DETAILED ACTION
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 12/18/2025 has been entered.
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 .
Examiner’s Comment
This Action is in response to the Request for Continued Examination filed on 12/18/2025 with Amended Claims and Applicant's Remarks filed on 11/25/2025.
Applicant has amended claims 19, 32, and 38, canceled claim 42, and newly added claim 43 according to Amendments filed on 11/25/2025. Claims 19-26, 32-41, and 43 are pending and currently under consideration for patentability.
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) 19-26, 32-41, and 43 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Publication 2018/0240156 to Shaw in view of U.S. Publication 2005/0215238 to Macaluso.
Claims 19-26, 43; 32-37; and 38-41 are method, computer-readable media, and system claims, respectively, with substantially indistinguishable features between each group. For purposes of compact prosecution, the Office has grouped the common method, system and non-transitory computer readable storage medium claims in applying applicable prior art.
With respect to Claim 19:
Shaw teaches:
A method, comprising: sending, by a terminal device, an advertisement request to an advertisement server, wherein the advertisement request indicates a first advertisement information set, the first advertisement information set comprises one or more pieces of first advertisement information, a plurality of advertisements corresponding to the first advertisement information are preloaded by the terminal device, and […] (Examiner notes that first advertisement corresponds intervening content.) (i.e. sending a request for content, wherein the request indicates intervening content or first advertisement, wherein the intervening content is preloaded by the device) (Shaw: ¶ [0028] “A solution to this is showing the user interstitial content during this time interval, when the user is waiting for the landing page to load. Variations of such interstitial content solutions may relate to methods of presenting appropriate intervening content on a mobile device while a web page requested by that device is loading. Variations of such a method may comprise registering a request from the device to load a particular web page on the device. Variations of a request may include a click or selection of a displayed advertisement or web link.” Furthermore, as cited in ¶ [0032] “Further variations of a method may include selecting at least one portion of intervening content based on the requested page and the expected load time, where the intervening content is pre-loaded onto the mobile device before the page request is registered.” Furthermore, as cited in ¶ [0048] “After selecting one or more ads 2080 and, in network detecting embodiments, detecting at least some portion of the communication network information 2090 associated with the advertisement request, interstitial content may be selected 2100 for one or more of the selected ads. Interstitial content selection may be accomplished via a hardware and/or software component operating as part or all of the interstitial selector 1100 at the ads server 1070.”);
receiving a return message from the advertisement server in response to the advertisement request, […] and a second advertisement corresponding to the second advertisement information is not preloaded by the terminal device […] (Examiner notes that second advertisement corresponds to advertiser landing page.) (i.e. initiating a ping test and receiving a return message in response to the advertisement request including determination that the advertising landing page or second advertisement is not preloaded) (Shaw: ¶¶ [0065] [0067] “In some variations, the interstitial sequence associated with an advertisement may be determined at the ad server side, so ad interaction 4000 in such a variation may simultaneously trigger a page load request 4030 for the ad landing page and presentation of interstitial content 4050 during the page load request until the requested page loads 4060. In such a variation the steps of estimating expected latency time 4010, determining other load delay factors 4020 and determining an interstitial content display sequence 4040 may occur during the interstitial content identification 3040 and selection 3050 steps on the server side…In further variations, an initial estimated delay and device capability determination may be made at the server side to identify a range of suitable interstitial content whereas a better estimate of latency 4010 and other delay factors 4020 may be performed on the device at the actual landing page request 4030 time. Variations of such server-side determination may include detecting network congestion levels and delay/latency on one or more transmission routes between the requesting device and the landing page associated with a served advertisement by techniques such as ping tests and/or route tracing. Further variations of server-side determination may include accounting for known memory and processing limitations of the requesting devices, estimates of a current access rate/user load on the landing page associated with the ad, and/or determination of the data connection type and data input/output capacity of the requesting device and/or of the landing page.”); and
displaying the second advertisement, without displaying the first advertisement of the plurality of advertisements before the displaying the second advertisement, based on that a measured time of the second advertisement being downloaded is within a preset time; or displaying the first advertisement indicated by the return message, [[without]] displaying the second advertisement after the displaying the first advertisement, based on that measured time of the second advertisement being downloaded is not within the preset time (i.e. presenting the advertiser’s landing page or second advertisement if it is downloaded within the expected latency or download time or presenting intervening content or first advertisement if the advertiser’s landing page or second advertisement is not downloaded within the expected latency or download time) (Shaw: ¶¶ [0028] [0029] “A solution to this is showing the user interstitial content during this time interval, when the user is waiting for the landing page to load. Variations of such interstitial content solutions may relate to methods of presenting appropriate intervening content on a mobile device while a web page requested by that device is loading. Variations of such a method may comprise registering a request from the device to load a particular web page on the device. Variations of a request may include a click or selection of a displayed advertisement or web link. Other variations may include automated or automatic requests such as those triggered when a device connects to a particular network or attempts to access a page or site via an app such as a store front end or a content sharing tool… Yet further variations are possible which change the user interaction. For example: If the landing page is unavailable or too slow, a mobile user may be presented with a call link or navigate link as an interstitial ad. In some variations, this may be facilitated by presenting a click-to-call or click-to-navigate (for driving directions) ad as the interstitial ad. In other variations, interstitial content may resemble a click-to-call ad but may simply be a utility or widget or other component that directs a user's call-capable device to dial a phone number without necessarily connecting to any other outside data or event recognition source.” Furthermore, as cited in ¶ [0033] “Variations of an intervening content selection paradigm may include selecting one or more pieces of intervening content based on their expected play time and/or expected length of time they will hold a user's attention as compared to the expected load time. In some variations, intervening content may be selected for display based on expected load time and device capabilities. In such variations, intervening video content may not be shown on devices with poor capability for video playback. In further variations, intervening content may be selected based on specific device type, such that interstitial content made for a device with operating system I will not be shown in conjunction with advertisement content made for a device with operating system A and vice-versa. Also, such a concept extends to general device awareness where content for a device having operating system I is not delivered to a device having operating system A, and vice versa.” Furthermore, as cited in ¶ [0055] “FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of an embodiment of an interstitial content selection method. The method determines if interstitial content is required 3030 based on a combination of the advertisement in question 3000, the related network information associated with the advertisement request 3010, and any other relevant load or delay factors 3020 such as known or anticipated limitations of the requesting device, known and/or measured/anticipated delays and/or data restrictions associated with the ad landing page, and/or user preference for a particular type of interaction (video vs. audio vs. text, etc.).” Furthermore, as cited in ¶ [0062] “Such a variation may enable a user to skip certain portions of interstitial content if the landing page loads more quickly than expected, or may provide a user with an up-front estimate of load time for the landing page, making the user more likely to wait for the progress bar to fill in while the page loads.”).
