DETAILED ACTION
This action is responsive to the following communication: The amendment filed on 06/16/2026. This action is made final.
Claims 1-20 are pending in the case. Claims 1, 17, and 20 are independent claims.
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 .
Claim Interpretation
The term “computer-readable storage medium” is interpreted to excluded propagated signal and communication media as specified in the instant specification (see paragraph [00103]).
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 1-16 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.
Claim 1 recites the limitation "the ranking" in line 16 of the claim. Claim 1 further recites the limitation “the values” in line 19 of the claim. There is insufficient antecedent basis for these limitations in the claim.
Claims 2-16 are rejected as incorporating the deficiencies of the claim upon which they depend.
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 1-11, 15, 17-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Szulczewski et al. (US 2016/0328787 A1; hereinafter Szulczewski) in view of Royzner et al. (US 20170091336 A1; hereinafter Royzner) further in view of Chin et al. (US 2015/0286711 A1; hereinafter Chin).
As to claim 1, Szulczewski discloses:
A computing system that is configured to cause clusters of electronic content items to be presented in a scrollable feed (see Fig. 1 and ¶ 0014, 0098), the computing system comprising:
a processor (see ¶ 0098-0101); and
memory storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform acts comprising (see ¶ 0096-0101):
receiving a request from a client computing device that is in network communication with the computing system, the request being for the scrollable feed (see Fig. 2 and ¶ 0040; user interface 201 of the client application 152 for accessing the online marketplace implemented by the server system 122, The user interface 201 presents a product catalog (or “feed”) for the online marketplace. ¶ 0014, 0083; scrollable feed. See Fig. 8C and ¶ 0063; collections page);
based upon the request, identifying electronic content items from a computer-readable index, where the electronic content items are identified as being relevant to interests of a user of the client computing device (see Figs. 1-2 and ¶ 0033; 0036; when the user uses the client application 152 to access the online marketplace, the client application 152 retrieves, from the front-end server 112, catalog content specific for the user, and presents the catalog content in the user interface 154. The catalog content can be created by the catalog generator 114 and provided to the front-end server 112. ¶ 0043; The catalog generator 114 can access the viewing history of the user and create catalog content including layout of the user interface 201 for the user based on the user's viewing history, and provide the catalog content to the client device 152 (e.g., via the front-end server 112));
selecting a set of the identified electronic content items from the identified electronic content items based upon the ranking of the identified electronic content items (see ¶ 0014, 0043, 0065; generating item feed data indicating an ordering of a set of items including the plurality of items, wherein the ordering of the items included in the set of items is determined based, at least in part, on the ranking of the items included in the plurality of items. ¶ 0012, 0019, 0082; identifying a highest-ranked item that has not yet been assigned a position in the ordering of the set of items);
assigning the selected electronic content items to clusters, where a first subset of the selected electronic content items is assigned to a first cluster and a second subset of the selected electronic content items is assigned to a second cluster (see ¶ 0010-0012, 0082; determining the ordering of the set of items, including: (a) probabilistically selecting between the first plurality of items and the second plurality of items, wherein a first probability of selecting the first plurality of items is P.sub.1 and a second probability of selecting the second plurality of items is 1−P.sub.1; (b) from the selected plurality of items, identifying a highest-ranked item that has not yet been assigned a position in the ordering of the set of items, and assigning the identified item to a next position in the ordering of the set of items; and repeating steps (a) and (b) until a specified number of items have been assigned positions in the ordering of the set of items or until all the items in the first and second pluralities of items have been assigned positions in the ordering of the set of items. ¶ 0041; collections of items. See Fig. 8C and ¶ 0043, 0063; the collections and product feeds are created for a particular user (i.e., user-specific) by the catalog generator 114. For instance, if the user has viewed more often products or collections related to a particular category, the particular category can be placed ahead of other categories in the category panel 210. Collections related to the particular category can also be placed ahead of other collections in the collection panel 220. Products related to the particular category can also be placed ahead of products related to other categories in the product panel 230. In various implementations, the order of the collection or product placements in the collection panel 220 and product panel 230 can be rearranged (shuffled) such that the user can discover “new” products); and
causing the first subset of the selected electronic content items and the second subset of the selected electronic content items to be presented in the scrollable feed based upon the assigning of the selected electronic content items to the clusters (see Fig. 2 and 8C and ¶ 0040, 0063; collection panel 220 including a plurality of collections or collections page. ¶ 0014; display a scrollable feed of item panels corresponding to the items included in the set of items, and wherein the item panels in the scrollable feed are ordered according to the ordering of the corresponding items in the item feed data. ¶ 0041; the collection panel 220 can be scrolled horizontally to display available collections).
