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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 3/16/2026 has been entered.
Claim Status
Claims 1, 10, and 17 have been amended.
Claims 4, 7-9, 13, 15, 16, 19, 23, and 24 are canceled.
No newly added claims.
Claims 1-3, 5, 6, 10-12, 14, 17, 18, 20-22, 25-27 are presented for examination.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed in the amendment filed on 3/16/2026 have been fully considered but it is moot in view of new ground of rejection.
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 of this title, 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.
Claims 1, 2, 6, 10, 11, 17. 21, and 22 are rejected under U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sullivan et al. (US 20180152762) in view of in further view of Sullivan et al. (US 20170188067), hereinafter as Sulliva2, in further view of Asman et al. (US 10609109).
Regarding claim 1, Sullivan discloses, A computer apparatus (par. 0076, The processor platform) comprising:
a processor; and
at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the computing system to perform operations comprising (see par. 0046, a memory):
identifying a first start ping and a first end ping from a plurality of pings based on a first partitioning scheme (Par. 0035, generates multiple different graphs 700 corresponding to different dimensions of interest, in some examples, the panel tuning segments and corresponding modelled tuning segments are aggregated based on different characteristics or dimensions such as, the station from which the media was accessed, i.e. dimensions of interest being station of channel from which media content was accessed = partitioning or grouping of tuning data based on scheme of monitoring channel or station user is accessing content from. Par. 0062, distribution generator groups the panel tuning segments and the modelled tuning segments based on dimensions of interest. The dimensions of interest may include, station, genre, here grouping tuning segment based on station = first partitioning scheme based on identified station (station = channel, par. 0015). Par. 0066, tuning information analyzer calculates a duration of a reported RPD tuning segment, RPD tuning information includes start times and end times for different tuning segments),
determining a first candidate duration of a single media access session based on a first difference between the first time associated with a first start ping and a second time associated with the first end ping (Par. 0023, collected audience measurement data includes panel tuning information, panel tuning information include timestamps indicative of the start time and end time of particular media tuning segments played on the media sets of panelists. i.e. determining start time and end time in form of program tuning, Par. 0026, separate panel tuning segments are not necessarily spaced in time. For example, the second media set 306 includes two panel tuning segments 324, 326 in which the second panel tuning segment 326 immediately follows the first panel tuning segment 324 indicating the audience member changed the channel or station to which the RPD device 114 was tuned, i.e. two different tuning segments first 324 and second 326 = first and second start time and end time. Par. 0066, RPD tuning information includes start times and end times for different tuning segments. Accordingly, the example RPD tuning information analyzer 214 calculates the duration by subtracting the start time from the end time of the particular RPD tuning segment being analyzed);
identifying a second start ping and a second end ping from the plurality of pings based on a second partitioning scheme (Par. 0023, collected audience measurement data includes panel tuning information, panel tuning information include timestamps indicative of the start time and end time of particular media tuning segments played on the media sets of panelists. i.e. determining start time and end time in form of program tuning, Par. 0026, separate panel tuning segments are not necessarily spaced in time. For example, the second media set 306 includes two panel tuning segments 324, 326 in which the second panel tuning segment 326 immediately follows the first panel tuning segment 324 indicating the audience member changed the channel or station to which the RPD device 114 was tuned, i.e. two different tuning segments first 324 and second 326 = first and second start time and end time. Par. 0066, RPD tuning information includes start times and end times for different tuning segments. Accordingly, the example RPD tuning information analyzer 214 calculates the duration by subtracting the start time from the end time of the particular RPD tuning segment being analyzed);
determining a second candidate duration of the single media access session based on a second difference between a third time associated with the second start ping and the fourth time associated with a second end ping
(Par. 0023, collected audience measurement data includes panel tuning information, panel tuning information include timestamps indicative of the start time and end time of particular media tuning segments played on the media sets of panelists. i.e. determining start time and end time in form of program tuning, Par. 0026, separate panel tuning segments are not necessarily spaced in time. For example, the second media set 306 includes two panel tuning segments 324, 326 in which the second panel tuning segment 326 immediately follows the first panel tuning segment 324 indicating the audience member changed the channel or station to which the RPD device 114 was tuned, i.e. two different tuning segments first 324 and second 326 = first and second start time and end time. Par. 0066, RPD tuning information includes start times and end times for different tuning segments. Accordingly, the example RPD tuning information analyzer 214 calculates the duration by subtracting the start time from the end time of the particular RPD tuning segment being analyzed), wherein the plurality of pings are received from a media device associated with a household (Par. 0026, fig. 1, the second media set 306 includes two panel tuning segments 324, 326 in which the second panel tuning segment 326 immediately follows the first panel tuning segment 324 indicating the audience member changed the channel or station to which the RPD device 114 was tuned, Par. 0019, panelist household 110 include an RPD device 112, 114), and wherein the single media access session represents media being accessed through the media device associated with the household (Par. 0026, fig. 1, the second media set 306 includes two panel tuning segments 324, 326 in which the second panel tuning segment 326 immediately follows the first panel tuning segment 324 indicating the audience member changed the channel or station to which the RPD device 114 was tuned, Par. 0019, panelist household 110 include an RPD device 112, 114);
