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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This action is responsive to the application filed on 6/26/2024.
Claims 1-15 are pending in the case. Claims 1, 8, and 13 are independent claims.
This application claims benefit of Priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (e) from Provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 63295,467, filed on 12/30/2021.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because there is no label for Fig. 4. Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1-2, 4-9, 11-12, 14-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bennett, US Patent Application Publication No. 20100050225, published on 2/10/2010 (hereinafter Bennett) in view of Bae et al., US Patent Application Publication No. 20040013270, published on 1/22/2004 (hereinafter Bae).
As for independent claim 1, Bennett discloses a method for transmitting an audio stream, the method comprising:
providing an audio source (digital program source) remotely located (Internet Backbone) to a digital radio broadcasting system (IPTV STB);
(Bennett paragraph [0011] discloses “FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an Internet infrastructure containing an Internet based digital program source with a (modified) adaptive encoder and multiplexer built therein and a plurality of recipient devices, wherein the adaptive encoder and multiplexer, in accordance with the present invention, receives digitized program signals either from a local source or from an external program source, transcodes (optionally), encodes and multiplexes them adaptively to optimally suit the individual recipient devices, based on configurations of the corresponding recipient devices;”
Bennett illustrates the digital program source 221 interconnect to the IPTV STB 251 over the internet backbone 231.)
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encoding at the audio source (adaptive encoder) an audio stream with an audio codec (encoding/decoding/MP3) resulting in an encoded audio stream (encoding and packetizing of the digital audio);
(Bennett paragraph [0011] discloses “FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an Internet infrastructure containing an Internet based digital program source with a (modified) adaptive encoder and multiplexer built therein and a plurality of recipient devices, wherein the adaptive encoder and multiplexer, in accordance with the present invention, receives digitized program signals either from a local source or from an external program source, transcodes (optionally), encodes and multiplexes them adaptively to optimally suit the individual recipient devices, based on configurations of the corresponding recipient devices;”
Bennett paragraph [0006] discloses “Encoding/decoding technologies currently available for audio/video encoding/decoding include standardize operations such as MPEG, JPEG, H.264, and MP3, for example. Such video encoding processes produce a sequence of encoded video frames.”
Bennett paragraph [0005] discloses “IPTV applications involve compression encoding and packetizing of the digital audio, video and data content at their sources prior to transmission. Sources of programming include commercial television broadcast programs, locally stored commercial and non-commercial music, locally stored recorded television programs, and movies, among other programming.”)
Transmitting (adaptive encoder and multiplexer) the encoded audio stream over a computer network (Internet Backbone) to the digital radio broadcasting system (IPTV STB);
(Bennett paragraph [0011] discloses “FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an Internet infrastructure containing an Internet based digital program source with a (modified) adaptive encoder and multiplexer built therein and a plurality of recipient devices, wherein the adaptive encoder and multiplexer, in accordance with the present invention, receives digitized program signals either from a local source or from an external program source, transcodes (optionally), encodes and multiplexes them adaptively to optimally suit the individual recipient devices, based on configurations of the corresponding recipient devices;”
Bennett illustrates the digital program source 221 interconnect to the IPTV STB 251 over the internet backbone 231.)
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receiving the encoded audio stream and processing the encoded audio stream at the digital radio broadcasting system (IPTV STB) for broadcast by the digital radio broadcasting system
and .
(Bennett paragraph [0011] discloses “FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an Internet infrastructure containing an Internet based digital program source with a (modified) adaptive encoder and multiplexer built therein and a plurality of recipient devices, wherein the adaptive encoder and multiplexer, in accordance with the present invention, receives digitized program signals either from a local source or from an external program source, transcodes (optionally), encodes and multiplexes them adaptively to optimally suit the individual recipient devices, based on configurations of the corresponding recipient devices;”
Bennett illustrates the digital program source 221 interconnect to the IPTV STB 251 over the internet backbone 231.)
Bennett does not appear to explicitly disclose without decoding and broadcasting the encoded audio stream. However, Bae discloses without decoding (without a decoding process) and broadcasting the encoded audio stream (digital broadcasting system).
(Bae paragraph [0063] discloses “According to the embodiment of the present invention, contents (e.g., video, audio, data, etc.) of a specific standard can be readily converted to be used in a digital broadcasting system of a different standard.”
