DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1 – 5, 7 – 12, 14 – 18 and 20 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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 04 May 2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
With regard to the Final Office Action from 02 February 2026, the Applicant has filed a response on 04 May 2026.
Claims 6, 13 and 19 have been cancelled.
Response to Arguments
With regard to the 35 U.S.C. 101 rejection given to the claims for being directed to a judicial exception without significantly more, the Applicant has amended the independent claims. The Applicant simply mentions that (Remarks: page 9) the claims as amended, are directed to statutory subject matter. The Examiner however disagrees. As currently presented, taking claim 1 for example, a human may identify a media item on a content sharing platform, choose a number of comments from the comment section of the media item based on impressions related to a number of users that have been presented with the comments, determine several comment scores for each of the chosen comments, such that the comment scores refer to different types of comment scores, and the different comment scores referring to comment attributes. The human may then determine one or more comment section scores, such that each comment section score is based on comment scores as determined by a same type of comment score and also based on a number of impressions associated with each comment of the chosen comments. The human may then apply the at least one comment section score to be able to determine one or more media attributes, such that the one or more media attributes are then associated with the media item. This determined media item attribute may then be used as an indication of if a user engagement ranking of the media item should be changed.
These are all actions that, as provided above, can be performed in the human mind. The Examiner would, based on these, maintain the 35 U.S.C. 101 rejection.
The Applicant argues against the Examiner’s 35 U.S.C. 103 rejection. The Applicant has amended the independent claim, incorporating subject matter obtained from cancelled claims 6, 13 and 19. First, the Applicant disagrees with the Examiner’s use of the TERAN et at. reference (Remarks: page 10 par 4 – page 11 par 1). The Examiner acquiesces and indicates here that the applicable limitation (selecting, by the hardware processor, a predefined number of comments from a plurality of comments in a comment section presented with the media item based on a number of impressions …) would now be addressed by a new reference.
The Applicant goes on to address the Ben-Itzhak reference (Remarks: page 11 par 2), indicating that this reference does not address ‘determining a comment section score … based on a number of impressions associated with each comment’ but is instead about ‘determining metrics for the content item as a whole.’ For the sake of moving the application forward, the Examiner acquiesces to this argument from the Applicant, and indicates that this will be further addressed in the rejection below.
With regard to the current amendment being presented in the independent claims, the Examiner will address these in the respective rejection section.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1 – 5, 7 – 12, 14 – 18 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception without significantly more.
Independent claims 1, 9 and 16 recite the limitations of identifying a media item of a content sharing platform, from a plurality of comments in a comment section for the media item, selecting a predefined number comments based on a number of impressions associated with each comment of the plurality of comments, such that that the number of impressions associated with each comment corresponds to a number of users that have been presented with a comment during a particular time period, determining a plurality of comment scores for each of the comments in the predefined number of comments, the different comment scores corresponding to different comment score types, the comment scores being indicative of comment attributes associated with the respective comment, determining a comment section score for the media item such that each comment section is based on comment scores of a same comment score type for individual comments in the predefined number of comments, and also based on a number of impressions associated with each comment of the predefined number of comments, determining one or more media item attributes of the media item based on the comment section score, and finally associating the media item with the one or more attributes which indicate if a user engagement ranking of the media item should be adjusted.
Nothing in the claims preclude the claims from being performed in the human mind. The entire process involves data gathering and data analysis. The process can be conducted as having a human who observes a post on a social website/application or even a printed publication which users can interact with, the human selects a particular number of comments, the particular number being based on a number of impressions associated with each comment, the impressions being such as likes, dislikes, thumbs up/down, up/down votes, or other reactions that would normally be attributed to comments, this number of impressions corresponding to a number of users who have been presented with a respective comment whereby the human was able to measure the users’ interactions with, during a particular period of time, the human then assigns/calculates several comment scores for each of the selected comments within the particular number of comments, wherein there would be an individual comment score for each comment based on a comment score type, the human then applies comment scores of a same comment score type within the particular number of comments and the number of impressions on each comment to determine at least one comment section score for the media item, the human uses the at least one comment section score to determine media attributes of the media item, and finally associates the media item with the one or more media item attributes, in order to decide on if a user engagement ranking of the social media post should be adjusted. The claims hereby recite a mental process.