comparing the first candidate duration and the second candidate duration to a demographic model (par. 0037, calculate a correlation (i.e. by comparing) between duration of the panel tuning segments and duration of the corresponding modelled tuning segments, i.e. compare tuning duration of (i.e. segments) with duration of the modelled (i.e. modeled = predefined) tuning segment, par. 0020, the metering device tracks and reports who is being exposed to the media being played so that the media exposure can be associated with particular individuals and their associated demographics previously collected when the household members enrolled as panelists, i.e. session duration statistics associated with household information previously collected associated with device that is providing tuning information); and
selecting at least one of the first candidate duration or the second
candidate duration to represent the single media access session (par. 0020, the metering device also tracks and reports who is being exposed to the media being played so that the media exposure can be associated with particular individuals and their associated with demographics previously collected when the household members enrolled as panelists, i.e. select the one of the media exposure (i.e. one of duration tuned) to associate with household to assign who watched the specific media, (i.e. to the media session of user has watched).
Sullivan does not disclose, wherein the demographics model includes session duration statistics for demographic categories represented in panel data obtained from panel meters;
determining a first performance criterion for the first candidate duration based on a first comparison of the first candidate duration and the demographics model;
determining a second performance criterion for the second candidate duration based on a second comparison of the second candidate duration and the demographics model;
selecting at least one of the first candidate duration or the second candidate duration to represent the single media access session based on the first performance criterion and the second performance criterion; and
wherein a first one of the plurality of pings is identified as the first start ping when payload data from the first one of the plurality of pings indicates a change in session partition based on the first partitioning scheme.
Sullivan2 discloses, wherein the demographics model includes session duration statistics for demographic categories represented in panel data obtained from panel meters (Par. 0039, a television panel database 112 to store panel member information such as demographics (different demographic categories, such as demographic information (e.g., age, gender, income, etc.) as disclosed in par. 0033), media preferences and/or other personal or non-personal information suitable for describing characteristics, records panelist measurement events (e.g., impressions) against different television media to which the television audience member 110a are exposed in the example television panel database 112, i.e. creating demographics model (here model being read as collection of demographic data of panelist and recorded impressions (i.e. viewing session) Par. 0077, the example matching engine 130 includes the example event matcher 225 to identity matches between panelist measurement events and subscriber measurement events. For example, the event matcher 225 compares the panelist measurement events and the subscriber measurement events included in the translated data database 220 to determine which measurement events are associated with the same viewing sessions);
determining a first performance criterion for the first candidate duration based on a first comparison of the first candidate duration and the demographics model (Par. 0034 discloses matching between media viewing activity of media service subscriber (i.e. non panelist) and Panelist data having demographic data. disclosed examples can fuse the activities (e.g., media viewing behaviors) of subscriber “001” with the attributes (e.g., demographic information) associated with the panelist “XYZ, male age 25-34, i.e. identifying the demographic identify of the viewing session viewed by subscriber by matching viewing sessions. Par. 0081-0082, identifying matching events (e.g., events corresponding to the same viewing session) event matcher 225 includes the example candidate identifier 240 to identify candidate matches that may be used to map (e.g., link) a panelist identifier to a subscriber identifier. The example candidate identifier 240 applies events from the non-selected matrix (e.g., the matrix associated with the smaller number of measurement events (e.g., the panelist matrix (M.sub.panelist))) to the k-d tree to identify events that are within a threshold distance (distance.sub.T) of each other, if the example candidate identifier 240 determines that the calculated distance (distance) satisfies a distance threshold (distance.sub.T) (e.g., is less than or equal to the distance threshold), the candidate identifier 240 identifies the two events as a candidate match, i.e. performance criterion = performance of matching viewing session duration of panelist to subscriber session duration that satisfies a threshold. Specification of instant application par. 0018 discloses similar definition of performance criteria, “the performance criterion may be a percentage of similarity between the viewing session from the session partitioner 200 and the viewing session from the demographics model.”); determining a second performance criterion for the second candidate duration based on a second comparison of the second candidate duration and the demographics model (Par. 0088-0090 discloses different (i.e. first, second, third) viewing session matching to determine the match between session, which identifies the performance of matching between viewing sessions of panelist to subscriber).
