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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 06/18/2026 has been entered.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d).
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s amendment, filed 06/18/2026, has been entered and fully considered.
In light of Applicant’s amendment, the rejection of claims 6-9, 14 under 35 U.S.C. 101 has been withdrawn.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see pages 10-11, with respect to the claim amendments overcoming the cited prior art references of the rejection of claims 6-9, 14 under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn; however, upon further search and consideration, a new ground of rejection – as necessitated by amendment – is made.
Claim Interpretation
The Examiner notes:
The broadest reasonable interpretation of a method (or process) claim having contingent limitations requires only those steps that must be performed and does not include steps that are not required to be performed because the condition(s) precedent are not met. See MPEP 2111.04(II).
With respect to claims 6-9, they recite the following conditions and corresponding contingent steps:
With respect to claim 6, since the claim does not require the condition of “only when the digital album is determined to be authenticated”, the contingent step “transmitting a message…” need not be carried out in order for the claimed method to be performed. The Examiner recommends reciting “comparing issuance information… to determine that the digital album is authenticated…” to require the condition of “only when the digital album is determined to be authenticated”.
With respect to claims 7-9, they inherit the deficiencies of their parent claim.
Claim Objections
Claim 14 is objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 14 is objected to under 37 CFR 1.75(i). The claim sets forth a plurality of steps of elements (acquire identification information, compare issuance information, transmit a message). However, these elements or steps in the claim are not separated by a line indentation. The Examiner suggests separating these elements or steps by a line indentation.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 6-9, 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Drake et al. (USP App Pub 2015/0356529; hereinafter Drake) in view of Campbell et al. (USP App Pub 2021/0168455; hereinafter Campbell).
Regarding claim 6, A method of authenticating a digital album (Drake: paragraph [0011], “Media content 151 may include … a musical composition or album … or any other type of audiovisual work or content”) performed on a first server (Drake: paragraph [0010], “Redemption server 130 may include a cloud based server, personal computer, or any other device capable of receiving receipts from user devices and transmitting tokens to the user devices in response to receiving the receipts”), comprising:
acquiring identification information related to the digital album from a user device (Drake: paragraph [0012], “User device 110 may transmit receipt 111 to redemption server 130 using any wired or wireless technology”; paragraph [0011], “Media content 151 may include … album”), wherein the identification information is linked to a physical medium (Drake: paragraph [0012], “Receipt 111 may include a receipt for a previously purchased media content by user device 110 from a retailer”; FIG. 2, receipt 211 is stored in memory 215 of user device 210; paragraph [0023], “Memory 215 may be instituted as ROM, RAM, flash memory”) associated with the digital album (Drake: paragraph [0012], “As such receipt 111 may include the identity of media content 151”) …;
comparing issuance information pre-stored in the first server (Drake: FIG. 3, media content list 371 is included in memory 335 of redemption server) with the acquired identification information (Drake: paragraph [0041], “user device 310 transmits receipt 311 including media content identity 323 to redemption server 330. In response to receiving receipt 311 from user device 310, redemption server 330 compares media content identity 323 with media content list 371 to determine if media content identity 323 is included in media content list 371”) to determine whether the digital album is authenticated (Drake: paragraph [0018], “Retailer 170 transmits media content list 171 to redemption server 130. Media content list 171 may include a list of every media content that can be redeemed or purchased from retailer 170. Redemption server 130 thus uses media content list 171 when determining if a media content from a receipt received from a user device 110 is available to be redeemed from retailer 170” i.e., the media content is authenticated for redemption from retailer 170) … album (Drake: paragraph [0011], “Media content 151 may include … album”)…; and
transmitting a message (Drake: paragraph [0017], “Redemption server 130 transmits redemption tokens 132 to retailer 170”; paragraph [0042], “redemption server 330 transmits redemption tokens 332 to retailer 370”) including the identification information related to the digital album (Drake: paragraph [0015], “token 131 may include a redemption code that is used by user device 110 to redeem media content 151 from retailer 170”; paragraph [0014], “a token may only be used by the user device that received the token to redeem the specific media content from a specific retailer”) and identification information of the user device (Drake: paragraph [0044], “token 331 may only be associated with user device 310”; paragraph [0042], “redemption tokens 332 includes a list of the tokens that redemption server 330 has transmitted to user devices to redeem media content”) to a second server (Drake: paragraph [0010], “retailer 170 may each include a server … that distributes media content to user devices”) to enable the user device to access at least one content associated with the digital album (Drake: paragraph [0019], “user device 110 transmits token 131 to retailer 170, and retailer 170 transmits media content 151 to user device 110 in response to retailer 170 receiving token 131 from user device 110”; paragraph [0041], “User device 310 may then redeem a media content associated with media content identity 323 from retailer 370”), only when the digital album is determined to be authenticated (Drake: paragraph [0041], “compares media content identity 323 with media content list 371 to determine if media content identity 323 is included in media content list 371”; paragraph [0042], “redemption server 330 transmits redemption tokens 332 to retailer 370”).