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application as the claims simple teach of gathering data through the identification of the media item and the identification of a subset of comments, and analysing data through associating scores to the comments, a score to the comment section, attribute determination, attribute association with the media item and the decision made regarding if a ranking should be adjusted. The mentioned processing device, hardware processor and memory device are recited in generic terms.
The invention is not tied to any particular defining structure and simply provides instructions to apply the judicial exception. The technique can be performed by a combination of generic computer system, which would be presented as a tool to implement the abstract idea (classifiable as automation of the mental process steps). The Specification in [0035] provides a platform performing the technique being housed on computer, being suitable to read upon the system required to perform the functions of the claims. The recited memory device and processing device are recited in such a way that they serve as additional elements utilised for performing the abstract idea but are not yet sufficient to amount to significantly more than the mentioned judicial exception. This judicial exception is recited at a high level of generality that it amounts to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic computer. The provided hardware processor is simply provided as a tool used to implement the abstract idea, thereby just being a tool of implementation. The claims do not provide any additional detail. The claims therefore do not include additional elements that would be sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the invention is not tied to a practical application. The claims provide techniques that amount to no more than mere instructions that apply the judicial exception which can be performed by a generic device. Merely mentioning the memory device, processing device and hardware processor amounts to no more than general-purpose hardware used as tools to implement the abstract idea and does not provide any particular application other than applying it for the purpose of implementing a judicial exception. Mere instructions to apply an exception using a generic device cannot provide an inventive concept. Claims 1, 9, and 16 are not eligible.
Claims 2, 10 and 17 provide teaching for determining the one or more media attributes of the media item based on whether the comment section score satisfies one or more criteria that correspond to the media item attributes. A human may make an observation of how the determine combined score relates to attributes of the social media post, in order to assign particular attributes to the social media post. This does not integrate any practical application nor does it provide any additional element sufficient to amount to more than the mentioned judicial exception.
Claims 3, 11 and 18 provide teaching for the determination of the comment section score based on determining weights for the comment scores regarding one or more factors, applying the weights to comment scores of the predefined number of comments, and determining the comment section score based on an average of the weighted comment scores of the predefined number of comments. A human could determine weights for the comment scores through reading the comments and assigning certain factors to them, and then perform a mathematical weighted averaging of the all scores of all the selected comments. This does not integrate any practical application nor does it provide any additional element sufficient to amount to more than the mentioned judicial exception.
Claims 4 and 12 provide teaching for the factor being considered to be a ratio of a number of impressions a respective comment has, to the total number of impressions the entire predefined number of comments has, all being received within a time period. A human may gather all such impressions for the selected comments and mathematically compute the required ratio. This does not integrate any practical application nor does it provide any additional element sufficient to amount to more than the mentioned judicial exception.
Claim 5 provides teaching for the factor being considered to be a ratio of a number of likes a respective comment has, to the total number of likes the entire predefined number of comments has, all being received within a time period. A human may gather all such individual ‘likes’ for the selected comments and mathematically compute the required ratio. This does not integrate any practical application nor does it provide any additional element sufficient to amount to more than the mentioned judicial exception.
Claims 7, 14 and 20 provide teaching for various forms which the media item attribute could take, such as a user level engagement attribute, a comment section satisfaction attribute, a comment section sentiment attribute, a comment section emotion attribute, a comment section content quality attribute, a comment section subscriber engagement attribute, or a comment section creator engagement attribute, these just serving as additional elements which the system is supposed to particularly search for. A human could visually and mentally compute these attributes. This does not integrate any practical application nor does it provide any additional element sufficient to amount to more than the mentioned judicial exception.
Claims 8 and 15 provide the predefined number of comments being selected based on a number of likes each of the plurality of comments has within a first time period or a number of impressions each of the plurality of comments received within a second time period. These claims simply set boundaries for the information that is to be collected. A human could work within boundaries of a number of likes/impressions a comment receives, as well a work within aa time frame for receiving such likes/impressions. This does not integrate any practical application nor does it provide any additional element sufficient to amount to more than the mentioned judicial exception.
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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, 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, 3, 4, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kuznetsov (US 2019/0155832 A1) in view of Ball et al. (US 2017/0142044 A1: hereafter — Ball) further in view of Ben-Itzhak (US 2020/0111130 A1).
