profile database 50 may contain a number of user profiles.” Hosea discloses a database for storing user profiles.)
at least one processor configured to: (See Hosea ¶0012, “Another embodiment of the invention is a computer for profiling an iTV user. In this embodiment, the computer comprises a memory for storing a program and a processor operative with the program to monitor which of a plurality of programs the user views and develop a profile of the user based on predetermined profiles of the television programs viewed by the user.” Hosea discloses a processor.)
receive a request for media content from the first user of the first client, wherein the media content comprises video; (See Hosea ¶0042, “The profiler 23 also extracts from the program database 26 content affinity or psychographic data associated with a program request made by the user. Such content affinity and psychographic data may come from a categorized listing of television programs that translate a program identifier into content preferences.” Hosea discloses receiving request for media content from users including video content.)
receive a request for the media content from the second user of the second client; (See Hosea ¶0213, “Such information may be stored in the user ID and URL database 30 of FIG. 4a. Because multiple clients 10 may be connected to the server 16 in this embodiment, the user's IP address or iTV address may be stored in the database 30.” Hosea discloses managing multiple user/clients.)
retrieve a media file associated with the media content requested by first and second users, (See Hosea ¶0033, “The iTV/ISP server 15 may be an iTV server 12, an ISP server 16, or a combination of the iTV server 12 and the ISP server 16. The iTV server 12 provides iTV content that may include programs, advertisements, and interactive content including the Internet. Such an iTV server may be provided by a cable operator, such as RCN. FIG. 1 also illustrates an ISP "point-of-presence" (POP), which includes an ISP POP Server 16, which may be linked to the client for providing access to the Internet.” Hosea discloses retrieving and providing requested media content.)
retrieve the first user profile and the second user profile from the database, (See Hosea ¶0227, “Such a master user profile database 50 may contain a number of user profiles. In addition, during the course of an advertising campaign, the data analysis system may take data from the master client response database 52 (FIG. 9), which includes client response information on content sent to the client 10, to refine the user profiles selection.” Hosea discloses retrieving profile information from the database.)
wherein the first client and the second client are remote from the server, and wherein the first client and the second client are remote from each other; (See Hosea fig. 1 and ¶0014, “In this embodiment, the system comprises a local server computer for providing iTV access to the user, a set-top box at the client iTV linked to the local server computer, the set-top box including means for monitoring which of a plurality of iTV programs the user accesses and means for developing a profile of the user based on predetermined profile data of iTV programs accessed by the user, a remote server computer linked to said local server computer and including means for providing an advertisement to a desired user based on the profile of the desired user and means for transmitting said advertisement to said local server computer for eventual transfer to the set-top box, and wherein the set-top box further contains means for matching the advertisement with the profile of the user.” Hosea discloses the clients to be remote from the server and each other.)
retrieve data for a first product placement based on the first user profile and data for a second product placement based on the second user profile, wherein the first product placement and the second product placement are different; (See Hosea ¶0226, “The best ad for the user to view may be selected by the matcher component 24 in the manner described above in connection with providing content recommendations. In this embodiment, a large number of advertisements may be sent to the client 10, and then the matcher 24 may filter those advertisements so that the viewer is provided with the most relevant advertisements based on the user's profile.” Hosea discloses retrieving product advertisements for individual users based on profile information.)
Although Hosea discloses the above-enclosed invention including integrating marketing content into video content based on user profile, Hosea fails to explicitly disclose the marketing content to be mixed into a space in the video content.
However McKenna as shown, which talks about personalized object placement in media content, teaches the concept of marketing content to be mixed into a space in the video content.
wherein the media content comprises a null space, wherein the null space comprises a container disposed on a moving object, wherein a size, location, and orientation of the container in each one of a plurality of frames in the video depends on the moving object in each one of the plurality of frames of the video; (See McKenna ¶0085, “In the case where a selected Object 32 is not identical in its "footprint" with the Multi-Media Object Location 23 defined in the Multi-Media Program 42, the Object insertion process is more complex than a simple Object 32 substitution. In this case, the selected Object 32, together with the background layer of multimedia content juxtaposed to the Multi-Media Object Location 21, optimally needs to have the background multi-media layer morph (and foreground morph, if necessary), modify, or adjust its shape to match the new shape, size, and motion of the Multi-Media Object Location 21 so that the new Object 32 is now contiguous in its placement into the Master Program 11. It is also possible to morph, modify, or adjust the shape and size of the Object-32, but this is disadvantageous since most Objects 32 have identifiable shapes, colors, sizes, etc., that confer brand recognition; thus, morphing the Object 32 could impair the value of the dynamically placed in situ Object 32 (product placement). This is particularly true for an Object 32 in motion likewise for a Multi-Media Object Location 21 that is in motion). The preferred embodiment is to morph, modify, or adjust the background (or foreground) in synchronization with the Multi-Media Object Location 21 versus doing a likewise process on the Object 32. It is most desirable to match the new Object 32 with a new Multi-Media Object Location 21 so that these two elements are identical in shape (if a visual representation) with only the background (foreground) changing. Finally, if an Object 32 has two dimensions, video and audio, the Object's audio would be mixed with the Master Program audio to create a seamless audio stream for the life of the Object 32.” McKenna teaches the concept of media content having object location spaces for placement of marketing material, wherein the spaces change based on the playback of the content.)
mix in response to the request from the first user of the first client the media file and the data for the first product placement such that the first product placement appears in a first stream of the media content disposed in at least a portion of the null space;
mix in response to the request from the second user of the second client the media file and data for the second product placement such that the second product placement appears in a second stream of the media content disposed in at least a portion of the null space;
(See McKenna ¶0087, “FIG. 8A shows the creation of a Multi-Media Object Location 21 in the upper left hand corner which is in the shape of a bottle. The man consuming the beverage identified by this Multi-Media Object Location 21 is shown as a static image (non-changing); however, the invention does not limit the concept to embody this being a single frame or field of a movie or television program. In fact, the preceding and subsequent frames would likely have the Multi-Media Object Location 21 in motion. Continuing with the description of FIG. 8A, sub-FIG. 8B shows the insertion of Object 32 which in this picture is a bottle of Coke. FIG. 8C depicts the man drinking a bottle of Gallo.RTM. wine, while FIG. 8D has a Heineken.RTM. bottle of beer inserted. Based on the interests of the Recipient, the Object 32 insertion is customized for the interests of that Recipient (or customized for the interests of an advertiser who wishes to "steal" market share from a competitor by capturing those recipients who may be on the fence concerning switching to a different product).” McKenna teaches the concept of mixing the marketing content into the media content based on the space.)
