DETAILED ACTION
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see pg. 7, filed 10/29/2025, with respect to the status of the claims is hereby acknowledged. Claims 1-18 and 21-22 are pending.
Applicant’s arguments, see pg. 7, filed 10/29/2025, with respect to Examiner Interview are hereby acknowledged.
Applicant’s arguments, see pg. 7-8, filed 10/29/2025 with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-16 under 35 U.S.C. 103 have been fully considered and are hereby acknowledged. The applicant’s arguments regarding the alleged deficiencies of the prior art regarding are not persuasive. In particular, the applicant argues that Chen does not disclose elements of the newly amended limitations. The examiner respectfully disagrees with the applicant’s argument.
First, in response to the applicant’s argument, Remarks pg. 7, that the Office Action fails to meet the prima facie case for obviousness standard cited by the applicant, the test for obviousness is not whether the features of a secondary reference may be bodily incorporated into the structure of the primary reference; nor is it that the claimed invention must be expressly suggested in any one or all of the references. Rather, the test is what the combined teachings of the references would have suggested to those of ordinary skill in the art. See In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 208 USPQ 871 (CCPA 1981). More importantly, on the issue of obviousness, the Supreme Court stated that when a patent simply arranges old elements with each performing the same function it had been known to perform and yields no more than one would expect from such an arrangement, the combination is obvious. KSR International Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 417, 82 USPQ2d 1385 (2007) (citing Sakraida v. AG Pro, Inc., 425 U.S. 273, 96 S. Ct. 1532, 47 L. Ed. 2d 784 (1976)). The Court further reiterated that in circumstances where the combination of two pre-existing elements did no more than they would in separate, sequential operation, the patent failed under 35 U.S.C. 103. See id. at 416-417 (citing Anderson's-Black Rock, Inc. v. Pavement Salvage Co., 396 U.S. 57, 90 S. Ct. 305, 24 L. Ed. 2d 258 (1969)). The analysis of a rejection on obviousness grounds need not seek out precise teachings directed to the specific subject matter of the challenged claim, for a court can take account of the inferences and creative steps that a person of ordinary skill in the art would employ. See id. at 418. The obvious analysis cannot be confined by a formalistic conception of the words teaching, suggestion, and motivation. Id. at 419. Further, the Court stated that common sense teaches, however, that familiar items may have obvious uses beyond their primary purposes, and in many cases a person of ordinary skill will be able to fit the teachings of multiple patents together like pieces of a puzzle. See id. at 420.
The applicant’s primary argument is the following:
The cited references do not teach or suggest "based on an indication that that a user device is located at a second location that is different from the first location and based on advertising scheduling data determined by the content server, and before the end time of the advertisement portion, sending, to the user device, the notification, for output by the user device, that indicates a time remaining in the advertisement portion and identifies the at least one sponsor" as claimed.
The Office Action relies on Chen to reject "based on an indication that that a user device is located at a second location that is different from the first location and based on advertising scheduling data determined by the content server, and before the end time of the advertisement portion, sending, to the user device, prior to the end time of the advertisement portion, the notification, for output by the user device, that indicates a time remaining in the advertisement portion and identifies the at least one sponsor," as recited in amended independent claim 1. Office Action, pp. 6-7.
Applicant respectfully submits Chen, in combination with the other references, does not disclose or suggest these features of claim 1 as amended. Specifically, Chen does not disclose or suggest "determining, based on a start of an advertisement portion of the content, an end time of the advertisement portion and at least one sponsor of a notification associated with the advertisement portion."
Applicant notes that in the response to argument section, the Office asserts that "Chen paragraph 32 specifically teaches an alternative embodiment to avoid a time window for enabling audio matching because the server is able to directly detect when the STB is displaying an advertisement instead of using the table as an intermediary device," and "the server utilizes an advertisement schedule and Chen para 33 teaches ' .. .including the information of duration (starting and ending times), product or service names, slogan, type etc ... in the step 506 .... "' Office Action, p. 4. Applicant respectfully submits that this interpretation is not supported by the cited disclosure and misapprehends the roles of the systems described in Chen.
