DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 8/17/2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
The Amendments filed 8/17/2026 have been entered. Claims 1, 5, 7-10, 14, and 16-18 were amended. Claims 1-18 are pending in the application.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 8/17/2026 have been considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because in FIG. 9A, the descriptive legend of the block designated 913 reads "RECEIVE PLAYBACK REQUEST VIEW GALLERY ICON", whereas paragraph [0155] of the specification describes operation 913 as receiving user input via the map GUI 612 indicating a request for playback of a particular story by selection of the corresponding story icon, so that the word "VIEW" in the legend appears to be a typographical error for the word "VIA". No new matter should be entered. 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.
The drawings are objected to as failing to comply with 37 CFR 1.84(p)(5) because they include the following reference character(s) not mentioned in the description: reference character 124 in FIG. 1, which designates the block bearing the legend "ENGAGEMENT TRACKING SYSTEM" within the application server 112. The specification does not mention reference character 124 and does not describe an engagement tracking system at any paragraph. Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d), or amendment to the specification to add the reference character(s) in the description in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(b) 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. 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.
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities:
(a) [0013] ends without terminal punctuation, reading "according to one example embodiment" with no period;
(b) [0041] recites "which in turn embody a number of some subsystems", in which the phrase "a number of some" appears to be a grammatical error;
(c) [0047] ends without terminal punctuation, reading "for a predefined amount of time" with no period; and
(d) [0103] recites "a server-side gallery system or content management system management system (CMS)", in which the phrase "management system" is duplicated.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Objections
Claims 4, 6, 9, 13 and 15 are objected to because of the following informalities:
In claims 4 and 13, the phrase "a remaining time for continued availability of the ephemeral media as part of the ephemeral collective entity" is inconsistent with "each ephemeral media item" recited earlier in the same limitation, and appears to require "the ephemeral media item";
In claims 6 and 15, the phrase "repeating the operation of displaying a next social media item in sequence" is inconsistent with "media items", the term used throughout each of those claims, and appears to require "media item", and the phrase "a first one of the set of the media items" in each of those claims carries a redundant article and appears to require "a first one of the set of media items"; and
In claim 9, the phrase "submitted for public display via the social media application" is inconsistent with "the social media platform" recited in claims 1, 7 and 8, from which claim 9 depends.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 U.S.C. 112(b)
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 9-17 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. See MPEP 2175, form paragraph 7.34.01.
Regarding claim 9, the claim recites, in its first operation, compiling a set of candidate ephemeral messages for inclusion in an ephemeral collective entity based at least in part on respective geo-tag locations of media items submitted for public display via the social media application, and then recites, in its second operation, selecting from the set of candidate media items a subset of media items that are included in the corresponding ephemeral collective entity. The recitation is indefinite as ambiguous language for which there is also insufficient antecedent basis. There is insufficient antecedent basis for the limitation "the set of candidate media items" in the claim: claim 9 compiles "a set of candidate ephemeral messages" and no set of candidate media items is recited in claim 9 or in claim 8, claim 7, or claim 1, from which claim 9 depends. This is not a mere difference in article. Claim 1 uses "media items" as the term for the contents of the ephemeral collective entity, whereas "ephemeral messages" is introduced for the first time in claim 9 and is nowhere stated to be the same thing as a media item, so the two recited sets are named as different things. A person of ordinary skill in the art accordingly cannot determine with reasonable certainty whether the recited curation operation acts on the set of candidates that the compiling operation produced, on a further and unrecited set of candidate media items, or on some set that merely overlaps the compiled candidates, and therefore cannot determine what the resulting ephemeral collective entity is required to contain. The uncertainty is compounded because the compiling operation recites inclusion in an ephemeral collective entity, using the indefinite article, after the body of claim 9 has already directed the recited operations to the corresponding ephemeral collective entity, leaving it unclear whether the candidates are compiled for the same entity that is being compiled or for a different one. See Nautilus, Inc. v. Biosig Instruments, Inc., 572 U.S. 898, 901 (2014); In re Packard, 751 F.3d 1307, 1314 (Fed. Cir. 2014). For purposes of examination, the limitation is interpreted as requiring that the curation operation select its subset from the same set of candidates produced by the automated compiling operation, and that the selected subset be placed in the same ephemeral collective entity to which the body of claim 9 is directed, so that "candidate ephemeral messages" and "candidate media items" name one and the same set of geo-tagged user submissions. That interpretation is consistent with the specification at [0146], which states that "the gallery management system 824 can generate a set of candidate messages or snaps based at least in part on the geotag data of the respective snaps" and that "An operator administrator can then curate the story based on the set of candidate snaps."