transmit the first stream of the media content with the data for the first product placement, via the communication network to the first client, after mixing the first stream of the media content with the data for the first product placement;
transmit the second stream of the media content with the data for the second product placement, via the communication network to the second client, after mixing the second stream of the media content with the data for the second product placement;
(See McKenna ¶0066, “Communication paths 61, 62, and 63 each are capable of conveying all three content types Object-Ready Content 23, Merged Content Stream 41, and Multi-Media Program 42 received from Distribution Network 120. Depending on where Object 32 is being inserted into the content determines what content type is conveyed across paths 61,62, and 63. For example, if the object insertion is exclusively performed at the Central Object Insertion Point 91 (where Regional Object Insertion Point 92 and Local Object Insertion Point 93 are not used), the recipient is 97 and all of the Objects 32 inserted into the Multi-Media Object Locations 21 are common to all Recipients 97. Therefore, the Object-Ready Content 23 is transmitted via Distribution Network 120 and path 61 to the Central Object Insertion Point 91 where the Multi-Media Object Locations 21 are all populated with selected Objects 32.” McKenna teaches the concept of distributing the combined content.)
wherein the server is further operable to conform an image of the first product placement into the container in each one of the plurality of frames to simulate movement with the moving object, and (See McKenna ¶0061, “Thus, a "stock" Object may have to be dynamically modified to account for the subject's hand shown in the frame, the size of the Object may have to be proportionately adjusted to be consistent with the location in the frame (foreground, background, perspective view, etc.), and the boundary between the Object as inserted into the selected Multi-Media Object Location may have to be "morphed".” McKenna teaches the concept of the marketing material to be placed such that it matches changes and movement of the content.)
wherein the container is established independently of the data for the first product placement, the data for the second product placement, or the data for the third product placement. (See McKenna ¶0012, “The above-described problems are solved and a technical advance achieved in the field by the present System For Dynamic Personalized Object Placement In A Multi-Media Program (termed "multi-media object management system" herein) which functions to manage the delivery of Object (product) placements in a Multi-Media Program. The multi-media object management system controls the retrieval of Object Data that comprises a product representation and the integration of this Object Data into a corresponding selected one of the predetermined Multi-Media Object Locations which are components of the Multi-Media Program This enables advertisers to precisely control Object (product) placement on a customized basis thereby to dynamically modify the content of the Multi-Media Program on a centralized basis, regional basis, or at the individual recipient's location.” McKenna teaches the concept of the spaces to be predetermined independent of the product placements.)
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have utilized the teachings of McKenna with the invention of Hosea. As shown Hosea discloses the concept of selecting and providing marketing content with requested media content. McKenna further teaches the concept of integrating marketing materials with media content by dynamically inserting/replacing product placement in media content. McKenna teaches this concept to further integrate and utilize product placement marketing to further improve the effectiveness of advertising efforts while minimizing intrusion (See McKenna ¶0007-¶0011). Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have utilized the teachings of McKenna to further integrate marketing content into media content.
Although the combination of Hosea and McKenna discloses the above-enclosed invention, the combination fails to explicitly disclose the concept of tracking impressions and replacing marketing content.
However Macaluso as shown, which talks about advertising on mobile devices, teaches the concept of tracking the number of displays for a specific advertisement and replacing the advertisement.
receive, via the communication network, from a cache of at least one of the first client and the second client, data representing number of times product placement appeared in the media content that was communicated to the at least one of the first client and the second client;
replace the data for the first product placement with data for a third product placement in the null space within the first stream of the media content transmitted to the first client, as displayed on the first client of the first user,
(See Macaluso ¶0032, “The advertising application may also manage and maintain a cache of one or more advertisements. In addition to a cache of downloadable advertisements, the advertising application may include a default advertisement that is never deleted. The advertising application may track the respective advertisements' lifetimes. For example, it may be desirable for advertisements to have a specified expiration date and time and/or a specified number of times to be displayed. The advertising application may also keep track of statistics relating to the advertisement, such as the number of times displayed and frequency of display. Once the expiration date is reached or the advertisement has been displayed the specified number of times, the advertising application may negotiate with a server that stores a library of advertisements to obtain a new advertisement to replace the expired advertisement.” Macaluso teaches the concept of tracking the number of impressions for a particular marketing material and replacing the material based on a threshold number.)
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have utilized the teachings of Macaluso with the combination of Hosea and McKenna. As shown, the combination discloses the concept of providing marketing impressions including integrating dynamic targeted product placement into media content. Macaluso further teaches the concept of tracking impressions of marketing materials and providing replacements. Macaluso teaches this concept to allow for timely updating of marketing content to avoid stale marketing efforts (See Macaluso ¶0002-¶0006). Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have utilized the teachings of Macaluso to further replace advertisements based on different expiration factors.
Although the combination of Hosea, McKenna, and Macaluso discloses the above-enclosed invention, the combination fails to explicitly disclose interaction with a user owned display object.
However Dempski as shown, which talks about enhanced interaction content in television media, teaches the concept of interactions with user owned display objects.
while the media content is being transmitted to the first client, detect, by the first client, an input selecting a display object to be inserted into the first stream, wherein the display object is a user owned object; (See Dempski ¶0043, “The enhanced financial news broadcast may be enhanced in other ways. At the viewer's request, a chart 64 may be displayed on a television screen showing the latest stock price movement of the business that the news reporters are currently discussing or other stocks of the viewer's choosing. Also, the viewer may switch the views and formats of the information that appears on the screen at his choosing using menu buttons 66 on the screen. Likewise, the viewer can call up information regarding a personal portfolio of stocks. He may have the ability to annotate the system to record 68 the stock currently being discussed by the television programming and have the system and the intelligent internet agents gather information for research concerning a stock to be viewed at a later point and time. In addition, the information and programming can be connected with an online stockbroker so that the viewer can instantly carry out stock trades while viewing the customized programming.” Dempski teaches the concept of managing interaction display objects owned by the user.)
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have utilized the teachings of Dempski with the combination of Hosea, McKenna, and Macaluso. As shown, the combination discloses the concept of providing video content integrated with dynamic targeted product placement including clickable/selectable elements. Dempski further teaches the concept of additional interactive elements in the media content including user own and customized display elements. Dempski teaches this concept to further allow for integration of multiple information sources into media content to allow for customized viewing experience (See Dempski ¶0001-¶0003). Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have utilized the teachings of Dempski to further provide customized interactive viewing experience.
As per claim 3:
The system of claim 1, wherein the server is further operable to determine demographic data associated with at least one of the first user of the first client and the second user of the second client and select at least one of the first product placement and the second product placement based on the demographic data. (See Hosea ¶0041, “The profiler component 23 of the invention may then build a user profile 27 based on the information in the interaction database 25 and data in a local categorized program database 26. User profile information may contain, but is not limited to, demographic data (such as, e.g., the user's age, gender, income, and highest attained education level), psychographic data, which reflects the user's interests or content affinity (such as, e.g., sports, movies, music, comedy), geographic data, and transactional data.” Hosea discloses utilizing demographic data to determine marketing content.)
