DETAILED ACTION
This action is responsive to the following communication: The Amendment filed on 01/19/2026. This action is made non-final.
Claims 2-15 are pending in the case. Claim 2 is the only independent claim.
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 .
Priority
This application has claimed the benefit as a CON of Application Number 17/225,240 (now US Pat. No. 11,625,113) filed on 04/08/2021 which is a CON of application No. 14/886,069 (now US Pat. No. 10,977,295) filed on 10/18/2015, which is a division of U.S. Patent Application No. 14/668228 filed 03/25/2015 (now U.S. Patent No. 10719149), which claims the benefit of U.S. Application No. 61/970,338 filed on 03/25/2014 under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, 365(c), or 386(c) is acknowledged.
Terminal Disclaimer
The terminal disclaimer filed on 09/13/2024 disclaiming the terminal portion of any patent granted on this application which would extend beyond the expiration date of U.S. Patent No. 11625113 and 10977295 has been reviewed and is accepted. The terminal disclaimer has been recorded.
Double Patenting
The previous double patenting rejections are withdrawn in view of the approved terminal disclaimer filed on 09/13/2024.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims under 35 U.S.C. 103(a), the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned at the time any inventions covered therein were made absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and invention dates of each claim that was not commonly owned at the time a later invention was made in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 103(c) and potential 35 U.S.C. 102(e), (f) or (g) prior art under 35 U.S.C. 103(a).
Claims 2-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Beaumier et al. (US 2011/0283236 A1; hereinafter as Beaumier) in view of Drosset et al. (USPN RE47053 E; hereinafter as Drosset) further in view of Kern et al. (US 2013/0067338 A1; hereafter Kern).
As to claim 2, Beaumier discloses:
A digital jukebox device, comprising:
a network interface to a digital audiovisual reproduction network that includes a remote server that maintains a catalog of promoted songs in a computer-readable storage medium thereof; (see Fig. 2 and ¶¶ 0052, 0059, 0061, 0062, 0079. ¶ 0061; new media available to promote artists and their works. ¶ 0052; master library of songs);
a display device (see Fig. 2 and ¶ 0052, 0080; display 18); and
processing resources including at least one hardware processor and a memory coupled to the at least one hardware processor (see ¶ 0053, 0080; microprocessors, CPU and audio DSP and memory, hard drive), the processing resources being configured to:
control the digital jukebox device to at least output to the display device a user interface (see ¶ 0057, 0080; user interface for exploring and browsing media content using a touch-screen), the user interface being configured to present a plurality of groupings of songs available for playback via the digital jukebox device on a pay-for-play basis (see Figs. 6-7 and ¶¶ 0074-0075; user can browse the music collection by artist, by album or by genre which are construed as groupings of songs. ¶ 0119 discloses pay for play scheme. ¶¶ 0059; the collection of song including song playlists), and determine a particular music genre in accordance with a profile of the digital jukebox device (see ¶ 0132; a background mosaic also may be built using current jukebox profile information including the location’s most popular genre. ¶ 0104-0105; genres that satisfy the venue’s choice and the event parameters are present on the music device or music device servers are made available for expansion), wherein each grouping of the plurality of groupings is a subcategory of songs in the determined particular music genre and is represented in the user interface as a selectable tile (see Fig. 8b and ¶ 0074, 0087-0090; users can browse the music collection by genre),
at least one of the groupings being the self-populating playlist that includes the first non-zero percentage of songs and the second non-zero percentage of songs from a second collection of songs that are identified during a period of use as being popular based on plays made by the digital jukebox device itself (see Fig. 18 and ¶¶ 0097-0098, 0110; playlist is generated based on musical tastes of the user such as “more frequently played or favored songs. ¶ 0109; most popular first, newest first…¶ 0016; most played music. ¶ 0152; most popular songs played on a jukebox. ¶ 0061; promote artists and their works. ¶ 0075; new music. ¶ 0110; user-specified information including preselected favorites such as albums, genres; the information is used as inclusion criteria to customize selections for the user, or limit playlists),
Beaumier does not appear to teach a memory storing a plurality of percentages each corresponding to a percentage, in a self- populating playlist, of songs of a respective category of songs, and the plurality of percentages including a first non-zero percentage and a second non-zero percentage.