For claim 1, Kuznetzov discloses a method comprising:
identifying, by a hardware processor of a content sharing platform, a media item of the content sharing platform (Kuznetsov: [0109] — a processor (suitable for performing the claimed steps); Fig. 2, [0030] – [0031] — displaying an item of media content on a YouTube platform (which is a content sharing platform));
selecting, by the hardware processor, a predefined number of comments from a plurality of comments in a comment section presented with the media item [[based on a number of impressions associated with each comment of the plurality of comments, wherein the number of impressions associated with each comment corresponds to a number of users that have been presented with a respective comment during a particular time interval]] (Kuznetsov: [0006], [0101] — identifying a set of comments associated with the item of media content; Fig. 2, [0031] — comments, 221, 222, 223, 224 being indicative of a comment section);
determining, by the hardware processor, a plurality of comment scores for each comment in the predefined number of comments, wherein the plurality of comment scores pertain to a plurality of different comment score types, and wherein the plurality of comment scores indicate comment attributes associated with a respective comment in the predefined number of comments (Kuznetsov: [0067] — the sentiment profile engine generates individual sentiment scores for the comments; [0079] — computing aggregate sentiment scores for the comments, whereby the aggregate sentiment scores are expressed as a sentiment profile such as ({scary, I}, {boring, O}, {informative, O}, {cute, O}, {dramatic, I}, {heartwarming, 0}, {wacky, I}, {controversial, I}) (which indicate the plurality of comment scores attributed to the comments, one score for each comment score type); [0006] — each sentiment score being associated with each comment; [0068] — each individual sentiment score representing a likelihood that a type of sentiment is expressed in a comment; [0073] — these sentiment scores are indicative of whether types of sentiments are expressed in comments (indicating the presence of several scores for each comment, a particular sentiment score being the comment score here representing the attributes of the comment));
determining, by the hardware processor, at least one comment section score for the media item, wherein each of the at least one comment section score is based on comment scores of a same comment score type for individual comments in the predefined number subset of comments, [[and a number of impressions associated with each comment of the predefined number of comments]] (Kuznetsov: [0067] — the sentiment profile engine that aggregates the individual comment score for all the comments; [0079] — computing aggregate sentiment scores for the comments, whereby the aggregate sentiment scores are expressed as a sentiment profile such as ({scary, I}, {boring, O}, {informative, O}, {cute, O}, {dramatic, I}, {heartwarming, 0}, {wacky, I}, {controversial, I}) (which indicate the plurality of comment scores attributed to the comments, one score for each comment score type), to then indicate a sentiment score of 90% informative to be associated with the comment section as well as a comment score of 5 for happy representing the comment section (these being comment section score based on individual comments that are representative of a same comment score type); [0006] — each sentiment score being associated with each comment; [0068] — each individual sentiment score representing a likelihood that a type of sentiment is expressed in a comment; [0073] — these sentiment scores are indicative of whether types of sentiments are expressed in comments (indicating the presence of several scores for each comment, a particular sentiment score being the comment score here representing the attributes of the comment));
determining, by the hardware processor, one or more media item attributes of the media item based on the at least one comment section score (Kuznetsov: [0067] — a sentiment as the attribute of the item of media content based on the aggregated individual comment scores); and
associating, by the hardware processor, the media item with the one or more media item attributes, wherein the one or more media item attributes are indicative of whether a [[user engagement]] ranking of the media item is to be adjusted (Kuznetsov: [0082]–[0083] — associating the sentiment with the item of media content; [0084] — ‘In some embodiments, a content sentiment score showing a high likelihood of a type of sentiment based on features extracted from the item of media content may be further used to supplement or strengthen an aggregate sentiment score based on comments associated with the item of media content’ (showing that a high likelihood of a sentiment attribute being used to strengthen an aggregate sentiment score based on the comments of the media item, thus being used to strengthen or increase the ranking of the association of the media item with the sentiment attribute)).