The examiner respectfully disagrees. With respect to the teachings of Chen in paragraphs [0015-0017], the prior art teaches, inter alia, “The advertisement server is located in the back end of the network, and it can be operated by a broadcaster that provides the cable TV or IPTV service, or an independent 3rd party content provider. The advertisement server provides at least two categories of data, one is data used for detecting the TV advertisement, e.g. data named sample advertisement index, the sample advertisement index is an audio and/or video segment of the latest advertisement being displayed on the TV in a recent period of time (e.g. one month)...Besides, the advertisement server can store other advertisement relating information such as key words, slogan, and advertisement schedule for a given channel etc. Such information can be used to assist the second device to improve the efficiency when detecting and identifying an advertisement being displayed on the TV.” As is evident from the teachings of Chen, a person of ordinary skill in the art would have readily appreciated the benefit of utilizing a server, that is part of the broadcaster that provides the cable TV or IPTV service, to store advertisement related information comprising advertisement schedule/slogan/keywords that functions to determine when advertisements and data are to be presented on the disclosed second device/portable device based on what is being displayed on a primary device/television set.
As the Examiner further discussed in the outstanding obviousness rejection, regarding “based on an indication that a user device is located at a second location that is different from the first location and based on advertising scheduling data determined by the content server, and before the end time of the advertisement portion, sending, to the user device the notification, for output by the user device, that indicates a time remaining in the advertisement portion and identifies the at least one sponsor” Chen further teaches para 20 and Fig. 2 - the identification of the starting or the ending can be optionally displayed on the tablet for the user's information according a variant implementation, and can be used to trigger other events but Chen does not reference based on an indication that a user device is located at a second location that is different from the first location. Additionally, with respect to “based on an indication that a user device is located at a second location that is different from the first location and based on advertising scheduling data determined by the content server, and before the end time of the advertisement portion, sending, to the user device the notification, for output by the user device, that indicates a time remaining in the advertisement portion and identifies the at least one sponsor” as claimed, Chen teaches that the mobile device (second device tablet) must be in the vicinity of the first device (TV) in order to obtain starting/ending of TV advertisement (Fig. 1 disclosing a home network with short range communication between a TV and second device; para 18-21, 30-32 second device captures audio data while in the vicinity or the TV). Furthermore, Chen paragraph 32 specifically teaches an alternative embodiment to avoid a time window for enabling audio matching because the server is able to directly detect when the STB is displaying an advertisement instead of using the table as an intermediary device. Furthermore, the server utilizes an advertisement schedule and Chen para 33 teaches “…including the information of duration (starting and ending times), product or service names, slogan, type etc . . . in the step 506. As shown in the FIG. 5, an advertisement with a given slogan is scheduled to play in channel 5 from 20:00:00 to 20:00:10, the brand spokesman is a Chinese sport star named "Liu Xiang" The tablet will use the advertisement schedule to display a chosen advertisement to the user. Besides, the server can send instant notification for instructing the tablet to present an advertisement as shown in the step 507. The instant notification is useful for a live program.” A person of ordinary skill in the art would reasonably infer that Chen paragraph 33 teaches communicating metadata relating to the advertisement that is not limited to duration (starting and ending times) because Chen also discloses “product or service names, slogan, type etc.” Therefore, the applicant’s arguments regarding the teachings of Chen are not persuasive and the examiner will rely on the prior art of record to address the newly amended limitations.
More importantly, the applicant’s arguments do not appear to take into consideration the significant teaching value of the combination of prior art of record which discloses an advertisements being displayed with a notification of a countdown timer such that the time remaining in the advertisement in relation to the schedule of the advertisement was received prior to the end of the advertisement. For example, the applicant’s arguments regarding the teachings of Chen and Barnett, the examiner notes that the applicant’s arguments do not appear to take into consideration the significant teaching value of Ren. For example, Ren para 58 teaches set-top box 230 may provide the notification to user device 220 based on determining that the user is not within a particular proximity of display device 240. In this case, set-top box 230 may determine that user device 220 has been moved from a first room (e.g., a room including display device 240) to a second room, and may provide a notification indicating that the commercial has ended to the user of user device 220. For example, a user may indicate that the user is leaving a room (e.g., the room that includes display device 240) by providing input to user device 220, and user device 220 may notify set-top box 230 that the user has left the room. More importantly, Ren para 31 further teaches that “[a] commercial and/or a commercial break may be used broadly to refer to a subset of programming associated with a channel (e.g., a TV channel, a radio channel, etc.), such as an advertisement, a segment of a particular program (e.g., a weather report, an interview, a scene, etc.), a station identification break, or the like.” A person of ordinary skill in the art would reasonably infer that where a commercial and/or commercial break is understood as an advertisement and/or a station identification break, then the sponsor of the commercial is either the advertiser or station providing the station identification break.