Regarding claim 10, the claim recites memory storing instructions which, when executed by the one or more computer processor devices, configure the server system to perform operations comprising. The recitation is indefinite as ambiguous language for which there is also insufficient antecedent basis. There is insufficient antecedent basis for the limitation "the server system" in the claim. The only system recited in claim 10 is the system of the preamble, "A system comprising: one or more computer processor devices; and memory", and neither the preamble nor any other limitation of claim 10 recites a server or a server system. The defect is not curable by simply reading in the preamble, because the modifier "server" introduces a characteristic that appears nowhere else in the claim. It is therefore uncertain whether claim 10 requires the recited system itself to be a server system, in which case the claim is limited to server-side implementations, or whether the recited operations are instead performed by a separate and unclaimed server system that is not part of the recited combination. MPEP 2173.05(e) treats this pattern as unclear, explaining that a claim referring to a limitation qualified by a characteristic that was not recited when the element was introduced is indefinite because it is uncertain which element is being referenced. The specification does not resolve the uncertainty but confirms it, stating at [0140] that "The system 800 and its associated components can in some embodiments be provided server-side, for example by the social media application server system 108 (FIG. 1)" and that "In other embodiments, one or more components of the system 800 is provided client-side". The disclosure thus expressly contemplates server-side, client-side, and collaborative implementations of the same system, so a person of ordinary skill in the art is not informed with reasonable certainty whether a wholly client-side implementation falls within claim 10. See Nautilus, Inc. v. Biosig Instruments, Inc., 572 U.S. 898, 901, 910 (2014); In re Packard, 751 F.3d 1307, 1314 (Fed. Cir. 2014). For purposes of examination, "the server system" is interpreted as referring to the system recited in the preamble of claim 10, namely the one or more computer processor devices and the memory, without requiring that system to be provided server-side. Claim 10 is therefore examined as commensurate in scope with the method of claim 1, and art disclosing a client-side or a collaborative implementation is treated as satisfying this limitation. Claims 11 and 13, which recite that "the instructions further configure the system", are consistent with that interpretation.
Claims 11-17 depend from claim 10, claims 11, 15 and 16 directly, claims 12 and 13 through claim 11, claim 14 through claim 13, and claim 17 through claim 16. They incorporate and do not cure the defect set forth above with respect to claim 10, and they are rejected for the same reason.
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 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 1-8 and 10-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Koepke, US 2015/0237473 A1, in view of Allen et al. (hereinafter Allen), US 2016/0099901 A1.
Koepke was disclosed in an IDS dated 6/21/2024, Sheet 27 of 59.
Allen was disclosed in an IDS dated 6/21/2024, Sheet 28 of 59.