However, Drosset is relied upon for teaching the above deficiencies. Specifically, Drosset teaches a device configured for self-populating playlist (see Col. 12, lines 57-64; automatic playlist creation of a user controllable mix of audio files. In automatic playlist creation, the user specifies the number of songs in the playlist and the percentage make-up by category. The playlist is created by the system based on the directions specified by the user, the user may then access the playlist in the manner described above), the device comprising a memory storing a plurality of percentages each corresponding to a percentage, in a self- populating playlist, of songs of a respective category of songs, and the plurality of percentages including a first non-zero percentage and a second non-zero percentage (see Figs. 1-2 and Col. 4, lines 9-42; playlist pointer is stored in the data table of Fig. 2 residing in the database 90 of Fig. 1. Playlist pointer points to a location in memory for a playlist defined by the user or another source. See Col. 13, lines 1-16; the user can specify series of percentages of category/genres to generate a playlist, the series of percentage comprises: i.e., 30% Jazz, 40% Blues, 30% Hip-Hop; the system builds a playlist with the specified requested percentages; the selection of the songs is done by the system based on the existing categories; the user can store the playlist for subsequent access by the user, to store the automatically created playlist, the list of audio files may be linked to the user’s entry in the user data table of Fig. 2).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, one of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to combine the teaching of Beaumier and the teaching of Drosset together to modify that the playlist creation process disclosed in Beaumier to include the auto playlist creation based on the user-specified percentages of categories of songs suggested in Drosset to allow the user to define what categories or genres of music to be included in the playlist as claimed. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make such a combination because of the overlapping subject matter (i.e., playlist creation/generation), and the advantage described in Drosset is to allow the user to customize the songs included in the playlist (Drosset: see Col. 2, lines 60-64).
Beaumier further teach responsive to a received search query, presenting search results in accordance with, for respective songs in the search results, popularity based on plays made by the digital jukebox device and the first collection of songs (see ¶ 0099-0100, searchable criteria may include song genre, popularity. 0152-0153; most popular songs played on a jukebox. Fig. 8b and ¶ 0087-0088; search interface includes text-based search area 818; “New & Popular”).
Beaumier and Drosset do not teach that the self-populating playlist includes songs from the first collection of songs that stays constant during a period of use of the digital jukebox device and songs from the second collection of songs are identified during the period of use as being popular.
However, the deficient limitation is disclosed by Kern. Kern teaches generating a list of items that includes items from a first collection of items that stays constant during a period of use of a device and includes items from a second collection of songs are identified during the period of use as being popular (see Fig. 3 and ¶ 0036; navigation area {~generated list of items} includes a dynamic region 320 that can include dynamic navigation items 322; the navigation area can also include a static region 330 that includes static navigation items 332; The dynamic navigation items (322) and the static navigation items (332) can be the same types of navigation item. ¶ 0040; Updating of the dynamic region (320) can be triggered according to one or more of various different techniques. For example, the updating may be triggered to run automatically according to a set periodic schedule. ¶ 0041-0046; Updating may be done according to various techniques to choose the dynamic navigation items (322) that are currently to be included in the dynamic region (320), according to usage of the current site. This usage may be usage that is not profile-specific or user-specific, so that the usage may be usage by any user profile that is able to use the site. The updating may consider one or more of various usage factors, such as creation dates, recency of usage, frequency of usage, etc. For example, queries may be done for one or more of various different types of usage criteria or factors, such as items created most recently, most relevant items in a specified time period such as the past week, items with the most views, recommendations from the site based upon what the current user has changed, etc. Many of these criteria or other criteria could be implemented using search indexes).
All references, each discloses a device for displaying content items. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time the invention was made, to have modified the Jukebox user interface of Beaumier/Drosset to include the generated list of items as disclosed by Kern so that the user can select a particular song of interest as claimed. One would be motivated to make such a combination because of the overlapping subject matter and the advantages provided by Kern such that the jukebox user interface would allow a user to locate a desired item easily and less time consuming (Kern: see ¶ 0002).
As to claim 3, the rejection of claim 2 is incorporated. Beaumier, Drosset, and Kern further teach wherein the presenting the search results further comprises indicating popularity percentages associated with songs in the search results (Beaumier: ¶ 0129; more popular music may be larger. ¶ 0152 the most popular songs played on a jukebox).
As to claim 4, the rejection of claim 2 is incorporated. Beaumier, Drosset, and Kern further teach wherein the presenting the search results further comprises listing songs in the search results in order of the popularity based on plays made by the digital jukebox device (Beaumier: ¶ 0129; more popular music may be larger. ¶ 0152 the most popular songs played on a jukebox.).
