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 .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 4 August 2026 has been entered.
Introductory Remarks
In response to communications filed on 4 August 2026, claims 1, 4, 8, 11, 15, and 18 are amended per Applicant's request. Claims 2-3, 5-6, 9-10, 12-13, 16-17, and 19-20 are cancelled. No claims were withdrawn. No new claims were added. Therefore, claims 1, 4, 7-8, 11, 14-15, and 18 are presently pending in the application, of which claims 1, 8, and 15 are presented in independent form.
The previously raised 101 rejection of the pending claims is withdrawn in view of the amendments to the claims.
The previously raised 103 rejection of the pending claims is withdrawn in view of the amendments to the claims. A new ground(s) of rejection has been issued.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed 4 August 2026 with respect to the rejection of the claims under 35 U.S.C. 101 (see Remarks, p. 8-13) have been fully considered. Without acquiescing to Applicant’s arguments, the Office has found that the amendments render the claims patent eligible, and the 101 rejection has been accordingly withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments filed 4 August 2026 with respect to the rejection of the claims under 35 U.S.C. 103 (see Remarks, p. 13-17) have been fully considered but are moot because the arguments do not apply to the new reference, Allen (and thus new combination of references) being used in the current rejection.
Claim Objections
Claims 1, 8, and 15 are objected to because of the following informalities: the claims recite “…storing, within the media repository, and association between the media overlay with the selected geolocation”. This should be “an”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 1, 4, 7-8, 11, and 14-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Independent Claims 1, 8, and 15 recite “receiving…a media object that comprises a caption that includes the graphical icon…; receiving, from the first client device, an input specifying one or more circumstances [comprising a location criterion] under which a media overlay comprising the media object is to be offered to other users…; associating, with a media repository, the graphical icon with a data category and the location criterion”.
There is no support for an intersection between the graphical icon’s location criterion being associated with the media overlay’s tagging of a location criterion. The graphical icon appears to be associated with a location due to the user performing manual assignment (Specification, [0051]). The generated media overlay is associated with the location criterion, but this does not carry forward to the graphical icon, which has its own associated process for generating associated locations.
However, there does appear to be support for both media overlays being associated with a location, and the graphical icon being associated with a location. However, these associations appear to be performed distinctly, not in a linked manner as claimed.
The independent claims also recite “associating, within a media repository, the graphical icon with a data category and the location criterion…; … responsive to the detecting the graphical icon associated with the data category within the caption of the media object received from the first client device, assigning the media object to the data category associated with the graphical icon within the media repository…”.
There does not appear to be redundant forms of assigning/associating the graphical icon with the data category in the same iterative process (e.g., assigning/associating the graphical icon twice for the same media object comprising a caption including the graphical icon).
The rest of the dependent claims are rejected for at least by virtue of their dependency on their respective independent claims.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1, 4, 7-8, 11, and 14-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Independent Claims 1, 8, and 15 recite “associating, within a media repository, the graphical icon with a data category and the location criterion…; … responsive to the detecting the graphical icon associated with the data category within the caption of the media object received from the first client device, assigning the media object to the data category associated with the graphical icon within the media repository…”.
It is unclear what is being claimed here, e.g., it appears to be repetitive claims.
For purposes of examination, the interpretation that these pertain to the same step (which takes place after detecting the graphical icon within the caption).
The rest of the dependent claims are rejected for at least by virtue of their dependency on their respective independent claims, and for failing to cure the deficiencies of their respective independent claims.
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.
Claims 1, 4, 7-8, 11, 14-15, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Huang et al. (“Huang”) (US 2017/0083520 A1), in view of Dimson et al. (“Dimson”) (US 2017/0154055 A1), in further view of Allen et al. (“Allen”) (US 2016/0085863 A1).
