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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 December 24, 2025 has been entered.
Applicant(s) Response to Official Action
The response filed on November 24, 2025 has been entered and made of record. Claims 1, 3, 8, 9, 11, 16, 17 and 19 have been amended. Claims 2, 10 and 18 have been cancelled. Claims 1, 3 - 9, 11 - 17, 19 and 20 are currently pending in the application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s amendments to the claims have overcome the 35 U.S.C. 101 rejection previously set forth in the Final Office Action mailed September 24, 2025. Accordingly, the rejection is withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments see pages 7 – 12 with respect to the rejection of Claims 1 - 20 under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Diesel et al., (US 2004/0014013 A1) have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground of rejection is made in view of the newly discovered reference to displaying a play progress bar of the multimedia stream in the player interface, wherein the play progress bar displays a play control element and a cache control element of the multimedia stream, the play control element is configured to control a play progress of the multimedia stream, as claimed in the amended Claims 1, 9 and 17. Examiner’s response to the presented arguments follows below:
Applicant argues on page 8 that “In amended claim 1, the play progress and the cache progress are independent of each other. See, e.g., specification, para. [0045].”. Examiner respectfully disagrees. In response to applicant's argument that the references fail to show certain features of the invention, it is noted that the features upon which applicant relies (i.e., independent of each other) are not recited in the rejected claim(s). Although the claims are interpreted in light of the specification, limitations from the specification are not read into the claims. See In re Van Geuns, 988 F.2d 1181, 26 USPQ2d 1057 (Fed. Cir. 1993). The claims merely recite that the play control element controls a play progress and the cache control element controls a cache progress. The claims do not further limit the play control element and the cache control element to be independent elements. Furthermore, the claim merely recites a play progress bar. The claims do not further describe or define the cache progress bar, merely that a cache control element controls a cache progress.
Applicant further argues on page 8 that “the Office asserts that "time-markers 248" of Diesel control the play progress”. Examine respectfully disagrees. As found on page 6 of the Office Action, Diesel appears to teach in Par. [0118], The navigation/playback control interface buttons include control elements such as a previous button 240, next button 242, pause/play button 244 (i.e. play control element), and progress bar 246 (i.e. play progress bar). The Examiner has interpreted the play button 244 as the play control element and the progress bar 246 as the play progress. As illustrated in Fig. 12 with the white shaded area at 246 and described further in Par. [0119] of Diesel, The progress bar 246 displays three types of information to the user. The amount of the page delivered to the client system 130 is displayed (i.e. play progress). The current page location (i.e. play progress) within course structure file, and the number of time-markers 248 present in the course page are also displayed.
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, 3 - 9, 11 - 17, 19 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Diesel et al., (US 2004/0014013 A1) referred to as Diesel hereinafter, and in view of Kim et al. (US 8,224,299 B2) referred to as Kim hereinafter.
Regarding Claim 1, Diesel teaches a cache control method (Fig. 17), comprising:
presenting a player interface (Fig. 1, Fig. 3, Par. [0098] an interactive presentation is displayed in a browser user interface 130-6 (i.e. player interface). The layout of the user interface features four specific areas that display instructional, interactive or navigational content. These four areas are animation-video region 192, closed caption region 194, toolbar 196 and table of contents 198) of a multimedia stream (Par. [0082], The interactive presentation can be a web site or a multimedia presentation); and
displaying a play progress bar of the multimedia stream in the player interface (Fig. 12, Par. [0118], The animation-video region 192 displays a course navigation bar (i.e. play progress bar)), wherein the play progress bar displays a play control element (Par. [0118], The course navigation bar provides navigation/playback control buttons. The user can navigate through sections of the interactive presentation by using the navigation/playback control interface buttons displayed with the course navigation bar, which includes pause/play button 244 (i.e. play control element) and the control element of the multimedia stream (Par. [0118], The navigation/playback control interface buttons include control elements including the next button 242 (i.e. control element). Par. [0119] time-markers 248 present in the course page (i.e. multimedia stream)), the play control element is configured to control a play progress of the multimedia stream (As illustrated in Fig. 12, where the highlighted/shaded section of the bar below 246, Par. [0119] The progress bar 246 displays the current page location (i.e. a play progress) within course structure file. Par. [0118] The user can navigate through sections of the interactive presentation by using the pause/play button 244), and the control element is configured to control a cache of the multimedia stream (Par. [0122], If a user initiates a navigation event to advance to the next time-marker 248 and the progress bar indicates that the current time-marker 248-2 is the last in the time-line, the navigation display engine can display the next page in the chapter from the cache location 130-2 (i.e. control a cache). Par. [0120], A user can use a mouse interaction or keystroke interaction (i.e. control element) to navigate the interactive presentation time-line using the time-markers 248).