As to claim 5, the rejection of claim 4 is incorporated. Beaumier, Drosset, and Kern further teach wherein the presenting the search results further comprises listing songs in the search results that are in the first collection of songs at a top of said search results (Beaumier: ¶ 0075; New Music first {~promoted songs}. Drosset: see Col. 21, lines 37-56; sorting algorithm may be applied over the server site catalogue for each user, taking into consideration how well each album ranks against the compiled profile. Emphasis of category in this ranking may be based, for example, on the following order: Artist, Producer, Genre, and Era. See Col. 16, lines 61-67; the user interface may include a promotional area where songs or albums are displayed to the user in the form, for example, of an icon simulating an album cover and may include names of the songs on the album, liner notes, etc.). Thus, combining Beaumier, Drosset, and Kern would meet the claimed limitations for the same reasons as set forth in claim 2.
As to claim 6, the rejection of claim 2 is incorporated. Beaumier, Drosset, and Kern further teach wherein the first non-zero percentage of songs and the second non-zero percentage of songs are dynamically selected (Drosset: see Col. 13, lines 17-48; dynamic playlist creation, the actual song selection is done “on the fly”). Thus, combining Beaumier, Drosset, and Kern would meet the claimed limitations for the same reasons as set forth in claim 2.
As to claim 7, the rejection of claim 2 is incorporated. Beaumier, Drosset, and Kern further teach wherein the self-populating playlist is changeable over time. (Beaumier: see ¶ 0106; the inclusion criteria is applied to determine the appropriate music for presentation on the jukebox. Drosset: see Col. 20, line 58 though Col. 21, line 40; the server site may rely solely on the user stated genre preference to choose a set of albums to recommend to the user. As the user makes selections and, through user behavior, compiles a history of use, a compiled profile based recommendation may be generated. Profiling of music listening and music management may be done using a variety of criteria over time. Examples of criteria and categories are era (e.g. 60's, 70's, Baroque), genre (e.g. Rock, Blues, Hip hop), artist, or producer). Thus, combining Beaumier, Drosset, and Kern would meet the claimed limitations for the same reasons as set forth in claim 2.
As to claim 8, the rejection of claim 2 is incorporated. Beaumier, Drosset, and Kern further teach wherein the self-populating playlist further includes a third non-zero percentage of songs that are identified as being popular based on plays made by other jukeboxes connected to the digital audiovisual reproduction network (Beaumier: see ¶ 0152; information such as plays made on the whole jukebox network is used to define the personality of a jukebox. ¶ 0015; inclusion criteria may be indicative of media popularity indexed to an outside source such as plays via a social networking site, media popularity indexed to an outside source. ¶ 0090; most popular at location).
As to claim 9, the rejection of claim 2 is incorporated. Beaumier, Drosset, and Kern further teach wherein the self-populating playlist further includes a third non-zero percentage of songs that are identified as being popular based on plays made by other jukeboxes connected to the digital audiovisual reproduction network that exist within a predefined area of the digital jukebox device (Beaumier: see ¶ 0152; information such as plays made on the whole jukebox network is used to define the personality of a jukebox. ¶ 0015; inclusion criteria may be indicative of media popularity indexed to an outside source such as plays via a social networking site, the inclusion criteria set by a location. ¶ 0090, 0110, 0132; most popular at location).
As to claim 10, the rejection of claim 2 is incorporated. Beaumier, Drosset, and Kern further teach wherein each said grouping of songs is representable in the user interface as a user-selectable tile including imagery associated with two or more of the songs in the respective grouping (Beaumier: see Figs. 6-7 and ¶ 0059, 0130-0131; tiles with artist image; each artist image is associated with two or more songs).
