DETAILED ACTION
This communication is responsive to Amendment filed 12/15/2025.
Claims 1-7, 10, 12 and 14-22 are pending in this application. In the Amendment, claims 1-7, 10, 12, 14-17 and 19-20 are amended, claims 8-9, 11 and 13 are cancelled and claims 21-22 are new. This action is made Final.
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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 12/15/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argued Lerner fails to disclose or mention a presentation control device for controlling a delivery of a presentation to a presentation screen. On the contrary, Lerner describes a social networking application. Additionally, Lerner fails to disclose or mention a presentation control device with a user interface and a separate presentation device for displaying presentation elements. Lerner also fails to disclose or mention a central server coupled to the presentation control device and comprising a cache management engine configured to determine a subset of presentation elements to be selected for rendering. Lerner fails to disclose or mention a communications engine configured to transmit a unique identifier of a currently selected presentation element to a central server via the communications network.
The Examiner respectfully disagrees in response to applicant's arguments against the references individually, one cannot show nonobviousness by attacking references individually where the rejections are based on combinations of references. See In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 208 USPQ 871 (CCPA 1981); In re Merck & Co., 800 F.2d 1091, 231 USPQ 375 (Fed. Cir. 1986). Similar to Salesin, Lerner’s system teaches navigation of page content and therefore deals with related art. Lerner is combined with the system of Salesin and Lieb to teach the cache management engine (Lerner, para.34, adjacent items are cached). Lieb is combined to teach the unique identifier (Lieb, para.54, 71, 82-83, presentation item identifier) while Salesin teaches the other limitations.
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.
Claims 1-4, 6-7, 10, 12, 15-18 and 20-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Salesin et al. (“Salesin”, US 2003/0222890) in view of Lieb et al. (“Lieb”, US 2010/0257456) and further in view of Lerner et al. (“Lerner”, US 2018/0067641).
As per claim 1, Salesin teaches a presentation system comprising:
a presentation device comprising a rendering engine (Salesin, para.39, 65-66, Fig.1, computer 110 controls output to remote devices 180);
a presentation control device for controlling a delivery of a presentation to a presentation screen operated by a presentation device (Salesin, para.39, 65, Fig.1, computer 110 controls output to remote devices 180; presentation delivered to audience’s monitor from presenter’s screen; presentation on separate display from navigation view), the presentation comprising a plurality of presentation elements which are each to be displayed individually in a sequence on the presentation screen (Salesin, para.54, 65, slides of presentation), the presentation control device comprising:
a graphical user interface providing a navigation layer configured to enable a presenter to select a current presentation element to be displayed (Salesin, para.56, 65, 68, Fig.6, navigation view 602), the navigation layer including a representation of each of the presentation elements arranged to show a predetermined default sequence in which each of the presentation elements are to be displayed on the presentation screen (Salesin, Fig.6, thumbnails; para.53, 59, 66, 68, thumbnail of slides in navigation view; active default path of slides displayed), each presentation element having an identifier and each representation being linked to a specific one of the presentation elements using the identifier (Salesin, para.66, implicit that each representation includes an identifier linking it to the slide element), wherein the navigation layer of the graphical user interface comprises a grid-like formation with units of one orthogonal axis of the grid-like formation indicating a different amount of movement along the predetermined default sequence for selecting a current presentation element, to movement along another orthogonal axis (Salesin, Fig.6, para.66-69, active path of slides in center column with navigation downward thru rows of default path; navigation to alternative path thru selection of intersecting/orthogonal path tab in another column); and
a presenter input command receiving engine configured to receive a presenter input command and to operate with the navigation layer to enable selection of a specific presentation element for display during a presentation, wherein navigation layer is configured to enable selection of the current presentation element which changes the predetermined default sequence (Salesin, Fig.6, para.66-69, active path of slides and alternative paths displayed; clicking tabs changes path);
a communications engine for transmitting the identifier of the currently selected presentation element for display on the presentation screen (Salesin, para.66, message sent from adaptable presentation system to presentation software includes identification of slide element to display); and
a central server operatively coupled to the presentation control device via a communications network, wherein the communications engine is configured to transmit the identifier of the currently selected presentation element to the central server via the communications network (Salesin, para.66, message sent from adaptable presentation system to presentation software includes identification of slide element to display; Fig.1, remote device 180 i.e. server connected via network 171, para.40-41).
However, Salesin does not explicitly teach the presentation element having a unique identifier. Lieb teaches a system for controlling a presentation wherein the presentation elements have a unique identifier (Lieb, para.54, 71, 82-83, presentation item identifier). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include Lieb’s teaching with Salesin’s system in order to accurately locate elements.
