DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-3, 5-23 are pending.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1-3, 5-23 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pont et al. (US 2018/0098101) in view of Neumann (US 2017/0257678), and further in view of Casey et al. (US 2014/0270699), and further in view of Robertson et al. (US 2021/0385264), and further in view of Barkley et al. (US 2018/0332320).
Claim 1, Pont teaches a method comprising:
receiving, from a user device, an indication of a type of content to exclude from a content item (i.e. skip based on preferences) (p. 0051);
Pont is not entirely clear in teaching the specific features of:
“determining, based on the indication and based on at least one trick play automation point associated with a plurality of user inputs from a threshold quantity of users; a portion of the content item”;
determining, a plurality of segments of the content item comprising the portion of the content item, wherein the plurality of segments of the content item comprise a duration greater than a duration of the portion of the content item;
updating, based on removing indications of the plurality of segments of the content item from the manifest, the manifest;
sending the updated manifest to the user device.
Neumann teaches the specific features of:
“determining, based on the indication and based on at least one trick play automation point associated with a plurality of user inputs (i.e. fast forwards) from a threshold quantity of users; a portion of the content item” (i.e. advertisement location portions) users (fig. 3; p. 0024-0026, 0033).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art and before the effective filing date of the present invention to have provided threshold of fast forward interactions as taught by Neumann to the system of Pont to allow for detecting of advertisement locations (p. 0024).
Casey teaches the specific features of:
determining, a plurality of segments of the content item (i.e. segments of streaming content) comprising the portion of the content item (i.e. popular segment), wherein the plurality of segments of the content item (i.e. full content item) comprise a duration greater than a duration of the portion of the content item (i.e. popular portion based on user inputs is a short clip compared to the full content item) (p. 0027, 0043-0044);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art and before the effective filing date of the present invention to have provided popular segments as taught by Casey to the system of Pont to determine segments of interest (p. 0044).
Robertson teaches the specific feature of:
updating, based on removing indications of the plurality of segments from the manifest (i.e. removing non alternative content references), the manifest (p. 0006-0007, 0044).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art and before the effective filing date of the present invention to have provided a modified manifest as taught by Robertson to the system of Pont to provide changes to the manifest for new content (p. 0006-0007, 0044).
Barkley teaches the specific feature of:
sending the updated manifest to the user device (i.e. manifest provided to any devices upon request) (p. 0025).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art and before the effective filing date of the present invention to have provided a manifest as taught by Barkley to the system of Pont to organize fragments for transmission (p. 0025).
Claim 2, Pont teaches the method of claim 1, wherein receiving the indication of the type of content comprises receiving an indication of at least one of:
a violent content type (i.e. violent scenes) (p. 0052), a sexual content type, a vulgar content type, a language content type, a commercial content type, or a musical content type.
Claim 3, Pont teaches the method of claim 1, wherein receiving the indication of the type of content comprises receiving a plurality of types of content (p. 0051-0053).
Claim 5, Pont teaches the method of claim 1, wherein portion of the content item are determined based on at least one of:
usage associated with the user device (i.e. aggregated from other users) (p. 0045-0048), a machine learning classifier, a user profile, usage of a plurality of devices associated with the user device, a textual input, or a content preference associated with the user device.
Claim 6, Pont teaches the method of claim 1, further comprising:
determining, a difference between a start time point of the portion of the content item and a stop time point of the portion of the content item (i.e. total time of marked segments can be greater than the different e.g. when 2 similar commercials are marked which will be similar in duration (p. 0027, 0048-0048, 0051).
Claim 7, Pont teaches the method of claim 1, further comprising determining, based on the plurality of segments, the trick play automation point, wherein updating the manifest comprises adding the trick play automation point to the manifest (i.e. processing the tags to automatically skip content) (p. 0065).
Claim 8, Pont teaches the method of claim 1, further comprising receiving an indication of a trick play operation comprising at least one of:
a skip operation or a fast forward operation, and wherein updating the manifest comprises associating the trick play operation with the plurality of segments (fig. 10;. p. 0065).
Claim 9 is analyzed and interpreted as reciting similar features of claim 1.
Claim 10 is analyzed and interpreted as reciting similar features of claim 5.
Claim 11 is analyzed and interpreted as reciting similar features of claim 6.
Claim 12 is analyzed and interpreted as reciting similar features of claim 7.
Claim 13 is analyzed and interpreted as reciting similar features of claim 8.
Claim 14 is analyzed and interpreted as reciting similar features of claim 7.
Claim 15 is analyzed and interpreted as reciting similar features of claim 1.
Claim 16 is analyzed and interpreted as reciting similar features of claim 5.
Claim 17 is analyzed and interpreted as reciting similar features of claim 5.
Claim 18 is analyzed and interpreted as reciting similar features of claim 6.
Claim 19 is analyzed and interpreted as reciting similar features of claims 5 and 7.
Claim 20 is analyzed and interpreted as reciting similar features of claim 8.
Claim 21, Pont is not entirely clear in teaching the method of claim 1, wherein the indications of the plurality of segments are associated with locations of the plurality of segments.
Robertson teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the indications of the plurality of segments are associated with locations (i.e. indicators) of the plurality of segments (p. 0006-0007, 0044).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art and before the effective filing date of the present invention to have provided a modified manifest as taught by Robertson to the system of Pont to provide changes to the manifest for new content (p. 0006-0007, 0044).
Claim 22 is analyzed and interpreted as reciting similar features of claim 21.
Claim 23 is analyzed and interpreted as reciting similar features of claim 21.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-3, 5-23 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
Claims 1-3, 5-23 are rejected.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Inquiries
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MUSHFIKH I ALAM whose telephone number is (571)270-1710. The examiner can normally be reached on 1:00PM-9:00PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Nasser Goodarzi can be reached on 571-272-4195. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see https://ppair-my.uspto.gov/pair/PrivatePair. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
MUSHFIKH I. ALAM
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2426
/MUSHFIKH I ALAM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2426 3/24/2026