DETAILED ACTION
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, see Appeal Brief pages 12-15, filed 03/21/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-19 under 102 (a)(1) have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Fanfani in view of Macauley.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 12-14 and 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fanfani (Pub. No. 2023/0247245) in view of Macauley et al. (hereinafter ‘Macauley’, Patent No. 11,206,440).
Regarding claims 1 and 12, Fanfani teaches a system (100, Fig. 1) (with respective method) for a creating a personalized media channel ([0021]; [022]), comprising:
a content processor configured to receive content assets from a content provider, convert each media asset into a respective pre-processed content asset, and extract content metadata from each media asset (140, Fig. 1; receives content from content element 130, and the content is analyzed/processed to associate/determine taxonomic associations using corresponding media metadata, [0036]-[0038]; [0049]);
a personalization engine that receives as inputs user data and the media metadata and that outputs content recommendations (140, in particular 142, Fig. 1; [0036]-[0040]);
a scheduler that receives as an input the content recommendations and that outputs a personalized schedule of content, the personalized schedule including one or more of the content recommendations (150, Fig. 1; [0040]-[0045]);
a data store that receives as an input pre-processed content assets from the content importer and that outputs content manifests of available content (150, Fig. 1; [0040]-[0045]; [0049]-[0050], where the content is stored in content databases);
On the other hand, Fanfani does not explicitly teach
a manifest manipulator that receives as inputs the personalized schedule and the content manifests and that outputs a personalized linear manifest based on the personalized schedule of content.
However, in an analogous art, Macauley teaches a system that creates a customized channels with different sources as a linear channel delivery (Abstract; col. 2 lines 46-57). Digital content is transferred to a content provider cloud infrastructure by the content owner or a television channel operator. The content is pre-processed before being stored to a content repository (col. 2 line 58 to col. 3 line 17). The system incorporates at the end of the line a manifest manipulator. The manifest manipulator creates a customized distribution channel, using a customized manifest which describes a schedule of fragments to be used, by assembling a channel with the available content (col. 3 lines 21-60). The manifest could be customized based on different factors, including groups of users in a region or specific end-customer (col. 3 lines 32-60). The manifest manipulator outputs mixed customized channels (Fig. 3).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date claimed inventio to have modified Fanfani’s invention with Macaulay’s feature of having a manifest manipulator that creates personalized linear manifest channels for the benefit of “allowing entities, such as TV channel operators, to leverage a cloud infrastructure to create one or more customized television channels” (Macauley: col. 2 lines 22-32).
Regarding claim 13, Fanfani and Macauley teach further comprising:
receiving, in the personalization engine, real-time personal user data of the target user (Fanfani: [0038]-[0044]);
updating, with the personalization engine, the personalized content recommendations to include real-time personalized content recommendations (Fanfani: [0038]-[0044]);
creating, with the scheduler, an updated personalized channel schedule to include at least some of the real-time personalized content recommendations (Fanfani: [0038]-[0044]);
creating, with the manifest manipulator, an updated linear manifest according to the updated personalized channel schedule (Macauley: col. 3 lines 21-60); and
producing the media stream according to the updated linear manifest (Macauley: col. 3 lines 21-60).
Regarding claim 14, Fanfani and Macauley teach wherein the real-time personal user data includes a rating of a streaming content asset that is currently streaming in the media stream (Fanfani: [0053]).
Regarding claim 17, Fanfani and Macauley teach wherein the personalized channel schedule is created using a template that includes one or more blocks of targeted content and/or one or more blocks of personalized content and/or one or more blocks of general-interest content (Fanfani: [0051]-[0054]).
Claim(s) 2-9, 15 and 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fanfani (Pub. No. 2023/0247245) in view of Macauley et al. (hereinafter ‘Macauley’, Patent No. 11,206,440) in further view of Milford (Pub. No. 2019/0364319).
Regarding claim 2, Fanfani and Macauley teach all the limitations of the claim it depends on. On the other hand, they do not explicitly teach wherein the personalized schedule includes personalized advertisement slots.
However, in an analogous art, Milford teaches a system that generates and transmits personalized video channels to one or a group of users ([0011]-[0013]). Based on user’s profile, the system creates a personalized channel that includes personalized content (live, VOD, etc.) and personalized advertisement ([0030]; [0035]; [0039]; [0042]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Fanfani and Macauley’s invention with Milford’s feature of personalizing schedule including ads slots for the benefit of presenting advertisement that is relevant to user’s preferences and that may end up on a commercial transaction.
Regarding claims 3 and 16, Fanfani, Macauley and Milford teach wherein the personalization engine determines, based on the user data, a total number of the personalized advertisement slots, a length of each personalized advertisement slot and/or a timing of the personalized advertisement slots (Milford: [0030]; [0039]).