Drake does not teach … wherein the identification information comprises location information received from a GPS sensor of the user device … wherein the digital album is authenticated based on the location information corresponding to a valid consumption path of the user device …
However, in the same field of endeavor, Campbell does teach … wherein the identification information comprises location information received from a GPS sensor of the user device (Campbell: paragraph [0025], “The location verifier 130 determines the physical location of the user at the time of the request … the location verifier 130 can access a GPS receiver on the portable device 150, and use the GPS information to verify the location of the user within the correct region during the request”) … wherein the digital … (Campbell: paragraph [0017], “The content can be … audio…or any other digital content that can be provided to the user for consumption on the portable device 150. For example, the home content provider 120 can be … a streaming service, such as…Pandora, Spotify”) is authenticated based on the location information (Campbell: paragraph [0026], “If the user is determined to be in their home location, then a location token 135 is issued to the user. This is illustrated at step 240”) corresponding to a valid consumption path of the user device (Campbell: paragraph [0024], “if the user has paid for access to the content, has a valid subscription to the content, or is otherwise entitled to access the content” i.e., the consumption path may start at payment for content and access of content; paragraph [0027], “Once the user has been granted the location token, the user will have to leave their home region 110 and travel to a different region. This is illustrated at step 250”; paragraph [0028], “the user submits to the content provider 120 the location token”; paragraph [0029], “Once the content provider 120 receives the token 135 from the user, the token 135 is validated”; paragraph [0030], “If the token 135 was successfully validated, the user is then provided the content from the content provider 120 in the remote location 112. This is illustrated at step 290” i.e., starting from the home location and travelling to the remote location destination corresponds to the claimed consumption path)…
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the content redemption system of Drake (Drake: paragraph [0010], “retailer 170 may each include a server … that distributes media content to user devices”) to incorporate the teachings of Campbell to enforce location restrictions on the distribution of content (Campbell: paragraph [0017], “the owner of the content being provided by the home content provider 120 may impose distribution limitations on the content that prevents the home content provider 120 from providing the content outside the home region 110”). The motivation for doing so is to allow certain users to access content if they have a valid consumption path from an approved location (Campbell: paragraph [0017], “However, it may be permitted in that region for “non-residents” or visitors to view that particular content. In these instances, the content provider 120 may not be able to differentiate persons who are allowed to have the content in that area and those that are not, and as a result may choose to block delivery of that content to any user located in that particular region”).
Regarding claim 7, Drake teaches the method of claim 6, further comprising:
transmitting a message related to the comparison result to the user device (Drake: paragraph [0041], “redemption server 330 compares media content identity 323 with media content list 371 to determine if media content identity 323 is included in media content list 371. If redemption server 330 determines media content identity 323 is included in media content list 371, as illustrated in FIG. 3, redemption server 330 transmits token 331 … [to] user device 310”).
Regarding claim 8, Drake teaches the method of claim 6, wherein
at least one content (Drake: paragraph [0019], “media content 151”) corresponding to the identification information related to the digital album (Drake: paragraph [0015], “token 131 may include a redemption code that is used by user device 110 to redeem media content 151 from retailer 170”; paragraph [0014], “a token may only be used by the user device that received the token to redeem the specific media content from a specific retailer”) is transmitted from the second server (Drake: paragraph [0010], “retailer 170”) to the user device (Drake: paragraph [0019], “user device 110 transmits token 131 to retailer 170, and retailer 170 transmits media content 151 to user device 110 in response to retailer 170 receiving token 131 from user device 110”) according to the message (Drake: paragraph [0042], “redemption server 330 transmits redemption tokens 332 to retailer 370”; paragraph [0042], “redemption tokens 332 includes a list of the tokens that redemption server 330 has transmitted to user devices to redeem media content”).
Regarding claim 9, Drake teaches the method of claim 8, wherein
the at least one content (Drake: paragraph [0019], “media content 151”) includes at least one of a video, a sound source (Drake: paragraph [0011], “Media content 151 may include … a musical composition or album … or any other type of audiovisual work or content”), an image, or text.
Re. claim 14, it recites analogous limitations as claim 6 and therefore is rejected for the same reasons.
Conclusion
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/A.S./Examiner, Art Unit 2491
/WILLIAM R KORZUCH/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2491
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