Szulczewski might not explicitly disclose the limitation of “selecting a set of the identified electronic content items from the identified electronic content items based upon values of attributes that correspond to the identified electronic content items”
Royzner is relied upon for the teaching the following limitations.
selecting a set of the identified electronic content items from the identified electronic content items based upon values of attributes that correspond to the identified electronic content items (see Fig. 1 and ¶ 0125; the recommended subset 152 of items include a certain pre-determined number of most highly ranked items. ¶ 0108; rank the items within the set 200 of potentially recommendable items based on their respective item features such as popularity, number of likes, number of downloads, price and the like [values of attributes]).
Both references, each is directed to a method of generating recommended items to a user; therefore, 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 the system for presenting items into groups of items disclosed in Szulczewski to include the specific feature of selecting a subset of items to recommend to the user of Royzner such that requested items can be classified and presented in groups based on user’s interest as claimed. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make such a combination because of the overlapping subject matter (i.e., classifying items into groups), and the advantage described in Royzner is to allow the user to discover content more precisely; thus, enhance user experience with the streaming user interface (Royzner: see ¶ 0006).
Szulczewski and Royzner might not disclose the limitation “each cluster representative of a respective interest of the user and corresponding to a topic that is identified based upon electronic content items previously interacted with by the user”.
However, this deficient limitation is disclosed by Chin. Specifically, Chin teaches
assigning electronic content items to clusters, each cluster representative of a respective interest of the user and corresponding to a topic that is identified based upon electronic content items previously interacted with by the user (see ¶ 0049; the topic model can be built with reference to the user's browsing history, by estimating topics preferred by the user. ¶ 0051; information of web contents matched with respective topics can be rendered in different display spaces according to the position of the respective topics in the topic model. ¶ 0007, 0055; the topics can be automatically extracted from web contents accessed by the user by learning multiple topics based on a number of web contents by a clustering algorithm; and recommending one or more topics reflecting the preference of the user based on the user's access history to web contents accessed by the user. ¶ 0057; a list of topics reflecting the user's interests for web browsing can be identified, wherein the topics can all be found in the human knowledge structure. For example, according to the distribution of the topics of the web pages of the user's browsing history, the top three widely distributed topics can be recommended as preference topics for the user), where a first subset of the selected electronic content items is assigned to a first cluster and a second subset of the selected electronic content items is assigned to a second cluster (see Fig. 6 and ¶ 0059; subtopics).
The references, each is directed to a method of organizing items into groups; therefore, 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 the system for presenting items into groups of items disclosed in Szulczewski/Royzner to include the specific feature of assigning items into groups based on a past browsing behavior of Chin such that requested items can be classified and presented in clusters based on user’s browsing history as claimed. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make such a combination because of the overlapping subject matter (i.e., organizing items into groups), and the advantage described in Chin is to allow for offering relevant user-specific internet content wished to have by users intelligently and easily (Chin: see ¶ 0003).
As to claim 17, claim 17 is directed to a method comprising steps for implementing the similar features as claimed in claim 1; therefore, is rejected under similar rationale. (Szulczewski: see ¶ 0007). Further comprising:
receiving, from the client computing device, a request for a scrollable feed of electronic content items (Szulczewski: see Fig. 2 and ¶ 0040; user interface 201 of the client application 152 for accessing the online marketplace implemented by the server system 122, The user interface 201 presents a product catalog (or “feed”) for the online marketplace. ¶ 0014, 0083; scrollable feed. See Fig. 8C and ¶ 0063; collections page);
in response to receiving the request for the scrollable feed of electronic content items, identifying, from a computer-readable index, electronic content items for potential inclusion in the scrollable feed, where the electronic content items are identified based upon content of a user profile of the user (Szulczewski: see Figs. 1-2 and ¶ 0033; 0036; when the user uses the client application 152 to access the online marketplace, the client application 152 retrieves, from the front-end server 112, catalog content specific for the user, and presents the catalog content in the user interface 154. The catalog content can be created by the catalog generator 114 and provided to the front-end server 112. ¶ 0043; The catalog generator 114 can access the viewing history of the user and create catalog content including layout of the user interface 201 for the user based on the user's viewing history, and provide the catalog content to the client device 152 (e.g., via the front-end server 112));