As to claim 11, the rejection of claim 2 is incorporated. Beaumier, Drosset, and Kern further teach wherein the self-populating playlist further includes a third non-zero percentage of songs selected from the catalog of promoted songs as being the most popular songs in a second predefined geographic area, a first predefined geographic area associated with the first non-zero percentage of songs and the second predefined areas being different from one another (Beaumier: see ¶ 0152; different types of information may be considered to define the personality of a jukebox, these factors may include some or all of the following and/or other factors: the jukebox’s geographic location, the most popular songs played on a jukebox, the type of music played on a jukebox, plays made on the whole jukebox network. ¶ 0015; inclusion criteria may be indicative of media popularity indexed to an outside source such as plays via a social networking site. ¶ 0090; most popular at location. Drosset: see Col. 4, lines 24-42; Also note that the record of FIG. 3 may be composed of a variety of data entries and those shown are merely exemplary. In addition to the age, gender, profession, categories and selections fields, a location field may be added to indicate the location for login by the user, the connection rate for the client-server connection, the income level of the user and the user's postal code. One of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate that other data structures and information fields may be employed in accordance with the desired design without departing from the teachings of the present invention. Col. 15, lines 4-14; demographics location). Thus, combining Beaumier, Drosset, and Kern would meet the claimed limitations for the same reasons as set forth in claim 2.
As to claim 12, the rejection of claim 11 is incorporated. Beaumier, Drosset, and Kern further teach wherein the first predefined geographic area includes only the digital jukebox device itself, and the second predefined geographic area includes other digital jukebox devices that are managed by a manager of the digital jukebox device itself (Beaumier: see ¶ 0152; different types of information may be considered to define the personality of a jukebox, these factors may include some or all of the following and/or other factors: the jukebox’s geographic location, the most popular songs played on a jukebox, the type of music played on a jukebox, plays made on the whole jukebox network. ¶ 0015; inclusion criteria may be indicative of media popularity indexed to an outside source such as plays via a social networking site. ¶ 0090; most popular at location).
As to claim 13, the rejection of claim 11 is incorporated. Beaumier, Drosset, and Kern further teach wherein: the music profile is selected by the remote server from a plurality of different possible music profiles, the music profile defining aspects of the songs playable by the digital jukebox device, and the first predefined area includes only the digital jukebox device itself, and the second predefined area includes other digital jukebox devices that are managed by a manager of the digital jukebox device itself and that are configured to operate with the same music profile as the music profile selected for the digital jukebox device (Beaumier: see ¶ 0152; different types of information may be considered to define the personality of a jukebox, these factors may include some or all of the following and/or other factors: the jukebox’s geographic location, the most popular songs played on a jukebox, the type of music played on a jukebox, plays made on the whole jukebox network. ¶ 0015; inclusion criteria may be indicative of media popularity indexed to an outside source such as plays via a social networking site. ¶ 0090; most popular at location. Drosset: see Col. 4, lines 24-42; Also note that the record of FIG. 3 may be composed of a variety of data entries and those shown are merely exemplary. In addition to the age, gender, profession, categories and selections fields, a location field may be added to indicate the location for login by the user, the connection rate for the client-server connection, the income level of the user and the user's postal code. One of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate that other data structures and information fields may be employed in accordance with the desired design without departing from the teachings of the present invention. Col. 15, lines 4-14; A different scenario may occur when a non-registered user navigates to the web site. For example, a registration page may be offered to the user or a registration page may be an option from the home page for the site. The user is presented with the privacy policy for the website along with copyright protection policy information or other types of information. The user may then be prompted to enter demographics information such as access location (e.g. work, home, home office, school), country, and postal code. The Access location and Country fields may be entered using a drop down with a list of predetermined choices). Thus, combining Beaumier, Drosset, and Kern would meet the claimed limitations for the same reasons as set forth in claim 2.
As to claim 14, the rejection of claim 13 is incorporated. Beaumier, Drosset, and Kern further teach wherein: the first predefined area is further limited to the digital jukebox device itself when it is operating in accordance with the selected music profile (Beaumier: see ¶¶ 0091; location’s profile, user profile, social networking site profile of the user. ¶0092; profile is used to recommend songs to the user such as musical preference of the user based on social networking site profile of a user. ¶ 0092, 0094; the social networking site profile identifying at least on artist, song, and/or genre).
As to claim 15, the rejection of claim 2 is incorporated. Beaumier, Drosset, and Kern further teach wherein: wherein each said grouping of songs is representable in the user interface as a user-selectable tile including imagery associated with two or more of the songs in the respective grouping (Beaumier: see Figs. 6-7 and ¶ 0059, 0130-0131; tiles with artist image; each artist image is associated with two or more songs).
Claim 7 is alternatively rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Beaumier/Drosset/Kern further in view of Biderman (US 206/0163358 A1; hereinafter as Biderman).
