DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
This action is responsive to the RCE filed on 6/22/26.
Claim(s) 1-20 is/are presented for examination.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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
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Claim(s) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rathnam, U.S. Pub/Patent No. 2022/0286310 A1 in view of Xu, US 2023/0084635 Al, and further in view of Skarbovsky US 2018/0143974 A1.
As to claim 1, Rathnam teaches a method comprising:
joining, by the virtual conference provider, a plurality of participants to the virtual conference (Rathnam, page 4, paragraph 49; i.e., [0049] The system can start up a plurality of transcription engines 113A-113D and translation engines 112A-112D upon demand by the participants as they join a meeting);
generating, using a machine learning ("ML") model, a transcript of the virtual conference based on audio streams exchanged between the plurality of participants and the list of words associated with the scheduled virtual conference (Rathnam, page 3, paragraph 31-34; page 6, paragraph 60-63; i.e., [0031] A glossary of terms can be developed during a session or after a session. The glossary can draw upon a previously created glossary of terms. The system can adaptively change a glossary during a session; [0033] Transcripts are created and can be continuously refined during the session. [0034] In an embodiment, a first transcript of a conference can use a glossary appropriate for internal use within an organization, and a second transcript of the same conference can use a general glossary more suited for public viewers of the transcript).
But Rathnam failed to teach the claim limitation wherein receiving, by a virtual conference provider, a list of words from an entity, the list of words comprising a plurality of words and metadata corresponding to the plurality of words, the metadata identifying identifies one or more contexts; scheduling, by the virtual conference provider, a virtual conference; determining, by the virtual conference provider, that a context of the one or more context of the list of words is associated with the scheduled virtual conference based on the metadata; associating the list of words with the scheduled virtual conference based on the determined association; after associating the list of words with the scheduled virtual conference, establishing, by the virtual conference provider, the scheduled virtual conference.
However, Xu teaches the limitation wherein scheduling, by the virtual conference provider, a virtual conference (Xu, page 11, paragraph 100; i.e., [0100] Turning to the client 501, meeting graph agent 506 can include various UI controls 510 that enable a user to readily access meeting materials and other meeting information for meetings the user was invited to ( e.g., meetings that appear in the user's calendar application 530)); determining, by the virtual conference provider, that a context of the one or more context of the list of words is associated with the scheduled virtual conference based on the metadata (Xu, page 15, paragraph 138; i.e., [0138] A sample vector can be generated by first extracting a list of words from the scheduled meeting information (e.g., meeting title or description) for one of the other meetings. To extract the words from scheduled meeting information for one of the other meetings, the scheduled meeting information can be split on words boundaries and then stop words may be filtered out); associating the list of words with the scheduled virtual conference based on the determined association (Xu, page 14, paragraph 133; i.e., [0133] At block 904, scheduled meeting information can be retrieved for the subject meeting and one or more keywords may be extracted therefrom. The scheduled meeting information, which can include the meeting's title and description, can be retrieved structured database 524 or from calendaring service 518); after associating the list of words with the scheduled virtual conference, establishing, by the virtual conference provider, the scheduled virtual (Xu, page 11, paragraph 100; i.e., [0100] enable a user to readily access meeting materials and other meeting information for meetings the user was invited to ( e.g., meetings that appear in the user's calendar application 530). generating visual meeting graphs for particular meetings. UI controls 510 may also include controls used to render visual meeting graphs based on meeting graph data returned from meeting graph service 508).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to modify Rathnam to substitute predefined set of attributes from Xu for meeting service from Rathnam to attend stand-alone
meetings to discuss time-sensitive matters (Xu, page 1, paragraph 2).
