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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. PCTCN2021122181, filed on 30 September 2021.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 19 March 2026 has been entered.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because fig.4 as filed, is not fully legible. Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Response to Amendment
Acknowledgement is made in that claims 1-9, 11, and 13-20 have been amended in the instant application presented herein.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see pages 8-11 of Remarks, filed 19 February 2026, with respect to the 35 U.S.C. 103(a) rejection of Claims 1-4, 6-10, 14-17, and 19-20 have been fully considered and are persuasive in-part.
As per Claims 1-4, 6-10, 14-17, and 19-20, Applicants argue that DASH fails to disclose the feature "a first access unit of a first movie fragment in each of the single media segment corresponding to Isau of a stream access point (SAP) as amended in Claims 1, 9, and 14.
Applicant’s arguments are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of newly discovered reference(s) below
Examiner’s Comments
Claims 1, 9, and 14 as currently recited only requires the tuning-in media target segment being specified as comprising one of the following:
“a concatenation of an initialization segment for the media representation and a single media segment containing media data if the initialization segment is absent from the manifest file, wherein the single media segment is with a first access unit of a first movie fragment in each track of the single media segment corresponding to ISAU of a stream access point (SAP) of type 1, 2, or 3.
OR
the single media segment containing the media data if the initialization segment is present in the manifest file.
Furthermore, the stream access point (SAP) specified in step A) above, is type 1, 2, or 3 (emphasis added throughout). Thus, only SAP type 1 alone OR SAP type 2 alone OR SAP type 3 alone is required to be met.
As per claim 6, the claim currently recites “and/or” for each recited “identity information” step. It hereby interpreted that the meaning “and/or” of the claim covers the first identity information step alone, the second identity information step alone, the third identity information step alone, or all three identity information steps together (see U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in SuperGuide Corp. v. DirecTV Enterprises, Inc. (358 F.3d 870 (Fed. Cir. 2004)) and of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in Ex parte Jung (Appeal No. 2016-008290 (PTAB March 22, 2017)).
As per Claim 8, the claim currently recites “and/or” for each step in what comprises in the “manifest file”. It hereby interpreted that the meaning “and/or” of the claim covers first manifest file step alone, the second manifest file step alone, the third manifest file step alone, or all three manifest file steps together (see U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in SuperGuide Corp. v. DirecTV Enterprises, Inc. (358 F.3d 870 (Fed. Cir. 2004)) and of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in Ex parte Jung (Appeal No. 2016-008290 (PTAB March 22, 2017)).
Allowable Subject Matter
The indicated objection of claims 5 and 11-13, and 18 are withdrawn in view of the newly applied 35 U.S.C. 112 2nd rejection below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 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.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. In this instance, claims 1, 9, and 14 currently recite: “…a stream access point (SAP) of type 1, 2, or 3…”. It’s unclear as to what the requisites of type 1, 2, or 3 are. Fundamental principle contained in 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, second paragraph is that applicants are their own lexicographers. They can define in the claims what the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention essentially in whatever terms they choose so long as any special meaning assigned to a term is clearly set forth in the specification. See MPEP § 2111.01 (emphasis added).
In this instance, Examiner fails to see where the term(s): type 1, 2 or 3 are clearly assigned to a term set forth in the specification. Par [0075] as filed, copied herein recites:
“…the media segment in the target segment may comprise a media segment with the first access unit of the first movie fragment in each track corresponding to an ISAU of a Stream Access Point (SAP) of type 1, 2, or 3. The ISOBMFF specification specifies some types of SAPs for use with DASH. The first two SAP types (types 1 and 2) correspond to IDR pictures in H.264/AVC and HEVC. The third SAP type (type 3) corresponds to open-closed group of pictures (GOP) random access points hence broken link access (BLA) or clean random access (CRA) pictures in HEVC.”
It's unclear to which of these specific SAP types are required by the claim. Furthermore, the dependent claims as recited do not further limit which specific SAP types 1, 2, or 3 are required respectively. For the purposes of advancing prosecution, broadest reasonable interpretation will be applied to the limitation “SAP type” as being any type 1, 2, or 3 (see MPEP 2173.01).