Bae paragraph [0064] discloses “Particularly, contents of a specific standard are converted to contents of a different standard without a decoding process, so that they can be shared without a deterioration of the broadcasting quality.”; “The digital broadcasting stream BS1 as contents according to the embodiment of the present invention comprises, if not specifically limited to, video stream VS1, audio stream OS1, data stream DS1, and broadcasting protocol stream PS”, Bae [0031])
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to person of ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Bae with Bennett for the benefit
of having a broadcaster system to forward the audio stream once encoded at the source optimally to match the audio format of the receiving clients and to reduce transmission bandwidth and transcoding the audio file between the source and client device.
As for claim 2 Bennett discloses the method of claim 1,
wherein the method further comprises receiving (receives IP packets) the broadcast encoded audio stream by a receiver (IPTV STB); and decoding the encoded audio stream at the receiver using the audio codec (decodes)
(Bennett paragraph [0005] discloses “IPTV applications involve compression encoding and packetizing of the digital audio, video and data content at their sources prior to transmission. Sources of programming include commercial television broadcast programs, locally stored commercial and non-commercial music, locally stored recorded television programs, and movies, among other programming. The recipient device, such as an IPTV Set Top Box (IPTV STB), receives IP packets, de-packetizes the IP packets, decodes the encoded audio/video carried therein to raw audio/video, processes the raw audio/video to produce output video, and delivers the output audio/video to one or more recipient devices for presentation.”)
As for claim 4 Bennett discloses the method of claim 1,
wherein the encoded audio stream provided by the audio source comprises protocol (IP protocol/packets) data units (PDU).
(Bennett paragraph [0037] discloses “The audio decoding module 321 contains audio de-packetizing module 323 and audio decompression module 325. The audio de-packetizing module 323 removes IP protocol information from the audio IP packets, extracts and delivers compressed audio signals, in a format in which they were originally compressed (for example, using MP3 compression format), to the audio decompression module 325. The audio decompression module 325 decompresses the incoming compressed audio signals and extracts the raw audio signal in a standard format.”)
As for claim 5 Bennett discloses the method of claim 4,
wherein the encoding step comprises encoding the audio stream with a Hybrid-Digital Coding (HDC) (encoding/decoding with MP3).
(Bennett paragraph [0006] discloses “Encoding/decoding technologies currently available for audio/video encoding/decoding include standardized operations such as MPEG, JPEG, H.264, and MP3, for example.”
Current invention discloses the coding may be by a hybrid-digital codec (HD codec oder HDC). HDC is a proprietary codec used in HD radio. It uses a modified discrete cosine transform audio data compression algorithm. MP3 is using a modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) algorithm.)
As for claim 6 Bennett discloses the method of claim 1,
wherein the audio stream (local source) that is encoded in the encoding step (adaptive encoder) is a secondary program audio stream.
(Bennett paragraph [0011] discloses “FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an Internet infrastructure containing an Internet based digital program source with a (modified) adaptive encoder and multiplexer built therein and a plurality of recipient devices, wherein the adaptive encoder and multiplexer, in accordance with the present invention, receives digitized program signals either from a local source or from an external program source, transcodes (optionally), encodes and multiplexes them adaptively to optimally suit the individual recipient devices, based on configurations of the corresponding recipient devices;”
Current invention discloses the audio stream that is encoded in the encoding step is a secondary program audio stream.)
As for claim 7 Bennett discloses the method of claim 1,
wherein transmitting the encoded audio stream (adaptive encoder and multiplexer) over a computer network (Internet Backbone) comprises transmitting the encoded audio stream over the Internet.
(Bennett paragraph [0011] discloses “FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an Internet infrastructure containing an Internet based digital program source with a (modified) adaptive encoder and multiplexer built therein and a plurality of recipient devices, wherein the adaptive encoder and multiplexer, in accordance with the present invention, receives digitized program signals either from a local source or from an external program source, transcodes (optionally), encodes and multiplexes them adaptively to optimally suit the individual recipient devices, based on configurations of the corresponding recipient devices;”
Bennett illustrates the digital program source 221 interconnect to the IPTV STB 251 over the internet backbone 231.)
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As for claim 8, claim 8 reflects the method comprising computer executable instructions for implementing the article of manufacture as claimed in claim 1, and is rejected along the same rationale.
As for claim 9, limitation of parent claim 8 have been discussed above. Claim 9 reflects the method comprising computer executable instructions for implementing the article of manufacture as claimed in claim 2, and is rejected along the same rationale.
