Prosecution Insights
Last updated: April 19, 2026
Application No. 18/342,230

METHOD FOR BANDWIDTH SWITCHING BY CMAF AND DASH CLIENTS USING ADDRESSABLE RESOURCE INDEX TRACKS AND EVENTS

Final Rejection §103
Filed
Jun 27, 2023
Examiner
SAINT CYR, JEAN D
Art Unit
2425
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
Tencent America LLC
OA Round
4 (Final)
60%
Grant Probability
Moderate
5-6
OA Rounds
3y 5m
To Grant
68%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 60% of resolved cases
60%
Career Allow Rate
355 granted / 590 resolved
+2.2% vs TC avg
Moderate +8% lift
Without
With
+8.3%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
3y 5m
Avg Prosecution
39 currently pending
Career history
629
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
5.2%
-34.8% vs TC avg
§103
69.9%
+29.9% vs TC avg
§102
9.6%
-30.4% vs TC avg
§112
5.7%
-34.3% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 590 resolved cases

Office Action

§103
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 with respect to all pending claims have been fully considered, but they are moot because of the new ground of rejection. Applicant argued that cited references failed to disclose wherein the ARI information comprises an ARI event associated with the media stream, and wherein the ARI event is embedded in a first media slice that is in a first media track of the media stream such that the ARI event presents in the first media slice, wherein the ARI event carries track switching information, wherein the first media track comprises a media representation. However, Stockhammer(US.Pub.No.20230224532) et al show in fig.3 a system for embedding ARI information track 134 in the multimedia content 120 and the ARI contains switching information and finally, the system provides ARI track containing media presentation as disclosed in para. 0112; 0025;0078-0079;0091-0092;0106; 0067,0084. This action is made final. Claims rejections-35 U.S.C. 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. Claim(s) 1; 3-14; 16-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Stockhammer(US.Pub.No.20180288500) in view of Stockhammer(US.Pub.No.20220007086) and Stockhammer(US.Pub.No.20230224532). Regarding claim 1, Stockhammer et al disclose a method for processing a media stream, the media stream comprising at least two media tracks( one or more CMAF tracks,0076-0077) , wherein the at least two media tracks are Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH) standard media track(the system is able to use DASH protocol; 0029; 0031;0076-0077) or a Common Media Application Format (CMAF) perform by a streaming client device, the method comprising(the system is able to encode or format bitstream according to Common Media Application Format; 0006-0007); receiving media stream data comprising: a plurality of media chunks including a first media chunk and a second media chunk(the system is able to receive media stream having multiple media trunk; 0077); and Addressable Resource Index (ARI) information associated with the first media chunk(the system is able to use Addressable Resource Identifiers or Index; 0134;0037;0044); receiving the first media chunk and the second media chunk via respective media track(see fig.8A and fig.8B; 0119-0120). But did not explicitly disclose wherein the ARI information comprises an ARI event associated with the media stream, and wherein the ARI event is embedded in a first media slice that is in a first media track of the media stream such that the ARI event presents in the first media slice, wherein the ARI event carries track switching information, wherein the first media track comprises a media representation; determining track switching information based on the ARI information; determining, based on the track switching information, a switch to a different media track at the second media chunk is needed; wherein each of the first media chunk and the second media chunk is delivered to the streaming client device with a delivery delay that is no more than one chunk. However, Stockhammer(20230224532) et al disclose wherein the ARI information comprises an ARI event associated with the media stream, and wherein the ARI event is embedded in a first media slice that is in a first media track of the media stream such that the ARI event presents in the first media slice(see fig.3 for embedding ARI information track 134 in the multimedia content 120; 0079; 0084), wherein the ARI event carries track switching information(the ARI contains switching information; 0067,0084; 0106), wherein the first media track comprises a media representation(the system provides ARI track containing media presentation; 0112; 0025;0078;0091-0092;0106). It would have been obvious for any person of ordinary skill in the art at that time the invention was filed to introduce the teachings of Stockhammer(20230224532) to modify Stockhammer by inserting ARI data or tags of Stockhammer(20230224532) in the system of Stockhammer data in media stream for the purpose of allowing contents providers to control access to video contents or webpages accordingly. And Stockhammer(20220007086) et al disclose determining track switching information based on the ARI information(ARI data is used for switching; abstract; 