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
2. 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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicants’ submission, filed on August 26, 2026, has been entered. Claims 1-20 are currently pending, of which claims 1 and 8 are amended.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
3. 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.
4. Claims 1, 4-6, 8, and 11-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gao et al. hereinafter “Gao” (US 2014/0289860) in view of Gorfein et al. hereinafter “Gorfein” (US 10402545) and further in view of Geis (US 2015/0326454).
Regarding claim 1, Gao discloses a method for monitoring illegal distribution of copyrighted works through a torrent network, the method comprising:
checking, by a processor, information on a peer distributing a torrent file designated as copyrighted works to be monitored ( verifying that a participant is sharing the media file that has a copyrighted work using a torrent file , Gao, [0031]; [0049]; [0052]); when the peer is checked to be the Seeder, obtaining, by the processor, a captured image of a monitoring screen of the peer distributing the torrent file as evidence to prove a period of illegal distribution of the copyrighted work (screenshot of a user interface is monitored for a period of October 3, 2012 to October 5, 2012 for copyright infringement using the BitTorrent of the user using a processor ( where the user is the seeder), Gao, [0026];[0058];[0041]; a processor is disclosed in [0041]).
Gao does not disclose checking whether a current status of the peer is a Seeder or a Leecher.
Gorfein discloses checking whether a current status of the peer is a Seeder or a Leecher (The participant will send information that includes the participant's current download completion status, which includes information on how many data pieces that the participant has finished downloading. When the download completion status is received; the participant sharing the media file is also indicated with non-zero download completion where the non-zero completion status is checking the Leecher. The Seeder is checked when all data pieces are downloaded, Gorfein, in column 11, lines 55-67; column 12, lines 1-3; The interpretation of the Seeder and the Leecher is in light of the specification [0006] that says discloses a user who has completely replicated the entire file and is only distributing the entire file acts as a Seeder. In a state in which only some pieces of the file are downloaded and the file is incompletely copied, the user who is downloading and distributing the file plays the role of a Leecher (non-Seeder)).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate Gorfein’s teachings with Gao’s teachings. One skilled in the art would be motivated to combine them in order to check efficiently the status of peer downloading a media file by checking effectively if the status of the participant distributing the file has download completion status or has a non-zero completion status.
Gao in view of Gorfein does not explicitly disclose wherein the checking and the obtaining performed by the processor do not directly involve any uploading or downloading any copyright protected contents of the torrent file. However, Geis discloses that metadata associated with the content of the torrent may be obtained via a .torrent file. The torrent metadata may include information such as torrent file name, torrent hash, torrent size, number of torrent pieces, tracker data (e.g., a list of IP addresses of peers) …from trackers, or from other nodes utilizing BitTorrent’s Distributed Hash Table (DHT protocol. that may have torrent pieces. Geis teaches retrieving these operational list paths and DHT. Geis teaches retrieving these operational list paths and locations using tracker scrape and DHT queries -a mechanism that strictly logs network coordinates based on data maps, thereby avoiding direct block-level content upload/download transactions. See Geis, paragraphs [0017] – [0021].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to modify the network gathering mechanism of Gao and Gorfein by incorporating the tracker-level and DHT metadata gathering techniques taught by Geis. A person of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to do so in order to minimize the processing footprints and avoid the liability or technical complications associated with transmitting actual infringing payloads or protected contents.
Regarding claim 4, Gao, Gorfein, and Geis disclose the method of claim 1, wherein, in order to check the peer distributing the torrent file designated as the copyrighted work to be monitored, the processor loads the torrent file to analyze infohash information ( data piece with cryptographic hash received using copyright infringing BitTorrent is verified to correctly match with the torrent file after downloaded completion station received , using a processor, Gao, [0009]; see processor in [0041]), and checks whether the corresponding torrent file has the same infohash as infohash of the torrent file of the copyrighted work to be monitored ( data piece with cryptographic hash tracked using copyright infringing BitTorrent is verified to correctly match with the torrent file after downloaded completion station received , Gao, [0009]).
Regarding claim 5, Gao, Gorfein, and Geis disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the monitoring screen includes a plurality of areas displaying at least one of information on the number of torrent files to be monitored, torrent file information, connection log information, settings information, standard time information, tracker information, and connection details information (several display sections are disclosed, a tracking server information is disclosed, Gao, [0009]; Fig.4A).