As per claim 4:
The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first product placement and the second product placement comprise a banner advertisement. (See Hosea ¶0224, “Another embodiment of the invention also allows advertisers to target advertisements based on the profiles of users. Among other possibilities, such targeted advertisements may be banner ads displayed when the user is using the Internet or television advertisements displayed when the user is viewing television. In general, the advertisers may be allowed to select a requested profile for users who will receive the advertisements, and the profiles of the users may be used to match advertising content to the user's profiles.” Hosea discloses the marketing material to be a banner advertisement.)
As per claim 10:
The system of claim 1, wherein the media file comprises a default image in the null space. (See McKenna ¶0124, “If the subsequent purchaser satisfies the rule set that defines allowable substitution, the original Object is expunged from the selected Multi-Media Object Location 21 and the Object 32 owner (or brokered) by the subsequent purchaser is used to populate the selected Multi-Media Object Location 21.” McKenna teaches media to include an original object.)
As per claim 11:
A method comprising:
storing a first user profile associated with a first user of a first client among a plurality of clients and a second user profile associated with a second user of a second client associated with the plurality of clients of a database at a server; (See Hosea ¶0227, “The data analysis system takes advertising profile data from the ad campaign database 60 and matches it to user profiles from the master user profile database 50. Such a master user profile database 50 may contain a number of user profiles.” Hosea discloses a database for storing user profiles.)
receiving, by at least one processor at the server, a request for media content from the first user of the first client, wherein the media content comprises video; (See Hosea ¶0042, “The profiler 23 also extracts from the program database 26 content affinity or psychographic data associated with a program request made by the user. Such content affinity and psychographic data may come from a categorized listing of television programs that translate a program identifier into content preferences.” Hosea discloses receiving request for media content from users including video content.)
receiving, by the at least one processor, a request for the media content from the second user of the second client; (See Hosea ¶0213, “Such information may be stored in the user ID and URL database 30 of FIG. 4a. Because multiple clients 10 may be connected to the server 16 in this embodiment, the user's IP address or iTV address may be stored in the database 30.” Hosea discloses managing multiple user/clients.)
retrieving, by the at least one processor, a media file associated with the media content requested by first and second users, (See Hosea ¶0033, “The iTV/ISP server 15 may be an iTV server 12, an ISP server 16, or a combination of the iTV server 12 and the ISP server 16. The iTV server 12 provides iTV content that may include programs, advertisements, and interactive content including the Internet. Such an iTV server may be provided by a cable operator, such as RCN. FIG. 1 also illustrates an ISP "point-of-presence" (POP), which includes an ISP POP Server 16, which may be linked to the client for providing access to the Internet.” Hosea discloses retrieving and providing requested media content.)
retrieve the first user profile and the second user profile from the database, (See Hosea ¶0227, “Such a master user profile database 50 may contain a number of user profiles. In addition, during the course of an advertising campaign, the data analysis system may take data from the master client response database 52 (FIG. 9), which includes client response information on content sent to the client 10, to refine the user profiles selection.” Hosea discloses retrieving profile information from the database.)
wherein the first client and the second client are remote from the server, and wherein the first client and the second client are remote from each other; (See Hosea fig. 1 and ¶0014, “In this embodiment, the system comprises a local server computer for providing iTV access to the user, a set-top box at the client iTV linked to the local server computer, the set-top box including means for monitoring which of a plurality of iTV programs the user accesses and means for developing a profile of the user based on predetermined profile data of iTV programs accessed by the user, a remote server computer linked to said local server computer and including means for providing an advertisement to a desired user based on the profile of the desired user and means for transmitting said advertisement to said local server computer for eventual transfer to the set-top box, and wherein the set-top box further contains means for matching the advertisement with the profile of the user.” Hosea discloses the clients to be remote from the server and each other.)
retrieving, by the at least one processor, data for a first product placement based on the first user profile and data for a second product placement based on the second user profile, wherein the first product placement and the second product placement are different; (See Hosea ¶0226, “The best ad for the user to view may be selected by the matcher component 24 in the manner described above in connection with providing content recommendations. In this embodiment, a large number of advertisements may be sent to the client 10, and then the matcher 24 may filter those advertisements so that the viewer is provided with the most relevant advertisements based on the user's profile.” Hosea discloses retrieving product advertisements for individual users based on profile information.)
Although Hosea discloses the above-enclosed invention including integrating marketing content into video content based on user profile, Hosea fails to explicitly disclose the marketing content to be mixed into a space in the video content.
However McKenna as shown, which talks about personalized object placement in media content, teaches the concept of marketing content to be mixed into a space in the video content.
wherein the media content comprises a null space, wherein the null space comprises a container disposed on a moving object, wherein a size, location, and orientation of the container in each one of a plurality of frames in the video depends on the moving object in each one of the plurality of frames of the video; (See McKenna ¶0085, “In the case where a selected Object 32 is not identical in its "footprint" with the Multi-Media Object Location 23 defined in the Multi-Media Program 42, the Object insertion process is more complex than a simple Object 32 substitution. In this case, the selected Object 32, together with the background layer of multimedia content juxtaposed to the Multi-Media Object Location 21, optimally needs to have the background multi-media layer morph (and foreground morph, if necessary), modify, or adjust its shape to match the new shape, size, and motion of the Multi-Media Object Location 21 so that the new Object 32 is now contiguous in its placement into the Master Program 11. It is also possible to morph, modify, or adjust the shape and size of the Object-32, but this is disadvantageous since most Objects 32 have identifiable shapes, colors, sizes, etc., that confer brand recognition; thus, morphing the Object 32 could impair the value of the dynamically placed in situ Object 32 (product placement). This is particularly true for an Object 32 in motion likewise for a Multi-Media Object Location 21 that is in motion). The preferred embodiment is to morph, modify, or adjust the background (or foreground) in synchronization with the Multi-Media Object Location 21 versus doing a likewise process on the Object 32. It is most desirable to match the new Object 32 with a new Multi-Media Object Location 21 so that these two elements are identical in shape (if a visual representation) with only the background (foreground) changing. Finally, if an Object 32 has two dimensions, video and audio, the Object's audio would be mixed with the Master Program audio to create a seamless audio stream for the life of the Object 32.” McKenna teaches the concept of media content having object location spaces for placement of marketing material, wherein the spaces change based on the playback of the content.)
mixing, by the at least one processor, in response to the request from the first user of the first client the media file and the data for the first product placement such that the first product placement appears in a first stream of the media content disposed in at least a portion of the null space;
mixing, by the at least one processor, in response to the request from the second user of the second client the media file and data for the second product placement such that the second product placement appears in a second stream of the media content disposed in at least a portion of the null space;
(See McKenna ¶0087, “FIG. 8A shows the creation of a Multi-Media Object Location 21 in the upper left hand corner which is in the shape of a bottle. The man consuming the beverage identified by this Multi-Media Object Location 21 is shown as a static image (non-changing); however, the invention does not limit the concept to embody this being a single frame or field of a movie or television program. In fact, the preceding and subsequent frames would likely have the Multi-Media Object Location 21 in motion. Continuing with the description of FIG. 8A, sub-FIG. 8B shows the insertion of Object 32 which in this picture is a bottle of Coke. FIG. 8C depicts the man drinking a bottle of Gallo.RTM. wine, while FIG. 8D has a Heineken.RTM. bottle of beer inserted. Based on the interests of the Recipient, the Object 32 insertion is customized for the interests of that Recipient (or customized for the interests of an advertiser who wishes to "steal" market share from a competitor by capturing those recipients who may be on the fence concerning switching to a different product).” McKenna teaches the concept of mixing the marketing content into the media content based on the space.)