Equally important to the analysis regarding the applicant’s arguments do not appear to take into consideration the significant teaching value of the prior art of record which discloses an advertisements being displayed with a notification of a countdown timer such that the time remaining in the advertisement in relation to the schedule of the advertisement was received prior to the end of the advertisement. For example, the prior art teachings to Ransom disclose displaying a notification such as a count-down timer is displayed to indicate the ending of an advertisement (para 65) and Ranson para 40, 56, 77 does disclose that the advertisement content metadata identifies the content provider which a person of ordinary skill in the art would reasonably infer the content provider is the sponsor of the content (i.e., content metadata can comprise content title, content provider, content type (e.g., local advertisement, non-local advertisement), content format (e.g., digital, analog), content length (e.g., temporal data for the interval between content starting point and content ending point), content identifier (e.g., content id), content release date, content update frequency, and the like.).
Lastly, the examiner incorporates by reference the prior art teachings to Chen and Barnett as discussed in the Office Action dated 2/12/2025. Therefore, the applicant’s arguments are not persuasive.
Applicant’s Remarks further attempt to distinguish the teachings of Barnett in Remarks pg. 10, filed 10/29/2025, however, the examiner respectfully disagrees with applicant’s arguments. Whereas the applicant appears to argue that Barnett does not render obvious “advertising scheduling metadata determined by the content server” for use in triggering outbound notifications. As discussed above in Chen, a server that is part of the broadcaster (i.e., “The advertisement server is located in the back end of the network, and it can be operated by a broadcaster that provides the cable TV or IPTV service”) and utilizes advertisement relating information (e.g., schedule/slogan/keywords that functions to determine when advertisements and data are to be presented on the disclosed second device/portable device based on what is being displayed on a primary device/television set). More importantly, the applicant’s arguments do not appear to take into consideration the teachings of Barnett in the context of the entire teachings of Barnett. For example, Barnett teaches the following in relation to transmitting metadata embedded in a media stream:
[0207] FIG. 21 illustrates embodiments in which a second screen of a device of user 101 is utilized to present information related to what is currently being displayed on TV 830. In some embodiments, the second screen of user 101 may be mobile device 840 such as a smartphone, a tablet computer, or any other appropriate display device. Some embodiments present a call-to-action 2110 on a second screen that is related to content being displayed on TV 830. In some embodiments, an API is provided that permits content providers or advertisers to include audio in programming that triggers call-to-action 2110 or any other content on mobile device 840.
[0208] In some embodiments, call-to-action 2110 may be presented on a second screen of user 101 in response to what is currently being displayed on TV 830. In general, call-to-action 2110 may refer to a solicited response in user 101. In some embodiments, call-to-action 2110 may be in the form of a clickable button that performs a predefined action when clicked. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 21, a singing competition program on TV 830 may solicit user 101 to vote for contestants by dialing a telephone number. Concurrently with the display of the telephone number, call-to-action 2110 may be presented on a second screen of user 101 such as mobile device 840. In this example, call-to-action 2110 is a button that appears on mobile device 840 that allows user 101 to click the button to vote for contestant A without having to dial the telephone number displayed on TV 830.
[0209] Call-to-action 2110, or any other content displayed on a second screen of user 101 such as mobile device 840, may be displayed in response to instruction from social networking system 160 or social TV dongle 810. For example, social networking system 160 may send instructions to mobile device 840 either directly or via social TV dongle 810 to display call-to-action 2110. In certain embodiments, the instructions are sent to mobile device 840 based on metadata embedded in video stream 850. For example, metadata embedded within video stream 850 may indicate to display a certain call-to-action 2110 at a certain time in a program. Social TV dongle 810 or social networking system 160 may analyze the metadata and then send the instructions to mobile device 840 to display call-to-action 2110 at the appropriate time.
As is evident from the teachings of Barnett, the prior art teaches a benefit of transmitting metadata along with the video stream to a device to indicate a call-to-action (e.g., an API is provided that permits content providers or advertisers to include audio in programming that triggers call-to-action 2110 or any other content on mobile device 840.) to provide a notification to a viewer of a second device/mobile device coupled to a first device/television. Similar to the teachings of Chen, the prior art in Chen recognizes the benefit of enabling a server that is part of the broadcaster to utilize advertisement information (i.e., metadata) in order to provide notifications to devices regarding the video programming comprising advertisements.
More importantly, the prior art to Stern recognizes a benefit of providing the viewer with notifications (e.g., a countdown timer generated from the advertisement information messages and displayed along with the content of the advertisement segment). As such, wherein the combination of Chen, Ransom, Barnett, and Ren render obvious providing a notification to a mobile device that a commercial break is about to end, Stern para 11, 18-19, 42-43, 47 teaches that a countdown timer is generated from the advertisement information messages and displayed along with the content of the advertisement segment; For a set of contiguous advertising segments the countdown time will show the time remaining until the end of the set of advertising segments and the resumption of the displaying of the main program. Thus, a user viewing the screen during an advertisement is informed as to the amount of time remaining before the program content, as opposed to advertising content, will be displayed again.