As for claim 11, limitation of parent claim 8 have been discussed above. Claim 11 reflects the method comprising computer executable instructions for implementing the article of manufacture as claimed in claim 5, and is rejected along the same rationale.
As for claim 12, limitation of parent claim 8 have been discussed above. Claim 12 reflects the method comprising computer executable instructions for implementing the article of manufacture as claimed in claim 6, and is rejected along the same rationale.
As for claim 14, limitation of parent claim 13 have been discussed above. Claim 14 reflects the system for implementing the method as claimed in claim 4, and is rejected along the same rationale.
As for claim 15, limitation of parent claim 14 have been discussed above. Claim 15 reflects the system for implementing the method as claimed in claim 5, and is rejected along the same rationale.
Claims 3, 10, and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bennett in view of Bae in view of Smalley, US Patent Application No. 20200177296, published on 6/4/2020 (hereinafter Smalley).
As for claim 3 Bennett discloses the method of claim 1,
wherein the method further comprises transmitting (transmission) the encoded audio stream over the computer network (Internet Protocol, IP) to
(Bennett paragraph [0005] discloses “IPTV applications involve compression encoding and packetizing of the digital audio, video and data content at their sources prior to transmission. Sources of programming include commercial television broadcast programs, locally stored commercial and non-commercial music, locally stored recorded television programs, and movies, among other programming. The recipient device, such as an IPTV Set Top Box (IPTV STB), receives IP packets, de-packetizes the IP packets, decodes the encoded audio/video carried therein to raw audio/video, processes the raw audio/video to produce output video, and delivers the output audio/video to one or more recipient devices for presentation.”
Bennett paragraph [0019] discloses “ in accordance with the present invention, decodes the incoming IP (Internet Protocol) program packets, and re-encodes the resulting program signals adaptively to optimally suit the individual recipient devices 153, 155, 157, 159, 161, 163, 165 or 167, based upon configurations of the corresponding recipient devices 153, 155, 157, 159, 161, 163, 165 or 167.”)
receiving the encoded audio stream at the (adaptive encoder) from the
(Bennett paragraph [0026] discloses “FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an Internet infrastructure 205 containing an Internet based digital program source 221 with a (modified) adaptive encoder and multiplexer 229 built therein and a plurality of recipient devices 253, 255, 257, 259, 261, 263, 265 and 267, wherein the adaptive encoder and multiplexer 229, in accordance with the present invention, receives digitized program signals either from a local source 225 or from an external program source, transcodes (optionally), encodes and multiplexes them adaptively to optimally suit the individual recipient devices 253, 255, 257, 259, 261, 263, 265 and 267, based on configurations of the corresponding recipient devices 253, 255, 257, 259, 261, 263, 265 and 267.”)
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receiving the encoded audio stream at the
(Bennett paragraph [0026] discloses “FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an Internet infrastructure 205 containing an Internet based digital program source 221 with a (modified) adaptive encoder and multiplexer 229 built therein and a plurality of recipient devices 253, 255, 257, 259, 261, 263, 265 and 267, wherein the adaptive encoder and multiplexer 229, in accordance with the present invention, receives digitized program signals either from a local source 225 or from an external program source, transcodes (optionally), encodes and multiplexes them adaptively to optimally suit the individual recipient devices 253, 255, 257, 259, 261, 263, 265 and 267, based on configurations of the corresponding recipient devices 253, 255, 257, 259, 261, 263, 265 and 267.”)
Bennett does not appear to explicitly disclose an importer unit, exporter unit, exciter unit and without decoding at the broadcast system. However, Smalley discloses an importer unit, exporter unit, exciter unit.
(Smalley paragraph [0019] discloses “FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of a portion of an example of the components of a studio site 210, an FM transmitter site 212, and a studio transmitter link (STL) 214 that can be used to broadcast an FM IBOC DAB signal. The studio site includes, among other things, studio automation equipment 234, an Ensemble Operations Center (EOC) 16 that includes an importer 218, an exporter 220, an exciter auxiliary service unit (EASU) 222, and an STL transmitter 248.”
Smalley paragraph [0059] discloses “In Example 8, the subject matter of one or any combination of Examples 1-7 optionally includes a service application is configured to forward the digital audio file to the radio program broadcaster via the Internet network interface.”
Smalley discloses the interaction between importer, exporter, and exciter to transition the audio stream to broadcast to client devices.)