0007-0009); determining, based on the track switching information, a switch to a different media track at the second media chunk is needed(the system can switch to a different media track based on the characteristics of the network;0030; 0058); wherein each of the first media chunk and the second media chunk is delivered to the streaming client device with a delivery delay that is no more than one chunk(the system is capable of managing latency and delay; 0290; 0016;0282). It would have been obvious for any person of ordinary skill in the art at that time the invention was filed to introduce the teachings of Stockhammer(20220007086) to modify Stockhammer and Stockhammer(20230224532) by providing options to switch to a plurality of media track for the purpose of improving the capability of the network accordingly. Regarding claim 3, Stockhammer et al disclose wherein: the media stream follows a DASH standard(the system is able to use DASH protocol; 0029; 0031), and the first media slice is a segment in the media stream; or the media stream follows a CMAF format(one or more CMAF tracks,0076-0077), and the first media slice is a chunk in the media stream. Regarding claim 4, Stockhammer et al disclose wherein the ARI information provides characteristic information for at least one of: the first media slice in the first media track; and first parallel media slices that are in other media tracks of the media stream and are aligned with the first media slice; or a second media slice that is in the first media track and follows the first media slice; and second parallel media slices that are in the other media tracks of the media stream and are time aligned with the second media slice(the system can provide segments containing frames or slices of video data; 0089;0104). Regarding claim 5, Stockhammer et al disclose wherein the characteristic information comprises at least one of: an offset of the first media slice of the first media track; a size of the first media slice of the first media track; an offset of each of the first parallel media slices; a size of the each of the first parallel media slices; a quality of the first media slice of the first media track; or a quality of the each of the first parallel media slices(byte offsets for the sub-segments,0101;0143;0131). Regarding claim 6, Stockhammer and Stockhammer(20230224532) et al did not explicitly disclose wherein determining, based on the track switching information, the switch to the different media track at the second media chunk is needed comprises: determining, based on the characteristic information and a bandwidth available to the streaming client device, the switch to the one of the other media tracks being needed. However, Stockhammer(20220007086) et al disclose wherein determining, based on the track switching information, the switch to the different media track at the second media chunk is needed comprises: determining, based on the characteristic information and a bandwidth available to the streaming client device, the switch to the one of the other media tracks being needed(the system can do bandwidth adaptation; 0030;0057-0058; 0053;0055). It would have been obvious for any person of ordinary skill in the art at that time the invention was filed to introduce the teachings of Stockhammer(20220007086) to modify Stockhammer and Stockhammer(20230224532) by providing options to switch to a plurality of media track for the purpose of improving the capability of the network accordingly. Regarding claim 7, it is rejected using the same ground of rejection for claim 4. Regarding claim 8, Stockhammer et al disclose wherein the media stream is encoded and transmitted in real time(may be applied to live, streaming, real-time audio and video data,0041). But did not explicitly disclose the ARI event is constructed without a consideration of the second media slice and the second parallel media slices. However, Stockhammer(20220007086) et al disclose the ARI event is constructed without a consideration of the second media slice and the second parallel media slices(0007-0009;0032-0033). It would have been obvious for any person of ordinary skill in the art at that time the invention was filed to introduce the teachings of Stockhammer(20220007086) to modify Stockhammer and Stockhammer(20230224532) by providing options to switch to a plurality of media track for the purpose of improving the capability of the network accordingly. Regarding claim 9, it is rejected using the same ground of rejection for claim 1. Regarding claim 10, Stockhammer and Stockhammer(20230224532) et al did not explicitly disclose wherein: the ARI event is received and the ARI event provides characteristic information for: the second media slice that is in the first media track and follows the first media slice; and second parallel media slices that are in the other media tracks of the media stream and are time aligned with the second media slice; and determining whether the switch to the one of the other media tracks being needed comprises: selecting a target media slice that is next to one of the second parallel media slices based on an estimation using the characteristic information; and switching to the target media slice after the second media slice. However, Stockhammer(20220007086) et