Shaw does not explicitly disclose the one or more pieces of the first advertisement information indicated by the advertisement request comprise a plurality of cached advertisement identifiers identifying the plurality of advertisements preloaded by the terminal device; wherein the return message comprises second advertisement information, and a second advertisement corresponding to the second advertisement information is not preloaded by the terminal device, and the return message further indicates a first advertisement selected from the plurality of advertisements preloaded by the terminal device; and displaying the second advertisement, without displaying a first advertisement of the one or more advertisements before the displaying the second advertisement, based on that the second advertisement is downloaded within a preset time; or displaying the first advertisement, without displaying the second advertisement after the displaying the first advertisement, based on that the second advertisement is not downloaded within the preset time.
However, Macaluso further discloses:
the one or more pieces of the first advertisement information indicated by the advertisement request comprise a plurality of cached advertisement identifiers identifying the plurality of advertisements preloaded by the terminal device (i.e. request for new advertisement comprises identifying tag of cached advertisement of the plurality of cached advertisements) (Macaluso: ¶¶ [0051] [0054] “Advertisements may be downloaded using an over the air protocol that may be implemented on top of TCP and HTTP. The protocol may define the format of the communication between a web server (server) and mobile devices (clients). In general, the purpose of the communication is to deliver advertising bitmaps to the clients. After establishing a connection, the client requests a new advertisement and the server will provide a response. The client request may use an HTTP POST method. The HTTP header of the request may contain HTTP header tags along with specially defined header tags for communicating data relevant to the described advertising techniques. The data specifying the necessary format of the requested advertisement may be set forth in request tags, which may be sent in the body of the request. The request tags may HTML format tags. Accordingly, each tag may be separated from its value by an equal sign ('=') and each tag/value pair may be separated by an ampersand (' &'). The response from the server may use the HTTP status technique along with specially defined header tags. The response tags may be in the HTML header, each may appear on its own line and may be separated from its value by a colon (': ')… The request tags of the above illustrative request include an "AW-Title" tag, which allows the client to tell the server which advertisement is in its cache.” Furthermore, as cited in ¶ [0034] “If one or more advertisements are available in the advertisement cache, a particular advertisement may be selected from the available advertisements in accordance with any desired selection criteria.”); and
wherein the return message comprises second advertisement information, and a second advertisement corresponding to the second advertisement information is not preloaded by the terminal device, and the return message further indicates a first advertisement selected from the plurality of advertisements preloaded by the terminal device (i.e. flag message if false indicates that a new advertisement or second advertisement is not preloaded or needs to be downloaded and flag message if true indicates that default advertisement or first advertisement is preloaded on device) (Macaluso: ¶ [0046] “The developer's application 800 identifies a need to initiate a data communication (step 812), and in response, initiates a call 814 to the progress function of the advertising extension 802. In response to the progress call 814, the advertising extension 802 displays the default advertisement (step 816) and sets the update flag to true (step 818). Each time the advertising extension displays an advertisement, it will set the update flag to true. Concurrent with the display of the default advertisement, the developer's application 800 creates a socket (step 820) for conducting the data communication. The developer's application 800 then initiates a call 822 to the update function of the advertising extension 802. In response to the update call 822, the advertising extension 802 determines that a new advertisement needs to be downloaded because the update flag is set to true and the cache does not contain an advertisement. As a result, the advertising extension 802 downloads a new advertisement (step 824), stores the new advertisement in the cache, and sets the update flag to false (step 826).”); and
displaying the second advertisement, without displaying the first advertisement of the plurality of advertisements before the displaying the second advertisement, based on that a measured time of the second advertisement being downloaded is within a preset time; or displaying the first advertisement indicated by the return message, without displaying the second advertisement after the displaying the first advertisement, based on that the measured time of the second advertisement being downloaded is not within the preset time (i.e. displaying a default advertisement if the default advertisement is downloaded within a threshold amount of time or displaying a new advertisement if the default advertisement is not downloaded within the measured/estimated amount of time, wherein the default advertisement is not displayed if the new advertisement is displayed and the new advertisement is not displayed if the default advertisement is displayed) (Macaluso: Fig. 5 and ¶ [0031] “For example, the second bitmap section 410 may display a graphic that relates to information being downloaded. Similarly, a text section 415 may display text that is specified by the application involved in a wireless communication, such as text describing the content being downloaded, the expected amount of time remaining to complete the download, the percent complete, and/or that a download or other wireless communication is ongoing. The display screen 400 may further include a progress section 420 for indicating the progress 425 of the wireless communication, especially in cases where this information is not provided in the text section 415.” Furthermore, as cited in ¶¶ [0033]-[0035] “FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of a process 500 for managing advertisements on a mobile device. The process 500 may be implemented, for example, as an application or extension on the mobile device. A default advertisement is stored on the mobile