Lastly, the applicant’s arguments do not fully address the other prior art made of record and relied upon. For example, Lalka para 124 discloses presenting sponsor content comprising the current status of the event in response to a determination or timing of an intermission, either based on the location being changed (e.g., exiting the theater during the middle of a scheduled performance) or based on a known break. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have reasonably inferred that Lalka provides sponsored content to a mobile device comprising the status of the viewing event when the viewer is viewing broadcast content (e.g., theater) and there is an intermission, break, and/or when the viewer has stepped away from viewing the main content presentation. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have reasonably inferred that in the prior art teachings of Chen, Ransom, Barnett, and Ren, the combined teachings alert the user as to when the status of the broadcast programming is presenting advertisements in order to provide the viewer with the advertisement/commercial time remaining before the main programming begins and that notifications are understood to be provided via metadata as discussed, inter alai, in Barnett.
The prior art to Wood also recognizes the benefit of displaying advertisement breaks on a main display and simultaneously utilizing a second display (e.g., mobile device) for displaying content associated with the sponsor of the advertisement break being presented on the main display. Wood para 0088-0089, PARA 210 and Fig. 4C, 4D, 10B, 10C, 12teaches the following:
[0088] Currently adverts presented during programs are often not directly related to the program content and as such may be of no interest to the viewer. However, the user experience can be significantly improved when a consumer has access to this invention. This can be illustrated in a number of examples below. A viewer has selected to watch a documentary on the National Geographic channel. It is live TV, so there is no mechanism to fast forward adverts. It is about the animals in the Amazon rainforest and the effects due to habitat destruction. During this program adverts may appear for products such as nappies, soft drink or the latest sports car. With this invention however, the TV network offers supplementary content related to rainforests in general and also content on ways to reduce our footprint on the planet. For example, as the program begins, a message appears on the screen of the TV or remote control indicating that more information is available during the course of the program.
[0089] After ten minutes of viewing an advert for the latest sports car comes on, a message appears on the remote showing the Manufacturer's logo and an additional information icon appears on the screen of the viewer's remote control. The additional information icon directs the viewer to links for the current sponsors of the program, such as the nappy supplier, car manufacturer's interne website home page, and a soft drink offer. Additionally though, links to websites on the Tasmanian rainforests and hybrid cars are also shown. The viewer presses the mute button the remote control to mute the sound during the adverts. At that instant, a series of slogans from the car manufacturer are overlayed on the screen of the TV to assist the message intent during the muted state.
All things considered, the applicant’s arguments are not persuasive and the rejection is maintained.
Independent claims 8 and 15 recite similar, yet not identical, features to those recited in independent claim 1. Therefore, for the reasons discussed above concerning claim 1, it is submitted that the cited references teach the features recited in claims 8 and 15 to render the claims obvious.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 1-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen; Jianfeng et al. US 20150019223 A1 (hereafter Chen) and in further view of Ransom; Mumin et al. US 20160173942 A1 (hereafter Ransom) and in further view of Barnett; John Samuel US 20180124438 A1 (hereafter Barnett) and in further view of Ren, Dahai, US20150095932A1 (hereafter Ren) and in further view of Stern; Peter et al. US 20110243533 A1 (hereafter Stern) and in further view of Lalka; Vipul Kishore et al. US 20190104382 A1 (hereafter Lalka) and in further view of Wood; Christopher et al. US 20120131098 A1 (hereafter Wood).