The reference of Kuznetsov provides teaching for the selection of a set of comments, but differs from the claimed invention in that the claimed invention now further provides teaching for the selection of a subset of comments based on a number of impressions associated with each comment as well as a number of users presented with the comments within a particular time period. This isn’t new to the art as the reference of Ball is seen to teach as:
selecting, by the hardware processor, a predefined number of comments from a plurality of comments in a comment section presented with the media item based on a number of impressions associated with each comment of the plurality of comments, wherein the number of impressions associated with each comment corresponds to a number of users that have been presented with a respective comment during a particular time interval (Ball: [0098] — a social networking system may present ordered comments displayed according to FIGs. 3A–C, while filtering out certain other comments (teaching of selection of a comments that would fit the display as a predetermined number of comments that would fit for display); [0010] — comments being ranked and filtered (selection of a subset of comments) based on impressions, with users’ reactions to viewing the comment (indicative of a number of users having been presented with the comments); [0191] — filtering and ranking comments based on a sum of time spent by all users who have interacted with the comment as determined within a certain time period);
determining, by the hardware processor, at least one comment section score for the media item, wherein each of the at least one comment section score is based on comment scores of a same comment score type for individual comments in the predefined number subset of comments, and a number of impressions associated with each comment of the predefined number of comments (Ball: [0164] — the score for each comment being based on a qualitative analysis of each of the one or more impressions related to the comment).
Hence, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, one of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to incorporate the known teaching of Ball which makes a selection of a subset of comments based on a number of impressions associated with each comment as well as a number of users presented with the comments within a particular time period, with the teaching of Kuznetsov which teaches the selection of a set of comments from within a larger collection of comments, to thereby come up with the claimed invention. The combination of both prior art elements would have provided the predictable result of the selection of comments which are deemed to be more applicable to the current user, thereby increasing relevancy of the comments. See KSR Int’l Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 415–421, 82 USPQ2d 1385, 1395-97 (2007).
The combination of Kuznetsov in view of Ball provides teaching for determining a comment section score for a media item based on comment scores of a same comment score type over individual comments so as to be able to indicate whether the ranking of a media item should be adjusted. This differs from the claimed invention in that the claimed invention further teaches that the ranking is particularly a user engagement ranking.
This is however not new to the art as the reference of Ben-Itzhak is introduced to teach this as:
associating, by the hardware processor, the media item with the one or more media item attributes, wherein the one or more media item attributes are indicative of whether a user engagement ranking of the media item is to be adjusted (Ben-Itzhak: [0073] — applying the metrics to rank an item and determine that a user is likely to engage with it (teaching of a user engagement ranking of a media item); [0055] — the content item may include metrics indicative of its relevance, part of the metrics being the number of comments people posted and the sentiment of the comments).
Hence, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, one of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to incorporate the known teaching of Ben-Itzhak which provides media item metrics based on the interactions with comments on the media item, so as to be able to determine that the media item is to be recommended to the user through ranking the user’s likelihood of engaging with it, with the teaching of the combination of Kuznetsov in view of Ball which provides determining a comment section score based on, to thereby come up with the claimed invention. The combination of both prior art elements would have provided the predictable result of applying comments which may have similar sentiments to a current user’s profile to determine if the media item is worth recommending to a user, so that the user gets presented with content the user would likely interact with. See KSR Int’l Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 415–421, 82 USPQ2d 1385, 1395-97 (2007).
For claim 2, claim 1 is incorporated and the combination of Kuznetsov in view of Ball further in view of Ben-Itzhak discloses the method wherein determining the one or more media item attributes of the media item comprises determining whether the at least one comment section score satisfies one or more criteria corresponding to the one or more media item attributes (Kuznetsov: [0098] — ‘the content comment server 104 identifies related items of media content with sentiment similarity scores that are higher than a defined threshold’ (indicating the satisfaction of the one or more criteria for the attribute as obtaining the sentiment similarity score based on being higher than a defined threshold)).
For claim 3, claim 1 is incorporated and combination of Kuznetsov in view of Ball further in view of Ben-Itzhak discloses the method, wherein determining the at least one comment section score based on the comment scores comprises:
determining weights for the comment scores based on one or more factors (Kuznetsov: [0073] — determining weights for individual sentiment scores (of the comments));
applying the weights to the comment scores of the predefined number of comments (Kuznetsov: [0073] — the weights are applied to the comments); and
determining the comment section score based on an average of weighted comment scores of the predefined number of comments (Kuznetsov: [0072] — aggregating the scores by computing an average of the individual sentiment scores).