Claims 2-8, 10-13, and 15-20 are also rejected to at least for inheriting the same deficiency through their dependency to claims 1, 9, and 14 respectively.
Applicants further argue that DASH describes the first media segment in the representation contains only media streams that start with SAP of type 1 or 2. By contrast, claim 1 requires that the Isau of a SAP of type 1, 2, or 3.
As per applicant’s argument above, Examiner respectfully disagrees. The claim currently recites: “…the single media segment corresponding to ISAU of a stream access point (SAP) of type 1, 2, or 3, or single media segment containing the media data if the initialization segment is present in the manifest file…” which requires “at least one of type 1 (A), 2 (B), or 3 (C) or single media segment containing the media data if the initialization segment is present in the manifest file (D)” means A or B or C or D, but not all A, B, C, and D. (see U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in SuperGuide Corp. v. DirecTV Enterprises, Inc. (358 F.3d 870 (Fed. Cir. 2004)) and of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in Ex parte Jung (Appeal No. 2016-008290 (PTAB March 22, 2017)). It is unclear and/or ambiguous as to which SAP type 1, 2, or 3 are required by the prior-art of record to teach. The specification as filed at par [0075] discloses that the first two SAP types (types 1 and 2) correspond to IDR pictures in H.264/AVC and HEVC. The third SAP type (type 3) corresponds to open-closed group of pictures (GOP) random access points hence broken link access (BLA) or clean random access (CRA) pictures in HEVC (emphasis added).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
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, 3-4, 6-10, 14, 16-17, and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (US 2015/0026358) (hereinafter as Zhang) and in further view of Mao et al. (US 2014/0222962) (hereinafter Mao).
Regarding Claim 1. Zhang teaches a method for retrieving media data, comprising:
determining, by a first device (DASH client), identity information for a tuning-in media target segment of a media representation from a manifest file (the DASH client 108 may be configured to parse an MPD to retrieve information regarding the media content, the MPD 400 defines formats to announce HTTP URLs, or network addresses, for downloading segments of data content, par [0040], the DASH client determines if it can support a specific Representation 430 based on the metadata information (e.g., static metadata information) associated with the Representation 430. If not, then the DASH client may select a different Representation 430 that can be supported. A Segment 440 may be referred to as a unit of data associated with a URL, par [0049]. The DASH client 108 may be configured to parse an MPD to retrieve information regarding the media content, such as location of each media component (e.g., audio data segments and video data segments) on the network, and/or other characteristics of the media content, wherein the media segment, par [0034]).
Zhang does not explicitly teach the tuning-in media target segment being specified as comprising one of the following:
or the single media segment containing the media data if the initialization segment is present in the manifest file.
However, Mao teaches determining available media data for network streaming including the single media segment containing the media data if the initialization segment is present in the manifest file (each representation may include an initialization segment, or each segment of a representation may be self-initializing. When present, the initialization segment may contain initialization information for accessing the representation, par [0030]) comprises a media segment with a first access unit of a first movie fragment in each track corresponding to a random access point (each representation may also include one or more media components, where each media component may correspond to an encoded version of one individual media type, such as audio, video, or timed text (e.g., for closed captioning). Media components may be time-continuous across boundaries of consecutive media segments within one representation. A DASH client device may access and download an MPD from a DASH server device. That is, the DASH client device may retrieve the MPD for use in initiating a live session. Based on this MPD, and for each selected Representation, DASH client device may make several decisions, including determining what is the latest segment that is available on the server device, determining the segment availability start time of the next segment and possibly future segment, Header data, when present, may describe characteristics of segments, e.g., temporal locations of random access points (RAPs, also referred to as stream access points (SAPs)), which of segments 114 includes random access points, byte offsets to random access points within segments 114, uniform resource locators (URLs) of segments 114, or other aspects of segments, par [0172]); and
retrieving the tuning-in media target segment based on the identity information (the DASH client device accesses and downloads an MPD and based on this MPD the DASH client device makes several decisions including that is the latest segment, next segment, future segments, along with when to start playout of the segments, par [0032], the MPD also includes multimedia contents Segments 114, 124 include frames or slices of video data, pars [0032] and [0173]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include initialize media if the segment is present in the manifest file as discussed in Mao in the MPD of Zhang. One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to combine the teachings of Zhang/Mao to transmit and receive digital video information more efficiently.