ranking the identified electronic content items (Szulczewski: see ¶ 0065; The catalog generator 114 can create an item feed (e.g., a product feed) (e.g., for a category or collection) based on popularity of products and/or services. For instance, a product with higher sales volume (more popular) can be ranked higher in a product feed than another product with lower sale volume (less popular). Higher ranked products can appear before lower ranked products in a given feed. Products can be ranked by “purchaseability score” (described below), which may be the likelihood that a particular user would purchase the given product. As another example, a product with a higher number of instances of being placed in users' wish lists (more popular) can be ranked higher in a product feed than another product with a lower number of instances being placed in users' wish lists (less popular));
selecting a threshold number of most highly ranked electronic content items from amongst the ranked electronic content items (Royzner: see Fig. 1 and ¶ 0125; the recommended subset 152 of items include a certain pre-determined number of most highly ranked items);
assigning the selected electronic content items to clusters of electronic content items based upon values of attributes of the selected electronic content items (Szulczewski: see ¶ 0010-0012, 0082; determining the ordering of the set of items, including: (a) probabilistically selecting between the first plurality of items and the second plurality of items, wherein a first probability of selecting the first plurality of items is P.sub.1 and a second probability of selecting the second plurality of items is 1−P.sub.1; (b) from the selected plurality of items, identifying a highest-ranked item that has not yet been assigned a position in the ordering of the set of items, and assigning the identified item to a next position in the ordering of the set of items; and repeating steps (a) and (b) until a specified number of items have been assigned positions in the ordering of the set of items or until all the items in the first and second pluralities of items have been assigned positions in the ordering of the set of items. ¶ 0041; collections of items. See Fig. 8C and ¶ 0043, 0063; the collections and product feeds are created for a particular user (i.e., user-specific) by the catalog generator 114. For instance, if the user has viewed more often products or collections related to a particular category, the particular category can be placed ahead of other categories in the category panel 210. Collections related to the particular category can also be placed ahead of other collections in the collection panel 220. Products related to the particular category can also be placed ahead of products related to other categories in the product panel 230. In various implementations, the order of the collection or product placements in the collection panel 220 and product panel 230 can be rearranged (shuffled) such that the user can discover “new” products. Royzner: ¶ 0108; rank the items within the set 200 of potentially recommendable items based on their respective item features such as popularity, number of likes, number of downloads, price and the like [values of attributes]), each cluster representative of a respective interest of the user and corresponding to a topic that is identified based upon electronic content items previously interacted with by the user (Chin: see ¶ 0049; the topic model can be built with reference to the user's browsing history, by estimating topics preferred by the user. ¶ 0051; information of web contents matched with respective topics can be rendered in different display spaces according to the position of the respective topics in the topic model. ¶ 0007, 0055; the topics can be automatically extracted from web contents accessed by the user by learning multiple topics based on a number of web contents by a clustering algorithm; and recommending one or more topics reflecting the preference of the user based on the user's access history to web contents accessed by the user. ¶ 0057; a list of topics reflecting the user's interests for web browsing can be identified, wherein the topics can all be found in the human knowledge structure. For example, according to the distribution of the topics of the web pages of the user's browsing history, the top three widely distributed topics can be recommended as preference topics for the user); and
causing the selected electronic content items to be displayed in the scrollable feed of electronic content items based upon the assigning of the selected electronic content items to the clusters of electronic content items (Szulczewski: see Fig. 2 and 8C and ¶ 0040, 0063; collection panel 220 including a plurality of collections or collections page. ¶ 0014; display a scrollable feed of item panels corresponding to the items included in the set of items, and wherein the item panels in the scrollable feed are ordered according to the ordering of the corresponding items in the item feed data. ¶ 0041; the collection panel 220 can be scrolled horizontally to display available collections).