Regarding claim 1, “a method comprising: determining, at a content server, that content output device at a first location is causing output of content; determining, based on a start of an advertisement portion of the content, an end time of the advertisement portion and at least one sponsor of a notification associated with the advertisement portion and based on an indication that a user device is located at a second location that is different from the first location and based on advertising scheduling data determined by the content server, and before the end time of the advertisement portion, sending, to the user device the notification, for output by the user device, that indicates a time remaining in the advertisement portion and identifies the at least one sponsor” (Chen teaches para 15-20 first user device is a TV for displaying broadcast content and a second device is a tablet; para 20 determining start of advertisement wherein advertisement index is received from content provider; Fig. 2 and para 20 teaching - match sampled data generated by the block 203 with the same sampling frequency as that used by the content provider with the at least one set of referenced sampled data from the block 207, so as to identify the starting of the TV advertisement as indicated by the block 208 and the ending of the TV advertisement as indicated by the block 209; para 17 advertisement server provides data for detecting the TV advertisement and para 33 states “…the server responds with an advertisement schedule including the information of duration (starting and ending times), product or service names, slogan, type etc . . . in the step 506. As shown in the FIG. 5, an advertisement with a given slogan is scheduled to play in channel 5 from 20:00:00 to 20:00:10, the brand spokesman is a Chinese sport star named "Liu Xiang" The tablet will use the advertisement schedule to display a chosen advertisement to the user. Besides, the server can send instant notification for instructing the tablet to present an advertisement as shown in the step 507. The instant notification is useful for a live program.”); Regarding “based on an indication that a user device is located at a second location that is different from the first location and based on advertising scheduling data determined by the content server, and before the end time of the advertisement portion, sending, to the user device the notification, for output by the user device, that indicates a time remaining in the advertisement portion and identifies the at least one sponsor” Chen further teaches para 20 and Fig. 2 - the identification of the starting or the ending can be optionally displayed on the tablet for the user's information according a variant implementation, and can be used to trigger other events but Chen does not reference based on an indication that a user device is located at a second location that is different from the first location. Additionally, with respect to “based on an indication that a user device is located at a second location that is different from the first location and based on advertising scheduling data determined by the content server, and before the end time of the advertisement portion, sending, to the user device the notification, for output by the user device, that indicates a time remaining in the advertisement portion and identifies the at least one sponsor” as claimed, Chen teaches that the mobile device (second device tablet) must be in the vicinity of the first device (TV) in order to obtain starting/ending of TV advertisement (Fig. 1 disclosing a home network with short range communication between a TV and second device; para 18-21, 30-32 second device captures audio data while in the vicinity or the TV).
In an analogous art, Ransom teaches the deficiency of Chen wherein a notification such as a count-down timer is displayed to indicate the ending of an advertisement (para 65). Ransom does not reference the limitation with respect to “based on an indication that a user device is located at a second location that is different from the first location in relation to a sponsor, however, Ranson para 40, 56, 77 does disclose that the advertisement content metadata identifies the content provider which a person of ordinary skill in the art would reasonably infer the content provider is the sponsor of the content (i.e., content metadata can comprise content title, content provider, content type (e.g., local advertisement, non-local advertisement), content format (e.g., digital, analog), content length (e.g., temporal data for the interval between content starting point and content ending point), content identifier (e.g., content id), content release date, content update frequency, and the like.).
In an analogous art, Barnett teaches advertisement notifications are displayed on TV, in addition to, a second screen of the user 101 such as a mobile device (para 352-370, 383) comprising notifications of a countdown prior to the end time of each commercial break (para 352-370, 383). Barnet teaches the advertisement content comprises displaying a countdown time, prior to the end time of the advertisement section, until the commercial being displayed ends and the regular program (para 6, 352, 368, 383). Barnett first teaches a notification 4030 regarding break 4020 (i.e., The notification may present, for example, a countdown timer that shows how much time is remaining before the end of the commercial break. See also Barnett teaches advertisement notifications are displayed on TV, in addition to, a second screen of the user 101 such as a mobile device (para 352-370) comprising notifications of a countdown prior to the end time of each commercial break (para 352-370) and wherein the advertisement content is displayed with sponsor information (para 201-205). See also [0363] In some embodiments, targeted content 4010 may include sponsored content or any other advertising content. For example, an advertiser could purchase commercial breaks for a certain demographic in a certain area (e.g., females 35-40 years old in a certain city or state). Targeted content 4010 would then include sponsored content from the advertiser during commercial breaks for that demographic. Based on the teachings of Barnett, a person of ordinary skill in the art would have understood that the countdown displayed is a total time remaining for the entire commercial break in combination with sponsor information. Therefore, a person of ordinary skill in the art would have reasonably inferred that where Barnett teaches a commercial break comprises a plurality of videos or just one video, then a situation where multiple commercials are presented, then the total time comprises adding the length of each commercial to identify the total time remaining.
Additionally, with respect to “based on an indication that a user device is located at a second location that is different from the first location” as claimed, Barnett only teaches that the mobile second device 840 must be in the vicinity of the first device 830 utilizing a Wi-Fi connection or dongle 810 (Fig. 8 and 109). See also Barnett para 381-383 – second device is detected in the vicinity location of a first device when a commercial break is about to occur in order to present supplemental content on the second device. See also para 152, 161, 214 utilizing GPS location data sent by mobile device to identify location of mobile device in relation to a TV location/room. However, Barnett, similar to Chen and Ransom, do not disclose a second location that is different from the first location as claimed.