While the system of Salesin and Lieb does teach the ability to select the subset of the presentation elements which are located orthogonally adjacent the location of the current presentation element being displayed within the navigation layer (Salesin, Fig.6, para.66-69, active path of slides in center column with navigation downward thru rows of default path; navigation to alternative path thru selection of intersecting/orthogonal path tab in another column), the system of Salesin and Lieb does not teach a cache management engine being configured to determine a subset of presentation elements to be selected for rendering based on a location of the current presentation element being displayed within the navigation layer, and the cache management engine being configured to select the subset of the presentation elements which are located orthogonally adjacent the location of the current presentation element being displayed within the navigation layer to enable optimized rendering of the subset of presentation elements by the presentation device. Lerner teaches a system of navigating elements wherein a subset of presentation elements are to be selected for rendering based on a location of the current presentation element being displayed within the navigation layer, and the cache management engine being configured to select the subset of the presentation elements which are located orthogonally adjacent the location of the current presentation element being displayed within the navigation layer to enable optimized rendering of the subset of presentation elements by the presentation device (Lerner, para.34, adjacent items are cached to reduce latency). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include Lerner’s teaching with the system of Salesin and Lieb in order to reduce any latency in viewing elements.
As per claim 2, the system of Salesin, Lieb and Lerner teaches the presentation system of claim 1, wherein the communications engine is configured to transmit the unique identifier of the currently selected presentation element directly to a presentation device via a wireless communications channel or to a remote server to be provided to the presentation device via a wide area network (Salesin, Fig.1, remote device 180 connected via network 171, para.40-41, Lieb, para.57, 114, presentation server 102).
As per claim 3, the system of Salesin, Lieb and Lerner teaches the presentation system of claim 1, wherein the communications engine is configured to transmit location information indicating a current position of the currently selected presentation element within the grid-like formation (Salesin, para.67-68, system tracks path of slides to display, Lieb, para.85, sequence identifier).
As per claim 4, the system of Salesin, Lieb and Lerner teaches the presentation system of claim 1, wherein the grid-like formation comprises rows and columns and navigation between adjacent rows comprises movement from a current presentation element being displayed to an adjacent presentation element in the predetermined default sequence and navigation between adjacent columns comprises movement from a current presentation element being displayed to a presentation element which is not adjacent in the predetermined default sequence (Salesin, Fig.6, para.66-69, active path of slides in center column with navigation downward thru rows of default path; navigation to alternative path thru selection of path tab in another column).
As per claim 6, the system of Salesin, Lieb and Lerner teaches the presentation system of claim 1, further comprising a data store for storing a copy of the presentation (Lieb, para.44, database 104 stores presentations) and for storing a history log of all selections of presentation elements, wherein the navigation layer is configured to record each presentation element selection by the presenter in the history log (Lieb, para.43, 58, 87, historical access data).
As per claim 7, the system of Salesin, Lieb and Lerner teaches the presentation system of claim 6, wherein the communications engine is configured to transmit the history log, or a part thereof, to a remote server for recordal (Lieb, para.63-68, history data stored presentation server).
As per claim 10, the system of Salesin, Lieb and Lerner teaches the presentation system of claim 1, wherein the central server is configured to transmit an identification of the subset of presentation elements selected by the cache management engine to a presentation device via a communications channel, to enable optimised rendering of the subset of presentation elements by the presentation device (Lerner, para.34, adjacent items are cached to reduce latency).
As per claim 12, the system of Salesin, Lieb and Lerner teaches the presentation system of claim 1, wherein the cache management engine is configured to determine members of the subset as being any presentation element most likely to be selected for display next, and the cache management engine determines such members based on: a sequence of presentation elements displayed previously by the presenter navigating the current presentation; the sequence of presentation elements most commonly displayed by the presenter navigating the current presentation; the sequence of presentation elements displayed most recently; or the most typical sequence presentation elements that have been previously displayed, the most typical sequence being determined by reviewing a history of sequences of presentation elements previously displayed (Lerner, para.36, 40, store in memory last viewed/position; Lieb, para.43, 58, 87, historical access data).
As per claim 15, the system of Salesin, Lieb and Lerner teaches the presentation system of claim 1, wherein the presentation device is configured to preload media content of any of the presentation elements forming part of a subgroup as determined by the cache management engine, wherein the presentation device is optionally configured to preload media content via a web browser (Lerner, para.34, adjacent items are cached; Lieb, para.138, pre-loaded in browser).
As per claim 16, the system of Salesin, Lieb and Lerner teaches the presentation system of claim 1, where the presentation comprises: an assembly data structure, identifying a positional arrangement of each presentation element within the navigation layer (Lieb, Fig.3, para.70-86, table 304); and a content data structure, storing content of each presentation element, each component of the assembly data structure being associated with component of the content data structure using an unique identifier of each presentation element (Lieb, Fig.3, para.70-86, table 304).