device (step 505). The default advertisement may be included as part of an advertising application. In some implementations, however, a default advertisement may be optional. An application running on the mobile device may initiate a request for a data communication (step 510), such as a download of another application or application-related content. The request for a data communication might also be initiated by a remote server and received by the mobile device. A decision may be made as to whether the data communication is likely to require more than a threshold amount of time (step 515). If the delay is likely to be short, it may be desirable not to present an advertisement, and the process 500 may wait for the next data communication request. If the delay is sufficiently long, however, it may be desirable to present an advertisement on the mobile device during the data communication…If an advertisement is to be displayed, an advertisement may be selected (step 520). Initially, the only available advertisement may be the default advertisement. In addition, even after other advertisements have been downloaded into an advertisement cache on the mobile device, the default advertisement may be the only available advertisement if the other advertisements have all expired or been deleted. If one or more advertisements are available in the advertisement cache, a particular advertisement may be selected from the available advertisements in accordance with any desired selection criteria. The selected advertisement is displayed or otherwise presented (step 525)...During the display of the selected advertisement and/or the underlying data communication, a determination may be made as to whether the selected advertisement ( and/or any other advertisements in the advertisement cache) has expired (step 530). Each advertisement may have an associated expiration date and time that is assigned to and downloaded with the advertisement. If the date and time have passed, the advertisement may be considered to have expired. If the advertisement has expired, a new advertisement may be requested (step 535) by, for example, sending a request to a remote server that stores a library of advertisements. Even if the current advertisement has not expired, there may be instances in which it may be desirable to download a new advertisement. Accordingly, a determination may be made as to whether a new advertisement should be downloaded (step 540). If so, a new advertisement may be requested (step 535). If not, the process 500 may wait for the next data communication request.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time the invention was made, to add Macaluso’s the one or more pieces of the first advertisement information indicated by the advertisement request comprise a plurality of cached advertisement identifiers identifying the plurality of advertisements preloaded by the terminal device; wherein the return message comprises second advertisement information, and a second advertisement corresponding to the second advertisement information is not preloaded by the terminal device, and the return message further indicates a first advertisement selected from the plurality of advertisements preloaded by the terminal device; and displaying the second advertisement, without displaying a first advertisement of the one or more advertisements before the displaying the second advertisement, based on that the second advertisement is downloaded within a preset time; or displaying the first advertisement, without displaying the second advertisement after the displaying the first advertisement, based on that the second advertisement is not downloaded within the preset time to Shaw’s displaying the second advertisement based on that a measured time of the second advertisement being downloaded is within a preset time; or displaying the first advertisement indicated by the return message based on that measured time of the second advertisement being downloaded is not within the preset time. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to do so “This enables applications to run much faster and avoids many of the delays inherent in WAP technology.” (Macaluso: ¶ [0003]).
With respect to Claims 32 and 38:
All limitations as recited have been analyzed and rejected to claim 19. Claim 32 recites “A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, wherein the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program, the computer program comprises program instructions that, when the program instructions are executed by a terminal device, cause the terminal device to perform operations including:” (Shaw: ¶ [0017]) the steps of method claim 19. Claim 38 recites “An apparatus comprising: at least one processor; and a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing programming, the programming including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform operations including:” (Shaw: ¶ [0015]) the steps of method claim 19. Claims 32 and 38 do not teach or define any new limitations beyond claim 19. Therefore they are rejected under the same rationale.
With respect to Claim 20:
Shaw teaches:
The method according to claim 19, wherein the method further comprises: before the sending the advertisement request: sending an advertisement preloading request to the advertisement server (i.e. intervening content is requested to be downloaded before advertisement request) (Shaw: ¶ [0032] “Further variations of a method may include selecting at least one portion of intervening content based on the requested page and the expected load time, where the intervening content is pre-loaded onto the mobile device before the page request is registered. Variations may include loading a range of potential intervening content onto the device along with the link, image, or other feature used to generate a page request. Other variations may include periodically updating the device with potential intervening content for a particular app or loading potential intervening content during app start-up. Other variations may include populating the dns cache of the device beforehand. Such an approach may save on time communicating with a name server, thereby allowing for quicker load times. The DNS data may be included as part of the served interstitial content, or may be served concurrently but in a logically distinct manner.”).
Shaw does not explicitly disclose receiving a second return message from the advertisement server, wherein the second return message indicates a second advertisement information set, the second advertisement needs to be preloaded in the terminal device, and there are one or more second advertisements; and downloading a third advertisement based on third advertisement information.