Regarding independent claim 1, Koepke teaches a method comprising (Koepke: [0113], "Regarding drops viewable by map navigation, the platform can provide a digital map that shows drops placed in the user's immediate area"; the operations recited in the claim are carried out by the platform as a sequence of steps performed when the user navigates the map):
causing generation on a user device of a map-based graphical user interface (GUI) for a social media platform, the map-based GUI including a map representing a geographical area (Koepke: [0062], "Regarding drops, Dropcast can allow users to create, view and share packages of multimedia content (drops) that are posted to points on a digital map"; the Dropcast platform (a social media platform) generates a digital map (a map-based graphical user interface (GUI)) on which posted content is presented for creation, viewing and sharing; [0113], "Regarding drops viewable by map navigation, the platform can provide a digital map that shows drops placed in the user's immediate area"; the digital map (a map) is provided to the mobile client (a user device) and shows the user's immediate area (a geographical area); [0113], "Upon opening a map, the user can see, for example, (1) drops placed by himself or herself, (2) drops placed by other users whom the user follows…"; the map presents the drops of the viewer and of the other users the viewer follows, which is the following-and-sharing arrangement of a social media platform);
causing display of a collection icon at a specific display location on the map (Koepke: [0119], "Show content on a map that is posted in the same location by displaying an icon that shows the number of pieces of content in the cluster"; an icon (a collection icon) is placed on the map at the very location at which the several pieces of content were posted, and carries the count of the pieces it stands for; [0225], "As shown in FIG. 66, when two or more drops are placed in the same location, clustering can occur. The drop icon can appear accompanied with a number to indicate the total number of drops in cluster 6600"; the icon appears at the shared location of the drops it stands for (a specific display location on the map), accompanied by the number of drops in the cluster),
the collection icon being an interactive user interface element (Koepke: [0198], "Drops can appear as icons 540 on the map. Touching them can bring up the drop preview"; the icons carried on the map respond to touch, which is the interactive character the limitation requires of the element (an interactive user interface element); [0201], "Tapping drop icon 1200 in FIG. 12 (as shown by the shaded overlay on icon 1200 representing the impression of a user's finger) brings up drop preview 1300 from the bottom"; the shaded overlay is expressly defined as the impression of a user's finger, so invoking an icon in Koepke is a direct touch on the icon itself) that represents an ephemeral collective entity containing a set of media items that were published separately on the social media platform (Koepke: [0225], "Invoking the drop cluster…can bring up preview list 6830 of those clustered drops as shown in FIG. 68"; the icon is the handle on cluster 6600 (an ephemeral collective entity), and invoking it brings up the preview list of the clustered drops (a set of media items) it stands for; [0113], "Upon opening a map, the user can see, for example, (1) drops placed by himself or herself, (2) drops placed by other users whom the user follows…"; the drops gathered into a cluster reach that location by separate postings made by the viewer and by other users of the platform (published separately on the social media platform), not as a single composite posting) and that have respective geo-tag locations geographically associated with the display location of the collection icon, (Koepke: [0062], "As shown in FIG. 1, drop 100 can comprise multimedia content 100 placed at geolocation 100 on a digital map"; each drop (a media item) carries the geolocation (a geo-tag location) at which it was placed and is positioned on the digital map by that geolocation; [0225], "Icon 6820 can indicate the location of the clustered drops, and browsing the clustered drops can utilize the same preview functionality as browsing local drops except that the list may only include those drops within the cluster"; the icon stands at the location of the drops it represents, so the geolocations of the represented drops and the display location of the icon are the same place);
responsive to receiving user input that directly selects the collection icon displayed at the specific display location on the map (Koepke: [0114], "The user can open a drop by tapping on a drop icon on the map. When the user taps on a cluster drop icon, the most recently created drop can display, and all other drops can be viewed by swiping through them up to a certain number"; the user input is a tap made upon the cluster drop icon itself, at the position the icon occupies on the map, and that tap is what opens the represented set; [0225], "Invoking the drop cluster … can bring up preview list 6830 of those clustered drops as shown in FIG. 68."; invoking the icon is what brings the represented set up, so the icon is the object selected rather than a separate control).
Koepke's cluster is a collective entity of separately posted media items that share a location, and the counted cluster icon is the handle on it, but Koepke does not assign that entity any bounded period of availability. Koepke does not expressly teach an ephemeral collective entity; the ephemeral collective entity having time-limited availability for viewing via the map-based GUI; causing automated sequential playback on the user device of the set of media items represented by the selected collection icon; responsive to expiry of the availability of the ephemeral collective entity, discontinuing display of the collection icon for the ephemeral collective entity on the map.