As to claim 20, claim 20 is directed to computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform acts similar features as claimed in claim 1; therefore, is rejected under similar rationale. (Szulczewski: see ¶ 0096-0101). Further comprising:
receiving a request from a client computing device that is in network communication with the computing system, the request being for the scrollable feed of electronic content items (Szulczewski: see Fig. 2 and ¶ 0040; user interface 201 of the client application 152 for accessing the online marketplace implemented by the server system 122, The user interface 201 presents a product catalog (or “feed”) for the online marketplace. ¶ 0014, 0083; scrollable feed. See Fig. 8C and ¶ 0063; collections page);
based upon the request, identifying electronic content items from a computer-readable index, where the electronic content items are identified as being relevant to interests of a user of the client computing device (Szulczewski: see Figs. 1-2 and ¶ 0033; 0036; when the user uses the client application 152 to access the online marketplace, the client application 152 retrieves, from the front-end server 112, catalog content specific for the user, and presents the catalog content in the user interface 154. The catalog content can be created by the catalog generator 114 and provided to the front-end server 112. ¶ 0043; The catalog generator 114 can access the viewing history of the user and create catalog content including layout of the user interface 201 for the user based on the user's viewing history, and provide the catalog content to the client device 152 (e.g., via the front-end server 112));
ranking the identified electronic content items based upon values of attributes that correspond to the identified electronic content items (Szulczewski: see ¶ 0065; The catalog generator 114 can create an item feed (e.g., a product feed) (e.g., for a category or collection) based on popularity of products and/or services. For instance, a product with higher sales volume (more popular) can be ranked higher in a product feed than another product with lower sale volume (less popular). Higher ranked products can appear before lower ranked products in a given feed. Products can be ranked by “purchaseability score” (described below), which may be the likelihood that a particular user would purchase the given product. As another example, a product with a higher number of instances of being placed in users' wish lists (more popular) can be ranked higher in a product feed than another product with a lower number of instances being placed in users' wish lists (less popular));
selecting a threshold number of most highly ranked electronic content items from the identified electronic content items (Royzner: see Fig. 1 and ¶ 0125; the recommended subset 152 of items include a certain pre-determined number of most highly ranked items);
assigning the selected electronic content items to clusters, where a first subset of the selected electronic content items is assigned to a first cluster and a second subset of the selected electronic content items is assigned to a second cluster (Szulczewski: see ¶ 0010-0012, 0082; determining the ordering of the set of items, including: (a) probabilistically selecting between the first plurality of items and the second plurality of items, wherein a first probability of selecting the first plurality of items is P.sub.1 and a second probability of selecting the second plurality of items is 1−P.sub.1; (b) from the selected plurality of items, identifying a highest-ranked item that has not yet been assigned a position in the ordering of the set of items, and assigning the identified item to a next position in the ordering of the set of items; and repeating steps (a) and (b) until a specified number of items have been assigned positions in the ordering of the set of items or until all the items in the first and second pluralities of items have been assigned positions in the ordering of the set of items. ¶ 0041; collections of items. See Fig. 8C and ¶ 0043, 0063; the collections and product feeds are created for a particular user (i.e., user-specific) by the catalog generator 114. For instance, if the user has viewed more often products or collections related to a particular category, the particular category can be placed ahead of other categories in the category panel 210. Collections related to the particular category can also be placed ahead of other collections in the collection panel 220. Products related to the particular category can also be placed ahead of products related to other categories in the product panel 230. In various implementations, the order of the collection or product placements in the collection panel 220 and product panel 230 can be rearranged (shuffled) such that the user can discover “new” products), each cluster representative of a respective interest of the user and corresponding to a topic that is identified based upon electronic content items previously interacted with by the user (Chin: see ¶ 0049; the topic model can be built with reference to the user's browsing history, by estimating topics preferred by the user. ¶ 0051; information of web contents matched with respective topics can be rendered in different display spaces according to the position of the respective topics in the topic model. ¶ 0007, 0055; the topics can be automatically extracted from web contents accessed by the user by learning multiple topics based on a number of web contents by a clustering algorithm; and recommending one or more topics reflecting the preference of the user based on the user's access history to web contents accessed by the user. ¶ 0057; a list of topics reflecting the user's interests for web browsing can be identified, wherein the topics can all be found in the human knowledge structure. For example, according to the distribution of the topics of the web pages of the user's browsing history, the top three widely distributed topics can be recommended as preference topics for the user); and
causing the first subset of the selected electronic content items and the second subset of the selected electronic content items to be presented in the scrollable feed of content items based upon the assigning of the selected electronic content items to the clusters (Szulczewski: see Fig. 2 and 8C and ¶ 0040, 0063; collection panel 220 including a plurality of collections or collections page. ¶ 0014; display a scrollable feed of item panels corresponding to the items included in the set of items, and wherein the item panels in the scrollable feed are ordered according to the ordering of the corresponding items in the item feed data. ¶ 0041; the collection panel 220 can be scrolled horizontally to display available collections).
