DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-7, 9-12, 14 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 .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 1/2/2026 has been entered.
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) 1-7, 9-12, 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LePrince et al. (US 2010/0100913) in view of Prodan et al. (US 2011/0302612), and further in view of Kenagy et al. (US 2009/0239514), and further in view of Sato et al. (US 2010/0151782), and further in view of Kushida et al. (US 2007/0174862), and further in view of Kim (US 2013/0276005).
Claim 1, LePrince teaches a method comprising:
managing access, by an access device, to multimedia contents via a communication network, said contents being stored on the content server (p. 0004), wherein the managing comprises: in the access device:
“detecting a phase of receiving successive selection commands of the plurality of received selection commands (i.e. channel change requests) by the access device (i.e. timing of channel change requests) and in which a spacing between consecutive commands is less than a given time” (i.e. T_tempo) (fig. 1-2; p. 0004-0007);
“for at least one of the transmitted access requests corresponding to the selection commands received during the detected phase, transmitting to the content server the access request for the selected content with an identifier of the selected content” (i.e. channel change information) (p. 0027-0037).
LePrince is not entirely clear in teaching a method comprising:
receiving a plurality of multimedia content selection commands from a control device;
transmitting a respective access request for a selected content via the communication network to the content server for each of the plurality of received selection commands;
“a fast zapping phase”;
“transmitting, a datum informing that the fast zapping phase is detected”;
wherein said datum is configured to trigger, for the selected contents corresponding to the selection commands received during the detected fast zapping phase, called zapping phase selected contents responses from the content server when said zapping phase selected content are available, said responses, respectively including contents other than the zapping phase selected contents comprising information relating to the zapping phase selected contents.
Prodan teaches the specific features of:
receiving a plurality of multimedia content selection commands from a control device (i.e. scrolling through program list) (fig. 3; p. 0080, 0089-0090);
transmitting a respective access request for a selected content via the communication network to the content server for each of the plurality of received selection commands (i.e. request for channel program preview) (fig. 3; p. 0080, 0089-0090).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present invention to have provided preview channel as taught by Prodan to the system of LePrince to allow users to preview channels while scrolling (p. 0080).
Kenagy teaches a method comprising:
“a fast zapping phase” (i.e. detecting channel surfing) (p. 0043).
“wherein said datum is configured to trigger (i.e. detecting channel surfing), for the selected contents corresponding to the selection commands received during the detected fast zapping phase (i.e. during channel surfing), called zapping phase selected contents responses from the content server when said zapping phase selected content are available” (i.e. advertisement) (p. 0043).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present invention to have provided a channel thumbnail as taught by Jeon to the system of LePrince to improve user experience during a channel change delay (p. 0016).
Sato teaches the specific feature of:
“response including a content other than the selected content comprising information relating to the selected content” (p. 0007, 0012).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present invention to have provided auxiliary content as taught by Sato to the system of LePrince to provide related broadcast content (p. 0012).
Kushida teaches the specific feature of:
“transmitting, a datum (i.e. user changing chjannel at high speed detection inforamtion) informing that the fast zapping phase is detected” (i.e. user searching for content) (p. 0160-0164).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present invention to have provided fast channel change detection as taught by Kushida to the system of LePrince to update channel selection process (p. 0162).
Kim teaches the specific feature of:
“said responses (i.e. zapping advertisements), respectively including contents other than the zapping phase selected contents (i.e. additional information) comprising information relating to the zapping phase selected contents” (figs. 7-9; p. 0083-0095).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present invention to have provided additional information during zapping as taught by Kim to the system of LePrince to provide more information to the user of the advertisements (p. 0095).
Claim 4, LePrince teaches the method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the spacing between consecutive selection commands concerns spacing between a current selection command and a selection command received subsequently (i.e. T_tempo describes the timeout spacing) (p. 0004-0007).
Claim 5, LePrince teaches the method as claimed in claim 4, further comprising, for each selection command received, triggering a time delay (i.e. T_tempo), and transmitting the corresponding access request at the end of the time delay if no selection command is received during this time delay (p. 0004-0007).
Claim 6, 11, LePrince teaches the management method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the spacing between consecutive selection commands relates to spacing between a current command and a command previously received (i.e. timeout and T_tempo) (p. 0004-0007).
Claim 7 is analyzed and interpreted as an apparatus of claim 1.
Claim 9 recites “a non-transitory computer-readable data medium on which is astored at least one series of program code instructions for executing a method of managing access when the instructions are executed by a processor” to perform the steps of claim 1.
LePrince inherently teaches “a non-transitory computer-readable data medium on which is astored at least one series of program code instructions for executing a method of managing access when the instructions are executed by a processor” to perform the steps of claim 1.
Claim 10 is analyzed and interpreted with respect to claim 1. Claim 10 additionally recites a “content server”. LePrince inherently teaches a “content server” within a IP television system.
Claim 12 is analyzed and interpreted with respect to claim 1. Claim 10 additionally recites a “content server”. LePrince inherently teaches a “content server” within a IP television system.
Claim 14 recites “a non-transitory computer-readable data medium on which is stored at least one series of program code instructions for executing a method of managing access when the instructions are executed by a processor” to perform the steps of claim 10.
LePrince inherently teaches “a non-transitory computer-readable data medium on which is stored at least one series of program code instructions for executing a method of managing access when the instructions are executed by a processor” to perform the steps of claim 10.
Claim(s) 2-3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LePrince et al. (US 2010/0100913) in view of Prodan et al. (US 2011/0302612), and further in view of Kenagy et al. (US 2009/0239514), and further in view of Sato et al. (US 2010/0151782), and further in view of Kushida et al. (US 2007/0174862), and further in view of Kim (US 2013/0276005), and further in view of Ohta (US 2007/0188655).
Claim 2, LePrince is silent regarding the method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said at least one other content also includes informative data relating to contents other than the selected content.
Ohta teaches the method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said at least one other content also includes informative data (i.e. relating to contents other than the selected content (fig 8; p. 0036).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present invention to have provided a channel change menu as taught by Ohta to the system of LePrince to allow for controlling channel selection (p. 0039).
Claim 3, LePrince is silent regarding the method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the informative data relating to contents other than the selected content target informative data relating to at least one content adjacent to the selected content.
Ohta teaches the method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the informative data relating to contents other than the selected content target informative data relating to at least one content adjacent to the selected content (i.e. according to sub-menu) (fig 8; p. 0036).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the present invention to have provided a channel change menu as taught by Ohta to the system of LePrince to allow for controlling channel selection (p. 0039).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-7, 9-12, 14 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 1-7, 9-12, 14 are rejected.
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 1:00PM-9:00PM.
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MUSHFIKH I. ALAM
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2426
/MUSHFIKH I ALAM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2426 1/22/2026