However, Allen teaches an ephemeral collective entity (Allen: [0039], "FIG. 11 illustrates an account administration interface 1100 to establish an ephemeral gallery that receives ephemeral messages from multiple users."; the ephemeral gallery receives ephemeral messages posted to it by multiple users and is the entity the gallery indicia designates); the ephemeral collective entity having time-limited availability for viewing via the GUI (Allen: [0031], "The gallery participation parameter value decreases with the passage of time. Thus, in this embodiment, an ephemeral message gallery subsists for as long as the gallery participation parameter of the last message posed to the gallery"; the ephemeral message gallery (an ephemeral collective entity) remains available only for the period the participation parameter of its last posted message allows, and is therefore of bounded duration rather than perpetual; [0032], "In another embodiment, a gallery timer may be assigned to a gallery by a user. The gallery timer may be used to establish a lifespan of an associated gallery and messages posted to this gallery subsist for no longer than the life of the gallery"; the gallery timer independently fixes the lifespan over which the gallery may be viewed on the displayed GUI); causing automated sequential playback on the user device of the set of media items represented by the selected collection icon (Allen: [0037], "As shown in FIG. 8, a user receives a list of 802 of available stories. Haptic contact with indicia of a story is operative as a request to view an ephemeral message gallery"; haptic contact with the indicia of a story (a collection icon) is itself the request to view the very gallery that indicia designates, and no intermediate selection step intervenes; [0038], "The first operation in FIG. 10 is to display the next message in the gallery 1000. In the example of FIG. 7, the oldest message is the first message to be displayed. A message timer is then started 1002. The message timer expires at the end of the message duration parameter for the displayed ephemeral message…This processing loop is repeated until the gallery is empty"; the ephemeral messages (a set of media items) of the requested gallery are shown one after another, each for its own message duration parameter and each succeeded automatically at the expiry of that duration, until the gallery is exhausted, so the advance requires no further user input); responsive to expiry of the availability of the ephemeral collective entity, discontinuing display of the collection icon for the ephemeral collective entity on the map (Allen: [0033], "A check is then made to determine whether there is an expired participation parameter 610…the ephemeral message associated with the expired participation parameter is removed from the ephemeral gallery 614"; expiry is what drives the operation, message by message; [0033], "If as a result of this removed message the gallery is empty…then the ephemeral gallery terminates and indicia of the gallery is removed 618"; once the availability of the gallery has run out the gallery terminates and the indicia standing for it (a collection icon) is removed from the interface in which that indicia was displayed; [0035], "FIG. 8 illustrates an interface 800 with a section 802 that designates available ephemeral message galleries (stories) …"; the indicia removed at 618 is the indicia of the very gallery that section 802 designates, and that same indicia is the one whose haptic contact is the request to view the gallery it designates, so the element withdrawn on expiry is the element that stands for the collection and that is selected to view it).
Because Koepke and Allen are analogous art and within the same field of endeavor, specifically graphical user interfaces by which users of an online platform post, designate and view collections of user-generated media items, they address the same problem solving area of managing an accumulating body of user-posted content so that a viewer may consume a designated set of items without managing each item individually, accordingly, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine Allen's bounded gallery lifetime, selection-triggered display loop and removal of the gallery indicia with Koepke's counted cluster icon and the drops that icon represents at its map location, with a reasonable expectation of success, such that the icon Koepke already places at the shared location of the clustered items becomes the indicia of a collection that subsists only for its allotted period, the tap Koepke already teaches upon that icon opens the represented set into the automatic display loop Allen teaches, and the icon is taken off that map location when the collection it stands for ceases to be available, to teach an ephemeral collective entity; the ephemeral collective entity having time-limited availability for viewing via the map-based GUI; causing automated sequential playback on the user device of the set of media items represented by the selected collection icon; responsive to expiry of the availability of the ephemeral collective entity, discontinuing display of the collection icon for the ephemeral collective entity on the map. This modification would have been motivated by the desire to keep the map legible as posted content accumulates, and to spare the viewer the work of advancing and clearing individual items, which is a desire each reference states for itself. Koepke identifies the accumulation problem in its own platform, in the list of things Koepke states its platform can allow its users to do (Koepke: [0116], "Thus, Dropcast can allow users to:"; [0118], "Use a relevancy algorithm to display content on a map that is most likely to interest the user when (1) an insignificant number of pieces of content of type (a) appears, or (2) so many pieces of content of type (a) appear that the map would be cluttered"; Koepke expressly contemplates that so many pieces of content may appear that the map would be cluttered, and answers that condition by limiting what is shown, so a mechanism that retires a location's collection when its period has run addresses a condition Koepke itself identifies rather than one imported from outside). Koepke also contemplates for itself that content published on its platform may be bounded in time (Koepke: [0007], "Dropcast can allow companies and brands to publish time locked and geo-fenced content. A consumer would need to be in close proximity to the geo-fence and/or within the time boundaries to open and benefit from the content"; bounding the availability of published content by a time boundary is within the contemplation of Koepke's own platform, so limiting the period for which a location's collection remains available on the map is not contrary to Koepke's principle of operation). Allen identifies the same burden and supplies the machinery that meets it (Allen: [0003], "In view of the foregoing, it would be desirable to maintain spontaneity and expand communicative content of messaging activity, while reducing the device management burdens imposed upon a message recipient."; the stated object of Allen is to reduce the management burden a growing body of messages imposes on the person viewing them, which is the same burden Koepke's clutter condition describes on a map). The automated character of the advance is a substitution of one known mechanism for another. Koepke advances an opened cluster by a swipe of the user (Koepke: [0120], "Display all pieces of content in a cluster up to a pre-established number, and allow the user to view these pieces of content by swiping through them and open them if desired"; traversal of the cluster in Koepke is by the user swiping from one piece of content to the next). Allen advances the opened collection automatically at the expiry of each item's own display period (Allen: [0038], "Block 1004 checks for the timer to expire. Upon expiration of the timer …, a check is made to determine if the gallery is empty 1006."; the timer, not the user, determines when the next item is shown). Substituting the automatic advance for the manual swipe is the simple substitution of one known method of traversing an opened set of media items for another, and yields the predictable result of hands-free viewing of the set the selected icon represents. See KSR International Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 550 U.S. 398 (2007); MPEP 2143.01.
Regarding dependent claim 2, Koepke, in view of Allen, teach the method of claim 1, wherein: the ephemeral collective entity has an associated collection availability parameter that determines an availability period for which the ephemeral collective entity remains available via the map-based GUI (Allen: [0032], "In another embodiment, a gallery timer may be assigned to a gallery by a user. The gallery timer may be used to establish a lifespan of an associated gallery and messages posted to this gallery subsist for no longer than the life of the gallery"; the gallery timer (a collection availability parameter) is assigned to the collection and establishes the lifespan (an availability period) for which the ephemeral message gallery (the ephemeral collective entity) may be viewed; wherein the combination of Koepke and Allen integrates Allen’s gallery into Koepke’s map based GUI (Koepke: [0007])), and wherein the discontinuing display of the collection icon on the map of the map-based GUI is responsive to and conditional on the expiry of the collection availability parameter for the ephemeral collective entity (Allen: [0032], "In these embodiments, messages expire and become inaccessible at the earlier of the gallery participation parameter or the remaining life of the gallery"; [0033], "If as a result of this removed message the gallery is empty … then the ephemeral gallery terminates and indicia of the gallery is removed 618"; Allen routes the expiry of the gallery timer into that same removal step, because when the remaining life of the gallery runs out every message in it becomes inaccessible and the gallery is empty, whereupon the indicia (the collection icon) is removed, so the removal is both responsive to and conditional on the expiry of the collection availability parameter wherein the combination of Koepke and Allen integrates Allen’s gallery into Koepke’s map based GUI (Koepke: [0007])).
Regarding dependent claim 3, Koepke, in view of Allen, teach the method of claim 2, wherein the collection availability parameter expires at a predefined expiry time (Allen: [0032], "The gallery timer may be used to establish a lifespan of an associated gallery and messages posted to this gallery subsist for no longer than the life of the gallery. Thus, in some embodiments, all messages posted to such a gallery will subsist for the duration of the life of the gallery (regardless of posting time)"; the gallery timer assigned to the collection establishes the collection's lifespan in advance, and because every message subsists for that lifespan regardless of posting time, the point at which the collection expires is set before the fact and does not move with a later posting, which is expiry at a predefined expiry time).