Regarding claim 4, Fanfani, Macauley and Milford wherein the personalized schedule includes targeted advertisement slots for a user group that includes the user (Milford: [0011]; [0024]; [0030]).
Regarding claim 5, Fanfani, Macauley and Milford wherein the personalization engine determines, based on user-group data, a total number of the targeted advertisement slots, a length of each targeted advertisement slot, and/or a timing of the targeted advertisement slots (Milford: [0011]; [0024]; [0025]; [0030]).
Regarding claim 6, Fanfani, Macauley and Milford teach wherein:
the content recommendations include personalized content recommendations and/or targeted content recommendations, the targeted content recommendations for the user group, and the personalized schedule includes one or more blocks of targeted content and/or one or more blocks of personalized content, the block(s) of targeted content including at least some of the targeted content recommendations, the block(s) of personalized content including at least some of the personalized content recommendations (Milford: [0011]; [0024]-[0026]; [0030]; Fig. 8B).
Regarding claim 7, Fanfani, Macauley and Milford teach wherein:
the manifest manipulator is a channel manifest manipulator, and the system further comprises an advertisement manifest manipulator (Macauley: col. 3 lines 21-60; col. 4 lines 57-60) that is configured to insert personalized advertisements into the personalized advertisement slots (Milford: [0024]; [0033]-[0035]).
Regarding claim 8, Fanfani, Macauley and Milford teach wherein a content delivery network is configured to insert personalized advertisements into the personalized advertisement slots (Milford: [0024]; [0033]-[0039]).
Regarding claims 9 and 15, Fanfani, Macauley and Milford teach wherein the manifest manipulator is configured to insert personalized advertisements into the personalized advertisement slots (Milford: Fig. 8b; [0033]-[0039]).
Claim(s) 10, 11, 18 and 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fanfani (Pub. No. 2023/0247245) in view of Macauley et al. (hereinafter ‘Macauley’, Patent No. 11,206,440) in further view of Killick et al. (hereinafter ‘Killick’, Patent No. 10,299,005).
Regarding claims 10 and 18, Fanfani and Macauley teach all the limitations of the claim it depends on. On the other hand, they do not explicitly teach wherein:
the content processor is configured to encrypt at least some of the respective pre-processed content assets using respective asset encryption keys to form encrypted pre-processed content assets, and the system further comprises: an encryption key management system configured to store the respective asset encryption keys; and
a re-encryption service configured to:
receive a request for a first encrypted pre-processed content asset, and in response to the request, decrypt the first encrypted pre- processed content asset using a corresponding asset encryption key to form a first unencrypted pre-processed content asset and then re-encrypt the first unencrypted pre-processed content asset using a channel encryption key for the personalized media channel.
However, in an analogous art, Killick teaches a system that is provides a personal channel that allows users to request content (On demand content) in a linear manner at the user’s convenience (col. 2 lines 24-33; col. 4 lines 16-56). Killick teaches that the service includes a preference server, a key store and a license server (col. 4 lines 16-56). Upon request of the user, the system (LOD -Linear On Demand- service) for the encrypted content; de-encrypts it and re-encrypts again with keys that only authorized users can access the channel content (col. 4 lines 16-56; col. 6 line 7 to col. 7 line 8).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Fanfani and Macauley’s invention with Killick’s feature of decrypting pre-encrypted content and re-encrypt it for using it on a personalized content for the benefit of giving access to a channel of On Demand content channel for a service fee.
Regarding claims 11 and 19, Fanfani and Macauley teach all the limitations of the claim it depends on. On the other hand, they do not explicitly teach wherein:
wherein the system further comprises a digital rights management (DRM) engine configured to pre-provision DRM licenses to a client application prior to and/or during a streaming of the personalized media channel, the DRM licenses for the media assets to be streamed in the personalized media channel.
However, in an analogous art, Killick teaches a system that is provides a personal channel that allows users to request content (On demand content) in a linear manner at the user’s convenience (col. 2 lines 24-33; col. 4 lines 16-56). Killick teaches that the service includes a preference server, a key store and a license server (col. 4 lines 16-56). Upon request of the user, the system (LOD -Linear On Demand- service) for the encrypted content; de-encrypts it and re-encrypts again with keys that only authorized users can access the channel content (col. 4 lines 16-56; col. 6 line 7 to col. 7 line 8). The system sends or stores a produced token that can be used to access the licensed content.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Fanfani and Macauley’s invention with Killick’s feature of transmitting DRM licenses to the user for accessing the licensed content for the benefit of giving access to a channel of On Demand content channel for a service fee.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to OMAR S PARRA whose telephone number is (571)270-1449. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: Mostly 10-6PM.
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/OMAR S PARRA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2421
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