However, Macaluso further discloses receiving a second return message from the advertisement server, wherein the second return message indicates a second advertisement information set, the second advertisement needs to be preloaded in the terminal device, and there are one or more second advertisements; and downloading a third advertisement based on third advertisement information (i.e. update flag indicates that a new advertisement needs to be downloaded and if the new advertisement has expired then another advertisement will be downloaded) (Macaluso: ¶ [0046] “Concurrent with the display of the default advertisement, the developer's application 800 creates a socket (step 820) for conducting the data communication. The developer's application 800 then initiates a call 822 to the update function of the advertising extension 802. In response to the update call 822, the advertising extension 802 determines that a new advertisement needs to be downloaded because the update flag is set to true and the cache does not contain an advertisement. As a result, the advertising extension 802 downloads a new advertisement (step 824), stores the new advertisement in the cache, and sets the update flag to false (step 826).” Furthermore, as cited in ¶ [0048] “Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 8B, the developer's application 800 identifies a need to initiate another data communication (step 836), and in response, initiates a call 838 to the progress function of the advertising extension 802. In response to the progress call 838, the advertising extension 802 displays the new advertisement (step 840) and sets the update flag to true (step 842). Concurrent with the display of the default advertisement, the developer's application 800 creates a socket (step 844) for conducting the data communication. The developer's application 800 then initiates a call 846 to the update function of the advertising extension 802. In response to the update call 846, the advertising extension 802 checks the new advertisement for expiration (step 848). Assuming the new advertisement has not expired, the advertising extension 802 sets the update flag to false (step 850). If the new advertisement has expired, the advertising extension 802 will download a new advertisement before setting the update flag to false (step 850).”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time the invention was made, to add Macaluso’s receiving a second return message from the advertisement server, wherein the second return message indicates a second advertisement information set, the second advertisement needs to be preloaded in the terminal device, and there are one or more second advertisements; and downloading a third advertisement based on third advertisement information to Shaw’s displaying the second advertisement based on that the second advertisement is downloaded within a preset time; or displaying a first advertisement based on that the second advertisement is not downloaded within the preset time. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to do so “This enables applications to run much faster and avoids many of the delays inherent in WAP technology.” (Macaluso: ¶ [0003]).
With respect to Claims 33 and 39:
All limitations as recited have been analyzed and rejected to claim 20. Claims 33 and 39 do not teach or define any new limitations beyond claim 20. Therefore they are rejected under the same rationale.
With respect to Claim 21:
Shaw does not explicitly disclose the method according to claim 20, wherein the advertisement preloading request and the advertisement request each comprise one or more of: a preloading identifier, an advertisement slot identifier, a device identifier, a user identifier, or user behavior data.
However, Macaluso further discloses wherein the advertisement preloading request and the advertisement request each comprise one or more of: a preloading identifier, an advertisement slot identifier, a device identifier, a user identifier, or user behavior data (i.e. HTML identifier associated with preloading advertisement or advertisement slot identifier, tag id for advertisement or preloading identifier, user or device identifier such as phone number, or user behavior data such as last viewed advertisement) (Shaw: ¶ [0051] “After establishing a connection, the client requests a new advertisement and the server will provide a response. The client request may use an HTTP POST method. The HTTP header of the request may contain HTTP header tags along with specially defined header tags for communicating data relevant to the described advertising techniques. The data specifying the necessary format of the requested advertisement may be set forth in request tags, which may be sent in the body of the request. The request tags may HTML format tags. Accordingly, each tag may be separated from its value by an equal sign('=') and each tag/value pair may be separated by an ampersand (' &'). The response from the server may use the HTTP status technique along with specially defined header tags. The response tags may be in the HTML header, each may appear on its own line and may be separated from its value by a colon (': ').” Furthermore, as cited in ¶ [0054] “The request tags of the above illustrative request include an "AW-Title" tag, which allows the client to tell the server which advertisement is in its cache. If the cache is empty, then the "AW-Title" tag may be either blank or missing. An "AW-Device-Bits" tag allows the client to indicate its color depth, which defines how many bits specify each pixel on its screen. The server is free to send an advertisement with the same number or fewer bits per pixel as indicated by the "AW-Device-Bits" tag. An "AW-DeviceWidth" tag allows the client to indicate the width in pixels of the client's screen. An" AW-Device-Depth" tag allows the client to indicate the height in pixels of the client's screen. An "AW-Device-ID" tag contains a unique identifier for the client device. For example, the client may send its phone number so that requests from the particular client can be uniquely identified.” Furthermore, as cited in ¶¶ [0060] [0061] “The advertisement database table may include a title, filename, number of frames, rate at which switching between the frames should occur, expiration date (e.g., an "Expiration" field), number of views requested (i.e., by the customer that placed an order for the advertisement to be distributed to mobile devices) (e.g., a "Views_requested" field), number of views that have been assigned to mobile devices but not yet confirmed (e.g., a "Views_assigned" field), and the number of views that have been confirmed (e.g., a "Views_confirmed" field). The expiration date may represent a target date by which time the requested number of views should be completed…The server may also store a database table for each mobile device. The mobile device database table may include a phone number or other unique identifier for the mobile device, a number of views for the last advertisement assigned to the mobile device as reported by the mobile device (e.g., a "Views" field), a time period in which the views occurred, the title of the last advertisement assigned to the mobile device (e.g., a Last_assignment_title" field), the number of views assigned for the last advertisement assigned to the mobile device (e.g., a "Last_assignment-views" field), and the time period in which the mobile device is requested to perform the assigned number of views for the last advertisement assigned to the mobile device (e.g., a "Last_assignment_time" field). In some implementations, the mobile device database table may store additional historical information regarding advertisements that were previously assigned to the mobile device to allow the server to more efficiently determine which advertisements should be assigned to the mobile device.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time the invention was made, to add Macaluso’s advertisement preloading request and the advertisement request each comprise one or more of: a preloading identifier, an advertisement slot identifier, a device identifier, a user identifier, or user behavior data to Shaw’s displaying the second advertisement based on that the second advertisement is downloaded within a preset time; or displaying a first advertisement based on that the second advertisement is not downloaded within the preset time. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to do so “This enables applications to run much faster and avoids many of the delays inherent in WAP technology.” (Macaluso: ¶ [0003]).
With respect to Claims 34 and 40:
All limitations as recited have been analyzed and rejected to claim 21. Claims 34 and 40 do not teach or define any new limitations beyond claim 21. Therefore they are rejected under the same rationale.
