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 .
Request for 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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 01/30/2026 has been entered.
Response to arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to all pending claims have been fully considered, but moot because of the new ground of rejection. Applicant argued that cited references failed to disclose prior to the pause event, monitoring, using control circuitry, the media content for changes in contextual information of the media content item; in response to receiving, at the user device, a signal indicative of the pause event, determining, using control circuitry, latest contextual information of the media content at the pause event based on the monitoring.
However, Thomas et al disclose a system being able to track or monitor the presentation of the video content in order to provide status indicator related to elapsed time before the pause command and summary or contextual data associated with the video content can be displayed upon receiving a pause command as disclosed in para. 0011; 0054-0055; 0044-46; 0062;0068. This action is made non-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) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Selfors(US.Pub.No.20210266641) in view of Jackson(US.Pub.No.20180199080) and Jing(US.Pub.No.20100188577) and Thomas(US.Pub.No.20030037068).
Regarding claim 1, Selfors et al disclose a method of modifying content for display at a user device during a pause event of media content, the method comprising(the system is able to retrieve contextual information during pause event or command; 0027;abstract);
determining, using control circuitry, a visual effect based at least in part on the contextual information(the system can display contextual data during pause function was selected and overlay as visual effect can be displayed during the pause of the video; abstract; 0079;0082);
and displaying, using control circuitry, the modified media item content during the pause event(see fig.7 for displaying additional data or content during paused event; 0079).
But did not explicitly disclose generating, using control circuitry, a modified media content item based on the visual effect; wherein the modified media content item is augmented to alter the visual appearance of the media content item; prior to the pause event, monitoring, using control circuitry, the media content for changes in contextual information of the media content item; in response to receiving, at the user device, a signal indicative of the pause event,
determining, using control circuitry, latest contextual information of the media content at the
pause event based on the monitoring.
However, Jackson et al disclose generating, using control circuitry, a modified media content item based on the visual effect(with Jackson, the system is able to use contextual clip generator 108 to create or generate contextual clips to modify the main video content based on visual prompt; 0044-0046;0050-0051;0033;0058-0059).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Jackson to modify Selfors by introducing contextual clip generator for the purpose of modifying video stream accordingly.
And Jing et al disclose wherein the modified media content item is augmented to alter the visual appearance of the media content item(the system is able to modify the appearance of medias content segment by reducing or changing the resolution or pixel of frames/segments of video during the pause of the video content;0046;0029).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Jing to modify Selfors and Jackson by providing options to modify the resolution or pixel of segments of video content for the purpose of increasing the capability of the network accordingly.
And Thomas et al disclose prior to the pause event, monitoring, using control circuitry, the media content for changes in contextual information of the media content item; in response to receiving, at the user device, a signal indicative of the pause event, determining, using control circuitry, latest contextual information of the media content at the pause event based on the monitoring(the system is able to track or monitor the presentation of the video content in order to provide status indicator related to elapsed time before the pause command and summary associated with the video content can be displayed upon receiving a pause command; 0011; 0054-0055; 0044-46; 0062;0068).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Thomas to modify Selfors and Jackson and Jing by providing options to present summary of the video content upon receiving pause command for the purpose of increasing viewing experience accordingly.
Regarding claim 2, Selfors et al disclose further comprising: obtaining, using control circuitry, image data from the media content item at the pause event; and wherein the contextual information is based on the image data(see fig.7 for displaying additional data or content during paused event; 0079; 0022; abstract).
Regarding claim 3, Selfors et al disclose the method further comprises: receiving, using transceiver circuitry, a signal indicative of the pause event, wherein obtaining the image data is in response to receiving the signal indicative of the pause event(the system can retrieve contextual contents based on pause event; 0021-0022; 0079).
But did not disclose wherein the image data is obtained with an automatic content recognition technique.
However, Jackson et al disclose wherein the image data is obtained with an automatic content recognition technique(with Jackson, the system is capable of using recognition information technique; 0071).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Jackson to modify Selfors and Jing and Thomas by introducing contextual clip generator for the purpose of modifying video stream accordingly.
Regarding claim 4, Selfors et al disclose wherein the media content item comprises metadata (the system is able to provide metadata related to video content; 0023; 0063) and the contextual information is determined from the metadata(0012;0020-0021) , and the method further comprises: receiving, using transceiver circuitry, a signal indicative of the pause event, wherein the metadata is fetched in response to receiving the signal indicative of the pause event(the system is able to search or fetch for contents according to pause event; abstract; 0086-0087).