Diesel does not specifically teach a cache control element. Therefore, Diesel fails to explicitly teach the cache control element is configured to control a cache progress of the multimedia stream.
However, Kim teaches the cache control element is configured to control a cache progress of the multimedia stream (Fig. 73, Col. 89:29-36 The progress-status indication cell may include a cache space equipped with a position indicator (i.e. cache control element) indicating a current position. The progress-status indication cell may indicate a progress bar including a cache bar (i.e. cache progress). The cache space is a total storage capacity, and the cache bar is the currently-stored program's capacity (i.e. cache progress) from among the total storage capacity, where the cache bar increases in proportion to the storage status. Col. 90:10-11 the user can easily move the position indicator (i.e. cache control element) to another position).
References Diesel and Kim are considered to be analogous art because they relate to user interfaces. Therefore, it would have been obvious that one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, would recognize the advantage of further including a cache bar and cache control element as suggested by Kim in the Diesel of Hobbs in order that the user can easily move the position indicator on the cache bar to another position (See Kim, Col. 90:10-11).
Regarding Claim 2, it has been cancelled.
Regarding Claim 3, Diesel in view of Kim teaches Claim 1. Diesel further teaches wherein the method further comprises: receiving an operation instruction for the control element (Par. [0120], A user can use a mouse interaction or keystroke interaction (i.e. an operation instruction) to navigate the interactive presentation time-line using the time-markers 248); and caching the multimedia stream according to the operation instruction (Par. [0122] If a user initiates a navigation event (i.e. according to operation instruction) to advance to the next time-marker 248 and the progress bar indicates that the current time-marker 248-2 is the last in the time-line, the navigation display engine can display the next page (i.e. caching the multimedia) in the chapter from the cache location 130-2). Kim further teaches wherein the method further comprises: receiving an operation instruction for the cache control element (Col. 90:10-11 the user can easily move the position indicator to another position (i.e. operation instruction)). It would have been obvious that one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, would recognize the advantage of further including a cache bar and cache control element as suggested by Kim in the Diesel of Hobbs in order that the user can easily move the position indicator on the cache bar to another position (See Kim, Col. 90:10-11).
Regarding Claim 4, Diesel in view of Kim teaches Claim 3. Diesel further teaches wherein caching the multimedia stream according to the operation instruction comprises: determining a type of the operation instruction (Par. [0122] If a user initiates a navigation event to advance to the next time-marker 248 (i.e. type of operation) and the progress bar indicates that the current time-marker 248-2 is the last in the time-line, the navigation display engine can display the next page in the chapter from the cache location 130-2); and caching the multimedia stream according to the type of the operation instruction (Par. [0122], If the next page is not stored in the cache location 130-2, the hyper-download system delivers the page. When the next page is accessible from the client system 130, the audio-visual contents of the next page are played-back in the animation-video region 192, the closed caption region 194, the toolbar 196 and the table of contents 198 in synchronization), wherein different types correspond to different cache sizes (Par. [0159] The cache 130-2 location is typically a cache folder on a disk storage device. For example, the cache 130-2 location can be the temporary Internet file’s location for an Internet browser. The cache 130-2 size for the Internet browser can be determined by the user with a preference setting. As the page assets are delivered, a conventional browser can dynamically size its cache to the amount of course content delivered from the server 120 for the length of the user's e-learning session).