Regarding claim 6, Gao, Gorfein, and Geis disclose the method of claim 1, after the checking whether the current status of the peer is the Seeder or the Leecher, further comprising: terminating, by the processor, a connection with the peer distributing the torrent file to prevent from downloading the torrent file ( terminating copyright infringement by BitTorrent users , Gao, [0023]), wherein, in order to monitor the peer distributing the torrent file, the checking whether the current status of the peer is the Seeder or the Leecher (monitoring copyright infringement by the BitTorrent of the user ( where the user is the seeder) , Gao, [0058])and the terminating of the connection with the peer distributing the torrent file are repeatedly performed at a designated time interval ( terminating copyright infringement by BitTorrent users being done at every set period of time according to a set of criteria , Gao, [0023]; [0045]).
Regarding claim 8, claim 8 is substantially similar to a combination claims 1 and 5; thus, the same rationale applies.
Regarding claim 11, Gao, Gorfein, and Geis disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the checking by the processor is performed to only check the information and the current status of the peer, without downloading any actual content of the copyrighted works from the peer, in order to monitor the copyrighted works in a state of integrity without having to illegally download any content of the copyrighted works ( data piece with cryptographic hash tracked using copyright infringing BitTorrent is verified to correctly match with the torrent file after downloaded completion station received , Gao, [0009]).
Regarding claim 12, Gao, Gorfein, and Geis disclose the method of claim 11, wherein the checking of only the information and the current status of the peer is achieved by analyzing an 'infohash' of the torrent file, periodically verifying the peer's status, and obtaining, as needed, evidence of any illegal distribution of the copyrighted works ( data piece with cryptographic hash tracked using copyright infringing BitTorrent is verified to correctly match with the torrent file after downloaded completion station received , Gao, [0009]).
Regarding claim 13, Gao, Gorfein, and Geis disclose the apparatus of claim 8, wherein the processor and the monitoring screen display operate to only check the information and the current status of the peer (screenshot of the user interface is monitored for copyright infringement by the BitTorrent of the user ( where the user is the seeder) , Gao, [0058]), without downloading any actual content of the copyrighted works from the peer, in order to monitor the copyrighted works in a state of integrity without having to illegally download any content of the copyrighted works (a torrent dedicated file servers that distributed the torrent file stored in the database and allows other participants to access a tracker server that maintains pieces of files received from peers, Gao, [0025]; [0020]).
Regarding claim 14, Gao, Gorfein, and Geis disclose the apparatus of claim 13, wherein the checking of only the information and the current status of the peer is achieved by the processor that analyzes an 'infohash' of the torrent file, periodically checking the peer's status, and obtaining, as needed, evidence of any illegal distribution of the copyrighted works ( data piece with cryptographic hash tracked using copyright infringing BitTorrent is verified to correctly match with the torrent file after downloaded completion station received , Gao, [0009]).
5. Claims 2-3, 9-10 and 15-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable under Gao, in view of Gorfein in view of Geis and further in view of Holland et al. hereinafter “Holland” (WO 20120097740 A1).0
Regarding claim 2, Gao, Gorfein and Geis disclose the method of claim 1, wherein, after the obtaining of the captured image of the monitoring screen of the peer distributing the torrent file screenshot of the user interface is monitored for copyright infringement by the BitTorrent of the user ( where the user is the seeder) , Gao, [0058]),
the processor stores the information on the peer distributing the torrent file and the captured image of the monitoring screen in a DB server and a capture server (the torrent file will be stored in the database and a tracker server that maintained pieces of files received from peers, using a processor Gao, [0025]; [0020]; see processor in [0041]), and manages the information stored in the DB server and the capture server through a web server (a torrent dedicated file servers that distributed the torrent file stored in the database and allows other participants to access a tracker server that maintains pieces of files received from peers, Gao, [0025]; [0020]), whereby, when the managed information is submitted as the evidence of illegal distribution of the copyrighted work ( media file containing the copyrighted work that is maintained in the torrent file server is verified for illegal publishers Gao, [0025]; [0026]; [0020]), the processor is implemented to search for only illegal distribution information of a desired torrent file through the web server ( media file containing the copyrighted work that is maintained in the torrent file server is verified for illegal publishers, Gao, [0025]; [0026]).
