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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 08/18/2025 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 08/18/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
On pages 8-9, Applicant argues that,
“Applicant respectfully submits that Haley fails to disclose or suggest at least the following features of claim 1: "taking an editing segment moved to a preset selection position in the editing segment shift area as a first editing segment."
Regarding claim 1, the Office Action asserts: "let's take Fig. 3E for an example, for the sake of argument, assuming the user would like 'a preset selection position' to be at the start time 354 (see also [0117] and [0121]), he or she would use the scrubbing tool 356 to scroll a segment to align the segment with this start time to 'adjust the start time of the video.' Thus, the segment is the first editing segment, which has been moved to the start time indicated by the bar 354 of Fig. 3E. As such, Haley clearly teaches the limitation of "taking an editing segment [any segment the user would like to align with the start time 354] moved to a preset selection." (See Office Action at pages 2-3).
Applicant respectfully disagrees with this assertion. Applicant acknowledges that a segment can be moved to the start time indicated by the bar 354 of Fig. 3E, however, Haley does not explicitly select the so-called "segment moved to the [the] start time indicated by the bar 354 of Fig. 3E," nor does it perform any operation on this segment. Therefore, Haley does not disclose or suggest a method for selecting the so-called "segment moved to the start time indicated by the bar 354 in Fig. 3E," nor is this segment ever selected for any operation.
Haley only teaches adjusting the video scrubber 356 and the audio scrubber 353 to align the start times of video and audio content.
Although Haley shows video segments in the form of images, Haley does not intend to select one of these video segments. Haley does not disclose or suggest performing any further operation on the video segment indicated by the bar after the scroll ends. Haley only concerns itself with the point in time indicated by the bar after scrolling (to align the start time 354 of the video content with the start time 355 of the audio content), and does not focus on or mention the specific video segment where the bar stops.
Therefore, Haley discloses a method for aligning start times, but not for selecting a video segment. A person skilled in the art would not derive any motivation from Haley to modify or choose a specific video segment based on Haley's teachings.
Moreover, the technique described in Haley for aligning video and audio start times is unrelated to video editing, so a person skilled in the art would not consider Haley's approach when thinking about how to select clip segments or modify their positions. Thus, claim 1 involves an inventive step over Rady and Haley.”
(original emphases)
In response, Examiner respectfully disagrees and submits that, at least in [0120]-[0123], Haley clearly states:
[0120] While not depicted in FIG. No. 3G, the remote service system 120 may also provide an option for the video content 132 to be played at an alternative speed. When the user selects an alternative speed for audio playback associated with the video 132, the remote service system 120 can adjust that portion of the audio track 1310 to account for the user's selection when the video compilation 131 is played. In such an embodiment, the entire compilation 131 is played back at normal speed except during any video fragments 132 where an alternative speed of playback was selected, at which points the audio track 1310 is adjusted to match the user's selected playback speed.
[0121] As illustrated in FIG. No. 3E, the remote service system 120 in this embodiment presents the user with a digital video scrubbing tool 356 and digital audio scrubbing tool 353 (sometimes collectively and individually referred to as a “scrubber” herein). As depicted in FIG. No. 3E, the two scrubber tools 356, 353 are presented together with one bar, so as to align the start time 354 for the video content with the start time355 for the audio content. The act of “scrubbing” refers to an interaction in which a user drags a cursor or playhead across a segment of a video timeline or an audio waveform to consume either video or audio, respectively. Thus, scrubbing provides a means for a user to quickly navigate a media track, and is a common feature of media editing software. In the example provided in FIG. No. 3E, the user can scroll back and forth across the video scrubber tool 356 (which may be thought of, for purposes of the user interface 111, as a graphical representation for the video timeline 133) and/or the audio scrubber tool 353 (a graphical representation for the audio timeline 138). By adjusting the video scrubber 356 and audio scrubber 353, the user can align a start time 354 for the short-form video with the start time 355 for the audio track section. The start times for the video and audio content are graphically represented 354, 355 in this example user interface 111 at the ends of the scrubber bar. The user's selections create an audiovisual set range 134 along the video timeline 133 and an audiovisual set range 139 along the audio timeline 138. Thus, the user can select, for example, the video to begin playing at 0:02 seconds from the start of the video, as depicted at 354, and a corresponding song to begin playing at 0:31 from the start of the song, as depicted at 355, with both playing alongside one another at 0:00 of the resulting audiovisual set range 1301.