transmitting, by the at least one processor, the first stream of the media content with the data for the first product placement via a communication network to the first client, after mixing the first stream of the media content with the data for the first product placement;
transmitting, by the at least one processor, the second stream of the media content with the data for the second product placement via the communication network to the second client, after mixing the second stream of the media content with the data for the second product placement;
(See McKenna ¶0066, “Communication paths 61, 62, and 63 each are capable of conveying all three content types Object-Ready Content 23, Merged Content Stream 41, and Multi-Media Program 42 received from Distribution Network 120. Depending on where Object 32 is being inserted into the content determines what content type is conveyed across paths 61,62, and 63. For example, if the object insertion is exclusively performed at the Central Object Insertion Point 91 (where Regional Object Insertion Point 92 and Local Object Insertion Point 93 are not used), the recipient is 97 and all of the Objects 32 inserted into the Multi-Media Object Locations 21 are common to all Recipients 97. Therefore, the Object-Ready Content 23 is transmitted via Distribution Network 120 and path 61 to the Central Object Insertion Point 91 where the Multi-Media Object Locations 21 are all populated with selected Objects 32.” McKenna teaches the concept of distributing the combined content.)
wherein the at least one processor is further operable to conform an image of the first product placement into the container in each one of the plurality of frames to simulate movement with the moving object, and (See McKenna ¶0061, “Thus, a "stock" Object may have to be dynamically modified to account for the subject's hand shown in the frame, the size of the Object may have to be proportionately adjusted to be consistent with the location in the frame (foreground, background, perspective view, etc.), and the boundary between the Object as inserted into the selected Multi-Media Object Location may have to be "morphed".” McKenna teaches the concept of the marketing material to be placed such that it matches changes and movement of the content.)
wherein the container is established independently of the data for the first product placement, the data for the second product placement, or the data for the third product placement. (See McKenna ¶0012, “The above-described problems are solved and a technical advance achieved in the field by the present System For Dynamic Personalized Object Placement In A Multi-Media Program (termed "multi-media object management system" herein) which functions to manage the delivery of Object (product) placements in a Multi-Media Program. The multi-media object management system controls the retrieval of Object Data that comprises a product representation and the integration of this Object Data into a corresponding selected one of the predetermined Multi-Media Object Locations which are components of the Multi-Media Program This enables advertisers to precisely control Object (product) placement on a customized basis thereby to dynamically modify the content of the Multi-Media Program on a centralized basis, regional basis, or at the individual recipient's location.” McKenna teaches the concept of the spaces to be predetermined independent of the product placements.)
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have utilized the teachings of McKenna with the invention of Hosea. As shown Hosea discloses the concept of selecting and providing marketing content with requested media content. McKenna further teaches the concept of integrating marketing materials with media content by dynamically inserting/replacing product placement in media content. McKenna teaches this concept to further integrate and utilize product placement marketing to further improve the effectiveness of advertising efforts while minimizing intrusion (See McKenna ¶0007-¶0011). Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have utilized the teachings of McKenna to further integrate marketing content into media content.
Although the combination of Hosea and McKenna discloses the above-enclosed invention, the combination fails to explicitly disclose the concept of tracking impressions and replacing marketing content.
However Macaluso as shown, which talks about advertising on mobile devices, teaches the concept of tracking the number of displays for a specific advertisement and replacing the advertisement.
receiving, by the at least one processor, via the communication network, from a cache of at least one of the first client and the second client, data representing number of times product placement appeared in the media content that was communicated to the at least one of the first client and the second client;
replacing the data for the first product placement with data for a third product placement in the null space within the first stream of the communicated media content transmitted to the first client, as displayed on the first client of the first user,
(See Macaluso ¶0032, “The advertising application may also manage and maintain a cache of one or more advertisements. In addition to a cache of downloadable advertisements, the advertising application may include a default advertisement that is never deleted. The advertising application may track the respective advertisements' lifetimes. For example, it may be desirable for advertisements to have a specified expiration date and time and/or a specified number of times to be displayed. The advertising application may also keep track of statistics relating to the advertisement, such as the number of times displayed and frequency of display. Once the expiration date is reached or the advertisement has been displayed the specified number of times, the advertising application may negotiate with a server that stores a library of advertisements to obtain a new advertisement to replace the expired advertisement.” Macaluso teaches the concept of tracking the number of impressions for a particular marketing material and replacing the material based on a threshold number.)
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have utilized the teachings of Macaluso with the combination of Hosea and McKenna. As shown, the combination discloses the concept of providing marketing impressions including integrating dynamic targeted product placement into media content. Macaluso further teaches the concept of tracking impressions of marketing materials and providing replacements. Macaluso teaches this concept to allow for timely updating of marketing content to avoid stale marketing efforts (See Macaluso ¶0002-¶0006). Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have utilized the teachings of Macaluso to further replace advertisements based on different expiration factors.
Although the combination of Hosea, McKenna, and Macaluso discloses the above-enclosed invention, the combination fails to explicitly disclose interaction with a user owned display object.
However Dempski as shown, which talks about enhanced interaction content in television media, teaches the concept of interactions with user owned display objects.
while the media content is being transmitted to the first client, detecting, by the first client, an input selecting a display object to be inserted into the first stream, wherein the display object is a user owned object; (See Dempski ¶0043, “The enhanced financial news broadcast may be enhanced in other ways. At the viewer's request, a chart 64 may be displayed on a television screen showing the latest stock price movement of the business that the news reporters are currently discussing or other stocks of the viewer's choosing. Also, the viewer may switch the views and formats of the information that appears on the screen at his choosing using menu buttons 66 on the screen. Likewise, the viewer can call up information regarding a personal portfolio of stocks. He may have the ability to annotate the system to record 68 the stock currently being discussed by the television programming and have the system and the intelligent internet agents gather information for research concerning a stock to be viewed at a later point and time. In addition, the information and programming can be connected with an online stockbroker so that the viewer can instantly carry out stock trades while viewing the customized programming.” Dempski teaches the concept of managing interaction display objects owned by the user.)