EXAMINER’S NOTE: Prior art made of record but not relied upon in order to avoid duplicative references Abecassis; Max US 20150086173 A1 providing screen notifications regarding upcoming commercial breaks and identifying the length of the particular segments (para 174-188) is beneficial when a viewer is in a public place or a private gathering also corresponds to applicant’s claimed “based on a location of a user device associated with the content output device”
In an analogous art, Ren para 58 teaches set-top box 230 may provide the notification to user device 220 based on determining that the user is not within a particular proximity of display device 240. In this case, set-top box 230 may determine that user device 220 has been moved from a first room (e.g., a room including display device 240) to a second room, and may provide a notification indicating that the commercial has ended to the user of user device 220. For example, a user may indicate that the user is leaving a room (e.g., the room that includes display device 240) by providing input to user device 220, and user device 220 may notify set-top box 230 that the user has left the room. Ren paragraph 58 teaches:
“…Additionally, or alternatively, set-top box 230 may provide the notification to the user via user device 220. For example, set-top box 230 may provide the notification to user device 220 based on determining that the user is not within a particular proximity of display device 240. In this case, set-top box 230 may determine that user device 220 has been moved from a first room (e.g., a room including display device 240) to a second room, and may provide a notification indicating that the commercial has ended to the user of user device 220. For example, a user may indicate that the user is leaving a room (e.g., the room that includes display device 240) by providing input to user device 220, and user device 220 may notify set-top box 230 that the user has left the room….”
Ren para 31 further teaches that “[a] commercial and/or a commercial break may be used broadly to refer to a subset of programming associated with a channel (e.g., a TV channel, a radio channel, etc.), such as an advertisement, a segment of a particular program (e.g., a weather report, an interview, a scene, etc.), a station identification break, or the like.” A person of ordinary skill in the art would reasonably infer that where a commercial and/or commercial break is understood as an advertisement and/or a station identification break, then the sponsor of the commercial is either the advertiser or station providing the station identification break. Therefore, based on the teachings of Ren (i.e., For example, set-top box 230 may provide the notification to user device 220 based on determining that the user is not within a particular proximity of display device 240. In this case, set-top box 230 may determine that user device 220 has been moved from a first room (e.g., a room including display device 240) to a second room) the set-top box has obtained the location data associated with the user device indicating that the user device is located at a second location that is different from the first location. Again, the applicant’s claim limitation does not explicitly claim how the set-top box obtains the location data of the user device as claimed. Whereas paragraph 58 of Ren discloses “a notification indicating that the commercial has ended to the user of user device 220”, the combination of prior art to Chen, Ransom, Barnett (and Stern below) render obvious providing a notification that the commercial break is about to end.
The prior art to Stern recognizes a benefit of providing the viewer with notifications (e.g., a countdown timer generated from the advertisement information messages and displayed along with the content of the advertisement segment). As such, wherein the combination of Chen, Ransom, Barnett, and Ren render obvious providing a notification to a mobile device that a commercial break is about to end, Stern para 11, 18-19, 42-43, 47 teaches that a countdown timer is generated from the advertisement information messages and displayed along with the content of the advertisement segment; For a set of contiguous advertising segments the countdown time will show the time remaining until the end of the set of advertising segments and the resumption of the displaying of the main program. Thus, a user viewing the screen during an advertisement is informed as to the amount of time remaining before the program content, as opposed to advertising content, will be displayed again.
Whereas Stern teaches the benefit of providing a viewer with a set of contiguous advertising segments and a countdown time showing the time remaining until the end of the set of advertising segments and the resumption of the displaying of the main program, Stern does not disclose that the advertisement information messages comprising a sponsor of a notification associated with the advertisement portion, as discussed above, Ren para 31 further teaches that “[a] commercial and/or a commercial break may be used broadly to refer to a subset of programming associated with a channel (e.g., a TV channel, a radio channel, etc.), such as an advertisement, a segment of a particular program (e.g., a weather report, an interview, a scene, etc.), a station identification break, or the like.” A person of ordinary skill in the art would reasonably infer that where a commercial and/or commercial break is understood as an advertisement and/or a station identification break, then the sponsor of the commercial is either the advertiser or station providing the station identification break.
As such, the motivation to modify Chen, Ransom, Barnett, and Ren is further evidenced by Lalka para 124 discloses presenting sponsor content comprising the current status of the event in response to a determination or timing of an intermission, either based on the location being changed (e.g., exiting the theater during the middle of a scheduled performance) or based on a known break. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have reasonably inferred that Lalka provides sponsored content to a mobile device comprising the status of the viewing event when the viewer is viewing broadcast content (e.g., theater) and there is an intermission, break, and/or when the viewer has stepped away from viewing the main content presentation. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have reasonably inferred that in the prior art teachings of Chen, Ransom, Barnett, and Ren, the combined teachings alert the user as to when the status of the broadcast programming is presenting advertisements in order to provide the viewer with the advertisement/commercial time remaining before the main programming begins.