For claim 4, claim 3 is incorporated and the combination of Kuznetsov in view of Ball further in view of Ben-Itzhak discloses the method, wherein the one or more factors comprise a ratio of a number of impressions a respective comment in the predefined number of comments received within a time period compared to a total number of impressions the predefined number of comments received within the time period (Ball: [0191] — ‘The sum of time spent by all users may then be used as a ranking score for the comment, so that the comment having the highest total time spent by users is ranked higher than all other comments evaluated for the time period’ (indicating a comparison of the impressions as the time spent by interacting with the comment, of one comment to the plurality of other comments, also indicating a ratio)).
For claim 7, claim 1 is incorporated and combination of Kuznetsov in view of Ball further in view of Ben-Itzhak discloses the method, wherein the one or more media item attributes for the media item comprise at least one of a user level engagement attribute, a comment section satisfaction attribute, a comment section sentiment attribute, a comment section emotion attribute, a comment section content quality attribute, a comment section subscriber engagement attribute, or a comment section creator engagement attribute (Kuznetsov: [0067] — the sentiment profile engine generates individual sentiment scores for the comments).
As for claim 9, system claim 9 and method claim 1 are related as system and the method of using same, with each claimed element’s function corresponding to the claimed method step. Kuznetsov in [0108] provides teaching for storage memory and a processor suitable to read upon the limitations of this claims. Accordingly, claim 9 is similarly rejected under the same rationale as applied above with respect to method claim 1.
As for claim 10, system claim 10 and method claim 2 are related as system and the method of using same, with each claimed element’s function corresponding to the claimed method step. Accordingly, claim 10 is similarly rejected under the same rationale as applied above with respect to method claim 2.
As for claim 11, system claim 11 and method claim 3 are related as system and the method of using same, with each claimed element’s function corresponding to the claimed method step. Accordingly, claim 11 is similarly rejected under the same rationale as applied above with respect to method claim 3.
As for claim 12, system claim 12 and method claim 4 are related as system and the method of using same, with each claimed element’s function corresponding to the claimed method step. Accordingly, claim 12 is similarly rejected under the same rationale as applied above with respect to method claim 4.
As for claim 14, system claim 14 and method claim 7 are related as system and the method of using same, with each claimed element’s function corresponding to the claimed method step. Accordingly, claim 14 is similarly rejected under the same rationale as applied above with respect to method claim 7.
As for claim 16, computer program product claim 16 and method claim 1 are related as computer program product storing executable instructions required for performing the claimed method steps on a computer. Kuznetsov in [0109] provides teaching for such non-transitory storage media suitable to read upon the limitations of this claim. Accordingly, claim 16 is similarly rejected under the same rationale as applied above with respect to method claim 1.
As for claim 17, computer program product claim 17 and method claim 2 are related as computer program product storing executable instructions required for performing the claimed method steps on a computer. Accordingly, claim 17 is similarly rejected under the same rationale as applied above with respect to method claim 2.
As for claim 18, computer program product claim 18 and method claim 3 are related as computer program product storing executable instructions required for performing the claimed method steps on a computer. Accordingly, claim 18 is similarly rejected under the same rationale as applied above with respect to method claim 3.
As for claim 20, computer program product claim 20 and method claim 7 are related as computer program product storing executable instructions required for performing the claimed method steps on a computer. Accordingly, claim 20 is similarly rejected under the same rationale as applied above with respect to method claim 7.
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kuznetsov (US 2019/0155832 A1) in view of Ball (US 2017/0142044 A1) further in view of Ben-Itzhak (US 2020/0111130 A1) as applied to claim 3, and further in view of Bist et al. (US 2020/0288206 A1: hereafter — Bist).
For claim 5, claim 3 is incorporated and as applied to claim 4 above, the combination of Kuznetsov in view of Ball further in view of Ben-Itzhak provides teaching for the
method, wherein the one or more factors comprise a ratio of a [[number of likes]] a respective comment in the predefined number of comments received within a time period compared to a [[total number of likes]] the predefined number of comments received within the time period (Ball: [0191] — ‘The sum of time spent by all users may then be used as a ranking score for the comment, so that the comment having the highest total time spent by users is ranked higher than all other comments evaluated for the time period’ (indicating a comparison of the impressions as the time spent by interacting with the comment, of one comment to the plurality of other comments, also indicating a ratio); [0192] — determining a degree of interaction for each impression; [0010] — checking user impressions with user ‘Likes’ also being an impression (showing that the calculation above based on the time spent can also be performed based on the number of ‘Likes’ for a comment); [0124] — logging each interaction which may be a ‘Like’ (linking the ‘likes’ to the interactions)).