With respect to Claim 22:
Shaw teaches:
The method according to claim 19, wherein the method further comprises: sending a second advertisement request to the advertisement server, wherein the second advertisement request indicates the first advertisement information set, the first advertisement information set comprises one or more first advertisements, and the first advertisement is preloaded by the terminal device; receiving a third return message from the advertisement server in response to the second advertisement request, wherein the third return message comprises the first advertisement information; and displaying a first advertisement material corresponding to the first advertisement (i.e. user clicks on intervening ad in order to receive further first advertisement information such as a click-to-call or click-to-navigate, then the click-to-call or click-to-navigate will be presented as either initiating a phone call or providing driving instructions with respect to the first advertisement information) (Shaw: ¶¶ [0028] [0029] “Variations of such a method may comprise registering a request from the device to load a particular web page on the device. Variations of a request may include a click or selection of a displayed advertisement or web link. Other variations may include automated or automatic requests such as those triggered when a device connects to a particular network or attempts to access a page or site via an app such as a store front end or a content sharing tool…Yet further variations are possible which change the user interaction. For example: If the landing page is unavailable or too slow, a mobile user may be presented with a call link or navigate link as an interstitial ad. In some variations, this may be facilitated by presenting a click-to-call or click-to-navigate (for driving directions) ad as the interstitial ad. In other variations, interstitial content may resemble a click-to-call ad but may simply be a utility or widget or other component that directs a user's call-capable device to dial a phone number without necessarily connecting to any other outside data or event recognition source.”).
With respect to Claims 35 and 41:
All limitations as recited have been analyzed and rejected to claim 22. Claims 35 and 41 do not teach or define any new limitations beyond claim 22. Therefore they are rejected under the same rationale.
With respect to Claim 23:
Shaw teaches:
The method according to claim 19, wherein the return message comprises one or more of: an advertisement material download link, […] (i.e. return message includes advertisement call or navigation link) (Shaw: ¶ [0029] “Yet further variations are possible which change the user interaction. For example: If the landing page is unavailable or too slow, a mobile user may be presented with a call link or navigate link as an interstitial ad. In some variations, this may be facilitated by presenting a click-to-call or click-to-navigate (for driving directions) ad as the interstitial ad.”).
Shaw does not explicitly disclose wherein the return message comprises one or more of: an advertisement material download link, an advertisement identifier, an advertisement name, a package name of an application program, or address information of the terminal device.
However, Macaluso further discloses wherein the return message comprises one or more of: an advertisement material download link, an advertisement identifier, an advertisement name, a package name of an application program, or address information of the terminal device (i.e. return message includes advertisement communication link, advertisement identifier or tag id, advertisement name, file name of application, and address information of device such as phone number) (Shaw: ¶ [0027] “The base station 315 may in turn transmit the application over a wireless communication link 320 to the mobile phone 325. When an application is downloaded from the ADS 305, the ADS 305 collects application download event information and sends it to a transaction manager 330.” Furthermore, as cited in ¶ [0051] “After establishing a connection, the client requests a new advertisement and the server will provide a response. The client request may use an HTTP POST method. The HTTP header of the request may contain HTTP header tags along with specially defined header tags for communicating data relevant to the described advertising techniques. The data specifying the necessary format of the requested advertisement may be set forth in request tags, which may be sent in the body of the request. The request tags may HTML format tags. Accordingly, each tag may be separated from its value by an equal sign('=') and each tag/value pair may be separated by an ampersand (' &'). The response from the server may use the HTTP status technique along with specially defined header tags. The response tags may be in the HTML header, each may appear on its own line and may be separated from its value by a colon (': ').” Furthermore, as cited in ¶ [0054] “The request tags of the above illustrative request include an "AW-Title" tag, which allows the client to tell the server which advertisement is in its cache. If the cache is empty, then the "AW-Title" tag may be either blank or missing. An "AW-Device-Bits" tag allows the client to indicate its color depth, which defines how many bits specify each pixel on its screen. The server is free to send an advertisement with the same number or fewer bits per pixel as indicated by the "AW-Device-Bits" tag. An "AW-DeviceWidth" tag allows the client to indicate the width in pixels of the client's screen. An" AW-Device-Depth" tag allows the client to indicate the height in pixels of the client's screen. An "AW-Device-ID" tag contains a unique identifier for the client device. For example, the client may send its phone number so that requests from the particular client can be uniquely identified.” Furthermore, as cited in ¶¶ [0060] [0061] “The advertisement database table may include a title, filename, number of frames, rate at which switching between the frames should occur, expiration date (e.g., an "Expiration" field), number of views requested (i.e., by the customer that placed an order for the advertisement to be distributed to mobile devices) (e.g., a "Views_requested" field), number of views that have been assigned to mobile devices but not yet confirmed (e.g., a "Views_assigned" field), and the number of views that have been confirmed (e.g., a "Views_confirmed" field). The expiration date may represent a target date by which time the requested number of views should be completed…The server may also store a database table for each mobile device. The mobile device database table may include a phone number or other unique identifier for the mobile device, a number of views for the last advertisement assigned to the mobile device as reported by the mobile device (e.g., a "Views" field), a time period in which the views occurred, the title of the last advertisement assigned to the mobile device (e.g., a Last_assignment_title" field), the number of views assigned for the last advertisement assigned to the mobile device (e.g., a "Last_assignment-views" field), and the time period in which the mobile device is requested to perform the assigned number of views for the last advertisement assigned to the mobile device (e.g., a "Last_assignment_time" field). In some implementations, the mobile device database table may store additional historical information regarding advertisements that were previously assigned to the mobile device to allow the server to more efficiently determine which advertisements should be assigned to the mobile device.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time the invention was made, to add Macaluso’s return message comprises one or more of: an advertisement material download link, an advertisement identifier, an advertisement name, a package name of an application program, or address information of the terminal device to Shaw’s displaying the second advertisement based on that the second advertisement is downloaded within a preset time; or displaying a first advertisement based on that the second advertisement is not downloaded within the preset time. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to do so “This enables applications to run much faster and avoids many of the delays inherent in WAP technology.” (Macaluso: ¶ [0003]).