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have utilized the teachings of Dempski with the combination of Hosea, McKenna, and Macaluso. As shown, the combination discloses the concept of providing video content integrated with dynamic targeted product placement including clickable/selectable elements. Dempski further teaches the concept of additional interactive elements in the media content including user own and customized display elements. Dempski teaches this concept to further allow for integration of multiple information sources into media content to allow for customized viewing experience (See Dempski ¶0001-¶0003). Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have utilized the teachings of Dempski to further provide customized interactive viewing experience.
As per claim 13:
The method of claim 11, comprising determining demographic data associated with at least one of the first user of the first client and the second user of the second client and selecting at least one of the first product placement and the second product placement based on the demographic data. (See Hosea ¶0041, “The profiler component 23 of the invention may then build a user profile 27 based on the information in the interaction database 25 and data in a local categorized program database 26. User profile information may contain, but is not limited to, demographic data (such as, e.g., the user's age, gender, income, and highest attained education level), psychographic data, which reflects the user's interests or content affinity (such as, e.g., sports, movies, music, comedy), geographic data, and transactional data.” Hosea discloses utilizing demographic data to determine marketing content.)
As per claim 14:
The method of claim 11, wherein at least one of the first product and the second product placements comprise a banner advertisement. (See Hosea ¶0224, “Another embodiment of the invention also allows advertisers to target advertisements based on the profiles of users. Among other possibilities, such targeted advertisements may be banner ads displayed when the user is using the Internet or television advertisements displayed when the user is viewing television. In general, the advertisers may be allowed to select a requested profile for users who will receive the advertisements, and the profiles of the users may be used to match advertising content to the user's profiles.” Hosea discloses the marketing material to be a banner advertisement.)
As per claim 16:
A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that are configured to, when executed by at least one processor of at least one server coupled over a communication network to a plurality of clients, direct the at least one processor to:
storing a first user profile associated with a first user of a first client among the plurality of clients and a second user profile associated with a second user of a second client associated with the plurality of clients of a database at a server; (See Hosea ¶0227, “The data analysis system takes advertising profile data from the ad campaign database 60 and matches it to user profiles from the master user profile database 50. Such a master user profile database 50 may contain a number of user profiles.” Hosea discloses a database for storing user profiles.)
receive a request for media content from the first user of the first client, wherein the media content comprises video; (See Hosea ¶0042, “The profiler 23 also extracts from the program database 26 content affinity or psychographic data associated with a program request made by the user. Such content affinity and psychographic data may come from a categorized listing of television programs that translate a program identifier into content preferences.” Hosea discloses receiving request for media content from users including video content.)
receive a request for the media content from the second user of the second client; (See Hosea ¶0213, “Such information may be stored in the user ID and URL database 30 of FIG. 4a. Because multiple clients 10 may be connected to the server 16 in this embodiment, the user's IP address or iTV address may be stored in the database 30.” Hosea discloses managing multiple user/clients.)
retrieve a media file associated with the media content requested by the first user and the second user, (See Hosea ¶0033, “The iTV/ISP server 15 may be an iTV server 12, an ISP server 16, or a combination of the iTV server 12 and the ISP server 16. The iTV server 12 provides iTV content that may include programs, advertisements, and interactive content including the Internet. Such an iTV server may be provided by a cable operator, such as RCN. FIG. 1 also illustrates an ISP "point-of-presence" (POP), which includes an ISP POP Server 16, which may be linked to the client for providing access to the Internet.” Hosea discloses retrieving and providing requested media content.)
retrieve the first user profile and the second user profile from the database, (See Hosea ¶0227, “Such a master user profile database 50 may contain a number of user profiles. In addition, during the course of an advertising campaign, the data analysis system may take data from the master client response database 52 (FIG. 9), which includes client response information on content sent to the client 10, to refine the user profiles selection.” Hosea discloses retrieving profile information from the database.)
wherein the first client and the second client are remote from the server, and wherein the first client and the second client are remote from each other; (See Hosea fig. 1 and ¶0014, “In this embodiment, the system comprises a local server computer for providing iTV access to the user, a set-top box at the client iTV linked to the local server computer, the set-top box including means for monitoring which of a plurality of iTV programs the user accesses and means for developing a profile of the user based on predetermined profile data of iTV programs accessed by the user, a remote server computer linked to said local server computer and including means for providing an advertisement to a desired user based on the profile of the desired user and means for transmitting said advertisement to said local server computer for eventual transfer to the set-top box, and wherein the set-top box further contains means for matching the advertisement with the profile of the user.” Hosea discloses the clients to be remote from the server and each other.)
retrieve data for a first product placement based on the first user profile and data for a second product placement based on the second user profile, wherein the first product placement and the second product placement are different; (See Hosea ¶0226, “The best ad for the user to view may be selected by the matcher component 24 in the manner described above in connection with providing content recommendations. In this embodiment, a large number of advertisements may be sent to the client 10, and then the matcher 24 may filter those advertisements so that the viewer is provided with the most relevant advertisements based on the user's profile.” Hosea discloses retrieving product advertisements for individual users based on profile information.)
Although Hosea discloses the above-enclosed invention including integrating marketing content into video content based on user profile, Hosea fails to explicitly disclose the marketing content to be mixed into a space in the video content.
However McKenna as shown, which talks about personalized object placement in media content, teaches the concept of marketing content to be mixed into a space in the video content.
wherein the media content comprises a null space, wherein the null space comprises a container disposed on a moving object, wherein a size, location, and orientation of the container in each one of a plurality of frames in the video depends on the moving object in each one of the plurality of frames of the video; (See McKenna ¶0085, “In the case where a selected Object 32 is not identical in its "footprint" with the Multi-Media Object Location 23 defined in the Multi-Media Program 42, the Object insertion process is more complex than a simple Object 32 substitution. In this case, the selected Object 32, together with the background layer of multimedia content juxtaposed to the Multi-Media Object Location 21, optimally needs to have the background multi-media layer morph (and foreground morph, if necessary), modify, or adjust its shape to match the new shape, size, and motion of the Multi-Media Object Location 21 so that the new Object 32 is now contiguous in its placement into the Master Program 11. It is also possible to morph, modify, or adjust the shape and size of the Object-32, but this is disadvantageous since most Objects 32 have identifiable shapes, colors, sizes, etc., that confer brand recognition; thus, morphing the Object 32 could impair the value of the dynamically placed in situ Object 32 (product placement). This is particularly true for an Object 32 in motion likewise for a Multi-Media Object Location 21 that is in motion). The preferred embodiment is to morph, modify, or adjust the background (or foreground) in synchronization with the Multi-Media Object Location 21 versus doing a likewise process on the Object 32. It is most desirable to match the new Object 32 with a new Multi-Media Object Location 21 so that these two elements are identical in shape (if a visual representation) with only the background (foreground) changing. Finally, if an Object 32 has two dimensions, video and audio, the Object's audio would be mixed with the Master Program audio to create a seamless audio stream for the life of the Object 32.” McKenna teaches the concept of media content having object location spaces for placement of marketing material, wherein the spaces change based on the playback of the content.)