Regarding Claim 3. The combined teachings of Zhang/Mao teach the method of claim 1, wherein retrieving the tuning-in media target segment comprises: in accordance with a determination that a streaming media service associated with the media representation being activated (initiating a live session), retrieving the tuning-in media target segment (Mao: when a live session is initiated on the DASH client, determines a latest available segment to retrieve from the received MPD, pars [0032], [0175], and [0207]), wherein the tuning-in media target segment contains latest media data for the first device to start with when the streaming media service is activated(Mao: pars [0032] and [0207]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include initialize media if the segment is present in the manifest file as discussed in Mao in the MPD of Zhang. One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to combine the teachings of Zhang/Mao to transmit and receive digital video information more efficiently.
Regarding Claim 4. the combined teachings of Zhang/Mao teach the method of claim 1, wherein the media segment in the tuning- in media target segment comprises:
an available current media segment (latest available segment) or a previous media segment (Mao: [0032]; [0207]); and
wherein retrieving the target segment comprises: transmitting, by the first device to a second device, (Mao: Fig. 1, 60; i.e. server device) a request comprising the identity information (i.e. URL) for the target segment; and (Mao: [0208], lines 1-3; [0174])
receiving, from the second device, the target segment. (Mao: [0174]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include initialize media if the segment is present in the manifest file as discussed in Mao in the MPD of Zhang. One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to combine the teachings of Zhang/Mao to transmit and receive digital video information more efficiently.
Regarding Claim 6, the combined teachings of Zhang/Mao teach the method of claim 1, wherein the identity information for the tuning-in media target segment comprises a uniform resource locator (URL) for the tuning-in media target segment (Mao: [0174]); and/or
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include initialize media if the segment is present in the manifest file as discussed in Mao in the MPD of Zhang. One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to combine the teachings of Zhang/Mao to transmit and receive digital video information more efficiently.
Regarding Claim 7, the method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving an event message for the tuning-in media target segment (Mao: [0032]), the event message indicating at least one of the following:
a segment number of the media segment in the tuning-in media target segment, or an earliest presentation time of the tuning-in media target segment (Mao: each representation may include an initialization segment, or each segment of a representation may be self-initializing. When present, the initialization segment may contain initialization information for accessing the representation, par [0030]) comprises a media segment with a first access unit of a first movie fragment in each track corresponding to a random access point (each representation may also include one or more media components, where each media component may correspond to an encoded version of one individual media type
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include initialize media if the segment is present in the manifest file as discussed in Mao in the MPD of Zhang. One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to combine the teachings of Zhang/Mao to transmit and receive digital video information more efficiently.
Regarding Claim 8. The combined teachings of Zhang/Mao teach the method of claim 1,
and/or wherein the manifest file comprises a multimedia presentation description (MPD) file (Mao: [0026]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include initialize media if the segment is present in the manifest file as discussed in Mao in the MPD of Zhang. One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to combine the teachings of Zhang/Mao to transmit and receive digital video information more efficiently.
Regarding Claim 9. Zhang teaches a method of providing media data, comprising:
receiving, by a second device from a first device, a request for a tuning-in media segment of a media representation, the request comprising identity information for the tuning-in media segment (The DAE 118 may be configured as the primary component for receiving raw data from the HTTP server 104 (e.g., the server DM 110) and constructing the data into a format for viewing, par [0034] A Segment 440 may be referred to as a unit of data associated with a URL, par [0049], or downloading, or receiving, segments of data content and metadata information from the HTTP server 302. At step 310, the HTTP server 302 may send an MPD to the DASH client 304 via HTTP. In other embodiments, the HTTP server 302 may deliver the MPD via HTTP secure (HTTPS), email, universal serial bus (USB) drives, broadcast, or any other type of data transport, the DASH client 304 may receive the MPD from the HTTP server 302 via the DAE (e.g., DAE 118 as described in FIG. 1), and the DAE may process the MPD in order to construct and/or issue requests from the HTTP server 302 for metadata content information and data content segments, par [0043]), and the tuning-in media segment comprising one of the following:
or the single media segment containing the media data if the initialization segment is present in the manifest file;
and transmitting, to the first device, the tuning-in media segment referenced by the identity information (the HTTP server 302 may deliver the MPD via HTTP secure (HTTPS), email, universal serial bus (USB) drives, broadcast, or any other type of data transport, the DASH client 304 may receive the MPD from the HTTP server 302 via the DAE (e.g., DAE 118 as described in FIG. 1), and the DAE may process the MPD in order to construct and/or issue requests from the HTTP server 302 for metadata content information and data content segments, par [0043]).