Regarding claim 1: Huang teaches A method comprising:
receiving, from a first client device, a media object that comprises [an attribute] … (Huang, [0025] and [0060], where the system receives media content items 104, which may have one or more visual characteristics and attributes including characters including in the content, text strings included in the content, and metadata attributes);
associating, within a media repository, [a] graphical icon with a data category … (Huang, [0026], [0029], and [0059], where a database of content associations may be maintained 320, e.g., a pictorial representation, e.g., emoji (i.e., “graphical icon”) may be associated with a content association (i.e., “data category”)1 in the database. See also, e.g., Huang, [0058], where the database also stores (318) media content items);
detecting the [attribute] associated with the data category within … the media object (Huang, [0025] and [0060], where the system may analyze one or more visual characteristics and one or more attributes in order to determine a context associated with the content item (implying that these visual characteristics and attributes were “detected” as claimed));
responsive to the detecting the [attribute] associated with the data category within [the attribute] of the media object received from the first client device, assigning the media object to the data category associated with the [attribute] within the media repository (Huang, [0060], where the content item having one or more visual characteristics and one or more attributes are analyzed to determine a context associated with the content item. A content association may then be selected 326 from the maintained database of content associations, where the content association is selected 326 based on the determined context of the content item. The content item is then stored 328 in a database (i.e., “media repository”) based on the selected content association (i.e., “assigning the media object the data category associated with the [attribute]”). See also, e.g., Huang, [0053], where content associations may be automatically associated to content items, and stored as item-association relationships);
receiving a search request from a second client device, the search request including the graphical icon (Huang, [0041], where the system receives search request/queries for media content items received from user devices 102 via the search interface module. Note that “user devices” implies that a search may be received from “a second client device” as claimed. See Huang, [0078], where the received search query may include a pictorial representation of an expression, which includes emojis (i.e., “the search request including the graphical icon”));
responsive to the search request that includes the graphical icon, accessing current location data that indicates a geographic location of the second client device (Huang, [0032], where data included in the personalization store may be used as one or more factors by the search interface module in determining the search intent of the user. The personalization information includes location data, which may be obtained via GPS. See Huang, [0049], where the GPS of a mobile device includes a current geographic location of a user, resulting in different collections or content associations being presented to the user);
conditioned on the determining that the current location data indicates the location … associated with the graphical icon, retrieving the media [object] from within the media repository based on the graphical icon included in the search request received from the second client device and the data category associated with the graphical icon; and causing display of a presentation of the media [object] among a collection of media content within a media feed at the second client device (Huang, [0041], where the system may receive a request for a collection of media items based on a content association such as “#HAPPY”, “#RUDE”, “#FOMO”, etc. See Huang, [0059], where a pictorial representation of happiness (an emoji of a smiley face) may be associated with a content association of “#HAPPY” (i.e., “the data category associated with the graphical icon”).
See Huang, [0078-0080], where the search query includes a pictorial representation of an emoji, which may be mapped to a “sad” expression or “sad” expressive intent metadata content association (i.e., “data category associated with the graphical icon”). A candidate set of media content items are determined based on the expression received in the search query matching one or more expressive intent metadata content associations associated with the media content items in the candidate set (i.e., “a collection of media content”). A candidate set of media content items based on the collection (i.e., “display of a presentation of the media object”) are provided to the user device to display in the user interface in response to the search query.
See Huang, [0032] and [0049], where different collections or content associations may be presented to the user (i.e., “among a collection of media content”) based on personalized information such as location, e.g., a current geographic location of the user (implying that the search request includes location data as a criteria for presenting different collections/content associations) (i.e., “associated with the search request”). Recall from Huang, [0041], with respect to multiple user devices being able to perform the search (i.e., “second client device”).
See Huang, [0080] and [0082], where a candidate set of media content items may be presented in the user interface in response to the search query. Thus, although Huang does not appear to explicitly state that the format is in the form of a “media feed” as claimed, Huang one of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to have modified Huang to display the presented media content items in a “media feed” format with predictably equivalent operating characteristics, which is that the search results are provided to a user. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to do so in order to present a searching user with different media content items 104 as new items are added to the collection (and the collecting is being updated and added to in real-time), thereby enabling the media content items to be quickly rendered (see, e.g., Huang, [0033])).
Huang does not appear to explicitly teach causing display, at a first client device, of a map within a user-based publication platform; receiving, from the first client device, a selection of a geolocation on the map; [receiving a media object] that comprises a caption that includes a graphical icon, the media object comprising uploaded content associated with the selected geolocation; receiving, from the first client device, an input specifying one or more circumstances under which a media overlay comprising the media object is to be offered to other users, the one or more circumstances comprising a location criterion that comprises a radius extending from the selected geolocation; generating the media overlay comprising the media object; [associating, within a media repository,] the graphical icon [with a data category] and the location criterion and storing, within the media repository, and association between the media overlay with the selected geolocation; [detecting the] graphical icon [associated with the data category] within the caption [of the media object, and in response, assigning the media object to the data category associated with the] caption [within the media repository; determining that the geographic location of the second client device satisfies the one or more circumstances by determining that the geographic location is within the radius extending from the selected geolocation; [conditioned on the determining that the current location data indicates the location] within the radius [associated with the graphical icon, retrieving the media] overlay [from within the media repository]; [and causing a display of a presentation of the media] overlay [among a collection of media content within a media feed at the second client device].