With respect to Claim 36:
All limitations as recited have been analyzed and rejected to claim 23. Claim 36 does not teach or define any new limitations beyond claim 23. Therefore it is rejected under the same rationale.
With respect to Claim 24:
Shaw does not explicitly disclose the method according to claim 19, wherein the terminal device sends the advertisement request to the advertisement server by invoking an advertisement software development kit (SDK).
However, Macaluso further discloses wherein the terminal device sends the advertisement request to the advertisement server by invoking an advertisement software development kit (SDK) (Macaluso: ¶ [0026] “Applications stored on the mobile phone 200, such as the advertising application, may be written in Java code, CIC++ code, in accordance with a Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (BREW) Software Development Kit (SDK), or some other appropriate format. The storage medium 220 in the mobile phone 200 may include a Java virtual machine. Alternatively or in addition, the storage medium 220 may include BREW client software. The BREW platform, which was developed by Qualcomm and is described in greater detail at "www.qualcomm.com/brew," enables Java and BREW applications to be easily downloaded onto and executed on the mobile phone 200.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time the invention was made, to add Macaluso’s terminal device sends the advertisement request to the advertisement server by invoking an advertisement software development kit (SDK) to Shaw’s displaying the second advertisement based on that the second advertisement is downloaded within a preset time; or displaying a first advertisement based on that the second advertisement is not downloaded within the preset time. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to do so “This enables applications to run much faster and avoids many of the delays inherent in WAP technology.” (Macaluso: ¶ [0003]).
With respect to Claim 37:
All limitations as recited have been analyzed and rejected to claim 24. Claim 37 does not teach or define any new limitations beyond claim 24. Therefore it is rejected under the same rationale.
With respect to Claim 25:
Shaw teaches:
The method according to claim 19, wherein the method further comprises: before the sending, the advertisement request to the advertisement server: obtaining, a first operation of a user, wherein the first operation is of opening an application program or of tapping a link in the application program (i.e. user initiates interaction by either opening application or screen tapping a link in the application interface) (Shaw: ¶ [0065] “FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of an embodiment of an interstitial content presentation method. In the variation shown, the method begins with an affirmative act on the part of a device user to select an ad 4000. Such an affirmative act may be a click, a screen tap, shaking the device, giving a voice command, sliding a finger or pointing device or cursor in a particular direction, pressing a specific device button, or any number of other similar or related modes of interaction. In some variations, the interstitial sequence associated with an advertisement may be determined at the ad server side, so ad interaction 4000 in such a variation may simultaneously trigger a page load request 4030 for the ad landing page and presentation of interstitial content 4050 during the page load request until the requested page loads 4060.”).
With respect to Claim 26:
Shaw teaches:
The method according to claim 20, wherein the method further comprises: before the downloading the third advertisement based on the third advertisement information, determining to connect to a network through wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) (Examiner takes official notice that wireless connection types include wireless fidelity or wi-fi) (i.e. before downloading advertisement, determining network connection type to a wireless network) (Shaw: ¶ [0028] “Other variations may include automated or automatic requests such as those triggered when a device connects to a particular network or attempts to access a page or site via an app such as a store front end or a content sharing tool.” Furthermore, as cited in ¶ [0030] “Further variations of a method may include determining an expected load time for a requested page. Such a determination may be made based on a combination of factors including, but not limited to, the device type and/or device parameters associated with the request, a measured or estimated signal strength and/or network type associated with the request, and any particular carrier or internet service provider associated with the request. Variations of device type and device parameters may include considerations based on a user agent or other source of information about the actual device. Variations may include determining and/or accounting for known screen size/resolution, memory and/or processing power associated with the device. Variations of signal strength and/or network type may include a determination of whether the request was transmitted via Ethernet, bluetooth, cellular data, optical, or some other data transmission method. Variations may also include a determination of how strong or weak a wireless Ethernet or cellular data signal is with respect to the device.”).
With respect to Claim 43:
Shaw teaches:
The method according to claim 19, wherein the measured time is based on: starting timing from a first operation performed on a first page of an application program, or starting timing when the terminal device sends the advertisement request (i.e. expected time delay is based from actual landing page request time or ad request time) (Shaw: ¶¶ [0067] [0068] “In further variations, an initial estimated delay and device capability determination may be made at the server side to identify a range of suitable interstitial content whereas a better estimate of latency 4010 and other delay factors 4020 may be performed on the device at the actual landing page request 4030 time. Variations of such server-side determination may include detecting network congestion levels and delay/latency on one or more transmission routes between the requesting device and the landing page associated with a served advertisement by techniques such as ping tests and/or route tracing. Further variations of server-side determination may include accounting for known memory and processing limitations of the requesting devices, estimates of a current access rate/user load on the landing page associated with the ad, and/or determination of the data connection type and data input/output capacity of the requesting device and/or of the landing page…Variations may use partial server-side latency determination to reduce/ease computational load on a requesting device during subsequent interstitial content presentation. In some variations, the entire latency estimation may be conducted at the server side based on the premise that network conditions are unlikely to change much between an ad serving time and an ad selection time. In other variations, partial latency determination may be made at the server side on the basis of known limitations associated with the requesting device, whereas actual network conditions may be determined by the requesting device upon ad selection.”).
Shaw does not explicitly disclose wherein the return message further includes a spare indicator indicating which one of the first advertisement and the second advertisement indicated by the return message is a spare advertisement.