Gao, Gorfein and Geis do not disclose output the searched information as a report.
Holland discloses output the searched information as a report (report identified copyright infringement being sent to relevant owners , Holland, page 15, last paragraph starting with Advantageously, the amount of copyright…; relevant owners is disclosed in paragraph 6 of page 15).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate Holland’s teachings into Gao’s in view of Gorfein’s and in view of Geis’s teachings. One skilled in the art would be motivated to combine them in order to report efficiently the illegality of a transmission of file by automatically reporting the illegality of a transmission of file to relevant owners of the file.
Regarding claim 3, Gao, Gorfein and Geis, and Holland disclose the method of claim 2.
Gao, Gorfein and Geis do not disclose wherein, when the report submitted as the evidence of illegal distribution of the copyrighted work is output, the web server specifies a period from a time point when a peer to be monitored is first discovered as a Leecher with some file pieces or as a Seeder with all file pieces to a time point when the peer is last detected as the Seeder after being switched to the Seeder, as the period of illegal distribution of the copyrighted work through the torrent network, and allows the specified period to be included in the report when the report is output.
Holland discloses wherein, when the report submitted as the evidence of illegal distribution of the copyrighted work is output (report identified copyright infringement being sent to relevant owners , Holland, page 15, last paragraph starting with Advantageously, the amount of copyright…; relevant owners is disclosed in paragraph 6 of page 15), the web server specifies a period from a time point when a peer to be monitored is first discovered as a Leecher with some file pieces or as a Seeder with all file pieces to a time point when the peer is last detected as the Seeder after being switched to the Seeder (the amount of copyright infringement by an active leach peers taking place at any point of time can be identified , Holland, page 15, last two paragraph starting with Advantageously, the amount of copyright…; relevant owners is disclosed in paragraph 6 of page 15),
as the period of illegal distribution of the copyrighted work through the torrent network (the amount of copyright infringement by an active leach peers taking place at any point of time can be identified using a Bit Torrent trackers in BitTorrent network , Holland, page 15, last two paragraph starting with Advantageously, the amount of copyright…; relevant owners is disclosed in paragraph 7 of page 15), and allows the specified period to be included in the report when the report is output (the amount of copyright infringement by an active leach peers taking place at any point of time can be identified , Holland, page 15, last two paragraph starting with Advantageously, the amount of copyright…; relevant owners is disclosed in paragraph 6 of page 15).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate Holland’s teachings into Gao’s in view of Gorfein’s and in view of Geis’s teachings. One skilled in the art would be motivated to combine the teachings in order to report efficiently the illegality of a transmission of file by automatically reporting the illegality of a transmission of file to relevant owners of the file.
Regarding claim 9, claim 9 is substantially similar to the combination of claims 2 and 5; thus, the same rationale applies.
Regarding claim 10, claim 10 is substantially similar to the combination of claims 2 and 5; thus, the same rationale applies.
Regarding claim 15, Gao discloses a system comprising:
a processor to check a torrent file for its 'infohash' used in verifying whether such matches an 'infohash' of one or more copyright protected torrent files that are stored (the torrent file will be stored in the database and a tracker server that maintained pieces of files received from peers, using a processor , using data piece with cryptographic hash tracked using copyright infringing BitTorrent is verified to correctly match with the torrent file after downloaded completion station received Gao, [0025]; [0020] [0009]; see processor in [0041]),
registered or indexed in advance, and if the torrent file is verified as a copyright protected torrent file subject to monitoring, to perform a process of monitoring, for illegal distribution of the torrent file in a torrent network by: obtaining, upon temporarily connecting to a peer in the torrent network ( terminating copyright infringement by BitTorrent users being done at every set period of time according to a set of criteria , Gao, [0023]; [0045]), outputting, to a monitoring screen (several display sections are disclosed, a tracking server information is disclosed, Gao, [0009]; Fig.4A), information related to a result of analyzing the obtained information and status about the peer to check for copyright compliance or infringement thereof information ( data piece with cryptographic hash received using copyright infringing BitTorrent is verified to correctly match with the torrent file after downloaded completion station received , using a processor, Gao, [0009]; see processor in [0041]).
Gao does not disclose information and status about the peer involved in a distribution of the torrent file to verify if the peer is a Seeder or a Leecher.