The prior art to Wood also recognizes the benefit of displaying advertisement breaks on a main display and simultaneously utilizing a second display (e.g., mobile device) for displaying content associated with the sponsor of the advertisement break being presented on the main display. Wood para 0088-0089, PARA 210 and Fig. 4C, 4D, 10B, 10C, 12teaches the following:
[0088] Currently adverts presented during programs are often not directly related to the program content and as such may be of no interest to the viewer. However, the user experience can be significantly improved when a consumer has access to this invention. This can be illustrated in a number of examples below. A viewer has selected to watch a documentary on the National Geographic channel. It is live TV, so there is no mechanism to fast forward adverts. It is about the animals in the Amazon rainforest and the effects due to habitat destruction. During this program adverts may appear for products such as nappies, soft drink or the latest sports car. With this invention however, the TV network offers supplementary content related to rainforests in general and also content on ways to reduce our footprint on the planet. For example, as the program begins, a message appears on the screen of the TV or remote control indicating that more information is available during the course of the program.
[0089] After ten minutes of viewing an advert for the latest sports car comes on, a message appears on the remote showing the Manufacturer's logo and an additional information icon appears on the screen of the viewer's remote control. The additional information icon directs the viewer to links for the current sponsors of the program, such as the nappy supplier, car manufacturer's interne website home page, and a soft drink offer. Additionally though, links to websites on the Tasmanian rainforests and hybrid cars are also shown. The viewer presses the mute button the remote control to mute the sound during the adverts. At that instant, a series of slogans from the car manufacturer are overlayed on the screen of the TV to assist the message intent during the muted state.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Chen’s invention for detecting a start of an advertisement portion of the content from various advertisers to provide notifications on a computing device separate from a television (e.g., tablet or mobile device) by further incorporating known elements of Ransom's invention for providing a utilizing content metadata for providing a notification to display as a count-down timer to indicate the ending of an advertisement such that the viewer is able to switch back to viewing the main programming content when on demand programming is not available. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Chen and Ransom’s invention by further incorporating known elements of Barnett’s invention for displaying advertisement notifications on TV, prior to the end of the commercial portion, in addition to, a second screen of a second computing device that is in the vicinity location of the TV, such as a mobile device, comprising notifications of a countdown prior to the end time of each commercial break in order to utilize received data for a set of contiguous advertising segments and show the countdown time with the time remaining until the end of the set of advertising segments and the resumption of the displaying of the main program to enable the viewer to perform a personal activity such as a restroom break because the prior art to Ren recognizes the benefit of providing the viewer with a mobile phone, that has moved to a location different from the room where the set-top box located, with an indication that the advertisement has ended or provide a notification as disclosed in Stern to display a countdown time remaining until the end of the set of advertising segments and the resumption of the displaying of the main program. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Chen, Ransom, Barnett, and Ren by further incorporating known elements of Lalka’s invention for presenting sponsor content comprising the current status of the event in response to a determination or timing of an intermission, either based on the location being changed (e.g., exiting the theater during the middle of a scheduled performance) or based on a known break as the modification would provide sponsored content to a mobile device comprising the status of the viewing event when the viewer is viewing broadcast content (e.g., theater) and there is an intermission, break, and/or when the viewer has stepped away from viewing the main content presentation and the combined teachings alert the user as to when the status of the broadcast programming is presenting advertisements in order to provide the viewer with the advertisement/commercial time remaining before the main programming begins to enable the viewer to not miss the start of a presentation after an intermission or break. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Chen, Ransom, Barnett, Ren and Lalka’s invention by further incorporating known elements of Wood’s invention for displaying advertisement breaks on a main display and simultaneously utilizing a second display (e.g., mobile device) for displaying content associated with the sponsor of the advertisement break being presented on the main display because the combination would enable the sponsor of the advertisement content presented on the main display to enable the viewer to access additional sponsor content, on a mobile device, related to the advertisement products being displayed on the main display during an intermission or advertisement break.