However, Macaluso further discloses wherein the return message further includes a spare indicator indicating which one of the first advertisement and the second advertisement indicated by the return message is a spare advertisement (i.e. if update flag is true then it indicates that default advertisement or first advertisement is a spare advertisement and if update flag is false then it indicates that the new advertisement or second advertisement is a spare advertisement) (Macaluso: ¶ [0046] “Concurrent with the display of the default advertisement, the developer's application 800 creates a socket (step 820) for conducting the data communication. The developer's application 800 then initiates a call 822 to the update function of the advertising extension 802. In response to the update call 822, the advertising extension 802 determines that a new advertisement needs to be downloaded because the update flag is set to true and the cache does not contain an advertisement. As a result, the advertising extension 802 downloads a new advertisement (step 824), stores the new advertisement in the cache, and sets the update flag to false (step 826).” Furthermore, as cited in ¶ [0048] “Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 8B, the developer's application 800 identifies a need to initiate another data communication (step 836), and in response, initiates a call 838 to the progress function of the advertising extension 802. In response to the progress call 838, the advertising extension 802 displays the new advertisement (step 840) and sets the update flag to true (step 842). Concurrent with the display of the default advertisement, the developer's application 800 creates a socket (step 844) for conducting the data communication. The developer's application 800 then initiates a call 846 to the update function of the advertising extension 802. In response to the update call 846, the advertising extension 802 checks the new advertisement for expiration (step 848). Assuming the new advertisement has not expired, the advertising extension 802 sets the update flag to false (step 850). If the new advertisement has expired, the advertising extension 802 will download a new advertisement before setting the update flag to false (step 850).”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time the invention was made, to add Macaluso’s return message further includes a spare indicator indicating which one of the first advertisement and the second advertisement indicated by the return message is a spare advertisement to Shaw’s displaying the second advertisement based on that the second advertisement is downloaded within a preset time; or displaying a first advertisement based on that the second advertisement is not downloaded within the preset time. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to do so “This enables applications to run much faster and avoids many of the delays inherent in WAP technology.” (Macaluso: ¶ [0003]).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments see pages 8-12 of the Remarks disclosed, filed on 11/25/2025, with respect to the 35 U.S.C. § 101 rejection(s) of claim(s) 19-26 and 32-37 have been considered and are persuasive. The Applicant asserts “The claimed technique provides specific technical solutions to concrete technical problems inherent in conventional mobile network system. As disclosed in the as-filed Specification, “[w]hen the terminal downloads the advertisement material, the advertisement material may be downloaded slowly. For example, a picture, a video, or a sound included in the advertisement material occupies large space, or network quality during downloading is poor, or a timeout occurs when the advertisement server is requested. Consequently, the advertisement material cannot be downloaded or the advertisement material is downloaded slowly.” Specification, [0004]. The claimed technique solves these technical challenges through a hybrid technical solution that intelligently balances advertisement relevance with delivery speed constraints. Specifically, the claimed technique enables “the terminal device [to] send[] an advertisement request to an advertisement server, where the advertisement request includes a first advertisement information set” indicating preloaded content, allowing the server to make informed technical decisions about content delivery. See Specification, [0006] and [0097]. This represents a technical improvement over conventional systems that lack server-side awareness of client- cached content. The claimed technique achieves technical benefits including reduced traffic overhead and improved efficiency. The specification explains that “[g]enerally, media have a requirement on an advertisement display delay. For example, for a splash advertisement, most media control a delay of an entire process from requesting an advertisement to finally displaying the advertisement to be within 2s.” Specification, [0004]. The claimed technique ensures compliance with these technical constraints by providing that “the terminal device displays the second advertisement if the terminal has downloaded the second advertisement within the preset time; or the terminal device displays the first advertisement if the terminal has not downloaded the second advertisement within the preset time." Specification [0006]. With the claimed technical solution “additional traffic overheads caused to the user when the terminal 11 downloads the advertisement material in a mobile network can be reduced.” Specification, [0127]. With the claimed technique, the “advertisement display efficiency” is also improved. See Specification, [0109]. The reduced traffic overhead and efficiency improvement provided by the claimed technique constitute an improvement in the field of mobile networking, and as a result, is not an abstract idea for the reasons outlined in the USPTO Memorandum dated May 19, 2016 (“PTO Memo”). See PTO Memo, p. 1 (“The Federal Circuit in Enfish stated that ... improvements in computer related technology ..., when appropriately claimed, are undoubtedly not abstract.”)…The Office Action asserts that "[t]he reduced traffic overhead and efficiency' are not improvements that the claims provide but are merely ancillary effects of the claims. The claims do not take into account network traffic data but the decision making of displaying a second advertisement or a first advertisement is based on a 'preset time' which may be user choice and independent of any network traffic constrictions." See FOA, p. 30. However, first, the improvement is clearly reflected in claim 19, which is amended to set forth that displaying the first advertisement or the second advertisement is based on whether the measured time of the second advertisement being downloaded is within the preset time. Second, the asserted "ancillary effects of the claim" is not the correct analysis under Section 101 because there is no requirement to explicitly recite the improvement for the Section 101 purpose. For example, in Enfish LLC v. Microsoft Corp., 822 F.3d 1327, 1335 (Fed. Cir. 2016), the Federal Circuit decided that the claims at issue in Enfish "are directed to an improvement of an existing technology..., such as increased flexibility, faster search times, and smaller memory requirements." See Enfish, at 1337. But, the claims at issue in Enfish do not explicitly recite the improvement of increased flexibility, faster search times, and smaller memory requirements at all. See e.g., Claim 17 of U.S. Patent No. 6,151,604 (also reproduced below). If reciting the improvement were a requirement as asserted by the Office Action, then the claims in the Enfish case would not have been patent eligible because the "increased flexibility, faster search times, and smaller memory requirements" of the Enfish case would also have been the "ancillary effects of the claim" under the Office Action's analysis. Yet, the Federal Circuit decided otherwise.” The Examiner agrees and would like to note that the amendments recite limitations that are indicative of integration into a practical application because they are improvements to the functioning of a computer, or to any other technology or technical field - see MPEP 2106.05(a) (i.e. download latency of content). Therefore, the rejection(s) of claim(s) 19-26, 32-41, and 43 under 35 U.S.C. § 101 has been withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments see pages 12-16 of the Remarks disclosed, filed on 11/25/2025, with respect to the 35 U.S.C. § 103 rejection(s) of claim(s) 19-26 and 32-42 over Shaw in view of Macaluso have been considered but are not persuasive:
The Applicant asserts “As an initial point, Macaluso uses an estimated download time, rather than the actual measured download time, for comparing to the threshold delay: "A decision may be made as to whether the data communication is likely to require more than a threshold amount of time (step 515)." Macaluso, [0033]. Further, Macaluso does not disclose the claimed "displaying the second advertisement, without displaying the first advertisement of the plurality of advertisements before the displaying the second advertisement, based on that a measured time of the second advertisement being downloaded is within a preset time." As shown above in Macaluso's FIG. 5, if the answer to step 515 is No (presumably mapping to the claimed "based on a measured time of the second advertisement being downloaded is within a preset time"), no advertisement is displayed, and the process goes back to step 510. See also Macaluso, [0033] ("If the delay is likely to be short, it may be desirable not to present an advertisement, and the process 500 may wait for the next data communication request") (emphasis added). Indeed, as shown in FIG. 5, Macaluso's threshold delay at step 515 determines whether to present ANY advertisement at all, not which specific advertisement to present. Moreover, Macaluso does not disclose the claimed "displaying the first advertisement indicated by the return message, without displaying the second advertisement after the displaying the first advertisement, based on that the measured time of the second advertisement being downloaded is not within the preset time." Rather than displaying a cached advertisement as indicated by the return message received from the advertisement server, Macaluso's mobile device locally selects a cached advertisement for display. As Macaluso explains, "FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of a process 500 for managing advertisements on a mobile device. The process 500 may be implemented, for example, as an application or extension on the mobile device." Macaluso, [0034] (emphasis added). Macaluso further explains that "[i]f one or more advertisements are available in the advertisement cache, a particular advertisement may be selected from the available advertisements in accordance with any desired selection criteria. The selected advertisement is displayed or otherwise presented (step 525)." Macaluso, [0034]. Macaluso's advertisement selection at step 525 is performed locally on the mobile device because the whole process 500 is performed on the mobile device, as shown above.” The Examiner respectfully disagrees. Examiner interprets measured to be broader than estimated or in other words estimated is a specific way to measure so the Macaluso reference teaching estimating reads on measuring.
The Applicant also asserts “Nevertheless, solely for the purpose of advancing prosecution, Applicant has further amended claim 19 to incorporate some features of claim 42 with additional changes. The Office Action acknowledges that Shaw does not disclose features of claim 42. See FOA, p. 25. The cited section of Macaluso states that the "request tags of the above illustrative request include an 'AW-Title' tag, which allows the client to tell the server which advertisement is in its cache." Macaluso, [0054] (emphasis added). A typical request in Macaluso is reproduced below. As shown above, Macaluso's asserted advertisement request at best for the sake of argument identifies only one cached advertisement. In contrast, amended claim 19 recites "the one or more pieces of the first advertisement information indicated by the advertisement request comprise a plurality of cached advertisement identifiers identifying the plurality of advertisements preloaded by the terminal device."” The Examiner respectfully disagrees. The Examiner would like to refer the Applicant to ¶ [0034] of Macaluso reference; “If one or more advertisements are available in the advertisement cache, a particular advertisement may be selected from the available advertisements in accordance with any desired selection criteria.” It is clear from this disclosure that the Macaluso reference teaches a plurality of cached advertisements. Therefore, the rejection(s) of claim(s) 19-26, 32-41, and 43 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) is provided above with updated citations.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. The following references are cited to further show the state of the art:
U.S. Publication 2022/0036399 to Grover for disclosing In one aspect, an example method includes (i) causing, by a computing system, a first replacement advertisement segment to be transmitted to a content-presentation device for output by the content-presentation device in place of a modifiable advertisement segment in connection with performing a content-replacement operation; (ii) prior to the content-replacement operation, receiving, by the computing system and from the content-presentation device, a reevaluation request; (iii) based on receiving the re-evaluation request, determining , by the computing system, whether the content-presentation device should output a second replacement advertisement segment instead of the first replacement advertisement segment; and (iv) upon determining that the content-presentation device should output the second replacement advertisement segment instead of the first replacement advertisement segment, causing, by the computing system, the second replacement advertisement segment to be transmitted to the content-presentation device.
U.S. Publication 2020/0359076 to Patel for disclosing Systems and methods for updating advertisements embedded in a media asset scheduled for download at a future time. The media guidance application may receive a request from a user to download a media asset at a future time, where the media asset includes a plurality of embedded advertisements. The media guidance application may determine whether to update an embedded advertisement in the plurality of embedded advertisements. After determining to update the embedded advertisement, the media guidance application may replace the embedded advertisement with an updated advertisement in the media asset.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Azam Ansari, whose telephone number is (571) 272-7047. The examiner can normally be reached from Monday to Friday between 8 AM and 4:30 PM.
If any attempt to reach the examiner by telephone is unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Waseem Ashraf, can be reached at (571) 270-3948.
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Applicants are invited to contact the Office to schedule either an in-person or a telephonic interview to discuss and resolve the issues set forth in this Office Action. Although an interview is not required, the Office believes that an interview can be of use to resolve any issues related to a patent application in an efficient and prompt manner.
/AZAM A ANSARI/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3621
February 4, 2026