Gorfein discloses obtaining, upon temporarily connecting to a peer in the torrent network, information and status about the peer involved in a distribution of the torrent file to verify if the peer is a Seeder or a Leecher (The participant will send information that includes the participant's current download completion status, which includes information on how many data pieces that the participant has finished downloading. When the download completion status is received; the participant sharing the media file is also indicated with non-zero download completion where the non-zero completion status is checking the Leecher. The Seeder is checked when all data pieces are downloaded, Gorfein, in column 11, lines 55-67; column 12, lines 1-3; The interpretation of the Seeder and the Leecher is in light of the specification [0006] that discloses a user who has completely replicated the entire file and is only distributing the entire file acts as a Seeder. In a state in which only some pieces of the file are downloaded and the file is incompletely copied, the user who is downloading and distributing the file plays the role of a Leecher (non-Seeder)).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate Gorfein’s teachings into Gao’s teachings. One skilled in the art would be motivated to combine them in order to check efficiently the status of peer downloading a media file by checking effectively if the status of the participant distributing the file has download completion status or has a non-zero completion status.
Gao in view of Gorfein does not explicitly disclose wherein the determining whether the torrent file is a copyright protected torrent file and the process of monitoring are both performed without having to download any copyright protected contents of the torrent file. However, Geis discloses that metadata associated with the content of the torrent may be obtained via a .torrent file. The torrent metadata may include information such as torrent file name, torrent hash, torrent size, number of torrent pieces, tracker data (e.g., a list of IP addresses of peers) …from trackers, or from other nodes utilizing BitTorrent’s Distributed Hash Table (DHT protocol. that may have torrent pieces. Geis teaches retrieving these operational list paths and DHT. Geis teaches retrieving these operational list paths and locations using tracker scrape and DHT queries -a mechanism that strictly logs network coordinates based on data maps, thereby avoiding direct block-level content upload/download transactions. See Geis, paragraphs [0017] – [0021].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention to modify the network gathering mechanism of Gao and Gorfein and Holland by incorporating the tracker-level and DHT metadata gathering techniques taught by Geis. A person of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to do so in order to minimize the processing footprints and avoid the liability or technical complications associated with transmitting actual infringing payloads or protected contents.
Gao in view of Gorfein and in view of Geis does not disclose reporting, based on the result of analyzing, any copyright infringement by the peer.
Holland discloses reporting, based on the result of analyzing, any copyright infringement by the peer (report identified copyright infringement being sent to relevant owners , Holland, page 15, last paragraph starting with Advantageously, the amount of copyright…; relevant owners is disclosed in paragraph 6 of page 15).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate Holland’s teachings into Gao’s in view of Gorfein’s and in view of Geis’s teachings. One skilled in the art would be motivated to combine them in order to report efficiently the illegality of a transmission of file by automatically reporting the illegality of a transmission of file to relevant owners of the file.
Regarding claim 16, Gao in view of Gorfein and in view of Geis does not disclose wherein the processor repeats the process of monitoring at designated time intervals to continuously check for copyright compliance or infringement by the peer), and wherein the result of analyzing includes a verification of 'Have' information and 'Bitfield' information, obtained from the peer, that indicates whether the peer acts as the Seeder having all pieces of information related to the torrent file or acts as the Leecher having only some pieces of information related to the torrent file.
Holland discloses wherein the processor repeats the process of monitoring at designated time intervals to continuously check for copyright compliance or infringement by the peer (the amount of copyright infringement by an active leach peers taking place at any point of time can be identified , Holland, page 15, last two paragraph starting with Advantageously, the amount of copyright…; relevant owners is disclosed in paragraph 6 of page 15), and wherein the result of analyzing includes a verification of 'Have' information and 'Bitfield' information, obtained from the peer, that indicates whether the peer acts as the Seeder having all pieces of information related to the torrent file or acts as the Leecher having only some pieces of information related to the torrent file (the amount of copyright infringement by an active leach peers taking place at any point of time can be identified , Holland, page 15, last two paragraph starting with Advantageously, the amount of copyright…; relevant owners is disclosed in paragraph 6 of page 15).
Regarding claim 17, Gao, Gorfein, Geis and Holland disclose the system of claim 16, further comprising: a parsing module, that is separate from but operatively connected to the processor, to perform the checking of the 'infohash' of the torrent file (monitoring according to a set of criteria where data piece with cryptographic hash received using copyright infringing BitTorrent is verified to correctly match with the torrent file after downloaded completion station received , Gao, [0023]; [0045]; [0009]; by monitoring disclosed in [0056])).