Regarding dependent claim 4, Koepke, in view of Allen, teach the method of claim 2, wherein: the set of media items comprises a plurality of ephemeral media items (Allen: [0031], "The gallery participation parameter is an ephemeral period of time that the ephemeral message will continue to exist in the gallery. For example, a first ephemeral message posted to the gallery may have a default gallery participation parameter of 24 hours"; the collection is made up of individual ephemeral messages (a plurality of ephemeral media items), each of which exists in the collection only for a period), each ephemeral media item having a respective individual lifetime determining a remaining time for continued availability of the ephemeral media item (interpreted per the Claim Objections above) as part of the ephemeral collective entity (Allen: [0031], "The gallery participation parameter value decreases with the passage of time. Thus, in this embodiment, an ephemeral message gallery subsists for as long as the gallery participation parameter of the last message posed to the gallery"; each message's gallery participation parameter (a respective individual lifetime) is a value that decreases with the passage of time and so states the remaining time for which that message continues to exist in the collection); and on an ongoing basis, removing respective ephemeral media items from the ephemeral collective entity responsive to expiry of the corresponding individual lifetimes (Allen: [0033], "A check is then made to determine whether there is an expired participation parameter 610…the ephemeral message associated with the expired participation parameter is removed from the ephemeral gallery 614"; the check for an expired participation parameter is made repeatedly as the collection runs, and each message whose own period has run out is taken out of the collection at that time).
Regarding dependent claim 5, Koepke, in view of Allen, teach the method of claim 4, wherein the collection availability parameter is determined by the respective individual lifetime of a last posted one of the plurality of ephemeral media items in the ephemeral collective entity, (Allen: [0031], "The gallery participation parameter value decreases with the passage of time. Thus, in this embodiment, an ephemeral message gallery subsists for as long as the gallery participation parameter of the last message posed to the gallery"; the period for which the collection remains available (the collection availability parameter) is taken from the gallery participation parameter (the respective individual lifetime) of the message posted to it last (a last posted one of the plurality of ephemeral media items)) so that display of the collection icon in the map-based GUI is discontinued upon expiry of said last posted ephemeral media item (Allen: [0033], "If as a result of this removed message the gallery is empty … then the ephemeral gallery terminates and indicia of the gallery is removed 618."; when the last remaining message goes out the collection is empty, the collection terminates, and the indicia standing for it (the collection icon) is removed at that moment; wherein the combination of Koepke and Allen integrates Allen’s gallery into Koepke’s map based GUI (Koepke: [0007])).
Regarding dependent claim 6, Koepke, in view of Allen, teach the method of claim 1, wherein each of the media items has a respective display duration, the automated sequential playback of the set of media items is provided by operations comprising: (Allen: [0034], "Another column 702 may have a list of message duration parameters for individual messages"; each ephemeral message carries its own message duration parameter (a respective display duration), held for it individually in the gallery data structure) displaying media content of a first one of the set of [[the ]]media items (interpreted per the Claim Objections above) for the respective display duration (Allen: [0038], "The first operation in FIG. 10 is to display the next message in the gallery 1000. In the example of FIG. 7, the oldest message is the first message to be displayed. A message timer is then started 1002. The message timer expires at the end of the message duration parameter for the displayed ephemeral message"; the first item shown is the oldest message of the collection, and the timer started for it runs for that message's own message duration parameter); at expiry of the display duration, automatically displaying media content of a next one of the set of media items (Allen: [0038], "Block 1004 checks for the timer to expire. Upon expiration of the timer…, a check is made to determine if the gallery is empty 1006"; the expiry of the timer, and not any act of the viewer, is what carries the display on to the next message of the collection); and repeating the operation of displaying a next [[social ]]media item (interpreted per the Claim Objections above) in sequence until the set of media items has been displayed in its entirety or until a user input indicating dismissal of the automated sequential playback is received (Allen: [0038], "This processing loop is repeated until the gallery is empty"; the loop runs until the collection has been shown out in full).
