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 .
Objection to the claims
Claims 52-53 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 05/01/2026 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 wherein the contextual information is associated with a visual effect to augment each media content segment during a pause event of the media content and the visual effect manipulates the appearance of the media content segment; wherein the contextual information is embedded as inline tags within respective URL lines of the manifest and is interpreted by a media player of the user device to determine the visual effect to be applied during the pause event.
However, Selfors et al disclose a system being capable of displaying contextual data during pause function was selected and overlay as visual effect can be displayed during the pause of the video as disclosed in para. 0079;0082; abstract.
And Jing et al disclose a system being 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 as disclosed in para.0046;0029.
And Hooven et al disclose a system being capable of collecting contextual data and the system can tag video contents; and the system is capable of embedding URL or website or webpage in specific location of a video content; and finally, the system is to overlay animations and graphical effects on the top of a video upon receiving inputs from user as clicking or pausing commands as disclosed in para. 0029-0031;0036-0038;0034; 0005-0006;0024-0025; abstract. 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) 1-3; 6-7; 9-13; 15-17; 19-20; 51; 54-55 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jackson(US.Pub.No.20180199080) in view of Selfors(US.Pub.No.20210266641) and Jing(US.Pub.No.20100188577) and Hooven(US.pub.No.20130290847).
Regarding claim 1, Jackson et al disclose a method for generating a manifest(see fig.1 for providing manifest files to the client device or terminal 106; 0037) for adaptive bitrate media(see fig.1 with encoder 103 for encoding media contents in multiple or various bitrates; 0030);
the method comprising: receiving, from a user device via transceiver circuitry, a request for media content delivery(request for video contents can be sent from user terminals;0034-0035);
determining, using control circuitry, a plurality of media content segments associated with the requested media content(the system is able to identify multiple clips or segments or portions associated with requested video content; 0008;0102; 0030-0031);
determining, using control circuitry, contextual information for the media content segments (see fig.1 with contextual generator to provide contextual data related to the video content; abstract; 0008-0011);and
generating a manifest(manifest data files; 0037); the manifest comprising: a plurality of uniform resource locators(URLs)(URL, 0042), indicating the location of the media content segments(location associated with media content can be provided;0037); and indications of contextual information associated with each media content segment(visual indicator or prompt can be displayed;0077;0059;0053);
transmitting the manifest to the user device(see fig.1 for providing manifest data files to the client terminal 106; 0037;0078).
But did not explicitly disclose wherein the contextual information is associated with a visual effect to augment each media content segment during a pause event of the media content and the visual effect manipulates the appearance of the media content segment; wherein the contextual information is embedded as inline tags within respective URL lines of the manifest and is interpreted by a media player of the user device to determine the visual effect to be applied during the pause event.
However, Selfors et al disclose wherein the contextual information is associated with a visual effect to augment each media content segment during a pause event of the media content (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).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Selfors to modify Jackson by providing options to display other contents while pausing the video contents for the purpose of improving viewing experiences accordingly.
And Jing et al disclose the visual effect manipulates the appearance of the media content segment (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 Jackson and Selfors 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 Hooven et al disclose wherein the contextual information(the system is able to collect contextual data, 0031) is embedded as inline tags(the system can tag video contents; abstract; 0005-0006;0029-0030) within respective URL lines of the manifest(the system is capable of embedding URL or website or webpage in specific location of a video content; 0005-0006;0024-0025; 0030-0031) and is interpreted by a media player of the user device to determine the visual effect to be applied during the pause event(the system is able to overlay animations and graphical effects on the top of a video upon receiving inputs from user as clicking or pausing commands; 0030-0031;0036-0038;0034).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Hooven to modify Jackson and Selfors and Jing by providing options to embed contextual information with information tag associated with URL for the purpose of improving viewing experiences accordingly.