Zhang does not explicitly teach the tuning-in media target segment being specified as comprising one of the following:
or the single media segment containing the media data if the initialization segment is present in the manifest file.
However, Mao teaches determining available media data for network streaming including the single media segment containing the media data if the initialization segment is present in the manifest file (each representation may include an initialization segment, or each segment of a representation may be self-initializing. When present, the initialization segment may contain initialization information for accessing the representation, par [0030]) comprises a media segment with a first access unit of a first movie fragment in each track corresponding to a random access point (each representation may also include one or more media components, where each media component may correspond to an encoded version of one individual media type, such as audio, video, or timed text (e.g., for closed captioning). Media components may be time-continuous across boundaries of consecutive media segments within one representation. A DASH client device may access and download an MPD from a DASH server device. That is, the DASH client device may retrieve the MPD for use in initiating a live session. Based on this MPD, and for each selected Representation, DASH client device may make several decisions, including determining what is the latest segment that is available on the server device, determining the segment availability start time of the next segment and possibly future segment, Header data 112, when present, may describe characteristics of segments 114, e.g., temporal locations of random access points (RAPs, also referred to as stream access points (SAPs)), which of segments 114 includes random access points, byte offsets to random access points within segments 114, uniform resource locators (URLs) of segments 114, or other aspects of segments, par [0172]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include initialize media if the segment is present in the manifest file as discussed in Mao in the MPD of Zhang. One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to combine the teachings of Zhang/Mao to transmit and receive digital video information more efficiently.
Regarding Claim 10. the combined teachings of Zhang/Mao teach the method of claim 9, wherein the second device comprises an origin device of the media representation or an edge device of a content delivery network (CDN) (Mao: the server device and content preparation device may be the same device.) or an edge device of a content delivery network (CDN), par [0115]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include initialize media if the segment is present in the manifest file as discussed in Mao in the MPD of Zhang. One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to combine the teachings of Zhang/Mao to transmit and receive digital video information more efficiently.
Regarding claims 14, 16-17 and 19-20, these apparatus claims comprise limitations substantially the same as those detailed in claims 1, 3-4, and 6-7 above and is accordingly rejected on the same basis.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
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 2 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang in further view of Mao and in further view of 3rd Generation Partnership Project, Technical Specification Group Services and System Aspects (3rd Generation Partnership Project, Technical Specification Group Services and System Aspects; Transparent end-to-end Packet-switched Streaming Service (PSS); Progressive Download and Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (3GP-DASH) (Release 10), TS 26.247, V10.2.0, June 2012, pp. 1-110), hereinafter DASH (hereinafter as DASH).
Regarding Claim 2. The combined teachings of Zhang/Mao teach the method of claim 1.
The combined teachings of Zhang/Mao do not explicitly wherein the media segment in the tuning-in media target segment comprises one of the following: a Simple Media Segment, a Delivery Unit Media Segment, an Indexed Media Segment, or a Random Access Media Segment.
However, DASH in similar field of endeavor discloses wherein the media segment in the tuning- in media target segment comprises one of the following: a Simple Media Segment, a Delivery Unit Media Segment, an Indexed Media Segment, or a Random Access Media Segment (DASH: Page 20, Paragraph 8).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Mao to incorporate the teachings of DASH in Zhang/Mao to implement different media segment types. One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have been motivated to improve flexibility in streaming the video media.
Regarding claim 15, this apparatus claim comprises limitations substantially the same as those detailed in claim 2 and is accordingly rejected on the same basis.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANTHONY whose telephone number is (571)270-3630. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 10:30 AM-6:30 PM EST.
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, CHRISTOPHER PARRY can be reached at (571)272-8328. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/ANTHONY MEJIA/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2451
Prosecution Insights