Dimson teaches [receiving a media object] that comprises a caption that includes a graphical icon (Dimson, [0056], where the system gathers a plurality of electronic documents and creates the repository 102. See Dimson, [0062], where the system can parse the repository 102 (and the electronic documents 104a-104n) and identify, e.g., index, standardized image characters. See Dimson, [0106], where the tags, e.g., containing standardized image characters (Dimson, [0038]), are linked to captions and comments (i.e., “caption that includes a graphical icon”). See also Dimson, [0125], where digital content, e.g., digital images, may be tagged (i.e., “caption”) with characters including hashtags and standardized image characters, e.g., emojis (Dimson, [0005]));
[associating, within a media repository,] the graphical icon [with a data category] and the location criterion; [detecting the] graphical icon [associated with the data category] within the caption [of the media object, and in response, assigning the media object to the data category associated with the] caption [within the media repository (Dimson, [0085-0095], [0102], and [0106], where (hash)tags, including tags of standardized image characters, are parsed out, e.g., from digital content (i.e., “detecting the graphical icon within the caption of the media object”) using regular expressions and pattern matching, e.g., accessing a record of available standardized image characters and corresponding code points. The system then indexes the corresponding digital content by tag, where regular expression may link tags in captions and comments with regards to social media posts provided (i.e., “graphical icon within the caption”).
See Dimson, [0247], where a portion of the server standardized image character library 748 may correspond to certain characteristics or factors, e.g., a location associated with a user (implying that “associating, within a media repository, the graphical icon with the location criterion” had taken place earlier, as standardized image characters are associated with locations). See Dimson, [0076] and [0213], where the system can produce a database identifying meanings (words or symbols closest in meaning to one or more standardized image characters), e.g., standardized image character library 736 can include one or more data files identifying contextual meaning (i.e., “data category”) with regard to one or more standardized image characters).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have combined the teachings of Huang and Dimson (hereinafter “Huang as modified”). Huang suggests in [0044] that various attributes, including hashtag symbols and characters included in the media content item may be used to determine content associations, i.e., for indexing. Therefore, one of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to have modified Huang’s disclosure to include using captions containing graphical icons as sources of associating content with graphical icons because graphical icons are often used in social media communications (as disclosed by Dimson at [0005])2, as are captions. Therefore, it would have been obvious to include graphical icons from captions that are associated with media content items in order to provide data associations/processing on a greater range of common data types being utilized by users, i.e., allowing users to perform similar functions, e.g., indexing, searching, as for textual data, e.g., hashtags and captions.
Huang as modified does not appear to explicitly teach causing display, at a first client device, of a map within a user-based publication platform; receiving, from the first client device, a selection of a geolocation on the map; [receiving a media object] comprising uploaded content associated with the selected geolocation; receiving, from the first client device, an input specifying one or more circumstances under which a media overlay comprising the media object is to be offered to other users, the one or more circumstances comprising a location criterion that comprises a radius extending from the selected geolocation; generating the media overlay comprising the media object; storing, within the media repository, and association between the media overlay with the selected geolocation; determining that the geographic location of the second client device satisfies the one or more circumstances by determining that the geographic location is within the radius extending from the selected geolocation; [conditioned on the determining that the current location data indicates the location] within the radius [associated with the graphical icon, retrieving the media] overlay [from within the media repository]; [and causing a display of a presentation of the media] overlay [among a collection of media content within a media feed at the second client device].
Allen teaches causing display, at a first client device, of a map within a user-based publication platform; receiving, from the first client device, a selection of a geolocation on the map (Allen, [0039-0040], where the media filter publication application provides a GUI for a user to upload content and select a geolocation on a map, e.g., the user uploads a logo and defines boundaries on the map to identify a particular geolocation associated with the logo. Similarly, merchants may upload content and select geolocations on a map);
[receiving a media object] comprising uploaded content associated with the selected geolocation; receiving, from the first client device, an input specifying one or more circumstances under which a media overlay comprising the media object is to be offered to other users, the one or more circumstances comprising a location criterion that comprises a radius extending from the selected geolocation (Allen, [0039-0040] and [0066], where once the user submits the content and identifies the particular geolocation, the media filter publication application generates a media filter that includes the content associated with the particular geolocation. As such, mobile devices that are located within the particular geolocation have access to the media filter. Similar examples exist for merchants, with the addition of submitting a bid amount for a merchant-based media filter, e.g., promotions such as digital coupons to be offered to a user (Allen, [0098] and [0106]). The media filter of the highest bidding merchant may be the only media accessed by mobile devices located at the selected geolocation.