Regarding claim 2, Jackson et al disclose wherein the manifest further comprises instructions for modifying each media content segment based on the visual effect(see fig.2 and fig.3 for displaying overlay or visual prompt at specific location of the screen according to instructions embedded in the manifest; 0033;0051-0054;0058;0078).
Regarding claim 3, Jackson and Jing and Hooven et al did not explicitly disclose further comprising: during the pause event, receiving a request for further media content delivery; wherein the further media content is a further plurality of media content segments associated with the requested media content.
However, Selfors et al disclose further comprising: during the pause event, receiving a request for further media content delivery; wherein the further media content is a further plurality of media content segments associated with the requested media content. (the system allows user to request additional content or data when the video stream is paused; 0022; 0079).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Selfors to modify Jackson and Jing and Hooven by providing options to display other contents while pausing the video contents for the purpose of improving viewing experiences accordingly.
Regarding claim 6, Jackson et al disclose wherein the inline tags are embedded within the respective URL( URL, 0042) lines of the manifest such that legacy players ignore the inline tags(the system is able to assign tags to contents; 0084;0095).
Regarding claim 7; Jackson et al disclose wherein the request for content delivery comprises an indication to retrieve consecutive segments of the content(clips associated with video contents can be retrieved; 0095;0035;0042-0044), the method further comprises instructions for caching the consecutive segments of the content(the system is able to store data; 0027;0032-0033; 0074;0004 ).
Regarding claim 9, Jackson et al disclose further comprising: receiving a request for a user profile, the user profile is indicative of a user-preferred visual effect; and sending the user profile or an indication of the user-preferred visual effect to the user device(the system can monitor preferences associated with user profiles; 0069;0087-0088;0090).
Regarding claim 10, Jackson et al disclose wherein the visual effect comprises a teaser frame(the system is able to provide prompt message or trigger message as teaser frame; 0050-0051; 0058) of the media content, and wherein the teaser frame is selected from at least one of: the plurality of media content segments, a media content item associated with the requested media content, or the requested media content(0081-0082;0046;0042).
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 15, Jackson et al disclose wherein the further media content is visual effects associated with the media content segments referenced in the manifest(see fig.2 and fig.3 for displaying overlay or visual prompt at specific location of the screen according to instructions embedded in the manifest; 0033;0051-0054;0058;0078).
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 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.
Regarding claim 51, Jackson and Selfors and Jing et al did not explicitly disclose wherein the visual effect is an animated enhancement to augment a visual appeal of the media content segment during the pause event.
However, Hooven et al disclose wherein the visual effect is an animated enhancement to augment a visual appeal of the media content segment during the pause event(see fig.1 to fig.5 for displaying interactive overlay related to the main video content; 0035-0038).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Hooven to modify Jackson and Selfors and Jing by providing options to display interactive overlay while pausing the video contents for the purpose of increasing the satisfaction of the users accordingly.
Regarding claim 54, Jackson et al disclose wherein the manifest further comprises instructions for: monitoring, prior to the pause event, the media content for changes in the contextual information; storing, in a cache, the contextual information associated with a most recently played media content segment(the system is able to track or monitor video contents being viewed by the users and the system can compile contextual data related to video contents being presented to users; 0069; 0075;0110; 0027;0032-0033; 0074;0004).
But did not explicitly disclose in response to receiving a signal indicative of the pause event, using the contextual information stored in the cache to determine the visual effect to be applied during the pause event.
However, Hoover et al disclose in response to receiving a signal indicative of the pause event, using the contextual information stored in the cache to determine the visual effect to be applied during the pause event(the system is to overlay animations and graphical effects on the top of a video upon receiving inputs from user as clicking or pausing commands; 0030-0031;0036-0038;0034).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching of Hooven to modify Jackson and Selfors and Jing by providing options to embed contextual information with information tag associated with URL for the purpose of improving viewing experiences accordingly.
Regarding claim 55, it is rejected using the same ground of rejection for claim 54.
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
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