Regarding claim 5, Selfors et al disclose further comprising: prior to the pause event, monitoring, using control circuitry, the media content for changes in contextual information(the system can delete or update data; 0155); storing, using control circuitry, the latest contextual information in cache(the system can store data in local cache; 0140;0062); and in response to receiving a signal indicative of the pause event, determining, using control circuitry, the contextual information at the pause event based on the contextual information in cache(the system is able to track data during a specific period of time; 0151;0103).
Regarding claim 6, Selfors et al disclose further comprising: preloading a further media content item from the media content during the pause event in parallel to the displaying of the modified media content item during the pause event(see fig.7 for loading other content on the screen during the pause event or command; 0079).
Regarding claim 7, Selfors et al disclose further comprising: receiving, using transceiver circuitry, a signal indicative of a play command; removing, using control circuitry, the visual effect; and displaying, using control circuitry, the preloaded media content item(the system can activate play command to remove overlay from the screen and start streaming video contents; 0070).
Regarding claim 8, Selfors and Jing and Thomas et al did not explicitly disclose further comprising: retrieving, using transceiver circuitry, a user profile, the user profile indicative of a user- preferred visual effect; storing, using control circuitry, the user-preferred visual effect in local storage on a user device; and wherein determining the visual effect is based at least in part on the user-preferred visual effect.
However, Jackson et al disclose further comprising: retrieving, using transceiver circuitry, a user profile, the user profile indicative of a user- preferred visual effect; storing, using control circuitry, the user-preferred visual effect in local storage on a user device; and wherein determining the visual effect is based at least in part on the user-preferred visual effect(the system has the capability to store profile and preferences of the users in order to determine visual effect or overlay to be displayed accordingly; 0103; 0106; 0063;0058;0069;0087;0090).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Jackson to modify Selfors and Jing and Thomas by applying preferences of the users for the purpose of improving viewing experiences accordingly.
Regarding claim 9, Selfors and Jing and Thomas et al did not explicitly disclose wherein the visual effect comprises a teaser frame of the media content, and wherein the teaser frame is selected from a plurality of indicated media content frames.
However, Jackson et al disclose wherein the visual effect comprises a teaser frame of the media content, and wherein the teaser frame is selected from a plurality of indicated media content frames( the system is able temporary storage media or cache memory to buffer frames of video contents as I-Frames representing teaser frames; 0049; 0110).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Jackson to modify Selfors and Jing and Thomas by introducing contextual clip generator for the purpose of modifying video stream accordingly.
Regarding claim 10, Selfors and Jing and Thomas et al did not explicitly disclose further comprising: determining user device capabilities; in response to the user device capabilities being below a threshold, carrying out the method at least in part on a server communicatively coupled to the user device and/or a media content service; and in response to the user device capabilities being above the threshold, carrying out the method at least in part on the user device.
However, Jackson et al disclose further comprising: determining user device capabilities; in response to the user device capabilities being below a threshold, carrying out the method at least in part on a server communicatively coupled to the user device and/or a media content service; and in response to the user device capabilities being above the threshold, carrying out the method at least in part on the user device(with Jackson, the system is able to make determination to get contextual contents from a remote server or from a local cache or temporary storage media based on predefined threshold times or length being associated with the requested contextual contents; 0051; 0078; 0080-0086; 0008).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Jackson to modify Selfors and Jing and Thomas by introducing contextual clip generator for the purpose of modifying video stream accordingly.
Regarding claim 11, it is rejected using the same ground of rejection for claim 1.
Regarding claim 12, it is rejected using the same ground of rejection for claim 2.
Regarding claim 13, it is rejected using the same ground of rejection for claim 3.
Regarding claim 14, it is rejected using the same ground of rejection for claim 4
Regarding claim 15, it is rejected using the same ground of rejection for claim 5.
Regarding claim 16, it is rejected using the same ground of rejection for claim 6.
Regarding claim 17, it is rejected using the same ground of rejection for claim 7.
Regarding claim 18, it is rejected using the same ground of rejection for claim 8.
Regarding claim 19, it is rejected using the same ground of rejection for claim 9.
Regarding claim 20, it is rejected using the same ground of rejection for claim 10.
Conclusion
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.
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/JEAN D SAINT CYR/Examiner, Art Unit 2425
/Brian T Pendleton/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2425