See Allen, [0072] and [0083], where the selected geolocation corresponds to a geographic boundary that defines a region located within a predetermined radius of an address, point of interest, or name of an existing establishment);
generating the media overlay comprising the media object; storing, within the media repository, and association between the media overlay with the selected geolocation (Allen, [0057-0061], where filter application 122 generates a media filter that includes the uploaded content (i.e., “generating the media overlay comprising the media object”) and associates the uploaded content with the user’s selection of a geolocation from a map (i.e., “association between the media overlay with the selected geolocation”). Media filters are stored in the database(s) 126 and accessed through database server 124);
determining that the geographic location of the second client device satisfies the one or more circumstances by determining that the geographic location is within the radius extending from the selected geolocation; [conditioned on the determining that the current location data indicates the location] within the radius [associated with the graphical icon, retrieving the media] overlay [from within the media repository]; [and causing a display of a presentation of the media] overlay [among a collection of media content within a media feed at the second client device] (Allen, [0123], where a promotion module receives geolocation information from a client device, identifies the geolocation of the client device from the geolocation information (defined by a region located within a predetermined radius of an address (Allen, [0072])), accesses the set of media filters for the merchant associated with the geolocation, and selects at least one media filter from the set of media filters. See Allen, [0092] and [0106-0108], where the media filter 1820 may be displayed on top of (i.e., as a transparent overlay) the media content 1806. See Huang above with respect to the location being associated with the graphical icon, and the “media feed”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have combined the teachings of Huang as modified and Allen (hereinafter “Huang as modified”) with the motivation of having high visibility leading to higher engagement and potentially greater interactions with merchants and businesses within a particular region (i.e., higher relevance leads to a greater possibility of engagement/interaction).
Regarding claim 4: Huang as modified teaches The method of claim 1, wherein causing display of the presentation of the media overlay includes:
causing display of a set of search results that includes the presentation of the media overlay (Huang, [0041], where the system may receive a request for a collection of media items based on a content association such as “#HAPPY”, “#RUDE”, “#FOMO”, etc. See Huang, [0080], where a candidate set of media content items based on the collection (i.e., “including the presentation of the media content”) are provided to the user device to display in the user interface in response to the search query. See Huang, [0032], where personalized information such as location may be used as one or more factors by the search interface module. See also Huang, [0049], where different collections or content associations may be presented to the user based on the geographic location of the user.
See Allen, [0092], [0106-0108], and [0123], where upon users entering a geographic boundary, media filters may be displayed on top of (i.e., as a transparent overlay) media content 1806, including, e.g., promotions and coupons to be offered to users).
Regarding claim 7: Huang as modified teaches The method of claim 1, wherein the media object includes one or more of: image data; and video data (Huang, [0025], where the received media content items may include various types of content, including image content and audio-visual content, i.e., video).
Regarding claim 8: Claim 8 recites substantially the same claim limitations as claim 1, and is rejected for the same reasons.
Note that Huang teaches A system comprising: a memory; and at least one hardware processor coupled to the memory and comprising instructions that causes the system to perform operations comprising [the claimed steps] (Huang, [0104], where the system may be implemented by a processor executing one or more instructions stored in system memory).
Regarding claim 11: Claim 11 recites substantially the same claim limitations as claim 4, and is rejected for the same reasons.
Regarding claim 14: Claim 14 recites substantially the same claim limitations as claim 7, and is rejected for the same reasons.
Regarding claim 15: Claim 15 recites substantially the same claim limitations as claim 1, and is rejected for the same reasons.
Note that Huang teaches A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising [the claimed steps] (Huang, [0104], where the disclosed steps may be implemented by a processor executing one or more instructions stored in system memory, where the instructions or data can be read into system memory from a non-volatile computer readable medium).
Regarding claim 18: Claim 18 recites substantially the same claim limitations as claim 4, and is rejected for the same reasons.
Conclusion
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/IRENE BAKER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2154
27 September 2026
1 See Huang, [0029], where content items 104 may be categorized into one or more collections by storing them in association with one or more content associations.
2 Dimson at [0005] (“individuals now commonly utilize digital standardized image characters (e.g., emoji) to express themselves in electronic communications. Indeed, smiley faces, hearts, thumbs-up, and other standardized image characters now commonly replace words in many electronic documents, such as social media posts, e-mails, texts, tags, comments, or instant messages…”).