al disclose wherein: the ARI event is received and the ARI event provides characteristic information for: the second media slice that is in the first media track and follows the first media slice(ARI track can include sample describing characteristics of chunks;0032-0033;0053;0055); and second parallel media slices that are in the other media tracks of the media stream and are time aligned with the second media slice( see fig.3 for processing data in parallel; 0260-0263) and determining whether the switch to the one of the other media tracks being needed comprises: selecting a target media slice that is next to one of the second parallel media slices based on an estimation using the characteristic information(the system can provide estimation regarding selection of media slice based on the characteristics of the network; 0023;0080;0178); and switching to the target media slice after the second media slice(the system can switch to a different media track based on the characteristics of the network;0030; 0058;0060). It would have been obvious for any person of ordinary skill in the art at that time the invention was filed to introduce the teachings of Stockhammer(20220007086) to modify Stockhammer and Stockhammer(20230224532) by providing options to switch to a plurality of media track for the purpose of improving the capability of the network accordingly. Regarding claim 11, it is rejected using the same ground of rejection for claim 10. Regarding claim 12, it is rejected using the same ground of rejection for claim 10. Regarding claim 13, Stockhammer and Stockhammer(20230224532) et al did not explicitly disclose wherein: the ARI sample is received and the ARI sample provides characteristic information for: the first media slice in the first media track, and the first parallel media slices that are in other media tracks of the media stream and are time aligned with the first media slice; and determining whether the switch to the one of the other media tracks being needed comprises: selecting one of the first parallel media slices based on the characteristic information; and switching to the one of the first parallel media slices. However, Stockhammer(20220007086) et al disclose wherein: the ARI sample is received and the ARI sample provides characteristic information for: the first media slice in the first media track(the ARI track may include samples associated with chunks; 0032-0033), and the first parallel media slices that are in other media tracks of the media stream and are time aligned with the first media slice(see fig.3; 0260-0263); and determining whether the switch to the one of the other media tracks being needed comprises: selecting one of the first parallel media slices based on the characteristic information; and switching to the one of the first parallel media slices(the system can switch to a different media track based on the characteristics of the network;0030; 0058;0060; 0023;0080;0178). It would have been obvious for any person of ordinary skill in the art at that time the invention was filed to introduce the teachings of Stockhammer(20220007086) to modify Stockhammer and Stockhammer(20230224532) by providing options to switch to a plurality of media track for the purpose of improving the capability of the network accordingly. Regarding claim 14, it is rejected using the same ground of rejection for claim 1. Regarding claim 16, it is rejected using the same ground of rejection for claim 3. Regarding claim 17, it is rejected using the same ground of rejection for claim 4. Regarding claim 18, it is rejected using the same ground of rejection for claim 5. Regarding claim 19, it is rejected using the same ground of rejection for claim 6. Regarding claim 20, it is rejected using the same ground of rejection for claim 1. 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. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JEAN D SAINT CYR whose telephone number is (571)270-3224. The examiner can normally be reached 9-5. 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, Brian Pendleton can be reached at 5712727527. 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. /JEAN D SAINT CYR/Examiner, Art Unit 2425 /Brian T Pendleton/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2425
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Prosecution Timeline

Jun 27, 2023
Application Filed
Sep 28, 2023
Response after Non-Final Action
Oct 31, 2024
Non-Final Rejection — §103
Feb 07, 2025
Response Filed
Apr 18, 2025
Final Rejection — §103
Aug 21, 2025
Request for Continued Examination
Aug 22, 2025
Response after Non-Final Action
Aug 23, 2025
Non-Final Rejection — §103
Nov 20, 2025
Examiner Interview Summary
Nov 20, 2025
Applicant Interview (Telephonic)
Dec 02, 2025
Response Filed
Mar 12, 2026
Final Rejection — §103 (current)

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Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

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Prosecution Projections

5-6
Expected OA Rounds
60%
Grant Probability
68%
With Interview (+8.3%)
3y 5m
Median Time to Grant
High
PTA Risk
Based on 590 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow rate.

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