However, Skarbovsky teaches the limitation wherein receiving, by a virtual conference provider, a list of words from an entity, the list of words comprising a plurality of words and metadata corresponding to the plurality of words, the metadata identifying identifies one or more contexts (Skarbovsky, page 3, paragraph 28; page 4, paragraph 35-37; i.e., [0028] The contextual dictionary 130 provides a list of
words and the phonemes from which those words are comprised to the speech to text engine 120 to match to the speech data of the audiovisual data. languages to use in creating the transcript by specifying an associated speech to text engines 120 and contextual dictionary; [0037] In another example, where the event to be transcribed is a previously recorded portion of a meeting, a broadcast title and metadata to identify contextual information, such as, for example, character names, vocabulary lists. a character named "Lor" is identified as contextual data for the event so that the speech to text engine 120).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to modify Rathnam to substitute graph database from Skarbovsky for visual from Rathnam to improved and made more efficient through prioritizing various languages in which to transcribe a content item (Skarbovsky, page 1, paragraph 7).
As to claim 2, Rathnam-Xu-Skarbovsky teaches the method as recited in claim 1, further comprising, during the virtual conference, receiving one or more additional words, and wherein generating the transcript is further based on the one or more additional words (Rathnam, page 5, paragraph 56; i.e., [0056] The models can be built and adjusted on a sentence by sentence basis. The models can dynamically choose which translation and transcription engines to use in order to support the meeting and the participants).
As to claim 3, Rathnam-Xu-Skarbovsky teaches the method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:
translating, using a second ML model, the transcript from a source language to a target language (Rathnam, page 4, paragraph 51; i.e., [0051] obtain transcription and translation on demand in his or her desired language. The system 100 does not need advanced knowledge of the language spoken or the user desired languages into which the translation is to occur); and
generating a translated transcript (Rathnam, page 2, paragraph 20-22; i.e., [0020] As a participant hears the speaker's words in the language of the participant's choice, text of the spoken content is displayed on the participant's viewing screen in the language of the participant's choice. In an embodiment, the text can be simultaneously displayed for the participant in both the speaker's own language and in the language of the participant's choice).
As to claim 4, Rathnam-Xu-Skarbovsky teaches the method as recited in claim 3, wherein providing the translated transcript to a first participant in the virtual conference in real-time (Rathnam, page 2, paragraph 25; i.e., [0025] Attendees select their desired language to read text and listen to audio. Listening attendees receive translated text and translation audio of the speech as well as transcript access support services in near real time in their own selected language).
As to claim 5, Rathnam-Xu-Skarbovsky teaches the method as recited in claim 1, wherein determining that the entity or the context is associated with the virtual conference is based on one or more of a participant in the virtual conference, an organization associated with one or more participants in the virtual conference, or an organization associated with the virtual conference (Rathnam, page 3, paragraph 32; i.e., [0032] spoken phrases and passages. These can be created and relied upon in developing context, creating transcripts. Organizations commonly create and use acronyms and other terms to facilitate and expedite internal communications. Glossaries for specific participants, groups).
As to claim 6, Rathnam-Xu-Skarbovsky teaches the method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:
accessing context information associated with the meeting (Rathnam, page 6, paragraph 60-63; i.e., [0060] Glossaries of these terms for specific participants,
groups, and organizations could therefore be built, stored and drawn upon as needed. The system can detect and extract key terms and keywords from spoken content to build and adjust the glossaries; [0061] The glossary can draw upon a previously created glossary of terms. The system can adaptively change a glossary during a session; [0062] incorporate preferred interpretations of some proprietary or unique terms and spoken phrases and passages. These can be created and relied upon in developing context, creating transcripts, and performing translations for various audiences); and
obtaining at least a subset of the list of words from the context information (Rathnam, page 6, paragraph 60-63; i.e., [0061] A glossary of terms can be developed during a session or after a session. The glossary can draw upon a previously created glossary of terms. The system can adaptively change a glossary during a session; [0062] The glossaries 135 and contexts 134 developed can incorporate preferred interpretations of some proprietary or unique terms and spoken phrases and passages. These can be created and relied upon in developing context, creating transcripts, and performing translations for various audiences).