As to claim 7, the rejection of claim 2 is incorporated. Biderman is alternatively relied upon for teaching the limitations of claim 7. Biderman discloses a self-populating playlist that includes a first non-zero percentage of songs from a first catalog of promoted songs and a second non-zero percentage of songs that are identified as being popular based on plays made by a device itself (see Figs. 1-3B and ¶¶ 0023, 0027, 0029; a user’s rules provides for three classes of content including a most popular class occupying 50% of storage of songs that a user is known to prefer, a sample bin of promotional content {~catalog of promoted songs}; the rule defines how and which content is presented in a playlist or how the playlist is generated in response to user manipulation of the portable media device..). Biderman further teaches wherein the first non-zero percentage of songs and the second non-zero percentage of songs are selected from the catalog by the server from a particular music genre determined in accordance with a profile of the digital jukebox device (see ¶ 0006; specifying a preference for a genre. ¶ 0076; access to content selections stored on other devices such as an online music store or a server), and wherein the self-populating playlist is changeable over time (Biderman: see Fig. 2 and ¶ 0030; variation interface 220 enables the user to change at least some of the content selections on the portable device over time).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, one of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to combine the teaching of Beaumier/Drosset/Kern and the teaching of Biderman together to modify the self-populating playlist by Beaumier to include the promoted songs in the catalog of promoted songs as taught by Biderman so that the self-populating playlist would include songs from popular song list and songs from promotion song list as claimed. One of ordinary skill in the art would have motivated to make such a combination to increase listener retention rate (Biderman: see ¶ 0029).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 01/19/26 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicants argued that Kern is Non-Analogous Art and Lacks Suggestion for Combination (see Remark page 6).
In response, the examiner respectfully disagrees. The examiner recognizes that obviousness may be established by combining or modifying the teachings of the prior art to produce the claimed invention where there is some teaching, suggestion, or motivation to do so found either in the references themselves or in the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art. See In re Fine, 837 F.2d 1071, 5 USPQ2d 1596 (Fed. Cir. 1988), In re Jones, 958 F.2d 347, 21 USPQ2d 1941 (Fed. Cir. 1992), and KSR International Co. v. Teleflex, Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 82 USPQ2d 1385 (2007).
In this case, both are directed to the same field of endeavor of the claimed invention (i.e., graphical user interface) for generating a listing of items. Beaumier is directed to a graphical user interface for generating a self-populating playlist that includes the first non-zero percentage of songs and the second non-zero percentage of songs from a second collection of songs (see Fig. 18 and ¶¶ 0097-0098, 0110; playlist is generated based on musical tastes of the user such as “more frequently played or favored songs. ¶ 0109; most popular first, newest first…¶ 0016; most played music. ¶ 0152; most popular songs played on a jukebox. ¶ 0061; promote artists and their works. ¶ 0075; new music. ¶ 0110; user-specified information including preselected favorites such as albums, genres; the information is used as inclusion criteria to customize selections for the user, or limit playlists).
Kern teaches generating a list of items that includes items from a first collection of items that stays constant during a period of use of a device and includes items from a second collection of songs are identified during the period of use as being popular (see Fig. 3 and ¶ 0036, ¶ 0040; 0041-0046).
They both teach generating a list of items because the self-populating playlist disclosed in Beaumier is reasonably and broadly interpreted to be a list of items {~list of songs}; and because Kern’s generated navigation area is also reasonably interpreted as a list of items; for example, the generated navigation area presents or comprises a plurality of items, the items could be content items (see ¶ 0032-0036). The generated navigation area comprises items from a first collection of item that stays constant during a period of use of a device (see Fig. 3 and ¶ 0036; navigation area includes a static region 330 that includes static navigation items 332; The dynamic navigation items (322) and the static navigation items (332) can be the same types of navigation item); the generated navigation area also includes items from a second collection items are identified during the period of use as being popular (see Fig. 3 and ¶ 0036; navigation area includes a dynamic region 320 that can include dynamic navigation items 322; The dynamic navigation items (322) and the static navigation items (332) can be the same types of navigation item. ¶ 0041-0046; Updating may be done according to various techniques to choose the dynamic navigation items (322) that are currently to be included in the dynamic region (320), according to usage of the current site. This usage may be usage that is not profile-specific or user-specific, so that the usage may be usage by any user profile that is able to use the site. The updating may consider one or more of various usage factors, such as creation dates, recency of usage, frequency of usage, etc. For example, queries may be done for one or more of various different types of usage criteria or factors, such as items created most recently, most relevant items in a specified time period such as the past week, items with the most views, recommendations from the site based upon what the current user has changed, etc. Many of these criteria or other criteria could be implemented using search indexes).