selecting at least one of the first candidate duration or the second candidate duration to represent the single media access session based on the first performance criterion and the second performance criterion (Par. 0088-0090, performance of different candidate sessions matched between subscriber and panelist identifies specific identity of panelist that matched with viewing session of subscriber that represents the viewing session, i.e. what is the demographic identify of viewing session as disclosed in example in par. 0034, examples can fuse the activities (e.g., media viewing behaviors) of subscriber “001” with the attributes (e.g., demographic information) associated with the panelist “XYZ, male age 25-34).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Sullivan, by teachings of comparing the first candidate duration and the second candidate duration to a demographics model, wherein the demographics model includes session duration statistics for demographic categories represented in panel data obtained from panel meters, determining a first performance criterion for the first candidate duration based on a first comparison of the first candidate duration and the demographics model, determining a second performance criterion for the second candidate duration based on a second comparison of the second candidate duration and the demographics model, selecting at least one of the first candidate duration or the second candidate duration to represent the single media access session based on the first performance criterion and the second performance criterion, as taught by Sullivan2, to determine the demographic composition of the audience that is important to advertisers and broadcasters for placement of advertisements and generating ratings for the media content, as disclosed in Sullivan2, par. 0003.
Sullivan in view of Sullivan2 does not discloses, wherein a first one of the plurality of pings is identified as the first start ping when payload data from the first one of the plurality of pings indicates a change in session partition based on the first partitioning scheme.
Asman discloses, wherein a first one of the plurality of pings is identified as the first start ping when payload data from the first one of the plurality of pings indicates a change in session partition based on the first partitioning scheme (col. 5, line 63-67, col. 6, line 1-4, each time the client device begins playing may be considered the beginning of a new session (i.e. first ping data), session may begin (i.e. first ping data) when the user selects the channel, such that when user switches from a first channel to a second channel, a new session begins, i.e. start of new session data indicates a change in channel or change or partition, here each duration of channel tunnel during = partition of session)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Sullivan in view of Sullivan2, by teachings of a first one of the plurality of pings is identified as the first start ping when payload data from the first one of the plurality of pings indicates a change in session partition, as taught by Asman to learn about user preferences and reactions to different types of content based on user session data, as disclosed in Asman, col. 10, line 30-37.
Regarding claim 2, The system of claim 1,
Sullivan further discloses, wherein the first partitioning scheme is based
on genre information included in payload data of the plurality of pings, and the
second partitioning scheme is based on media name information included in
the payload data of the plurality of pings (par. 0023, The panel tuning information may include an indication of the media played, the media may be uniquely identified, par. 0024, tuning information includes a media identifier such as station ID, i.e. collected tuning information (i.e. considered as ping from panelist household device, ping = sending information) includes media name information such as station ID or media identifier. Par. 0035, panel tuning information grouped based on station, i.e. partitioned based on received station information as part of from which media was accessed. panel tuning segment is grouped (i.e. partitioned) based on genre of the media, i.e. genre information was received as part of tuning information).
Regarding claim 6, The system of claim 1,
Sullivan further discloses, wherein the operation further comprise:
determining the first candidate duration of the session and the second candidate duration of the session in parallel (par. 0025, fig. 3, tuning information from multiple datasets of media being played in different household is being collected, each data set for example 304 and 306 each has tuning segments 320, 322 as well as 326 and 324, i.e. as shown in fig. 2 each set can have tuning duration in parallel. Dataset 304 has tuning duration 320 at the same time dataset 306 has tuning duration around the time of tuning duration 320 of dataset 304).
Regarding claim 10, Sullivan in view of Sullivan2 in further view of Asman meets claim limitation as set forth in claim 1, respectively, Sullivan further discloses, at least one non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause at least one processor to at least (see par. 0047, program may be embodied in software stored on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, executed by processor).
Regarding claims 11, Sullivan meets the claim limitations as set forth in claim 2.
Regarding claim 17, Sullivan in view of Sullivan2 in further view of Asman meets claim limitation as set forth in claim 1, respectively, Sullivan further discloses, A method comprising: determining, by executing an instruction with at least one processor (see par. 0047, program may be embodied in software stored on computer readable storage medium, executed by processor).
