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 Office action is made in response to Amendment, filed 5 May 2026 (“Reply”). Applicant has amended Claims 21, 34, 37, and 39 – 40; cancelled Claims 38 and added new Claims 41 - 46. As amended, Claims 21 – 37 and 39 - 46 are presented for examination.
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 allowance or after an Office action under Ex Parte Quayle, 25 USPQ 74, 453 O.G. 213 (Comm'r Pat. 1935). 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, prosecution in this application has been reopened pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 5 May 2026 has been entered.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to as failing to comply with 37 CFR 1.84(p)(4) because reference character “112” has been used to designate both MSS (Fig. 2, [0015]-[0016] and [0049]) and MMS (Fig. 1). 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 of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Objections
Claim 34 and 45 are objected to because of the following informalities:
• “submitting to server” in Claim 34 line 11 should apparently be –submitting to [a] server--;
• “transmitting to a response” in Claim 45 line 26 should apparently be –transmitting --. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112(a) – Written Description
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 21 – 46 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contain subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention. Claim 21 (line 12) and Claim 34 (line 11) are amended such that the “ad stitcher” which submits an ad request is amended to be a “server”. There does not appear to be support in the specification for this amendment. The specification discloses several servers including a manifest server (Fig. 3 and [0060]), a server within MSS ([0049]) and an Ad Server 108 (Fig. 1 and [0015]). However, none of these servers appear to perform the functions recited in Claim 21 and Claim 34. The specification does not include a discussion describing the hardware configuration of the ad stitcher. An “ad stitcher” is not inherently a server and could be, for example, a module. While the specification discloses both an Ad stitcher 106 and an Ad server 108 (Figs. 1 and 2), they are presented as separate devices and there appears to be no discussion regarding how or if they could be combined. Therefore, Claims 21 and 34, as well as their associated dependent claims are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement because the limitations regarding submitting an ad request to “a server” and receiving from “the server” a response are considered new matter.
Additionally, amended Claims 21 and 34 recite determining that a message is a trigger message and as a result of the determination submitting an ad request to a server and transmitting a response message to the player comprising a video segment or a redirect, (Claim 21 ll. 9 – 15 and Claim 34 ll. 9 – 14). The specification does not appear to clearly disclose a triggering message that results in these steps. While a “triggering message” is disclosed in the specification as “submitting to an ad stitcher an ad request” ([0067]) with the result of this triggering message being that the ad stitcher selects a set of ads to fill the first break, ([0067]), this triggering message does not result in the two steps of submitting an ad request to a server and transmitting a video segment, as presented in the amended claims. The specification discloses that a video segment [m216] is transmitted in response to video segment requests [m214] , (Fig. 2 and [0049]). And, a message containing ad segments [m220] is received in response to a request message for ads [m218], (Fig. 2 and [0050]). These response messages are clearly not triggered by the same trigger message as illustrated in Fig. 2 and disclosed in [0049] – [0051]. Therefore, Claims 21 and 34, as well as their associated dependent claims are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement.
For similar reasons, Claims 37, 41 and 45, as well as their associated dependent claims are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contain subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention. Independent claims indicate that in response to a request, a process is performed which comprises obtaining a set of ad segment URLs and transmitting a video segment. As explained above, the specification discloses responses to requests involving ad segments OR video segments, but not both in the same request. Therefore, Claims 37, 41 and 45, as well as their associated dependent claims are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112 - Indefiniteness
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 21 - 36 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
It is unclear what is performing the steps of providing, receiving, determining, creating, etc. recited in Claims 21 and 34. The specification and Fig. 1 present various components in the system 100 and it is unclear, which, if any of these components perform the steps recited in Claims 21 and 34.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 34 - 36 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Ganjam et al., US Pub. 2022/0286739 A1 (hereinafter Ganjam).
In regards to Claim 34, Ganjam discloses a method comprising:
providing a manifest to a player (Ganjam: [0045], where a video player fetches a manifest file), wherein
the manifest comprises segment locator information (Ganjam: [0048], where manifest files indicate the location, e.g. URLs, of the chunks for a content item),
the segment locator information comprises: i) a set of N segment URLs comprising a first segment URL comprising a first segment identifier or ii) URL template information that can be used by the player to generate the N segment URLs, and N is an integer greater than 0 (Ganjam: [0048], where manifest files indicate the location, e.g. URLs, of the chunks for a content item; [0082], where the manifest file includes a list that is a series of URLs to chunks to be played sequentially; Fig. 6A and [0169], where information associated with playback of a first video segment is obtained);
after providing the manifest to the player, receiving a message from the player (Ganjam: [0047], where a user may request a particular content);
determining that the message is a trigger message (Ganjam: [0047], where the user hits play to start the session);
as a result of determining that the message is a trigger message (Ganjam: [0071], where a viewer indicating that they wish to watch a particular video can be a trigger):
i) submitting to server an ad request (Ganjam: [0051], where an ad is requested from a server); and
ii) transmitting a response message to the player, the response message comprising: i) a video segment or ii) a redirect comprising a segment URL for causing the player to request the video segment (Ganjam: [0046]-[0049], where in response to the user requesting a particular content by hitting play, the content player uses the obtained manifest file to begin streaming content from CDN, e.g. requesting, fetching, and playing chunks of the TV show); and
receiving from the server a response responsive to the ad request, the response comprising a set of M ad segment URLs, where M > 0, wherein the set of M ad segment URLs comprises a first ad segment URL comprising a first ad segment identifier for use in identifying a first ad segment (Ganjam: [0082] – [0084], where in response to a request to play a video, the ad server dynamically rewrites the original manifest file by inserting URLs to the ads among the content chunk URLs at the appropriate locations among the content chunks; [0083]-[0083], where the modified manifest file, which includes the locations, e.g. URLs, of the video chunks with the ad chunks dynamically inserted among the original content chunks, is provided to the player and the video player sequentially plays the chunks corresponding to the URLs listed in the manifest file).