[0122] While not depicted in FIG. No. 3E, the end time for the video and/or audio content can also be determined based on the user's manual selection for an end time of the video, using the scrubber tool 356 or otherwise, and the end time for the audio track section is programmatically determined based on the duration of the video. That is, a user can edit the video the stop playing at, for example, 0:62 from the start of the raw video; and the client 110 or the remote service system 120 calculates the end time for the corresponding audio track content to stop playing at 0:31 plus 0:60, or 0:91 from the start of the song, such that the total duration of the edited video is 60 seconds long.
[0123] Various other methods for selecting a start time and end time for a video and/or an audio track section may be employed, and the present invention is not limited to the use of scrubber tools 353, 356. In another example embodiment, a user may manually input a start time and end time for the video (e.g., 0:30 and 0:60) and a start time for the audio track section (e.g. 0:45), and the client 110 or remote service system 120 determines the end time of the audio track section (e.g. 1:15).
(emphases added)
Clearly, Haley teaches the user selects the video segment via the start time and stop time, for editing into a video compilation to be transmitted to and stored on a remote service system (see at least [0069]), e.g. by adjusting playback speed, changing a song, or associating a selected song or a starting point of the selected song to be played back together with the video segment when the compilation is played back. As such, Applicant’s arguments are not persuasive.
On page 9, Applicant argues that,
Moreover, Applicant submits that Angquist (US20190104259A1) does not disclose or suggest at least the following feature of Claim 1: "updating an audio data of the second editing segment based on a modified caption content, and adjusting a duration of the second editing segment according to the updated audio data."
Angquist does not disclose updating the audio data of the second editing segment based on modified caption content or adjusting the duration of the second editing segment according to the updated audio data. Therefore, claim 1 further involves an inventive step over Rady, Haley, and Angquist.
In response, Examiner respectfully submits that these arguments are moot in view of a new ground of rejections (see details below).
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, 6-9, 12, and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rady (US 9,583,140 B1 – hereinafter Rady), Haley et al. (US 2021/0312948 A1 – hereinafter Haley), and Sen et al. (US 10,489,496 B1 – hereinafter Sen).
Regarding claim 1, Rady discloses a video editing method, comprising: displaying a material filling interface of a target editing video (Fig. 1; column 9, line 63 – column 10, line 9 – a video editor interface for filling material, which is a media asset into a timespan of a target editing video); wherein the target editing video includes a plurality of editing segments (Fig. 1; column 9, line 63 – column 10, line 9 – the target editing video has a plurality of editing segments within its timespan indicated by timeline 130, for example each segment is defined by a pair of gridlines 132), and the material filling interface includes a video preview area (Fig. 1; column 9, line 63 – column 10, line 9; column 10, lines 26-41 – a video preview area 120), an editing segment shift area (Fig. 1; column 10, lines 23-25, 52-53 – timeline area can be used to move progress indicator to a new editing segment) and a multimedia material selection area (Fig. 1; column 9, line 63 – column 10, line 9 – media asset area 110); controlling a plurality of editing segments displayed in the editing shift area to move synchronously so as to shift a selected first editing segment among the plurality of editing segments in response to a shifting operation in the editing segment shifting area (Fig. 1; column 10, lines 6-9 – via the zoom control 131), the first editing segment is an editing segment located at a preset selection position of the editing segment (Fig. 1; column 10, lines 23-25, 52-53 – moving the progress indicator to a selected editing segment); filling a first material into the first editing segment in response to a selection operation of the first material in the multimedia material selection area, so that the first editing segment in the target editing video presents the first material (Fig. 1; column 10, lines 23-25, 52-53 – by dragging and dropping a media asset selected from area 110 to either the preview area 120 or into the timeline 130); and playing the target editing video in the video preview area in response to a play triggering operation of the target editing video (Fig. 1; column 10, lines 26-41 – playing the target editing video in stage area 120 in response to the user selecting a play button control 140).