Regarding claim 21, The system of claim 1,
Sullivan further discloses, wherein the media device comprises one or more of a television or a set-top box (Par. 0013, an RPD device refers to any type of device (e.g., a STB or other similar device)).
Regarding claims 22, Sullivan meets the claim limitations as set forth in claim 21.
Claims 3, 5, 12, 14, 18, 20 and 25-27 are rejected under U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sullivan et al. (US 20180152762) in view of Sullivan et al. (US 20170188067), hereinafter as Sulliva2, in further view of Asman et al. (US 10609109), in further view of Burg et al. (US 20190045264).
Regarding claim 3, The system of claim 1,
Sullivan in view of Sullivan2 in further view of Asman does not disclose, wherein the operation further comprises:
determining that a threshold based on an average of durations of reference sessions represented in panel data obtained from panel meters.
Burg discloses, wherein the operation further comprises:
determining that a threshold based on an average of durations of reference sessions represented in panel data obtained from panel meters (par. 0032-033, calculating program affinity based on average viewing duration of each viewing event, viewing below a threshold duration indicating a brief period of viewing).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Sullivan in view of Sullivan2 in further view of Asman, by teachings of determine a threshold based on an average of durations of reference sessions represented in panel data obtained from panel meters, as taught by Burg, to determine how user is consuming content based on user behavior model based on average viewing pattern, as disclosed in Burg, 0001.
Regarding claim 5, The system of claim 3,
Sullivan in view of Sullivan2 in further view of Asman in further view of Burg further discloses, wherein the operation further comprises:
determining that a first one of the plurality of pings is the second start ping when at least one of (i) the first one of the plurality of pings is an initial ping from a device associated with the plurality of pings, (ii) payload data from the first
one of the plurality of pings indicates a change in session partition based on
the second partitioning scheme (Sullivan par. 0015, each time a station or channel is changed on the RPD device corresponds to the ending of one RPD tuning segment and the beginning of a second different RPD tuning segment, i.e. when session channel (i.e. first grouping or partitioning based on channel ID) is changed the next ping or tuning information is a start of new tuning segment which is start of second tuning duration or a second start ping), or (iii) a time difference between the first one
of the plurality of pings and a preceding one of the plurality of pings satisfies
the threshold.
Regarding claims 12 and 14, Sullivan in view of Sullivan2 in further view of Asman in further view of Burg meets the claim limitations as set forth in claims 3 and 5.
Regarding claims 18 and 20, Sullivan in view of Sullivan2 in further view of Asman in further view of Burg meets the claim limitations as set forth in claims 3 and 5.
Regarding claim 25, The system of claim 1,
Sullivan in view of Sullivan2 in further view of Asman does not disclose, wherein identifying the first start ping and the first end ping from the plurality of pings based on the first partitioning scheme comprises:
identifying the first start ping and the first end ping from the plurality of pings based on a combination of the first partitioning scheme and the second partitioning scheme.
Burg discloses, wherein identifying the first start ping and the first end ping from the plurality of pings based on the first partitioning scheme comprises:
identifying the first start ping and the first end ping from the plurality of pings based on a combination of the first partitioning scheme and the second partitioning scheme (Par. 0029, quantify how much content consumers like content items in one or more genres based on the content consumers' behaviors (e.g., actions), also called an affinity towards the genre. The behaviors utilized in the present disclosure relate not just to behaviors that indicate whether a user has an affinity for a genre (e.g., a user watches a number of football games exceeding a threshold amount), but how the user consumes content items within the genre (e.g., while a user is watching a football game, the user changes the channel to one or more other football games), i.e. combination of behavior observation by genre (i.e. first partition scheme) and by channel (i.e. second partition scheme)> par. 0032, program affinity is determined based on a duration of the particular content viewed, (e.g., the time duration between a start time and an end time of the content item) to calculate the program affinity. Par. 005, fig. 3C, portions 326 correspond to the duration between the start of a first viewing event and the end of a last viewing event for the respective timeline entry).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Sullivan in view of Sullivan2 in further view of Asman, by teachings of identifying the first start ping and the first end ping from the plurality of pings based on a combination of the first partitioning scheme and the second partitioning scheme, as taught by Burg, to determine behavior of user consuming content based different genre, as disclosed in Burg, 0001.
Regarding claim 26 and 27, Sullivan in view of Sullivan2 in further view of Asman in further view of Burg meets the claim limitations as set forth in claims 25.
Conclusion
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/A.D./Examiner, Art Unit 2422
/JOHN W MILLER/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2422