As to claim 2, the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated. Szulczewski, Royzner and Chin further teach where causing the first subset of the selected electronic content items and the second subset of the selected electronic content items to be presented in the feed based upon the assigning of the selected electronic content items to the clusters comprises: causing each electronic content item in the first subset of selected electronic content items to be displayed adjacent to at least one other electronic content item in the first subset of selected electronic content items (Szulczewski: see Fig. 2 and 8C and ¶ 0040-0043; collection panel 220 comprising a plurality of collections, each collection includes a subset of content items being displayed adjacent to other items in the subset/collection); and
causing each electronic content item in the second subset of selected electronic content items to be displayed adjacent to at least one other electronic content item in the second subset of selected electronic content items (Szulczewski: see Fig. 2 and 8C and ¶ 0040-0043; collection panel 220 comprising a plurality of collections, each collection includes a subset of content items being displayed adjacent to other items in the subset/collection).
As to claim 3, the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated. Szulczewski, Royzner and Chin further teach
receiving an indication that the user has scrolled the scrollable feed (Szulczewski: see Fig. 2, 8C and ¶ 0014; wherein the device of the user is configured to display a scrollable feed of item panels corresponding to the items included in the set of items, and wherein the item panels in the scrollable feed are ordered according to the ordering of the corresponding items in the item feed data.);
responsive to receiving the indication, identifying second electronic content items from the computer-readable index, where the second electronic content items are identified as being relevant to the interests of the user of the client computing device, and further the second electronic content items do not include any of the electronic content items (Szulczewski: see Fig. 2, 8C and ¶ 0014, 0065; ranking content items.);
ranking the identified second electronic content items based upon second values of attributes that correspond to the identified second electronic content items (Royzner: ¶ 0108; rank the items within the set 200 of potentially recommendable items based on their respective item features such as popularity, number of likes, number of downloads, price and the like [values of attributes]);
selecting the threshold number of most highly ranked second electronic content items from the identified second electronic content items (Royzner: see Fig. 1 and ¶ 0125; the recommended subset 152 of items include a certain pre-determined number of most highly ranked items);
assigning the second selected electronic content items to second clusters, where a third subset of the second selected electronic content items is assigned to a third cluster and a fourth subset of the second selected electronic content items is assigned to a fourth cluster (Szulczewski: see ¶ 0010-0012, 0043, 0063, 0082); and
causing the third subset of the second selected electronic content items and the fourth subset of the selected electronic content items to be presented in the scrollable feed based upon the assigning of the second selected electronic content items to the second clusters (Szulczewski: see Figs. 2, 8C and ¶ 0010-0012, 0040, 0043, 0063, 0082.). Thus, combining Szulczewski, Royzner and Chin would meet the claimed limitations for the same reasons as set forth in claim 1.
As to claim 4, the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated. Szulczewski, Royzner and Chin further teach: ranking the first cluster relative to the second cluster based upon first values of attributes assigned to the first cluster and second values of the attributes assigned to the second cluster, where the first subset of the selected electronic content items is caused to be displayed relative to the second subset of the selected electronic content items based upon the ranking of the first cluster relative to the second cluster (Szulczewski: see Fig. 2, 8C and ¶ 0010-0012, 0043, 0063, 0082; the collections and product feeds are created for a particular user (i.e., user-specific) by the catalog generator 114. For instance, if the user has viewed more often products or collections related to a particular category, the particular category can be placed ahead of other categories in the category panel 210. Collections related to the particular category can also be placed ahead of other collections in the collection panel 220. Products related to the particular category can also be placed ahead of products related to other categories in the product panel 230. In various implementations, the order of the collection or product placements in the collection panel 220 and product panel 230 can be rearranged (shuffled) such that the user can discover “new” products).
As to claim 5, the rejection of claim 4 is incorporated. Szulczewski, Royzner and Chin further teach: where the first subset of the selected electronic content items comprises a first electronic content item and a second electronic content item, and further where first item attribute values are assigned to the first electronic content item and second item attribute values are assigned to the second electronic content item, the acts further comprising: ranking the first electronic content item relative to the second electronic content item based upon the first item attribute values and the second item attribute values, where the first subset of the selected electronic content items is caused to be displayed in the scrollable feed based upon the ranking of the first electronic content item relative to the second electronic content item (Szulczewski: see Fig. 2, 8C and ¶ 0010-0012, 0043, 0063, 0082; the collections and product feeds are created for a particular user (i.e., user-specific) by the catalog generator 114. For instance, if the user has viewed more often products or collections related to a particular category, the particular category can be placed ahead of other categories in the category panel 210. Collections related to the particular category can also be placed ahead of other collections in the collection panel 220. Products related to the particular category can also be placed ahead of products related to other categories in the product panel 230. In various implementations, the order of the collection or product placements in the collection panel 220 and product panel 230 can be rearranged (shuffled) such that the user can discover “new” products).