Regarding dependent claim 7, Koepke, in view of Allen, teach the method of claim 1, wherein the displaying of said collection icon is performed as part of an operation comprising displaying a plurality of collection icons at different respective locations on the map (Koepke: [0113], "Drops placed in the same location can be clustered, and the number of clustered drops can appear on the drop icon"; [0119], "Show content on a map that is posted in the same location by displaying an icon that shows the number of pieces of content in the cluster"; clustering occurs wherever two or more drops share a location, so a map carrying content posted at several such locations carries a counted cluster icon (a collection icon) at each of those locations, which is a plurality of collection icons at different respective locations on the map), each collection icon being an interactive user interface element corresponding in location to a respective ephemeral collective entity containing an associated set of media items published separately on the social media platform for public availability. (Koepke: [0225], "As shown in FIG. 66, when two or more drops are placed in the same location, clustering can occur. The drop icon can appear accompanied with a number to indicate the total number of drops in cluster 6600."; [0198], "Drops can appear as icons 540 on the map. Touching them can bring up the drop preview"; [0005], "It allows creating and discovering location related content. This non-locked content can be viewed by anyone in the world by navigating the map"; each such icon on the map responds to touch (an interactive user interface element) and stands for the cluster (a respective collective entity) of drops (an associated set of media items) separately posted at that icon's own location, the count on the icon reporting how many, and the content so posted is non-locked content that anyone in the world may view by navigating the map, which is publication for public availability; wherein in the combination of Koepke and Allen, Allen [0039] modifies the collective entity with the gallery indicia of ephemeral content).
Regarding dependent claim 8, Koepke, in view of Allen, teach the method of claim 7, further comprising, in an automated operation performed using one or more computer processors configured therefor, automatically compiling one or more of the plurality of ephemeral collective entities based at least in part on respective geo-tag locations of media items submitted for public display via the social media platform (Koepke: [0113], "Drops placed in the same location can be clustered, and the number of clustered drops can appear on the drop icon"; [0005], "It allows creating and discovering location related content. This non-locked content can be viewed by anyone in the world by navigating the map"; the platform itself forms the cluster (automatically compiling one or more of the plurality of collective entities), grouping the drops (media items) whose posting locations (respective geo-tag locations) coincide, with no user action directing the grouping and with the resulting count published on the icon, and the drops so grouped are non-locked content that anyone in the world may view by navigating the map, which is media items submitted for public display via the platform; wherein in the combination of Koepke and Allen, Allen [0039] modifies the collective entity with the gallery indicia of ephemeral content).
Regarding independent claim 10, it is a system claim that is substantially the same as the method of claim 1. Thus, claim 10 is rejected for the same reason as claim 1. In addition, Allen teaches a system comprising: one or more computer processor devices; and memory storing instructions which, when executed by the one or more computer processor devices, configure the [[server ]]system (interpreted per the 35 U.S.C. 112(b) rejection above) to perform operations comprising (Allen: [0029], "A memory 520 is also connected to the bus 512. The memory 520 stores an ephemeral gallery module 522. The ephemeral gallery module 522 stores instructions executed by the central processing unit 510 to implement operations of the invention"; the central processing unit 510 (one or more computer processor devices) executes the instructions of the ephemeral gallery module held in memory 520 (memory storing instructions) in order to carry out the operations of the platform).
Regarding dependent claims 11-17, these are system claims that are substantially the same as the method of claims 2-8, respectively. Thus, claims 11-17 are rejected for the same reasons as claims 2-8.
Regarding independent claim 18, it is a non-transitory computer readable storage medium claim that is substantially the same as the method of claim 1. Thus, claim 18 is rejected for the same reason as claim 1. In addition, Allen teaches a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions for causing one or more computer processor devices, when executing the instructions, to perform operations comprising (Allen: [0040], "An embodiment of the present invention relates to a computer storage product with a computer readable storage medium having computer code thereon for performing various computer-implemented operations"; the operations of the platform are embodied as computer code borne on a computer readable storage medium (a non-transitory computer readable storage medium), the recited medium being an article of manufacture rather than a signal; [0029], "A memory 520 is also connected to the bus 512. The memory 520 stores an ephemeral gallery module 522. The ephemeral gallery module 522 stores instructions executed by the central processing unit 510 to implement operations of the invention"; the code so borne is executed by the central processing unit 510 (one or more computer processor devices) to perform the recited operations).