Regarding Claim 35, Ganjam discloses the method of claim 34, wherein
the method further comprises receiving a second message from the player (Ganjam: [0060], where an ad player could request another ad set);
in response to receiving the second message, using information included in the second
message to retrieve the first ad segment URL (Ganjam: [0060], where in response to ad player’s request for an ad, ad server selects a set of Cool Cola ads for the ad player to play and returns to the play a set of URLs corresponding to the selected ads; [0084], where the video player sequentially plays video chunks using their corresponding URLs; [0066], where metadata about the ads may be obtained as well as ad identifier); and
after retrieving the first ad segment URL:
using the first ad segment URL to retrieve the first ad segment and then providing to the player the first ad segment, or providing to the player a redirect message comprising the first ad segment URL for causing the player to request the first ad segment (Ganjam: [0060], where a set of RULs are returned to the ad player, where the URLs point to CDN C which holds the actual ads to be played, i.e., the URLs point to the location of the actual ads. The ad player, using the set of URLs is redirected to CDN C, which delivers the corresponding selected ads to the ad player).
Regarding Claim 36, Ganjam discloses the method of claim 35, wherein
the method further comprises, prior to receiving the second message, creating a mapping that maps the information included in the second message to the first ad segment
identifier (Ganjam: [0088], where ad metadata, identified by a corresponding ad identifier, may be mapped with the content; [0090], where ad metadata is tagged with the unique combination of client application identifier and video content session identifier, and thus the metadata for ads played during the content session may be mapped to ad playback information), and
retrieving the first ad segment URL comprises using the mapping to retrieve the first ad
segment URL (Ganjam: [0082], where a manifest file includes a list that is a series of URLs to chunks to be played back sequentially; [0088], where ad identifiers may be extracted from URLs in the manifest file and used to obtain metadata).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Hou, US Pub. 2025/0317608 A1 teach that when a request for an item of primary video content is received a manifest file is generated including locators corresponding to the requested item of primary video content and redirect database entries storing redirect locators to default supplementary media, ([0005]).
Loheide et al., US Pub. 2020/0412785 A1 teach generating a live media output stream including targeted non-programming content and customized programming content using manifest files for a personalized viewer experience ([0028]). The system comprises an ad decisioning servers which implement an advertisement decisioning component that may be used during a real-time content or advertisement placement activity, during ad insertion, ([0045]).
Higgs et al., US Pub. 2016/0182923 A1 disclose notifying the terminal of one or more ad insertion slots available after receiving a table from the television broadcast network, ([0043]).
Bhardwaj et al., US Pub. 2016/0226942 A1 disclose inserting advertisements into a content stream during playback and modifying the manifest such that playback is managed with the content stream and the supplementary content and the supplementary content is not stored in persistent storage, ([0036] and [0047]). An updated live output stream manifest may be generated as updated client requests are received, ([0062]).
Webb et al., US Pub. 2023/0370665 A1 teach a real-time content or advertisement placement activity, for example during dynamic ad insertion, ([0033]).
Panje et al., US Pub. 2014/0281010 A1 disclose building unique manifests for each client which enables the client device to have access to a master manifest. The manifest file is generated with a plurality of URLs and a modified manifest files includes a subset of URLs indicating an ordering of media segments, ([0006] – [0007]).
Examiner’s Note: The Examiner has cited particular paragraphs or columns and line numbers in the references applied to the claims above for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings of the art and are applied to specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested from the applicant in preparing responses, to fully consider the references in their entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the Examiner.
In the case of amending the claimed invention, Applicant is respectfully requested to indicate the portion(s) of the specification which dictate the structure relied on for proper interpretation and also to verify and ascertain the metes and bounds of the claimed invention.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Cynthia M FOGG whose telephone number is (571)272-2741. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 7:00-3:30.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Nathan Flynn can be reached at (571)272-1915. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/CYNTHIA M FOGG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2421
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