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to person of ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Smalley with Bennett and Bae for the benefit of having an importer unit, exporter unit, and exciter unit as part of the digital audio broadcast (DAB). Further benefit to combine to provide a system with an adaptive encoder to reduce the bandwidth of the encoded audio stream and optimally tuned the stream to the audio formats support by the client devices
Bennett does not appear to explicitly disclose broadcasting without decoding at the broadcaster system. However, Bae discloses device and method comprising broadcasting without decoding (without a decoding process) at the broadcaster system
(Bae paragraph [0063] discloses “According to the embodiment of the present invention, contents (e.g., video, audio, data, etc.) of a specific standard can be readily converted to be used in a digital broadcasting system of a different standard.”
Bae paragraph [0064] discloses “Particularly, contents of a specific standard are converted to contents of a different standard without a decoding process, so that they can be shared without a deterioration of the broadcasting quality.”; “The digital broadcasting stream BS1 as contents according to the embodiment of the present invention comprises, if not specifically limited to, video stream VS1, audio stream OS1, data stream DS1, and broadcasting protocol stream PS”, Bae [0031])
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to person of ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Bae with Bennett and Smalley for the benefit
of having a broadcaster system to forward the audio stream once encoded at the source optimally to match the audio format of the receiving clients and to reduce transmission bandwidth and transcoding the audio file between the source and client device.
As for claim 10, limitation of parent claim 8 have been discussed above. Claim 10 reflects the method comprising computer executable instructions for implementing the article of manufacture as claimed in claim 3, and is rejected along the same rationale.
As for independent claim 13 Bennett discloses a digital radio broadcasting system comprising:
(Bennett paragraph [0032] discloses “A STB 251 (the functionality of the STB 251 may also be directly incorporated into the recipient device 253, 255, 257, 259, 261, 263, 265 or 267) receives these IP program packets and decodes them by de-multiplexing, de-packetizing, decompressing and converting back to their original analog audio, video and data signals (and if need be, modulated upon a RF--Radio Frequency--carrier and deliver them to the recipient device 253, 255, 257, 259, 261, 263, 265 or 267.”
Bennet discloses modulating a RF point to an exciter.)
wherein (adaptive encoder and multiplexer) at an audio source remotely (internet backbone) located from the digital radio broadcasting system
(Bennett paragraph [0011] discloses “FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an Internet infrastructure containing an Internet based digital program source with a (modified) adaptive encoder and multiplexer built therein and a plurality of recipient devices, wherein the adaptive encoder and multiplexer, in accordance with the present invention, receives digitized program signals either from a local source or from an external program source, transcodes (optionally), encodes and multiplexes them adaptively to optimally suit the individual recipient devices, based on configurations of the corresponding recipient devices;”
Bennett illustrates the digital program source 221 interconnect to the IPTV STB 251 over the internet backbone 231.)
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wherein the encoded audio stream is transmitted from the audio source (adaptive encoder) to the (internet backbone);
(Bennett paragraph [0011] discloses “FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an Internet infrastructure containing an Internet based digital program source with a (modified) adaptive encoder and multiplexer built therein and a plurality of recipient devices, wherein the adaptive encoder and multiplexer, in accordance with the present invention, receives digitized program signals either from a local source or from an external program source, transcodes (optionally), encodes and multiplexes them adaptively to optimally suit the individual recipient devices, based on configurations of the corresponding recipient devices;”
Bennett illustrates the digital program source 221 interconnect to the IPTV STB 251 over the internet backbone 231.)
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the of the encoded audio stream;
the
(Bennett paragraph [0026] discloses “FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an Internet infrastructure 205 containing an Internet based digital program source 221 with a (modified) adaptive encoder and multiplexer 229 built therein and a plurality of recipient devices 253, 255, 257, 259, 261, 263, 265 and 267, wherein the adaptive encoder and multiplexer 229, in accordance with the present invention, receives digitized program signals either from a local source 225 or from an external program source, transcodes (optionally), encodes and multiplexes them adaptively to optimally suit the individual recipient devices 253, 255, 257, 259, 261, 263, 265 and 267, based on configurations of the corresponding recipient devices 253, 255, 257, 259, 261, 263, 265 and 267. This illustration 205 depicts two more embodiments of the present invention, involving adaptive encoder and multiplexing circuitry 229, with or without a transcoder, built into the Internet based digital program source 221.”)
the
(Bennett paragraph [0032] discloses “A STB 251 (the functionality of the STB 251 may also be directly incorporated into the recipient device 253, 255, 257, 259, 261, 263, 265 or 267) receives these IP program packets and decodes them by de-multiplexing, de-packetizing, decompressing and converting back to their original analog audio, video and data signals (and if need be, modulated upon a RF--Radio Frequency--carrier and deliver them to the recipient device 253, 255, 257, 259, 261, 263, 265 or 267.”)