Regarding claim 2, “wherein the user device and the content output device are associated with at least one of a user or a premises” is further rejected on obviousness grounds as discussed in the rejection of claim 1 wherein Chen teaches that the mobile device (second device tablet) must be in the vicinity of the first device (TV) in order to obtain starting/ending of TV advertisement (Fig. 1 disclosing a home network with short range communication between a TV and second device; para 18-21, 30-32 second device captures audio data while in the vicinity or the TV); Chen further teaches the second user device registers for notifications in paragraph 33. See also Barnett para 91, 163, 168-173 – associating mobile device with user’s social networking account to deliver associated content including advertisements). Barnett teaches that the mobile second device 840 must be in the vicinity of the first device 830 utilizing a Wi-Fi connection or dongle 810 (Fig. 8 and 109). See also Barnett para 381-383 – second device is detected in the vicinity location of a first device when a commercial break is about to occur in order to present supplemental content on the second device. See also Ransom para 50-53 wherein user identifiers are associated to only one particular user and wherein Ransom teaches that users are subscribers with a particular level of service which a person of ordinary skill in the art would understand corresponds to subscriber of an account. See also Ren para 58.
Regarding claim 3, “wherein the user device and the content output device are located at a premises, wherein the first location comprises at least one of: a first room, a first section, a first floor, or a first portion of the premises, and wherein the second location comprises at least one of: a second room, a second section, a second floor, or a second portion of the premises” is further rejected on obviousness grounds as discussed in the rejection of claims 1-2 wherein Ren para 58 teaches the deficiency with respect to “rooms” recited in “wherein the first location comprises at least one of: a first room, a first section, a first floor, or a first portion of the premises, and wherein the second location comprises at least one of: a second room, a second section, a second floor, or a second portion of the premises.”
Regarding claim 4, “further comprising determining the at least one sponsor of the notification is based on at least one of: a user preference, indicated by metadata associated with the advertisement portion, a primary entity of a plurality of entities associated with the advertisement portion, or a section of the a plurality of sections of the advertisement portion” is further rejected on obviousness grounds as discussed in the rejection of claims 1-4 wherein Chen para 20 teaches each portion has particular identification data to notify of a particular advertisement - determining start of advertisement wherein advertisement index is received from content provider; Fig. 2 and para 20 teaching - match sampled data generated by the block 203 with the same sampling frequency as that used by the content provider with the at least one set of referenced sampled data from the block 207, so as to identify the starting of the TV advertisement as indicated by the block 208 and the ending of the TV advertisement as indicated by the block 209). See Chen further teaches para 17, 21, 31, 32, 33 – presenting information associated with the content output by the content output device, a slogan. See also Barnett teaches advertisement notifications are displayed on TV, in addition to, a second screen of the user 101 such as a mobile device (para 352-370) comprising notifications of a countdown prior to the end time of each commercial break (para 352-370) and wherein the advertisement content is displayed with sponsor information (para 201-205). A person of ordinary skill in the art would have reasonably inferred, based on the teachings of Barnett that “further comprising determining the at least one sponsor of the notification is based on at least” a section of the a plurality of sections of the advertisement portion because each different advertisement is presented with the associated sponsor.
Regarding claim 5, “wherein the notification comprises at least one of information associated with the content a slogan, a catchphrase, or a trademark” is further rejected on obviousness grounds as discussed in the rejection of claims 1-4 wherein the term trademark is broadly interpreted as any word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination of these things that identifies goods or services; See also Barnett teaches advertisement notifications are displayed on TV, in addition to, a second screen of the user 101 such as a mobile device (para 352-370) comprising notifications of a countdown prior to the end time of each commercial break (para 352-370) and wherein the advertisement content is displayed with sponsor information (para 201-205). See Chen further teaches para 17, 21, 31, 32, 33 – presenting information associated with the content output by the content output device, a slogan.
Regarding claim 6, “wherein the advertisement portion comprises a plurality of sections that are each associated with a section end time, and wherein sending the notification comprises sending, prior to the section end time for a first section of the plurality of sections, the notification” is further rejected on obviousness grounds as discussed in the rejection of claims 1-5 wherein Stern para 47 teaches The display image includes a frame 401 of an ad segment along with an information section 402 displayed at the bottom of the image 400. As illustrated the information section 402 includes an ad presentation countdown timer 406 generated in accordance with the invention in addition to a channel and current time field 404. The ad presentation countdown timer 406 displays the presentation time remaining in a set of consecutive ad segments or the time remaining in an individual ad segment depending on the embodiment. As should be appreciated in either embodiment during presentation of the last ad segment, e.g., ad segment N 214′, in a set of consecutive ad segments the time remaining will be the time to the end of the last ad segment 214′. See also Barnett teaches advertisement notifications are displayed on TV, in addition to, a second screen of the user 101 such as a mobile device (para 352-370) comprising notifications of a countdown prior to the end time of each commercial