mix in response to the request from the first user of the first client the media file and the data for the first product placement such that the first product placement appears in a first stream of the media content disposed in at least a portion of the null space;
mix in response to the request from the second user of the second client the media file and data for the second product placement such that the second product placement appears in a second stream of the media content disposed in at least a portion of the null space;
(See McKenna ¶0087, “FIG. 8A shows the creation of a Multi-Media Object Location 21 in the upper left hand corner which is in the shape of a bottle. The man consuming the beverage identified by this Multi-Media Object Location 21 is shown as a static image (non-changing); however, the invention does not limit the concept to embody this being a single frame or field of a movie or television program. In fact, the preceding and subsequent frames would likely have the Multi-Media Object Location 21 in motion. Continuing with the description of FIG. 8A, sub-FIG. 8B shows the insertion of Object 32 which in this picture is a bottle of Coke. FIG. 8C depicts the man drinking a bottle of Gallo.RTM. wine, while FIG. 8D has a Heineken.RTM. bottle of beer inserted. Based on the interests of the Recipient, the Object 32 insertion is customized for the interests of that Recipient (or customized for the interests of an advertiser who wishes to "steal" market share from a competitor by capturing those recipients who may be on the fence concerning switching to a different product).” McKenna teaches the concept of mixing the marketing content into the media content based on the space.)
transmit the first stream of the media content with the data for the first product placement, via the communication network to the first user of the first client, after mixing the first stream of the media content with the data for the first product placement;
transmit the second stream of the media content with the data for the second product placement, via the communication network to the second user of the second client, after mixing the second stream of the media content with the data for the second product placement;
(See McKenna ¶0066, “Communication paths 61, 62, and 63 each are capable of conveying all three content types Object-Ready Content 23, Merged Content Stream 41, and Multi-Media Program 42 received from Distribution Network 120. Depending on where Object 32 is being inserted into the content determines what content type is conveyed across paths 61,62, and 63. For example, if the object insertion is exclusively performed at the Central Object Insertion Point 91 (where Regional Object Insertion Point 92 and Local Object Insertion Point 93 are not used), the recipient is 97 and all of the Objects 32 inserted into the Multi-Media Object Locations 21 are common to all Recipients 97. Therefore, the Object-Ready Content 23 is transmitted via Distribution Network 120 and path 61 to the Central Object Insertion Point 91 where the Multi-Media Object Locations 21 are all populated with selected Objects 32.” McKenna teaches the concept of distributing the combined content.)
wherein the at least one processor is further operable to conform an image of the first product placement into the container in each one of the plurality of frames to simulate movement with the moving object, and (See McKenna ¶0061, “Thus, a "stock" Object may have to be dynamically modified to account for the subject's hand shown in the frame, the size of the Object may have to be proportionately adjusted to be consistent with the location in the frame (foreground, background, perspective view, etc.), and the boundary between the Object as inserted into the selected Multi-Media Object Location may have to be "morphed".” McKenna teaches the concept of the marketing material to be placed such that it matches changes and movement of the content.)
wherein the container is established independently of the content data for the first product placement, the data for the second product placement, or the data for the third product placement.. (See McKenna ¶0012, “The above-described problems are solved and a technical advance achieved in the field by the present System For Dynamic Personalized Object Placement In A Multi-Media Program (termed "multi-media object management system" herein) which functions to manage the delivery of Object (product) placements in a Multi-Media Program. The multi-media object management system controls the retrieval of Object Data that comprises a product representation and the integration of this Object Data into a corresponding selected one of the predetermined Multi-Media Object Locations which are components of the Multi-Media Program This enables advertisers to precisely control Object (product) placement on a customized basis thereby to dynamically modify the content of the Multi-Media Program on a centralized basis, regional basis, or at the individual recipient's location.” McKenna teaches the concept of the spaces to be predetermined independent of the product placements.)
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have utilized the teachings of McKenna with the invention of Hosea. As shown Hosea discloses the concept of selecting and providing marketing content with requested media content. McKenna further teaches the concept of integrating marketing materials with media content by dynamically inserting/replacing product placement in media content. McKenna teaches this concept to further integrate and utilize product placement marketing to further improve the effectiveness of advertising efforts while minimizing intrusion (See McKenna ¶0007-¶0011). Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have utilized the teachings of McKenna to further integrate marketing content into media content.
Although the combination of Hosea and McKenna discloses the above-enclosed invention, the combination fails to explicitly disclose the concept of tracking impressions and replacing marketing content.
However Macaluso as shown, which talks about advertising on mobile devices, teaches the concept of tracking the number of displays for a specific advertisement and replacing the advertisement.
receive, via the communication network, from a cache of at least one of the first client and the second client, data representing number of times product placement appeared in the media content that was communicated to the at least one of the first client and the second client;
replace the data for the first product placement with data for a third product placement in the null space within the first stream of the media content transmitted to the first client, as displayed on the first client of the first user,
(See Macaluso ¶0032, “The advertising application may also manage and maintain a cache of one or more advertisements. In addition to a cache of downloadable advertisements, the advertising application may include a default advertisement that is never deleted. The advertising application may track the respective advertisements' lifetimes. For example, it may be desirable for advertisements to have a specified expiration date and time and/or a specified number of times to be displayed. The advertising application may also keep track of statistics relating to the advertisement, such as the number of times displayed and frequency of display. Once the expiration date is reached or the advertisement has been displayed the specified number of times, the advertising application may negotiate with a server that stores a library of advertisements to obtain a new advertisement to replace the expired advertisement.” Macaluso teaches the concept of tracking the number of impressions for a particular marketing material and replacing the material based on a threshold number.)
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have utilized the teachings of Macaluso with the combination of Hosea and McKenna. As shown, the combination discloses the concept of providing marketing impressions including integrating dynamic targeted product placement into media content. Macaluso further teaches the concept of tracking impressions of marketing materials and providing replacements. Macaluso teaches this concept to allow for timely updating of marketing content to avoid stale marketing efforts (See Macaluso ¶0002-¶0006). Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have utilized the teachings of Macaluso to further replace advertisements based on different expiration factors.
Although the combination of Hosea, McKenna, and Macaluso discloses the above-enclosed invention, the combination fails to explicitly disclose interaction with a user owned display object.
However Dempski as shown, which talks about enhanced interaction content in television media, teaches the concept of interactions with user owned display objects.
while the media content is being transmitted to the first client, detect, by the first client, an input selecting a display object to be inserted into the first stream, wherein the display object is a user owned object; (See Dempski ¶0043, “The enhanced financial news broadcast may be enhanced in other ways. At the viewer's request, a chart 64 may be displayed on a television screen showing the latest stock price movement of the business that the news reporters are currently discussing or other stocks of the viewer's choosing. Also, the viewer may switch the views and formats of the information that appears on the screen at his choosing using menu buttons 66 on the screen. Likewise, the viewer can call up information regarding a personal portfolio of stocks. He may have the ability to annotate the system to record 68 the stock currently being discussed by the television programming and have the system and the intelligent internet agents gather information for research concerning a stock to be viewed at a later point and time. In addition, the information and programming can be connected with an online stockbroker so that the viewer can instantly carry out stock trades while viewing the customized programming.” Dempski teaches the concept of managing interaction display objects owned by the user.)
