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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 3/4/2024, 8/27/2024, & 6/5/2025 was filed before the first office action. The submissions are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejection Notes
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-4, 9-14, and 20, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a1 as being anticipated by Marsh (US 20160267546 A1, published: 9/15/2016).
Claim 1: Marsh teaches a display apparatus comprising:
a display (display of the client device [Marsh, 0036); a communication interface (a client device in data communication with the computerized device [Marsh, 0036]); a memory storing one or more instructions (Such CPEs 206 comprise processors and associated computer memory [Marsh, 0082]); and a processor operatively connected to the display and the communication interface and configured to execute the one or more instructions to:
display, on the display, a first user interface including an item enabling connection to a content providing server (set top box for interacting with broadband media streams, with an adaptive user interface, content-based media processing and/or media metadata processing, and telecommunications integration [Marsh, 0025]);
based on an input for selecting the item, connect to the content providing server through the communication interface (the network comprises a content-based network selected from the group consisting of (i) a cable television network, and (ii) a satellite network [Marsh, 0035]);
display, on the display, a second user interface provided by the content providing server (play the primary and secondary content in a substantially contiguous fashion and within the same window generated on a display in communication with the CPE [Marsh, 0040]);
generate a media player for playing media content received from the content providing server through the communication interface based on an input of requesting execution of the media content through the second user interface (a software entity which is adapted to communicate with the browser (and media player) of the client in order to download or stream the requested content to the client device [Marsh, 0136]);
obtain deep link information for accessing the media content being played back, while the media content is being played back by using the media player (when the user accesses the relevant website URL (e.g., www.rr.com) of the network provider using their Internet browser, they are given the opportunity to view a variety of hyperlinks which will invoke the media player application to “play” content streamed to the client device from the distribution server [Marsh, 0136]); and
provide a deep link item enabling direct access to the media content to the first user interface, based on the deep link information (when the user accesses the relevant website URL (e.g., www.rr.com) of the network provider using their Internet browser, they are given the opportunity to view a variety of hyperlinks which will invoke the media player application to “play” content streamed to the client device from the distribution server. The higher layer processes running on the client generate, for example, a request which is transported and processed according to the well-known TCP/IP protocols and transmitted in packetized form over the interposed IP network to the distribution server, the higher-layer processes thereof which communicate with the media player application to subsequently download the content or create a packetized media stream (e.g., in MPEG2 or similar format) to the client device for playback by the player application [Marsh, 0136]).
Claims 11 and 20, having similar elements to claim 1, are likewise rejected.
Claim 2: Marsh teaches the display apparatus of claim 1. Marsh further teaches wherein the processor is further configured to execute the one or more instructions to obtain the deep link information by requesting the content providing server to provide the deep link information for access to the media content being played and receiving the deep link information from the content providing server through the communication interface (when the user accesses the relevant website URL (e.g., www.rr.com) of the network provider using their Internet browser, they are given the opportunity to view a variety of hyperlinks which will invoke the media player application to “play” content streamed to the client device from the distribution server. The higher layer processes running on the client generate, for example, a request which is transported and processed according to the well-known TCP/IP protocols and transmitted in packetized form over the interposed IP network to the distribution server, the higher-layer processes thereof which communicate with the media player application to subsequently download the content or create a packetized media stream (e.g., in MPEG2 or similar format) to the client device for playback by the player application [Marsh, 0136]).
Claim 12, having similar elements to claim 2, is likewise rejected.
Claim 3: Marsh teaches the display apparatus of claim 1. Marsh further teaches wherein the processor is further configured to execute the one or more instructions to: obtain a media content identifier, based on information corresponding to the media content being played; and obtain the deep link information by requesting the content providing server to provide the deep link information for the media content identifier and receiving the deep link information from the content providing server through the communication interface (creating a database of metadata (metabase) of a variety of digital media content, including TV and radio content delivered on Internet. This semantic-based method captures and enhances domain or subject specific metadata of digital media content, including the specific meaning and intended use of original content. This XML string is sent to an external advertisement provider along with a user's session and profile information [Marsh, 0014]).