However, Rady does not disclose a plurality of editing segments are presented in the editing segment shift area in a form of an image; controlling, in response to a sliding operation in the editing segment shifting area, a plurality of editing segments displayed in the editing segment shift area to move synchronously along a sliding direction of the sliding, and when the sliding operation ends, taking an editing segment moved to a preset selection position in the editing segment shift area as a first editing segment; modifying a caption content of a second editing segment in response to a caption modification operation of the second editing segment in the target editing video; and updating an audio data of the second editing segment based on a modified caption content, and adjusting a duration of the second editing segment according to the updated audio data.
Haley discloses a plurality of editing segments are presented in an editing segment shift area in a form of an image (Figs. 3E, 3G; Fig. 8; [0121] – segments of video are presented in an area of a timeline in a form of frame images); controlling, in response to a sliding operation in the editing segment shifting area, a plurality of editing segments displayed in the editing segment shift area to move synchronously along a sliding direction of the sliding, and when the sliding operation ends, taking an editing segment moved to a preset selection position in the editing segment shift area as a first editing segment (Figs. 3E, 3G; Fig. 8 – in response to a scrolling operation, a sequence of frame images from segments of the video scrolls, i.e. the frames move synchronously from a first position to a second position, which is a preset selection position to display a second segment of video).
One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to incorporate the teachings of Haley into the method taught by Rady to assist the user in navigating the video segments, i.e. at frame level.
Rady and Haley do not disclose modifying a caption content of a second editing segment in response to a caption modification operation of the second editing segment in the target editing video; and updating an audio data of the second editing segment based on a modified caption content, and adjusting a duration of the second editing segment according to the updated audio data.
Sen discloses modifying a caption content of an editing segment in response to a caption modification operation of the editing segment in a target editing video (column 16, lines 50-64 – modifying a caption content of a video segment in response to an operation to insert an advertisement phrase into the caption of the editing segment in a target editing video); and updating an audio data of the editing segment based on a modified caption content, and adjusting a duration of the editing segment according to the updated audio data (column 16, lines 50-64 – adjusting the audio file corresponding to the subtitle line 315, i.e. to include audio content for the inserted phrase, and prolonging the duration of the video to accommodate this change in duration of subtitle and audio content).
One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to incorporate the teachings of Sen into the method taught by Rady and Haley to gain financial benefit by improving advertisement reach over conventional commercial advertising by inserting an advertisement into a subtitle of a media asset for display as part of the subtitle of the media asset so that an advertisement displayed as part of the subtitle of the media asset by the media guidance application can reach a user in an inexpensive and efficient way (Sen: column 1, lines 28-42).
Regarding claim 6, Rady also discloses, after playing the target editing video in the video preview area: shifting a current editing segment displayed for play in the video preview area to a selected state (column 10, lines 26-41 – in a loop state).
Regarding claim 7, Rady also discloses the step of filling the first material into the first editing segment includes: replacing an original material filled in the first editing segment with the first material (column 11, lines 6-19 – by deleting and selecting a new media asset).
Regarding claim 8, Rady also discloses, after replacing the original material filled in the first editing segment with the first material: resetting a material filled in the first editing segment to the original material in response to a material reset operation on the first editing segment (column 11, lines 6-19 – by undoing).
Regarding claim 9, Rady also discloses, after replacing the original material filled in the first editing segment with the first material: displaying the original material at a preset position in the multimedia material selection area for selection by a user (column 11, lines 6-19 – the material is displayed in the selection area).
Claim 12 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in claim 1 in view of Rady also disclosing an electronic device (Fig. 11) comprising: at least one processor (Fig. 11 – processor 1104); a memory configured to store one or more programs, wherein the one or more programs, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the at least one processor to perform a video editing method as recited (Fig. 1; column 47, lines 51-62 – memory 1106).