As to claim 6, the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated. Szulczewski, Royzner and Chin further teach: receiving a selection of the first subset of electronic content items; based upon the selection of the first subset of the electronic content items, causing a third subset of the electronic content items to be displayed, where each content item in the third subset of the electronic content items is assigned to the first cluster, each content item in the third subset of the electronic content items is assigned to a respective subcluster of the first cluster, and further where the third subset of the electronic content items is caused to be displayed based upon the subcluster to which the respective electronic content items are assigned (Szulczewski: see Fig. 2 and ¶ 0040-0042; the product panel 230 presents a list or feed of individual products of the selected collection).
As to claim 7, the rejection of claim 6 is incorporated. Szulczewski, Royzner and Chin further teach: modifying an attribute value assigned to the first cluster based upon the first subset of electronic content items being selected, where the first cluster is subsequently ranked relative to other clusters based upon the modified attribute value assigned to the first cluster (Szulczewski: see ¶ 0043; The client application 152 can record the user's viewing history and send the viewing history to the front-end server 112, which can in turn store the viewing history in the user data database 132. The catalog generator 114 can access the viewing history of the user and create catalog content including layout of the user interface 201 for the user based on the user's viewing history, and provide the catalog content to the client device 152 (e.g., via the front-end server 112)).
As to claim 8, the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated. Szulczewski, Royzner and Chin further teach: receiving an indication that the user has scrolled past the first subset of electronic content items in the scrollable feed without interacting with the first subset of the electronic content items; and modifying an attribute value assigned to the first cluster based upon the indication that the user has scrolled past the first subset of electronic content items in the scrollable feed, where the first cluster is subsequently ranked relative to other clusters based upon the modified attribute value assigned to the first cluster (Szulczewski: see ¶ 0043; The client application 152 can record the user's viewing history and send the viewing history to the front-end server 112, which can in turn store the viewing history in the user data database 132. The catalog generator 114 can access the viewing history of the user and create catalog content including layout of the user interface 201 for the user based on the user's viewing history, and provide the catalog content to the client device 152 (e.g., via the front-end server 112)).
As to claim 9, the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated. Szulczewski, Royzner and Chin further teach: where the first subset of electronic content items consists of a first number of electronic content items, the second subset of electronic content items consists of a second number of electronic content items, and further where the first number of electronic content items is different from the second number of electronic content items (Szulczewski: see Fig. 2, 8C and ¶ 0040-0043; collections of items).
As to claim 10, the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated. Szulczewski, Royzner and Chin further teach: wherein selecting the set of the identified electronic content items comprises:
ranking the identified electronic content items based upon the values of attributes that correspond to the identified electronic content items; selecting the set of the identified electronic content items based upon the ranking of the identified electronic content items (Szulczewski: see ¶ 0014, 0043, 0065; generating item feed data indicating an ordering of a set of items including the plurality of items, wherein the ordering of the items included in the set of items is determined based, at least in part, on the ranking of the items included in the plurality of items. ¶ 0012, 0019, 0082; identifying a highest-ranked item that has not yet been assigned a position in the ordering of the set of items. Royzner: see Fig. 1 and ¶ 0125; the recommended subset 152 of items include a certain pre-determined number of most highly ranked items. ¶ 0108; rank the items within the set 200 of potentially recommendable items based on their respective item features such as popularity, number of likes, number of downloads, price and the like [values of attributes])).
As to claim 11, the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated. Szulczewski, Royzner and Chin further teach: where the first cluster is assigned a first title and the second cluster is assigned a second title, the acts further comprising: causing the first subset of electronic content items to be displayed with the first title; and causing the second subset of electronic content items to be displayed with the second title (Szulczewski: see Fig. 2, 8C and ¶ 0040-0043; collection panel 220). Thus, combining Szulczewski, Royzner and Chin would meet the claimed limitations for the same reasons as set forth in claim 1.
As to claim 15, the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated. Szulczewski, Royzner and Chin further teach: prior to receiving a request from the client computing device, generating the clusters, where each of the clusters includes at least one electronic content item (Szulczewski: see Fig. 2, 8C and ¶ 0040-0043, 0077-0082; categories and/or collections); and
constructing representations of the clusters based upon embeddings of the electronic content items within the clusters, where:
the first subset of electronic content items is assigned to the first cluster based upon a first constructed representation of the first cluster (Szulczewski: see Fig. 2, 8C and ¶ 0040-0043; categories and/or collections); and
the second subset of electronic content items assigned to the second cluster based upon a second constructed representation of the second cluster (Szulczewski: see Fig. 2, 8C and ¶ 0040-0043; categories and/or collections).