Claim 13, having similar elements to claim 3, is likewise rejected.
Claim 4: Marsh teaches the display apparatus of claim 3. Marsh further teaches wherein the processor is further configured to execute the one or more instructions to: obtain the information corresponding to the media content being played from metadata of the media content; or obtain the information corresponding to the media content, by analyzing a content screen displayed on the display due to playback by the media player (receive a request for primary content from a client device in data communication with the computerized device; access the primary content; access a metadata file associated with the primary content; provide at least a portion of the metadata to a search entity in data communication with the computerized device; receive results of a search conducted by the entity based at least in part on the metadata [Marsh, 0036]).
Claim 14, having similar elements to claim 4, is likewise rejected.
Claim 9: Marsh teaches the display apparatus of claim 1. Marsh further teaches wherein the deep link information includes at least one of a uniform resource locator (URL) for accessing the media content, an identifier of the media content, a thumbnail image of the media content, or a link for accessing the thumbnail image of the media content (“metadata” comprises extra data not typically found in typical primary content (or at least not visible to the users of the network). For each component of primary content (e.g., video/audio clip) or other content present on the site, one or more metadata files are included that specify the relevant search terms or primitives for that content. This metadata can be provided with the content from its source or provider (e.g., a network studio or station or the like), or alternatively added by the site operator (e.g., Time Warner cable for the exemplary “Road Runner™” site referenced herein). Alternatively, portions of the metadata can be added by multiple entities, and/or editing of another entity's metadata performed. Various permutations and mechanisms for generating, adding and editing metadata will be recognized by those of ordinary skill, and hence are not described in greater detail herein [Marsh, 0106]).
Claim 18, having similar elements to claim 9, is likewise rejected.
Claim 10: Marsh teaches the display apparatus of claim 1. Marsh further teaches wherein the processor is further configured to execute the one or more instructions to display one or more deep link items on the first user interface, based on at least one of an order of items of recently-played media content, an order of items of frequently-played media content, or content designated as a user preference (the system is enabled to present a program sequence to the viewer based on the preference determination and stored programming [Marsh, 0027]).
Claim 19, having similar elements to claim 10, is likewise rejected.
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) 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Marsh (US 20160267546 A1, published: 9/15/2016), in view of Murray (US 20200177972 A1, published: 6/4/2020).
Claim 5: Marsh teaches the display apparatus of claim 3. Marsh does not teach wherein the processor is further configured to execute the one or more instructions to: check whether the memory stores the deep link information corresponding to the media content identifier; and obtain the deep link information from the memory.
However, Murray teaches wherein the processor is further configured to execute the one or more instructions to: check whether the memory stores the deep link information corresponding to the media content identifier; and obtain the deep link information from the memory (records of media projects may be stored into a project database, and are retrievable by any number of devices, such as the development server, according to a project identifier value, among other possible embed codes or hyperlinks [Murray, 0175]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the network connected media player invention of Marsh to include the storing in memory of deep link information features of Murray.
One would have been motivated to make this modification to keep a historical record of important data, so that it can be easily retrieved if needed in the future.
Claim(s) 6 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Marsh (US 20160267546 A1, published: 9/15/2016), in view of Dalrymple et al. (US 20170041644 A1, published: 2/9/2017).
Claim 6: Marsh teaches the display apparatus of claim 1. Marsh does not teach wherein the processor is further configured to execute the one or more instructions to: identify whether playback by the media player begins; and based on playback by the media player being identified to begin, request the content providing server to provide the deep link information for access to the media content being played.