Regarding Claim 5, Diesel in view of Kim teaches Claim 4. Diesel further teaches wherein caching the multimedia stream according to the type of the operation instruction comprises: caching a complete multimedia data corresponding to the multimedia stream when the type of the operation instruction is a first type (Par. [0164] Pre-loading is initiated following a navigation event 300-2 (i.e. first type of operation)and is paused during the loading of the page 302-2. While page assets are delivered, a watcher program monitors the progress of the delivery of any Flash files (or any media content) associated with the page. The pre-loading engine ensures that the current page is completely loaded (i.e. caching complete multimedia data) before pre-loading resumes delivery of the anticipated page).
Regarding Claim 6, Diesel in view of Kim teaches Claim 4. Diesel further teaches wherein caching the multimedia stream according to the type of the operation instruction comprises: determining a position of the control element on the play progress bar after the operation instruction when the type of the operation instruction is a second type (Par. [0122] If a user initiates a navigation event (i.e. operation instruction) to advance to the next time-marker 248 (i.e. second type of operation instruction) and the progress bar indicates that the current time-marker 248-2 (i.e. position of control element)is the last in the time-line, the navigation display engine can display the next page in the chapter from the cache location 130-2.); determining a target cache size (Par [0159] The cache 130-2 location is typically a cache folder on a disk storage device. For example, the cache 130-2 location can be the temporary Internet file’s location for an Internet browser. The cache 130-2 size (i.e. target cache size) for the Internet browser can be determined by the user with a preference setting) according to the position (Par. [0122] If a user initiates a navigation event (i.e. operation instruction) to advance to the next time-marker 248 (i.e. second type of operation instruction); and caching the multimedia stream according to the target cache size (Par. [0122] the navigation display engine can display the next page in the chapter from the cache location 130-2). Kim further teaches determining a position of the cache control element on the play progress bar after the operation instruction (Col. 96:25-26 the user may move the position indicator on the cache space to determine the record start position). It would have been obvious that one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, would recognize the advantage of further including a cache bar and cache control element as suggested by Kim in the Diesel of Hobbs in order that the user can easily move the position indicator on the cache bar to another position (See Kim, Col. 90:10-11).
Regarding Claim 7, Diesel in view of Kim teaches Claim 3. Diesel further teaches wherein presenting the player interface of the multimedia stream comprises: caching the multimedia stream in accordance to a preset cache size (Fig. 12, Par. [0019], The progress bar 246 displays the number of time-markers 248 (i.e. preset cache size) present in the course page), wherein an initial position of the control element on the play progress bar is used for indicating that a cached size of the multimedia data is the preset cache size (Par. [0122] If a user initiates a navigation event to advance to the next time-marker 248 and the progress bar indicates that the current time-marker 248-2 (i.e. initial position) is the last in the time-line, the navigation display engine can display the next page in the chapter from the cache location 130-2), and an adjustment range of the operation instruction to the control element (Par. [0159], As the page assets are delivered, a conventional browser can dynamically size (i.e. adjustment range) its cache to the amount of course content delivered from the server 120 for the length of the user's e-learning session (i.e. size of multimedia stream)) is from the preset cache size to the size of the multimedia stream (Par. [0120] Each time-marker 248 is a node or frame in the interactive presentation time-line. The time-markers 248 can be used to navigate to specific frames in the interactive presentation. A user can use a mouse interaction or keystroke interaction to navigate the interactive presentation time-line using the time-markers 248); and presenting the player interface to play the multimedia stream (Par. [0098] an interactive presentation is displayed (i.e. play the multimedia) in a browser user interface 130-6. The layout of the user interface features four specific areas that display instructional, interactive or navigational content. These four areas are animation-video region 192, closed caption region 194, toolbar 196 and table of contents 198).