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have utilized the teachings of Dempski with the combination of Hosea, McKenna, and Macaluso. As shown, the combination discloses the concept of providing video content integrated with dynamic targeted product placement including clickable/selectable elements. Dempski further teaches the concept of additional interactive elements in the media content including user own and customized display elements. Dempski teaches this concept to further allow for integration of multiple information sources into media content to allow for customized viewing experience (See Dempski ¶0001-¶0003). Thus it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to have utilized the teachings of Dempski to further provide customized interactive viewing experience.
As per claim 18:
The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the instructions stored thereon are configured to, when executed by the at least one processor direct the at least one processor to: determine demographic data associated with at least one of the first user of the first client and the second user of the second client and select at least one of the first product placement and the second product placement based on the demographic data. The system of claim 1, wherein the server is further operable to determine demographic data associated with at least one of the first user of the first client and the second user of the second client and select at least one of the first product placement and the second product placement based on the demographic data. (See Hosea ¶0041, “The profiler component 23 of the invention may then build a user profile 27 based on the information in the interaction database 25 and data in a local categorized program database 26. User profile information may contain, but is not limited to, demographic data (such as, e.g., the user's age, gender, income, and highest attained education level), psychographic data, which reflects the user's interests or content affinity (such as, e.g., sports, movies, music, comedy), geographic data, and transactional data.” Hosea discloses utilizing demographic data to determine marketing content.)
As per claim 21:
The system according to claim 1, wherein the container is established before being populated with content corresponding to the data for the first product placement, the data for the second product placement, or the data for the third product placement. (See McKenna ¶0012, “The above-described problems are solved and a technical advance achieved in the field by the present System For Dynamic Personalized Object Placement In A Multi-Media Program (termed "multi-media object management system" herein) which functions to manage the delivery of Object (product) placements in a Multi-Media Program. The multi-media object management system controls the retrieval of Object Data that comprises a product representation and the integration of this Object Data into a corresponding selected one of the predetermined Multi-Media Object Locations which are components of the Multi-Media Program This enables advertisers to precisely control Object (product) placement on a customized basis thereby to dynamically modify the content of the Multi-Media Program on a centralized basis, regional basis, or at the individual recipient's location.” McKenna teaches the concept of the spaces to be predetermined independent of the product placements.)
As per claim 22:
The system according to claim 21, wherein the content comprises content of a designated commercial product or other visual reference. (See McKenna ¶0087, “FIG. 8A shows the creation of a Multi-Media Object Location 21 in the upper left hand corner which is in the shape of a bottle. The man consuming the beverage identified by this Multi-Media Object Location 21 is shown as a static image (non-changing); however, the invention does not limit the concept to embody this being a single frame or field of a movie or television program. In fact, the preceding and subsequent frames would likely have the Multi-Media Object Location 21 in motion. Continuing with the description of FIG. 8A, sub-FIG. 8B shows the insertion of Object 32 which in this picture is a bottle of Coke. FIG. 8C depicts the man drinking a bottle of Gallo.RTM. wine, while FIG. 8D has a Heineken.RTM. bottle of beer inserted. Based on the interests of the Recipient, the Object 32 insertion is customized for the interests of that Recipient (or customized for the interests of an advertiser who wishes to "steal" market share from a competitor by capturing those recipients who may be on the fence concerning switching to a different product).” McKenna teaches the content to include a designated commercial product.)
As per claim 23:
The system according to claim 21, wherein the content corresponding to the data for the third product placement substitutes for the content corresponding to the data for the first product placement at the time the media content is transmitted to the first client. (See Macaluso ¶0032, “For example, it may be desirable for advertisements to have a specified expiration date and time and/or a specified number of times to be displayed. The advertising application may also keep track of statistics relating to the advertisement, such as the number of times displayed and frequency of display. Once the expiration date is reached or the advertisement has been displayed the specified number of times, the advertising application may negotiate with a server that stores a library of advertisements to obtain a new advertisement to replace the expired advertisement.” Macaluso teaches the concept of substituting a first selected advertisement based on specific conditions including number of impressions.)
As per claim 24:
The system according to claim 21, wherein populating the container with the content corresponding to the data for the third product placement occurs by substitution of content previously populated in the container. (See Macaluso ¶0032, “For example, it may be desirable for advertisements to have a specified expiration date and time and/or a specified number of times to be displayed. The advertising application may also keep track of statistics relating to the advertisement, such as the number of times displayed and frequency of display. Once the expiration date is reached or the advertisement has been displayed the specified number of times, the advertising application may negotiate with a server that stores a library of advertisements to obtain a new advertisement to replace the expired advertisement.” Macaluso teaches the concept of substituting a first selected advertisement with another selected advertisement.)
As per claim 25:
The system according to claim 21, wherein the content is conformed to the container in each of a plurality of frames of the video to simulate movement with the moving object. (See McKenna ¶0061, “Thus, a "stock" Object may have to be dynamically modified to account for the subject's hand shown in the frame, the size of the Object may have to be proportionately adjusted to be consistent with the location in the frame (foreground, background, perspective view, etc.), and the boundary between the Object as inserted into the selected Multi-Media Object Location may have to be "morphed". Alternatively, the "background" layer "behind" and "in front of" the Object can also be "morphed" to wraparound or fit into the inserted Object should the Multi-Media Object Location be different than that of the selected Object. This background and foreground modification can be modified using predictive algorithms well known in the art. In addition, the characteristics of the Object maybe adjusted, using well-known image processing techniques, so the rendition of the Object, in terms of hue, saturation, color, brightness, etc., are consistent with the surroundings in the frame.” McKenna teaches the content to conform to the container including tracking changes across different frames.)
As per claim 26:
The system according to claim 1, wherein the first stream of the media content and the second stream of the media content are communicated with different content populated into the container based on different selection criteria. (See Hosea ¶0038, “In general, the embodiment of FIG. 2 may be used in an embodiment in which profiling of the user and selecting advertisement or program recommendations are carried out at the client level. The embodiment of FIG. 2 may be used in embodiments with either one-way or two-way communications between the client 10 and the iTV/ISP server 15. The client component 10 may generally be set up with instructions and databases to profile users based on their behavior on the iTV, store program, advertising, and other content, and match the content with the user's profile. The user's profile may be used for targeted advertising or for program recommendations to the user. FIG. 3, which will be discussed in greater detail below, depicts a display screen of one potential program recommendation embodiment. The client 10 may contain an iTV application layer 20, which may contain the standard instructions that allow the user to interact with the iTV, as well as a program module 21. The program module 21 may reside within the set top box of the client 10 or within a separate component at the client level.” Hosea discloses the concept of targeting different content to different clients based on available profile information.)