However, Dalrymple teaches wherein the processor is further configured to execute the one or more instructions to: identify whether playback by the media player begins; and based on playback by the media player being identified to begin, request the content providing server to provide the deep link information for access to the media content being played (the playback device may be provided with a set of time-based metadata that is associated with the media resource, where the set of time-based metadata are correlative to a timeline of events in a playback of the media resource, including start time when the playback initiates, the set of time-based metadata identifying a predetermined available time slot during the playback of the media resource. The playback device may be provided with a programmatic resource for retrieving a supplemental content resource and rendering a corresponding supplemental content during the predetermined available time slot [Dalrymple, 0013]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the network connected media player invention of Marsh to include the identification of playing media features of Dalrymple.
One would have been motivated to make this modification to keep a record of when media is begun (and ended) to determine time loads on servers. Such will allow a calibration of server space per time to ensure media playback quality when users request it.
Claim 15, having similar elements to claim 6, is likewise rejected.
Claim(s) 7 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Marsh (US 20160267546 A1, published: 9/15/2016), in view of Nguyen et al. (US 20190149876 A1, published: 5/16/2019).
Claim 7: Marsh teaches the display apparatus of claim 1. Marsh does not teach wherein the processor is further configured to execute the one or more instructions to: identify whether a content screen displayed on the display by playback by the media player includes pre-determined screen content; and based on the content screen being identified to include the pre-determined screen content, request the content providing server to provide the deep link information for access to the media content being played.
However, Nguyen teaches wherein the processor is further configured to execute the one or more instructions to: identify whether a content screen displayed on the display by playback by the media player includes pre-determined screen content; and based on the content screen being identified to include the pre-determined screen content, request the content providing server to provide the deep link information for access to the media content being played (content provider 135 may communicate the first advertisement and media content together as one playback content signal to STB 120. In alternate embodiments, content provider 135 may communicate the first advertisement. using a different signal from the signal communicating media content. STB 120 may combine the first advertisement and media content into playback content for display device 130 to display. The first advertisement may be communicated as an image, animation, audio file, an overlay to the media content, or any other type of media that allows the first advertisement to be displayed simultaneously with the media content in at least one frame of the playback content [Nguyen, 0023]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the network connected media player invention of Marsh to include pre-determined content before playing media features of Nguyen.
One would have been motivated to make this modification to include advertisements, company splash screens (i.e. Paramount Plus always shows a 5 second corporate logo before playing content) before playing content. This leads to ad revenue or name brand recognition.
Claim 16, having similar elements to claim 7, is likewise rejected.
Claim(s) 8 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Marsh (US 20160267546 A1, published: 9/15/2016), in view of Huang et al. (US 20230066854 A1, published: 3/2/2023).
Claim 8: Marsh teaches the display apparatus of claim 1. Marsh does not teach wherein the processor is further configured to execute the one or more instructions to: identify whether a type of the media content is a pre-determined type; and based on the type of the media content being identified to be the pre-determined type, request the content providing server to provide the deep link information for access to the media content being played.
However, Huang teaches wherein the processor is further configured to execute the one or more instructions to: identify whether a type of the media content is a pre-determined type; and based on the type of the media content being identified to be the pre-determined type, request the content providing server to provide the deep link information for access to the media content being played (a predefined playback speed may be based on an Al or machine learning algorithm receiving input from a plurality of users and determining a predefined playback speed for a specific type of audio for certain types of media content (e.g. based on metadata such as content type, length of media content etc.,) [Huang, 0048]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the network connected media player invention of Marsh to include identify pre-determined content type to play media features of Huang.
One would have been motivated to make this modification so that audio content will be played by an audio player, and video content will be played by a video player. This essentially plays content properly per type.
Claim 17, having similar elements to claim 8, is likewise rejected.
Additional Reference
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. The following reference plays media content over a network and includes metadata:
Bryant et al. (US 20160294897 A1, published: 10/6/2016)
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SETH A SILVERMAN whose telephone number is (571)272-9783. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Thur, 8AM-4PM MST.
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/Seth A Silverman/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2172