Applicants argued that Kern does not teach or suggest the internal composition of a media playlist; it merely teaches the placement of UI elements into different regions on a screen (see Remark page 6).
In response, the examiner respectfully disagrees and directs the Applicants to the fact that 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). Applicants appear to rely sole on Kern to conclude that the combined teaching does not teach the disputed feature. However, the examiner relied on of Beaumier and Drosset for teaching the limitations of the self-populating playlist. And Kern is relied upon for teaching a graphical user interface feature of a list of items can be generated having a static portion and a dynamic portion as claimed.
Applicants argued the combination fails to teach the “single grouping” requirement (see Remark page 6).
In response, the examiner respectfully disagrees and directs the applicants to the fact that the features upon which applicant relies (i.e., single grouping) are not recited in the rejected claim(s). Although the claims are interpreted in light of the specification, limitations from the specification are not read into the claims. See In re Van Geuns, 988 F.2d 1181, 26 USPQ2d 1057 (Fed. Cir. 1993). In this case, both references (Beaumier and Kern) are directed to a generated list of items (Beaumier: see Fig. 18 and ¶ 0098-0110; Kern: see Fig. 3 and ¶ 0036; the navigation area {~list of items} that includes subsets of items {first portion and second portion}). There are not structurally different from Beaumier’s playlist and the Kern’s list of items. Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time the invention was made, to have modified the generated playlistdisclosed in Beaumier/Drosset to include the concept of generating a list having static items from a static group and dynamic items from dynamic group disclosed by Kern to allow a user to locate a desired item easily and less time consuming (Kern: see ¶ 0002).
Applicants argued that Drosset fails to teach device-profile driven Merchandising (see Remark page 7).
In response, the examiner respectfully disagrees and directs the applicants to the fact that Beaumier is relied upon for teaching the disputed feature. Specifically, Beaumier is cited to teach this limitation “device-profile driven” at least in (see ¶ 0132; a background mosaic also may be built using current jukebox profile information including the location’s most popular genre. ¶ 0104-0105; genres that satisfy the venue’s choice and the event parameters are present on the music device or music device servers are made available for expansion).
Applicants argued that “The “same period of use” Limitation provides a technical distinction” (see Remark page 7).
In response, the examiner respectfully disagrees and directs the applicants to the fact that the features upon which applicant relies (i.e., same period of use; automatic determination of a genre) are not recited in the rejected claim(s). Although the claims are interpreted in light of the specification, limitations from the specification are not read into the claims. See In re Van Geuns, 988 F.2d 1181, 26 USPQ2d 1057 (Fed. Cir. 1993). In this case, all that recites in the claim are “a period of use” which could be interpreted to be any period of use that includes a period of use when a list of items being displayed in the user interface.
For at least these reasons, the examiner concludes that the combined teaching of Beaumier, Drosset, and Kern would render obvious the disputed features.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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.
The prior art made of record on form PTO-892 and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Applicant is required under 37 C.F.R. § 1.111(c) to consider these references fully when responding to this action. For example:
Wohlert (US 2012/0066186 A1) – discloses a system includes a media selection module to generate a media playlist based on user preference data. The user preference data indicates proportions of each of a plurality of categories of media content to be present in the media playlist. The system also includes a graphical user interface (GUI) module to present a user interface display including a representation of the user preference data using a plurality of adjustable bars. Each adjustable bar is associated with one of the categories of media content, and a dimension of each of the adjustable bars is associated with a proportion of the respective category of media content included in the media playlist. The system further includes an input interface to receive an input to adjust the dimension of a first bar. The first bar is associated with a first category of the plurality of categories of media content. The system also includes a user settings module to adjust the user preference data based on the input.
It is noted that any citation to specific, pages, columns, lines, or figures in the prior art references and any interpretation of the references should not be considered to be limiting in any way. A reference is relevant for all it contains and may be relied upon for all that it would have reasonably suggested to one having ordinary skill in the art. In re Heck, 699 F.2d 1331, 1332-33,216 USPQ 1038, 1039 (Fed. Cir. 1983) (quoting In re Lemelson, 397 F.2d 1006,1009, 158 USPQ 275,277 (CCPA 1968)).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TUYETLIEN T TRAN whose telephone number is (571)270-1033. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 8:00 AM - 8:00 PM.
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/TUYETLIEN T TRAN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2179