As to claim 18, the rejection of claim 17 is incorporated. Szulczewski, Royzner and Chin further teach: prior to receiving the request for the scrollable feed of electronic content items, generating the clusters, where the clusters are generated based upon interactions of the user with a set of electronic content items indexed in the computer-readable index (Szulczewski: see Fig. 2, 8C and ¶ 0040-0043, 0077-0082; categories and/or collections).
As to claim 19, the rejection of claim 17 is incorporated. Szulczewski, Royzner and Chin further teach: ranking the clusters of electronic content items based upon values of attributes assigned to the clusters, where the scrollable feed of electronic content items is caused to be displayed based upon the ranking of the clusters (Szulczewski: see Fig. 2, 8C and ¶ 0010-0012, 0043, 0063, 0082; the collections and product feeds are created for a particular user (i.e., user-specific) by the catalog generator 114. For instance, if the user has viewed more often products or collections related to a particular category, the particular category can be placed ahead of other categories in the category panel 210. Collections related to the particular category can also be placed ahead of other collections in the collection panel 220. Products related to the particular category can also be placed ahead of products related to other categories in the product panel 230. In various implementations, the order of the collection or product placements in the collection panel 220 and product panel 230 can be rearranged (shuffled) such that the user can discover “new” products).
Claims 13-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Szulczewski/Royzner/Chin further in view of Bronder et al. (US 20140282099 A1; hereinafter Bronder).
As to claim 13, the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated. Szulczewski, Royzner and Chin further teach: where the electronic content items are images (Szulczewski: see Fig. 2, 8C and ¶ 0040-0043; product images). Szulczewski, Royzner and Chin do not appear to teach, but Bronder is relied upon for teaching the limitations: where an aspect ratio of each of the electronic content items is preserved in the scrollable feed (Bronder: see ¶ 0063; the digital images in media wall 400 are of different sizes and aspect ratios. In a different embodiment, all digital images depicted in media wall 400 have the same aspect ratio (e.g., 4:3) and/or resolution. ¶ 0114; aspect ratio preservation is preferred. ¶ 0115; In this example, media wall 1900 is displayed after a user selects the "Condensed" layout option listed in menu 1800 of FIG. 18. The media items in media wall 1900 all have the same height but some have different widths. Thus, the "condensed" layout preserves the aspect ratio of each media item. Fig. 21 and ¶ 0117; All media items displayed in a grid fit layout have their original aspect ratios preserved.).
The references, each is directed to a method of classifying items into groups; therefore, 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 the system for presenting items into groups of items disclosed in Szulczewski/Royzner/Chin to include the specific feature of maintaining the aspect ratio of each of the electronic content items in the scrollable feed of Bronder such that requested items can be classified and presented in groups based on user’s interest as claimed. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make such a combination because of the overlapping subject matter (i.e., classifying items into groups), and the advantage described in Bronder is to allow the user to easily locate the item of interest; thus, enhance user experience with the streaming user interface (Bronder: see ¶ 0081).
As to claim 14, the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated. Szulczewski/Royzner/Chin and Bronder further teach: where the first subset of electronic content items includes a first electronic content item and a second content item, and further where causing the first subset of the selected electronic content items and the second subset of the selected electronic content items to be presented in the scrollable feed based upon the assigning of the selected electronic content items to the clusters comprises: causing the first electronic content item to be displayed larger than the second electronic content item based upon a ranking of the first electronic content item relative to the second electronic content item (Bronder: see ¶ 0064; The size of a media item in media wall 400 may be determined by media browser 112 based on one or more size criteria. Examples of the size criteria include popularity and a number of people reflected in the media item. Popularity may be based on one or more factors, such as a number of people who "liked" a media item, a number of people who "commented" on a media item, a number of "friends" of the user who are reflected in a media item, and whether the user and a "close" friend are reflected in a media item). Thus, combining Szulczewski, Royzner, Chin and Bronder would meet the claimed limitations for the same reasons as set forth in claim 13.
Claim 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Szulczewski, Royzner and Chin as rejected in claim 1 further in view of Hansson et al. (US 2009/0019398 A1; hereinafter as Hansson).