As to claim 7, Rathnam-Xu-Skarbovsky teaches the method as recited in claim 1, wherein the list of words includes a roster of names associated with the virtual conference (Rathnam, page 2, paragraph 25; i.e., [0025] Attendees select their desired language to read text and listen to audio. Listening attendees receive translated text and translation audio of the speech as well as transcript access support services in near real time in their own selected language).
As to claim 8, Rathnam-Xu-Skarbovsky teaches the method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:
receiving a presentation content stream from a first participant of the plurality of participants during the virtual conference (Rathnam, page 4, paragraph 51; i.e., [0051] As a presentation or meeting is progressing, a new participant can join the presentation or meeting in progress and obtain transcription and translation on demand in his or her desired language. The system 100 does not need advanced knowledge of the language spoken or the user desired languages into which the translation is to occur);
recognizing text within the presentation content stream (Rathnam, page 3, paragraph 32; i.e., [0032] The glossary and contexts developed can incorporate preferred interpretations of some proprietary or unique terms and spoken phrases and passages. Organizations commonly create and use acronyms and other terms. Glossaries for specific participants, groups, and organizations); and
adding a subset of the recognized text to the list of words (Rathnam, page 3, paragraph 32; i.e., [0032] The glossary and contexts developed can incorporate preferred interpretations of some proprietary or unique terms and spoken phrases and passages. Organizations commonly create and use acronyms and other terms. Glossaries for specific participants, groups, and organizations could therefore be built, stored and drawn upon as needed).
As to claim 13, Rathnam-Xu-Skarbovsky teaches the system as recited in claim 9, wherein the context is a subject matter associated with the virtual conference (Rathnam, page 3, paragraph 39; i.e., [0039] Actions of establishing and adjusting the context are based on factors comprising at least one of subject matter of the first and second portions, client device requesting translation into the third language, and cultural considerations of users of the at least one client device).
As to claim 18, Rathnam-Xu-Skarbovsky teaches the non-transitory computer-readable medium as recited in claim 15, wherein the list of words comprises a plurality of jargon words (Rathnam, page 3, paragraph 37; i.e., [0037] The application selectively blends translated content provided by the first translation engine with translated content provided by the second translation engine).
Claim(s) 9-12 & 14 is/are directed to a system claims and they do not teach or further define over the limitations recited in claim(s) 1-4 & 8. Therefore, claim(s) 9-12 & 14 is/are also rejected for similar reasons set forth in claim(s) 1-4 & 8.
Claim(s) 15-17, 19 & 20 is/are directed to a system claims and they do not teach or further define over the limitations recited in claim(s) 1-3, 6 & 8. Therefore, claim(s) 15-17, 19 & 20 is/are also rejected for similar reasons set forth in claim(s) 1-3, 6 & 8.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-20 has/have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection. Applicant’s arguments include the failure of previously applied art to expressly disclose “receiving, by a virtual conference provider, a list of words from an entity, the list of words comprising a plurality of words and metadata corresponding to the plurality of words, the metadata identifying identifies one or more contexts” (see Applicant’s response, 6/22/26, page 7-8). It is evident from the detailed mappings found in the above rejection(s) that Skarbovsky disclosed this functionality (see Skarbovsky, page 3, paragraph 28; page 4, paragraph 35-37). Further, it is clear from the numerous teachings (previously and currently cited) that the provision for “receiving, by a virtual conference provider, a list of words from an entity, the list of words comprising a plurality of words and metadata corresponding to the plurality of words, the metadata identifying identifies one or more contexts” was widely implemented in the networking art. Thus, Applicant’s arguments drawn toward distinction of the claimed invention and the prior art teachings on this point are not considered persuasive.
Listing of Relevant Arts
Bonnington, U.S. Patent/Pub. No. US 20230326480 A1 discloses list of words or phrases used during the conference.
Labsky, U.S. Patent/Pub. No. US 20120304057 A1 discloses list of phrases associated with the meeting.
Contact Information
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
THUONG NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-3864. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 9:00-6:00.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Vivek Srivastava can be reached on 571-272-7304. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/THUONG NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2449
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