As per claim 27:
The system according to claim 26, wherein the different selection criteria comprise one or more of demographic information associated with a user, preferences associated with a user, a context of playback of the media content, access rights associated with the container, and availability of product placement data. (See Hosea ¶0041, “The profiler component 23 of the invention may then build a user profile 27 based on the information in the interaction database 25 and data in a local categorized program database 26. User profile information may contain, but is not limited to, demographic data (such as, e.g., the user's age, gender, income, and highest attained education level), psychographic data, which reflects the user's interests or content affinity (such as, e.g., sports, movies, music, comedy), geographic data, and transactional data. In an embodiment using program data collected from the sniffer 22, the local categorized program database 26 may contain demographic information on some or all of the television programs available from entities, such as AC Nielsen, that profile television programs using panels of viewers having known demographic characteristics.” Hosea discloses the profile information to include demographic and preference information.)
As per claim 28:
The method according to claim 11, wherein the container is established before being populated with content corresponding to the data for the first product placement, the data for the second product placement, or the data for the third product placement. (See McKenna ¶0012, “The above-described problems are solved and a technical advance achieved in the field by the present System For Dynamic Personalized Object Placement In A Multi-Media Program (termed "multi-media object management system" herein) which functions to manage the delivery of Object (product) placements in a Multi-Media Program. The multi-media object management system controls the retrieval of Object Data that comprises a product representation and the integration of this Object Data into a corresponding selected one of the predetermined Multi-Media Object Locations which are components of the Multi-Media Program This enables advertisers to precisely control Object (product) placement on a customized basis thereby to dynamically modify the content of the Multi-Media Program on a centralized basis, regional basis, or at the individual recipient's location.” McKenna teaches the concept of the spaces to be predetermined independent of the product placements.)
As per claim 29:
The method according to claim 11, wherein populating the container with the content corresponding to the data for the third product placement occurs by substitution of content previously populated in the container. (See Macaluso ¶0032, “For example, it may be desirable for advertisements to have a specified expiration date and time and/or a specified number of times to be displayed. The advertising application may also keep track of statistics relating to the advertisement, such as the number of times displayed and frequency of display. Once the expiration date is reached or the advertisement has been displayed the specified number of times, the advertising application may negotiate with a server that stores a library of advertisements to obtain a new advertisement to replace the expired advertisement.” Macaluso teaches the concept of substituting a first selected advertisement based on specific conditions including number of impressions.)
As per claim 30:
The method according to claim 11, wherein the content is conformed to the container in each of a plurality of frames of the video to simulate movement with the moving object. (See McKenna ¶0061, “Thus, a "stock" Object may have to be dynamically modified to account for the subject's hand shown in the frame, the size of the Object may have to be proportionately adjusted to be consistent with the location in the frame (foreground, background, perspective view, etc.), and the boundary between the Object as inserted into the selected Multi-Media Object Location may have to be "morphed". Alternatively, the "background" layer "behind" and "in front of" the Object can also be "morphed" to wraparound or fit into the inserted Object should the Multi-Media Object Location be different than that of the selected Object. This background and foreground modification can be modified using predictive algorithms well known in the art. In addition, the characteristics of the Object maybe adjusted, using well-known image processing techniques, so the rendition of the Object, in terms of hue, saturation, color, brightness, etc., are consistent with the surroundings in the frame.” McKenna teaches the content to conform to the container including tracking changes across different frames.)
As per claim 31:
The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 16, wherein the container is established before being populated with content corresponding to the data for the first product placement, the data for the second product placement, or the data for the third product placement. (See McKenna ¶0012, “The above-described problems are solved and a technical advance achieved in the field by the present System For Dynamic Personalized Object Placement In A Multi-Media Program (termed "multi-media object management system" herein) which functions to manage the delivery of Object (product) placements in a Multi-Media Program. The multi-media object management system controls the retrieval of Object Data that comprises a product representation and the integration of this Object Data into a corresponding selected one of the predetermined Multi-Media Object Locations which are components of the Multi-Media Program This enables advertisers to precisely control Object (product) placement on a customized basis thereby to dynamically modify the content of the Multi-Media Program on a centralized basis, regional basis, or at the individual recipient's location.” McKenna teaches the concept of the spaces to be predetermined independent of the product placements.)
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 12/19/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
In response to the Applicant’s arguments as directed towards the 35 U.S.C. 112 rejection, the Examiner respectfully disagrees. The Examiner notes that although the limitation has been amended, the amended limitation still fails to comply with the written description requirement as discussed above. The Examiner further notes that as currently claimed, although the limitation of independent fails to comply with written requirement, the originally filed specification does recite the limitation of claim 21. As such, the Examiner asserts the claims fail to comply with written description requirement and the rejection has been maintained.
In response to the Applicant’s arguments as directed towards the 35 U.S.C. 101 rejection, the Examiner respectfully disagrees. The Applicant asserts the invention as claimed is not directed towards a judicial exception as the invention is directed towards a specific technical mechanism for performing the practice of product placement. The Examiner notes that as currently claimed, the invention, but for the generic computer component language, the invention is directed towards product placement. Furthermore, although the invention recites the limitations of null space and containers, these are names provided to abstract elements of media/content. This is further similar to Ultramercial, wherein marketing activity is performed using electronic/digital content including the incorporation/presentation of marketing content with media content. Still furthermore, the arrangement of information on a graphical user interface is also not sufficient to be significantly more as discussed in Trading Technologies v. IBG LLC, 921 F.3d 1084, 1093-94, 2019 USPQ2d 138290 (Fed. Cir. 2019). Still furthermore, unlike Core Wireless, the present invention only recites the broad step of “mixing” content, which while directed towards manipulating digital information, under the broadest reasonable interpretation in view of the specification, can be performed by a person using a computer (such as by a person using editing software, which is abstract as discussed in McRO). As such, although the invention recites the concept of product placement in digital content, the invention is directed towards a judicial exception of advertising activity which can be performed by a person using a computer. As such, the Examiner asserts the claimed invention is directed towards a judicial exception without significantly more and the rejection has been maintained.
In response to the Applicant’s arguments as directed towards the 35 U.S.C. 103 rejection, the Examiner respectfully disagrees. The Applicant asserts McKenna fails to teach the container/null space to be established independently of the product placement. The Examiner notes as discussed in McKenna, the establishment of spaces/slots for product placement is performed prior to the determination of product placement. Although McKenna does teach the concept of a Master Program Rule Set in McKenna ¶0044, this is still independent of the first/second/third product placement as this is established prior to selection of the product placements and the specific first/second/third product placements are not considered in the creation of the space. As such, the Examiner asserts McKenna teaches the amended limitation.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1, 3-4, 10-11, 13-14, 16, 18, 21-31 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
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/VINCENT M CAO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3622