Claim 17 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in claim 1 above in view of Rady also disclosing a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon that, when executed by a processor, performs a video editing method as recited.
Claims 3-5, 14-16, and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rady, Haley, and Sen as applied to claims 1, 6-9, 12, and 17 above, and further in view of Martin (US 9,917,957 B1 – hereinafter Martin).
Regarding claim 3, see the teachings of Rady, Haley, and Sen as discussed in claim 1 above. Rady also discloses filling the first material into the first editing segment so that the first editing segment in the target editing video presents the first material includes: resizing the first material to obtain a second material, and filling the second material into the first editing segment, so that the first editing segment in the target editing segment presents the second material (column 10, line 64 – column 11, line 2 – resizing the asset).
However, Rady, Haley, and Sen do not disclose the resizing comprising cropping using a preset cropping rule.
Martin discloses resizing a media asset by cropping using a preset cropping rule (column 5, line 62 – column 6, line 17).
One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to incorporate cropping operation taught by Martin into resizing the asset taught by Rady, Haley, and Sen to make the asset fit into the space while cutting out unwanted parts of the asset.
Regarding claim 4, see the teachings of Rady, Haley, and Sen as discussed in claim 1 above. Rady also discloses, before filling the first material into the first editing segment: displaying a resizing interface of the first material (column 10, line 62 – column 11, line 19 – displaying an interface having various controls for manipulations for the assets, including resizing the asset); resizing the first material to obtain a second material in response to a resizing operation in the resizing interface (column 10, line 64 – column 11, line 2 – resizing the asset); wherein the step of filling the first material into the first editing segment so that the first editing segment in the target editing video presents the first material includes: filling the second material into the first editing segment in response to a filling operation in the resizing interface, so that the first editing segment in the target editing segment presents the second material (column 10, line 64 – column 11, line 2 – filling the video with the resized media asset).
However, Rady, Haley, and Sen do not disclose the resizing comprising cropping a cropping interface.
Martin discloses resizing a media asset by cropping using a cropping interface (column 5, line 62 – column 6, line 17).
One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to incorporate cropping operation taught by Martin into the resizing interface taught by Rady, Haley, and Sen to provide the user with controls make the asset fit into the space while cutting out unwanted parts of the asset.
Regarding claim 5, see the teachings of Rady, Haley, Sen, and Martin as discussed in claim 3 above. Rady also discloses the first material includes a video material (column 3, lines 4-8 – media assets include video clips), and the method further comprises, after filling the second material into the first editing segment (column 10, line 64 – column 11, line 2 – filling the video with the resized media asset, which is, in view of Martin, the cropped second material): extending the second material into a third material based on the first material in response to an extension operation on the first editing segment, and filling the third material into the first editing segment to extend the first editing segment (column 10, lines 21-25 – extending the timespan of the media asset); and shortening an editing segment adjacent to the first editing segment in the target editing video (column 10, lines 21-25 – shortening the timespan of the media asset adjacent to the first editing segment).
Claim 14 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in claim 3 above.
Claim 15 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in claim 4 above.
Claim 16 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in claim 5 above.
Claim 19 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in claim 3 above.
Claim 20 is rejected for the same reason as discussed in claim 4 above.
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rady, Haley, and Sen as applied to claims 1, 6-9, 12, and 17 above, and further in view of Angquist et al. (US 2019/0104259 A1 – hereinafter Angquist).
Regarding claim 11, see the teachings of Rady, Haley, and Sen as discussed in claim 1 above. However, Rady, Haley, and Sen do not disclose adjusting a caption style of a third editing segment in response to a caption style adjustment operation on the third editing segment in the target editing video.
Angquist discloses adjusting a caption style of an editing segment in response to a caption style adjustment operation on the editing segment in a target editing video. (Fig. 6B; [0047]).
One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to incorporate the teachings of Angquist into the third editing segment in the method taught by Rady, Haley, and Sen to allow the user format the caption in a desired style thus enhancing the editing interface of the method.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HUNG Q DANG whose telephone number is (571)270-1116. The examiner can normally be reached IFT.
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/HUNG Q DANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2484