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Koepke in view of Allen, as applied in the rejection of claim 8 above, and further in view of Patton et al. (hereinafter Patton), US 2016/0034712 A1.
Regarding dependent claim 9, Koepke, in view of Allen, teach the of claim 8, further comprising, for one or more of the ephemeral collective entities, compiling the corresponding ephemeral collective entity in operations comprising: in an automated operation performed using one or more computer processors configured therefor, compiling a set of candidate [[ephemeral messages]]media items for inclusion in [[an]]the corresponding ephemeral collective entity based at least in part on respective geo-tag locations of media items submitted for public display via the social media [[application]]platform (interpreted per the 35 U.S.C. 112(b) rejection above) (Koepke: [0113], "Drops placed in the same location can be clustered, and the number of clustered drops can appear on the drop icon"; [0005], "It allows creating and discovering location related content. This non-locked content can be viewed by anyone in the world by navigating the map"; the platform itself forms the cluster (automatically compiling one or more of the plurality of collective entities), grouping the drops (media items) whose posting locations (respective geo-tag locations) coincide, with no user action directing the grouping and with the resulting count published on the icon, and the drops so grouped are non-locked content that anyone in the world may view by navigating the map, which is media items submitted for public display via the platform; wherein in the combination of Koepke and Allen, Allen [0039] modifies the collective entity with the gallery indicia of ephemeral content).
Koepke and Allen do not expressly teach and in a curation operation performed by a human operator, selecting from the set of candidate media items a subset of media items that are included in the corresponding ephemeral collective entity.
However, Patton compiles the candidate set automatically and by geographic association (Patton: claim 1, "automatically aggregating post identifiers for event posts into a content stream, wherein the event posts are geofence posts that are associated with the first geographic identifier and with the detected event"), and then provides for that same automatically generated stream to be curated by a human user (Patton: [0059], "The content stream can be automatically generated and updated, but can alternatively be generated, adjusted (e.g., curated), and/or updated by a user (e.g., in response to receipt of a user input from a user account)")
Because Patton is directed to the discovery, curation and presentation of event related social media content that is aggregated by geofence from the posts of separate users, and is therefore in the same field of endeavor as Koepke and Allen and is reasonably pertinent to the problem with which the inventor was concerned, namely assembling a location-based collection from separately posted media items; it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify Koepke and Allen’s method to incorporate a two stage arrangement comprising the content stream that Patton permits a user to adjust and curate is the content stream that Patton's claim 1 automatically aggregates, so the human operator in Patton selects from an automatically compiled candidate set to teach further comprising, for one or more of the ephemeral collective entities, compiling the corresponding ephemeral collective entity in operations comprising: in an automated operation performed using one or more computer processors configured therefor, compiling a set of candidate media items for inclusion in the corresponding ephemeral collective entity based at least in part on respective geo-tag locations of media items submitted for public display via the social media platform; and in a curation operation performed by a human operator, selecting from the set of candidate media items a subset of media items that are included in the corresponding ephemeral collective entity. This modification would have been motivated by the use of a known technique to improve a similar device in the same way, with a reasonable expectation of success. Patton explains that content gathered from a social networking service for an event is a mix of content relevant to the event and content irrelevant to it, and that the volume of the secondary content tends to eclipse the primary content, so that curation of the automatically gathered set is required if what is presented is to be the content actually pertinent to the event. Applying that curation step to the automatically compiled location-based clusters of Koepke would predictably yield the same benefit for the same reason, namely a collection whose members are the media items actually pertinent to the location, using a technique Patton expressly describes for the same kind of automatically aggregated, geographically associated social media content. Thus, the combination is no more than the use of a known technique to improve a similar device in the same way, with a reasonable expectation of success. See KSR Int'l Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 417 (2007); MPEP 2143(I)(C).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed in Remarks dated 8/17/2026 have been fully considered but they are moot because the arguments do not apply to any of the references being used in the current rejection.
Conclusion
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/KC CHEN/Primary Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2143
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