Kim further teaches wherein an initial position of the cache control element on the play progress bar is used for indicating that a cached size of the multimedia data (Col. 89:35-36, the cache space may be indicated in units of capacity (i.e. cache size), or may also be indicated in units of time) and an adjustment range of the operation instruction to the cache control element (Col. 90:4-8, A cache space may include time division markers, each of which divides a cache space (i.e. adjustment range) into several sections, each of which corresponds to a predetermined time. By the time division marker, the user can relatively and visually recognize a current status).
References Diesel and Kim are considered to be analogous art because they relate to user interfaces. Therefore, it would have been obvious that one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, would recognize the advantage of further including a cache bar and cache control element as suggested by Kim in the Diesel of Hobbs in order that the user can easily move the position indicator on the cache bar to another position (See Kim, Col. 90:10-11).
Regarding Claim 8, Diesel in view of Kim teaches Claim 1. Diesel further teaches wherein the method further comprises: determining a current cache data in the multimedia data according to the position of the control element on the play progress bar (Par. [0181] At step 316, the pre-loading engine delivers any remaining media assets of the anticipated page to the client system 130. The pre-loading system delivers the media assets to the user cache location 130-2 (i.e. current cache position); and playing the current cache data in a loop (Par. [0182] When the pre-loading engine completes delivery of the media files, the hyper-download system returns to step 316 and delivers the priority content (i.e. plays the current cache data) of the next anticipated page. Specifically, this cycle continues (i.e. loops) until a navigation event is detected or until the assets of a certain number of anticipated pages are pre-loaded in the client system 130). Kim further teaches determining a current cache data in the multimedia data according to the position of the cache control element on the progress bar and playing the current cache data (Par. 89:51-63, the cache space is 2 hours and the cache bar is located at 1-hour position corresponding to the half of the cache space. The position indicator may be implemented with any one of all kinds of units capable of indicating current status positions. The position indicator is shifted to another position, so that a current record status or a current playback status may be changed to another status). It would have been obvious that one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, would recognize the advantage of further including a cache bar and cache control element as suggested by Kim in the Diesel of Hobbs in order that the user can easily move the position indicator on the cache bar to another position (See Kim, Col. 90:10-11).
Apparatus claims 9 and 11 - 16 are drawn to the apparatus corresponding to the method of using same as claimed in claims 1 and 3 - 8. Therefore apparatus claims 9 and 11 - 16 correspond to method claims 1 and 3 - 8, and are rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used above.
Non-transitory computer-readable storage medium claims 17, 19 and 20 are drawn to the apparatus corresponding to the method of using same as claimed in claims 1, 3 and 4. Therefore apparatus claims 17, 19 and 20 correspond to method claims 1, 3 and 4 and are rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used above.
Conclusion
The prior art references made of record are not relied upon but are considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Park (US 2007/0133938 A1) teaches a display using a cache bar with a movable indicator is provided for designating a specific point along the progress bar, where the specific point corresponding to the currently viewed broadcast signal, which is then read out from the storage medium from the corresponding point. Cha (US 2010/0262912 A1) teaches if a user selects a time-shift function of the display device, a progress bar, including a cache bar and a position indicator, is displayed using OSD data, which may be superposed on a currently viewed video input signal. Vallone et al. (US 6,847,778 B1) teaches an interactive mode and progress indicators in a computer environment. Oh et al. (US 10,313,762 B2) teaches a method and system for managing a sliding window for a time machine function.
Any inquiry concerning this communication should be directed to SUSAN E HODGES whose telephone number is (571)270-0498. The Examiner can normally be reached on Monday - Friday from 8:00 am (EST) to 4:00 pm (EST).
If attempts to reach the Examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the Examiner's supervisor, Brian T. Pendleton, can be reached on (571) 272-7527. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Susan E. Hodges/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2425