Regarding claim 18, Gao, Gorfein, Geis and Holland disclose the system of claim 17, further comprising: a capture module, that is separate from but operatively connected to the processor, to perform functions related to obtaining evidence of one or more events about illegal distribution of copyrighted works by the peer ( terminating copyright infringement by BitTorrent users being done at every set period of time by monitoring according to a set of criteria where data piece with cryptographic hash received using copyright infringing BitTorrent is verified to correctly match with the torrent file after downloaded completion station received , Gao, [0023]; [0045]; [0009]; by monitoring disclosed in [0056])).
Regarding claim 19, Gao, Gorfein, Geis and Holland disclose the system of claim 18, further comprising: one or more network entities, operatively connected to the processor, which perform certain management functions for the process of monitoring ( terminating copyright infringement by BitTorrent users by monitoring according to a set of criteria where data piece with cryptographic hash received using copyright infringing BitTorrent , Gao, [0023]; [0045]; [0009]; by monitoring disclosed in [0056]); terminating copyright infringement by BitTorrent users is equated to management function ).
Regarding claim 20, Gao, Gorfein, Geis and Holland disclose the system of claim 19, wherein the network entities comprise:
a database server that stores the information and status about the peer; a capture server that stores images, related to a 'First Seen' event indicating a first detection time point of the illegal distribution by the peer (the torrent file will be stored in the database and a tracker server that maintained pieces of files received from peers, using a processor Gao, [0025]; [0020]; see processor in [0041]), a 'Seed Time' event indicating a duration of the illegal distribution by the peer, and a 'Last Seen' event indicating a last detection time point of the illegal distribution by the peer, that are captured by the capture module from the monitoring screen; and a web server that manages both the database server and the capture server (a torrent dedicated file servers that distributed the torrent file stored in the database and allows other participants to access a tracker server that maintains pieces of files received from peers, where media file containing the copyrighted work that is maintained in the torrent file server is verified for illegal publishers Gao, [0025]; [0020]).
6. Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable under Gao in view of Gorfein, in view of Geis, and further in view Fujimatsu et al. hereinafter “Fujimatsu” (CN 104284146 B).
Regarding claim 7, Gao, Gorfein and Geis disclose the method of claim 1, wherein, in order to acquire the evidence that can prove the period of illegal distribution of the copyrighted work, the processor is configured to: repeatedly monitor the peer distributing the torrent file with the same infohash as infohash of the torrent file of the copyrighted work to be monitored at a designated time interval ( terminating copyright infringement by BitTorrent users being done at every set period of time by monitoring according to a set of criteria where data piece with cryptographic hash received using copyright infringing BitTorrent is verified to correctly match with the torrent file after downloaded completion station received , Gao, [0023]; [0045]; [0009]; by monitoring disclosed in [0056])).
Gao, Gorfein and Geis do not disclose to capture the monitoring screen (First Seen) when the peer is first discovered; capture the monitoring screen (Seed Time) when the peer is determined to be the Seeder; and capture the monitoring screen (Last Seen) when the peer is finally discovered.
Fujimatsu discloses to capture the monitoring screen (First Seen) when the peer is first discovered; capture the monitoring screen (Seed Time) when the peer is determined to be the Seeder ( captured image monitored in monitoring personnel tracking is tracked ( when the capture image was tracked by the seeder is equated to the Seed Time), Fujimatsu , page paragraph starting with The auxiliary tracking device…); and capture the monitoring screen (Last Seen) when the peer is finally discovered ( capture image when monitored picture in the display view ( when the capture image was seen by the peer is equated to the last seen) , Fujimatsu , page paragraph starting with When the tracking processing in the camera…) .
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person of ordinary skill in the art to incorporate Holland’s teachings into Gao’s in view of Gorfein’s and in view of Geis’s teachings. One skilled in the art would be motivated to combine the teachings in order to report efficiently the illegality of a transmission of file by automatically reporting the illegality of a transmission of file to relevant owners of the file.
Response to Arguments
7. Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1, 8, and 15 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
8. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Emmanuel L Moise whose telephone number is (571)272-3865. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM
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/EMMANUEL L MOISE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2455