As to claim 12, the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated. Szulczewski, Royzner and Chin do not appear to teach the following limitations, but Hansson is relied upon for teaching the deficient limitations:
assigning a first background color to the first subset of electronic content items; and assigning a second background color to the second subset of electronic content items, where the first background color is different from the second background color (see Figs. 5-10 and ¶ 0067-0070; the thumbnail 62 may be thought of as a thumbnail template that includes various thumbnail components, such as a background 64 and one or more sub-icons 66 overlaid with respect to the background 64, Based on the results of the data analysis, a graphical attribute for the background 64 (e.g., a color of the background 64) may be identified and a graphic and/or graphical attribute (e.g., size of a graphic) for each sub-icon 66 may be identified);
where causing the first subset of the selected electronic content items and the second subset of the selected electronic content items to be presented in the scrollable feed based upon the assigning of the selected electronic content items to the clusters comprises:
causing the first subset of electronic content items to be displayed over a first background of the first background color (see Figs. 5-10 and ¶ 0067-0070; the thumbnail 62 may be thought of as a thumbnail template that includes various thumbnail components, such as a background 64 and one or more sub-icons 66 overlaid with respect to the background 64, Based on the results of the data analysis, a graphical attribute for the background 64 (e.g., a color of the background 64) may be identified and a graphic and/or graphical attribute (e.g., size of a graphic) for each sub-icon 66 may be identified); and
causing the second subset of electronic content items to be displayed over a second background of the second background color (see Figs. 5-10 and ¶ 0067-0070; the thumbnail 62 may be thought of as a thumbnail template that includes various thumbnail components, such as a background 64 and one or more sub-icons 66 overlaid with respect to the background 64, Based on the results of the data analysis, a graphical attribute for the background 64 (e.g., a color of the background 64) may be identified and a graphic and/or graphical attribute (e.g., size of a graphic) for each sub-icon 66 may be identified).
The references, each is directed to a method of creating a graphical representing underlying data such as thumbnail or icon representing underlying data; therefore, 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 the visual representation of the underlying group content disclosed in Szulczewski/Royzner/Chin to include the background color of the visual representation of the underlying data disclosed in Hansson such that the group representation of the underlying groups of content can be displayed in different colors as claimed. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make such a combination because of the overlapping subject matter (i.e., classifying items into groups), and the advantage described in Hansson is to provide the user the preview of the content of the group; thus, the user can quickly determine the group content and make quick selection (Hansson: see ¶ 0003).
Claim 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Szulczewski, Royzner and Chin as rejected in claim 1 further in view of Chaudhri et al. (US 20080307360 A1; hereinafter as Chaudhri).
As to claim 16, the rejection of claim 1 is incorporated. Szulczewski, Royzner and Chin further teach where the first subset of electronic content items comprises a first electronic content item and a second electronic content item (Szulczewski: see Fig. 2, 8C and ¶ 0040-0043, 0077-0082; categories and/or collections).
Szulczewski, Royzner and Chin do not appear to teach the following limitations, but Chaudhri is relied upon for teaching the deficient limitations:
where causing the first subset of the selected electronic content items and the second subset of the selected electronic content items to be presented in the scrollable feed based upon the assigning of the selected electronic content items to the clusters comprises displaying the first electronic content item as partially overlaying the second electronic content item (Chaudhri: see Fig. 4, 11, 30 and ¶ 0086, 0132, 0208; stack/group/cluster items 1140, 1142, 1144, 1146, each stack item comprises a plurality of content items, the content items in the group are presented as overlapping each other)
The references, each is directed to a method of creating a graphical representing underlying data such as thumbnail or icon representing underlying data; therefore, 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 the visual representation of the underlying group content disclosed in Szulczewski/Royzner/Chin to include the overlapping arrangement as disclosed in Chaudhri such that the group representation of the underlying groups of content can be displayed in an overlapping manner as claimed. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make such a combination because of the overlapping subject matter (i.e., classifying items into groups), and the advantage described in Chaudhri is to provide group representations in a user interface in a manner that facilitates an intuitive user experience (Chaudhri: see ¶ 0002).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-20 have been considered but are moot in view of new ground of rejection.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 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 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 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.
The prior art made of record on form PTO-892 and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Applicant is required under 37 C.F.R. § 1.111(c) to consider these references fully when responding to this action.
It is noted that any citation to specific, pages, columns, lines, or figures in the prior art references and any interpretation of the references should not be considered to be limiting in any way. A reference is relevant for all it contains and may be relied upon for all that it would have reasonably suggested to one having ordinary skill in the art. In re Heck, 699 F.2d 1331, 1332-33,216 USPQ 1038, 1039 (Fed. Cir. 1983) (quoting In re Lemelson, 397 F.2d 1006,1009, 158 USPQ 275,277 (CCPA 1968)).
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/TUYETLIEN T TRAN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2179
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