DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. 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
2. 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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 02/11/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
3. Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 18-30 have been considered but are moot in view of a new ground(s) of rejection. The amendments to the claims necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection discussed below. This office action is non-Final.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
4. 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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
5. Claim(s) 19-30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over DURY et al (2017/0006322) in view of CORMIE et al (2020/0389689)
As to claims 19-20, DURY discloses participant rewards in a spectating system and further discloses a system for programmatic distribution of media content to a distributor application for consumption by an end user, the system comprising:
a media asset manager (figs.1-33, Spectating System “SS” UI/API “SS-UI/API”) configured to store a plurality of media assets and associated metadata; a distributor backend configured to receive, from at least one distributor application, a channel request that includes user context and one or more channel tags; a channel generation service coupled to the distributor backend and the media asset manager, the channel generation service (channels: respective individuals, groups, fans, etc.,) comprising an orchestration service, a query service, and a channel cache service (One or more Analysis Modules “AM”), wherein the orchestration service is configured to orchestrate a query of the media asset manager using the query service based on the user context and the one or more channel tags, receive a list of media assets returned by the media asset manager, pack the list of media assets into a channel container to define a channel, and cache, using the channel cache service, at least one channel response for subsequent channel retrieval ([0055-0076], [0089-0117], [0156-0183], [0200-0216], [0337-0353] and [0365-0389]); SS-UI/API, receives live streams and recorded streams from various locations, cameras are located at different locations around the event or at other venues; SS-UI/API includes AM: collects media assets and temporary stores media asset data, querying to generate channels: individual, fans, groups, social media, etc., with metadata; generate specific subscription channels, querying interfaces; maps input signals and match to specific event(s) or channel(s)
a media planner (SS-UI/API) configured to generate a playlist for the channel, the playlist including a dynamic content block, and further configured to place Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) markers that indicate a start boundary and a finish boundary of the dynamic content block; a dynamic content block replacement engine configured to replace the dynamic content block in the playlist with alternate content selected based on the user context; a content stitching service coupled to the playlist and configured to detect the SCTE markers and, based on the user context, insert the alternate content into the playlist by obtaining the alternate content from a content server that is coupled to the media asset manager; an ad stitching service coupled to the content stitching service and configured to read ad markers in a content stream produced by the content stitching service, request personalized ads from an ad server, and stitch the personalized ads into the content stream; and a router coupled to the distributor backend and configured to select, based on the user context received from the distributor backend, a uniform resource locator (Websites-[0184], [0194], [0228], [0250]), ads and other supplemental linked to websites; served by the ad stitching service for a personalized stream, and to provide the personalized stream to the distributor backend for delivery to the distributor application via a content delivery network and wherein the media asset manager comprises one or more media management application programming interfaces, a transcoding service, a metastore, an asset store, a data enrichment service, a query service, and a ranker, and wherein the one or more media management application programming interfaces are configured to ingest media assets and associated metadata into the media asset manager ([0065-0070], [0156-0183], [0192-[0200-0216], [0337-0353] and [0365-0389]), SS-UI/API includes AM: collects media assets and temporary stores media asset data, querying to generate channels: individual, fans, groups, social media, etc., with metadata; generate specific subscription channels, querying interfaces; maps input signals and match to specific event(s) or channel(s), stitches various metadata and other input signals to generate metadata for various respective channels with personalized ads or various UI elements: overlays: video, text, etc.,)
DURY processes various input signals as discussed above, BUT silent as to SCTE markers inserting alternate content in playlist and performing stitching content to arrange the playlist as desired
However, in the same field of endeavor, CORMIE discloses content modification system with supplemental content stitching features and further discloses SCTE markers inserting alternate content in playlist and performing stitching content to arrange the playlist as desired (figs.1-7, Abstract, [0066-0079], [0090-0100] and [0144-0155])
Hence it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of CORMIE into the system to process various content with other specific application for desired content modification to a playlist and/or metadata
As to claims 21-23, DURY further discloses wherein the transcoding service is configured to transcode ingested media assets into packaging formats supported by a plurality of playback devices, and to store transcoded media assets in the asset store; wherein the data enrichment service is configured to enrich the associated metadata using external data to improve search and retrieval of media assets; wherein the query service is configured to translate an external channel request or search query into one or more database queries on the metastore, and wherein the ranker is configured to score and sort query results according to relevance to the external channel request or search query ([0065-0070], [0156-0183], [0192-[0200-0216], [0337-0353] and [0365-0389]), note remarks in claims 19-20
As to claims 24-26, DURY further discloses wherein the one or more channel tags comprise at least one genre tag, and wherein the orchestration service is configured to formulate, using the query service, a query to the media asset manager based on the at least one genre tag and the user context; wherein the channel cache service is configured to cache at least one channel response corresponding to the one or more channel tags and the user context, and, responsive to a subsequent channel request matching the one or more channel tags and the user context, provide the cached channel response for channel retrieval and wherein the playlist generated by the media planner comprises a plurality of titles and includes the dynamic content block as a placeholder indicating that alternate content is to be dynamically inserted into the dynamic content block based on the user context ([0065-0070], [0156-0183], [0192-[0200-0216], [0337-0353] and [0365-0389]), note remarks in claims 19-20.
Claim 27 is met as previously discussed in claims 19-20.
As to claims 28-29, DURY further discloses wherein the router is configured to select, from a plurality of uniform resource locators corresponding to a plurality of personalized streams produced by the ad stitching service, the uniform resource locator served for the user context received from the distributor backend and wherein the ad stitching service is configured, responsive to detecting the ad markers in the content stream, to request personalized ads per user context from the ad server and stitch the personalized ads into the content stream before the router provides the personalized stream to the distributor backend ([0065-0070], [0156-0183], [0192-[0200-0216], [0337-0353] and [0365-0389]), note remarks in claims 19-20.
As to claim 30, the claimed “A computer-implemented method for…” is composed of the same structural elements that were discussed in claims 19-20.
Conclusion
6. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANNAN Q SHANG whose telephone number is (571)272-7355. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 7-4.
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, BRUCKART BENJAMIN can be reached on 571-272-3982. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/ANNAN Q SHANG/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2424
ANNAN SHANG
Prosecution Insights