Bennett does not appear to explicitly disclose
an importer unit, an exporter unit, and an exciter engine,
the importer unit is configured to receive an encoded audio stream,
the importer unit is further configured to transmit the encoded audio stream to the exporter unit without decoding of the encoded audio stream,
the exporter unit is configured to receive the encoded audio stream and transmit the encoded audio stream to the exciter engine without decoding of the encoded audio stream,
the exciter engine is further configured to broadcast the encoded audio stream.
However, Smalley discloses device comprising
an importer unit, an exporter unit, and an exciter engine,
(Smalley paragraph [0019] discloses “FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of a portion of an example of the components of a studio site 210, an FM transmitter site 212, and a studio transmitter link (STL) 214 that can be used to broadcast an FM IBOC DAB signal. The studio site includes, among other things, studio automation equipment 234, an Ensemble Operations Center (EOC) 16 that includes an importer 218, an exporter 220, an exciter auxiliary service unit (EASU) 222, and an STL transmitter 248. The transmitter site includes an STL receiver 254, a digital exciter 256 that includes an exciter engine (exgine) subsystem 258, and may include an analog exciter 260. While in FIG. 2, the exporter is resident at a radio station's studio site and the exciter is located at the transmission site, these elements may be co-located at the transmission site.”)
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the importer unit is configured to receive an encoded (establish session connections) audio stream,
the importer unit is further configured to transmit the encoded audio stream to the (output to the exporter via a data link) exporter unit (without a decoding process) of the encoded audio stream,
(Smalley paragraph [0019] discloses “FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of a portion of an example of the components of a studio site 210, an FM transmitter site 212, and a studio transmitter link (STL) 214 that can be used to broadcast an FM IBOC DAB signal. The studio site includes, among other things, studio automation equipment 234, an Ensemble Operations Center (EOC) 16 that includes an importer 218, an exporter 220, an exciter auxiliary service unit (EASU) 222, and an STL transmitter 248.”
Smalley paragraph [0059] discloses “In Example 8, the subject matter of one or any combination of Examples 1-7 optionally includes a service application is configured to forward the digital audio file to the radio program broadcaster via the Internet network interface.”
Smalley paragraph [0022] discloses “The importer 218 can establish session connections between multiple service providers. The importer 218 encodes and multiplexes service data 246, SPS audio 238, and SPS data 236 to produce exporter link data 224, which is output to the exporter via a data link.”)
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to person of ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Bae with Smalley with Bennett for the benefit
of having an interaction between an importer unit, an export unit, and an exciter unit to broadcast the encoded audio stream to reduce transcoding the file during transmission through the network and improving performance by reducing the bandwidth requirements.
Bennett does not appear to explicitly disclose system comprising transmit the encoded audio stream without decoding. However, Bae discloses system comprising transmit the encoded audio stream without decoding
(Bae paragraph [0063] discloses “According to the embodiment of the present invention, contents (e.g., video, audio, data, etc.) of a specific standard can be readily converted to be used in a digital broadcasting system of a different standard.”
Bae paragraph [0064] discloses “Particularly, contents of a specific standard are converted to contents of a different standard without a decoding process, so that they can be shared without a deterioration of the broadcasting quality.”; “The digital broadcasting stream BS1 as contents according to the embodiment of the present invention comprises, if not specifically limited to, video stream VS1, audio stream OS1, data stream DS1, and broadcasting protocol stream PS”, Bae [0031])
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to person of ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Bae with Bennett and Smalley for the benefit
of having a broadcaster system to forward the audio stream once encoded at the source optimally to match the audio format of the receiving clients and to reduce transmission bandwidth and transcoding the audio file between the source and client device.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOSEPH K NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)467-6390. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8am-5pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Jeanette J Parker can be reached at 571-270-3647. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JOSEPH KHANH NGUYEN/Examiner, Art Unit 2646
/JEANETTE J PARKER/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2646
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