DETAILED ACTION
This Office action for U.S. Patent Application No. 18/600,494 is responsive to communications filed 13 March 2026 and the Interview of 29 April 2026, in reply to the 10 June 2025 Non-Final Rejection and the 15 January 2026 Notice of Non-Compliant Amendment.
Claims 1, 3–5, 7–14, and 16–18 are pending.
In the Non-Final Rejection, claims 1 and 12 were objected to for various informalities. Claims 6, 7, and 19 were rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 112(b) as indefinite. Claim 2 was rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 112(d) as redundant with parent claim 1. Claims 1–11 and 14–18 were rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as obvious over CN 105916060 A (“Jia”) in view of WO 2015/014773 A1 (“van Brandenburg”) and in view of CN 105976424 A (“Hu”).
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s amendments to the claims have been considered. The objections to claims 1 and 12 are withdrawn. The rejections of claim 2 under 35 U.S.C. § 112(d) and claims 6 and 19 under 35 U.S.C. § 112(b) are moot. The rejection of claim 7 under 35 U.S.C. § 112(b) is withdrawn. However, as discussed in the interview, claims 1, 12, and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 112(b).
Claim Rejections - 35 U.S.C. § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. § 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claims 1, 12, and 14 rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Each of claims 1, 12, and 14 recites a media presentation description stored in the server that includes “a correspondence between a viewing angle of a user and a [panoramic] video file”. This exists before the user requests the panoramic video file. As discussed in the interview, it is unclear whether this viewing angle is the user’s actual first viewing angle that would be expected to be received when playback starts, or whether this is a default viewing angle. Various proposed amendments were discussed in the interview, but the claims must be handled as presented.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1, 12, and 14 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 112(b) set forth in this Office action.
Claims 3–5, 7–11, 13, and 16–18 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The specific combination of the four FOV types as FOV options within a media presentation description in a panoramic video file is found allowable. Closest art Jia may incidentally produce the FOVs listed, but they are not presented as four FOV types within a server-stored media presentation description.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
US 2016/0026253 A1
US 2020/0045286 A1
US 2019/0287289 A1
US 2019/0289284 A1
US 2019/0227695 A1
US 2018/0122129 A1
US 2017/0237971 A1
US 2016/0255327 A1
US 2016/0227203 A1
US 2013/0307935 A1
US 2013/0271575 A1
The following prior art was found using an Artificial Intelligence assisted search using an internal AI tool that uses the classification of the application under the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) system, as well as from the specification, including the claims and abstract, of the application as contextual information. The documents are ranked from most to least relevant. Where possible, English-language equivalents are given, and redundant results within the same patent families are eliminated. See “New Artificial Intelligence Functionality in PE2E Search”, 1504 OG 359 (15 November 2022), “Automated Search Pilot Program”, 90 F.R. 48,161 (8 October 2025).
CN 107277081 A
US 2011/0090056 A1
US 2010/0229210 A1
CN 105100839 A
US 2009/0328124 A1
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See M.P.E.P. § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 C.F.R. § 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 C.F.R. § 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 C.F.R. § 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to David N Werner whose telephone number is (571)272-9662. The examiner can normally be reached M--F 7:30--4:00 Central.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Dave Czekaj can be reached at 571.272.7327. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/David N Werner/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2487
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