As per claim 17, the system of Salesin, Lieb and Lerner teaches the presentation system of claim 1, wherein the presentation device is preloaded with a copy of the presentation in unrendered form (Lerner, para.34, adjacent items are cached; Lieb, para.138, pre-loaded in browser).
As per claim 18, the system of Salesin, Lieb and Lerner teaches the presentation system of claim 16, wherein the presentation control device is configured to transmit changes in the predetermined default sequence to the assembly data structure and changes in the content of a presentation element to the content data structure (Lieb, para.129, 134, 160, 170, update to state module).
Claim 20 is similar in scope to claim 1, and is therefore rejected under similar rationale.
As per claim 21, the system of Salesin, Lieb and Lerner teaches a presentation system of claim 1, wherein the cache management engine comprises a prediction engine that is configured to make a probabilistic determination of likely members of the subset of presentation elements based on one or more of the following of previously delivered presentations: an order in which slides are presented, time spent on each slide, and any actions taken within a context of a slide (Salesin, para.71, 73, time spent).
As per claim 22, the system of Salesin, Lieb and Lerner teaches a presentation system of claim 6, wherein the subset of presentation elements selected for rendering are determined based on the presentation elements displayed most recently (Lerner, para.36, 40, store in memory last viewed/position; Lieb, para.43, 58, 87, historical access data).
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Salesin et al. (“Salesin”, US 2003/0222890), Lieb et al. (“Lieb”, US 2010/0257456) and Lerner et al. (“Lerner”, US 2018/0067641) in view of Yu et al. (“Yu”, US 2014/0173442).
As per claim 5, the system of Salesin, Lieb and Lerner teaches the presentation system of claim 1, however does not teach wherein the graphical user interface is configured to be switchable between a navigation mode in which the navigation layer is displayed on the presentation control device and a presentation mode in which a current presentation slide is displayed on the presentation control device; and wherein optionally the graphical user interface is configured to enable the navigation layer to be overlaid over the current presentation slide displayed on the presentation control device. Yu teaches a system for navigating a presentation wherein the graphical user interface is configured to be switchable between a navigation mode in which the navigation layer is displayed on the presentation control device and a presentation mode in which a current presentation slide is displayed on the presentation control device (Yu, Fig.2B, 2D, para.50, presentation view); and wherein optionally the graphical user interface is configured to enable the navigation layer to be overlaid over the current presentation slide displayed on the presentation control device (Yu, Fig.3A-C, para.20, 41, 58-61, navigation grid displayed when control 219 selected). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include Yu’s teaching with the system of Salesin, Lieb and Lerner in order to navigate to other sections while reducing clutter.
Claim 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Salesin et al. (“Salesin”, US 2003/0222890), Lieb et al. (“Lieb”, US 2010/0257456) and Lerner et al. (“Lerner”, US 2018/0067641) in view of Guha (US 6,272,534).
As per claim 14, the system of Salesin, Lieb and Lerner teaches the presentation system of claim 1, however does not teach wherein the presentation device comprises a rendering engine which is configured to discard a presentation element which has been rendered but is not part of the subset of the presentation elements determined by the cache management engine. Guha teaches a system of rendering pages configured to discard a presentation element which has been rendered but is not part of the subset of the presentation elements determined by the cache management engine (Guha, col.4, lines 49-63, non-selected pages are deleted). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include Guha’s teaching with the system of Salesin, Lieb and Lerner in order to efficiently store data and quickly access data without compromising bandwidth.
Claim 19 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Salesin et al. (“Salesin”, US 2003/0222890), Lieb et al. (“Lieb”, US 2010/0257456) and Lerner et al. (“Lerner”, US 2018/0067641) in view of Liu et al. (“Liu”, US 2005/0160368).
As per claim 19, the system of Salesin, Lieb and Lerner teaches the presentation system of claim 1, however does not teach the system further comprising an environment actuator and an environmental control device provided to change a characteristic of the environment at a presentation location, wherein the presentation control device is configured to send a command to the environmental control device to control the environment actuator to change the characteristic of the environment of the presentation, the command being sent when a particular presentation element is displayed on the presentation screen. Liu teaches a presentation system comprising an environment actuator and an environmental control device provided to change a characteristic of the environment at a presentation location, wherein the presentation control device is configured to send a command to the environmental control device to control the environment actuator to change the characteristic of the environment of the presentation, the command being sent when a particular presentation element is displayed on the presentation screen (Liu, 59, 83, 86, 134, hyper-slides include hotspots to environmental actuators such as light/volume adjustment action). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include Liu’s teaching with the system of Salesin, Lieb and Lerner in order to enhance presentations.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Inquiries
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SAJEDA MUHEBBULLAH whose telephone number is (571)272-4065. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Tue/Thur-Fri 10am-8pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, William L Bashore can be reached at 571-272-4088. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/S.M./
Sajeda MuhebbullahExaminer, Art Unit 2174
/WILLIAM L BASHORE/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2174