The combination of Kuznetsov in view of Ball further in view of Ben-Itzhakin provides teaching for the comparing impressions based on an amount of time spent on a comment to the amount of time spent interacting with the comments within a time period, while also relating the impressions of the interaction to the ‘Likes’. This combination however particularly fails to teach of the ratio involving the ‘Likes’ of the comments. The reference of Bist is introduced to teach this as provided: (Bist: [0189] — an embodiment being the generating of a ratio graph of reactions based on likes).
Hence, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, one of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to combine the known like-ratio teaching of Bist, with the teaching of the combination of Kuznetsov in view of Ball further in view of Ben-Itzhakin which compares impressions based on interaction, providing a ‘Like’ also as an interaction, to thereby come up with the claimed invention. The combination of both prior art elements would have provided the predictable result of determining how much emphasis to place on each individual comment based on the proportion of ‘likes’ the comment gets in relation to other comments. See KSR Int’l Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 415–421, 82 USPQ2d 1385, 1395-97 (2007).
Claims 8 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kuznetsov (US 2019/0155832 A1) in view of Ball (US 2017/0142044 A1) further in view of Ben-Itzhak (US 2020/0111130 A1) as applied to claim 1, and further in view of Dogruöz et al. (US 2017/0300976 A1: hereafter — Dogruoz).
For claim 8, claim 1 is incorporated and the combination of Kuznetsov in view of Ball further in view of Ben-Itzhak discloses
the method, wherein the predefined number of comments is selected based on at least one of a number of likes of each of the plurality of comments within a first time period [[or the number of impressions each of the plurality of comments received within a second time period]] (Ball: [0197] — considering a subset of impressions that occur within a recent period of time).
The combination of Kuznetsov in view of Ball further in view of Ben-Itzhak provides teaching for the selection of a predefined number of comments, these being selected based on a plurality of comments within a first time period.
The combination of Kuznetsov in view of Ball further in view of Ben-Itzhak however differs from the claimed invention in that the claimed invention further teaches the identification of the subset of comments based on a number of likes of each of the plurality of comments.
The reference of Dogruoz is now introduced to teach this as the method, wherein the predefined number of comments is selected based on at least one of a number of likes of each of the plurality of comments [[within a first time period or the number of impressions each of the plurality of comments received within a second time period]] (Dogruoz: [0027] — selection of a subset of comments; [0071] — comment selection based on an associated number of likes).
The combination of Kuznetsov in view of Ball further in view of Ben-Itzhak provides teaching for a selection of a subset of comments, but differs from the claimed invention in that the claimed invention now further provides teaching for the identification of the subset of comments based on a number of likes of each of the plurality of comments. This is however not new to the art as the reference of Dogruoz is seen to teach above.
Hence, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, one of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to combine the known of teaching of Dogruoz which selects a subset of comments based a number of likes, with the teaching of a selection of comments as taught by the combination of Kuznetsov in view of Ball further in view of Ben-Itzhak, to thereby come up with the claimed invention. The combination of both prior art elements would have provided the predictable result of selecting only relatively engaging comments, rather than comments with little to no engagement that may not be reflective of an attribute of the media item. See KSR Int’l Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 415–421, 82 USPQ2d 1385, 1395-97 (2007).
As for claim 15, system claim 15 and method claim 8 are related as system and the method of using same, with each claimed element’s function corresponding to the claimed method step. Accordingly, claim 15 is similarly rejected under the same rationale as applied above with respect to method claim 8.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to Applicant’s disclosure.
BARAJAS GONZALEZ et al. (US 2018/0048615 A1) provides teaching for incrementing the weight of a comment based on its multiple occurrence [0072].
Krishnaswamy et al. (US 2017/0034107 A1) provides teaching for comment selection for selecting the presentation of comments based on relevance scores [0042].
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the Examiner should be directed to OLUWADAMILOLA M. OGUNBIYI whose telephone number is (571)272-4708. The Examiner can normally be reached Monday – Thursday (8:00 AM – 5:30 PM Eastern Standard Time).
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, PARAS D. SHAH can be reached at (571) 270-1650. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/OLUWADAMILOLA M OGUNBIYI/Examiner, Art Unit 2653
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