DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
The instant application having Application No. 18/826,860 has a total of 16 claims pending in the application, there are 2 independent claims and 14 dependent claims, all of which are ready for examination by the examiner.
Oath/Declaration
The applicant’s oath/declaration has been reviewed by the examiner and is found to conform to the requirements prescribed in 37 C.F.R. 1.63.
Drawings
The applicant’s drawings submitted are acceptable for examination purposes.
Specification
The applicant’s specification submitted is acceptable for examination purposes.
Priority
Applicant’s claim for the benefit of a prior-filed application under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, 365(c), or 386(c) is acknowledged.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Tobin et al. (US 2015/0095937 A1) and in view of Smarr et al. (US 2015/0339374 A1).
For claim 1, Tobin et al. teaches a method, comprising:
a. providing, by computing hardware in an activity management system, a first graphical user interface comprising a first segment display, wherein each segment on the first segment display is associated with a respective segment of multimedia content being viewed by a first viewer [segments divided in time intervals for viewing on media content by user, 0006: Tobin];
b. receiving, by the computing hardware at a first time, via the first graphical user interface, a first activity from the first viewer of the multimedia content [accessing of viewing activity data of a user, 0043: Tobin];
c. electronically linking, by the computing hardware, the received first activity to a first segment of the multimedia content [activity data linked to segments of the media, 0043: Tobin]; but does not teach d. creating, by the computing hardware, a first electronic record that comprises one or more of the first activity, a multimedia identifier for the multimedia content, a first viewer identifier, and a first segment identifier for the first segment, and digitally storing the first electronic record; and
e. presenting, by the computing hardware on a second graphical user interface, a first representation of the first activity on the first segment display in association with a point on the first segment display corresponding to the first segment of the multimedia.
Smarr et al. teaches d. creating, by the computing hardware, a first electronic record that comprises one or more of the first activity, a multimedia identifier for the multimedia content, a first viewer identifier, and a first segment identifier for the first segment, and digitally storing the first electronic record [storage of user activity, user identifier, multimedia content and making record of multimedia activity, 0071: Smarr]; and
e. presenting, by the computing hardware on a second graphical user interface, a first representation of the first activity on the first segment display in association with a point on the first segment display corresponding to the first segment of the multimedia [activity of one user in relation to media content activity presented to another user as activity summary, 0032-0034: Smarr].
Tobin et al. (US 2015/0095937 A1) and Smarr et al. (US 2015/0339374 A1) are analogous art because they are from the same field of user media activity monitoring.
At the time of the invention it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to modify the user activity segmentation viewer as described by Tobin et al. with tracking user metadata as taught by Smarr et al.
The motivation for doing so would for organizing user activities “in a meaningful or interesting way” [0004: Smarr].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Tobin et al. (US 2015/0095937 A1) with Smarr et al. (US 2015/0339374 A1) for user activity data clarity.
For claim 2, Tobin et al. and Smarr et al. teaches:
The method of claim 1, wherein the first graphical user interface is the second graphical user interface [viewing interface for presenting secondary information, 0006: Tobin].
For claim 3, Tobin et al. and Smarr et al. teaches:
The method of Claim 1, wherein linking the received first activity to a first segment of the multimedia content further comprises linking the first activity with a particular segment being viewed by the first viewer when the first viewer begins to enter the first activity [each segment is a user viewing time interval of media content, 0006: Tobin].
For claim 4, Tobin et al. and Smarr et al. teaches:
The method of Claim 1, wherein the first segment display comprises a first plurality of segments, wherein each one of the first plurality of segments represent a unit of time of video or audio file contained as part of the multimedia content [each segment is a time interval of media content, 0006: Tobin].
For claim 5, Tobin et al. and Smarr et al. teaches:
The method of Claim 1, wherein the first activity comprises at least one of:
a. a reply to a particular one of the one or more activities;
b. a question entered via the first user interface in free form text; and
c. a reaction entered via the first user interface, wherein a reaction further comprises an emoticon selected from one or more emoticons displayed on the first user interface [second activity is a comment to the media, 0026: Tobin].
For claim 6, Tobin et al. and Smarr et al. teaches:
The method of Claim 5, when the first activity is a reply to a particular one of the one or more activities, the first electronic record further comprises an identifier for the particular one of the one or more activities; and the first segment identifier is the same as a segment identifier for the respective segment linked to the particular one of the one or more activities [categorizing activity and user identifier with same identifier, 0009: Smarr].
For claim 7, Tobin et al. and Smarr et al. teaches:
The method of Claim 1, wherein the one or more activities comprise at least one of:
a. a pre-seeded question that is presented to elicit a response from the first viewer;
b. a pre-seeded survey; and
c. a discussion point pre-seeded by the multimedia content owner [discussion and feedback from user is activity towards the content for social media from the content provider, 0040: Tobin].
For claim 8, Tobin et al. and Smarr et al. teaches:
The method of Claim 1, further comprising:
a. generating, by the activity management system, a plurality of segment displays, each one of the plurality of segment displays being presented on a respective one of a plurality of graphical user interfaces, wherein each segment on each of the plurality of segment displays is associated with a corresponding segment of the multimedia content being viewed by a plurality of viewers [activity of one user in relation to media content activity presented to another user as activity summary, 0032-0034: Smarr];
b. presenting, by the computing hardware on each one of the plurality of graphical user interfaces the first representation of the first activity at a point on each one of the plurality of segment displays that corresponds to the segment of the multimedia content that is associated with the first activity [viewing interface for presenting secondary information about first activity, 0006: Tobin];
c. receiving, by the computing hardware, at a plurality of times that are each after the first time, via each respective one of the plurality of graphical user interfaces, one or more activities from each one of the plurality of viewers of the multimedia content [receiving user activity information for each activity and viewing in relation to media content, 0006: Tobin];
d. electronically linking, by the activity management system, each received one or more activities to a respective segment of the multimedia content [activity data linked to segments of the media, 0043: Tobin];
e. creating, by the computing hardware, a corresponding electronic record for each received one or more activities from the plurality of viewers, each corresponding electronic record comprising a respective activity from the one or more activities, the multimedia identifier for the multimedia content, an identifier of the viewer from the plurality of viewers, and a segment identifier for the respective segment linked to the respective activity, and digitally storing each corresponding electronic record [storage of user activity, user identifier, multimedia content and making record of multimedia activity, 0071: Smarr]; and
f. presenting, by the computing hardware on each one of the plurality of graphical user interfaces, a representation of each one of the one or more activities at a point on the plurality of segment displays that corresponds to the respective segment of the multimedia content that is linked with each respective activity [activity of one user in relation to media content activity presented as activity summary, 0032-0034: Smarr].
For claim 9, Tobin et al. and Smarr et al. teaches:
The method of Claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more activities from the plurality of viewers is a reply to the first activity [second activity is a comment to the media, 0026: Tobin].
For claim 10, Tobin et al. and Smarr et al. teaches:
The method of claim 1, wherein: the electronic record for the at least one of the one or more activities further comprises an identifier for the first activity; and the segment identifier for the at least one of the one or more activities is the same as the first segment identifier for the first activity [categorizing activity and user identifier with same identifier, 0009: Smarr].
For claim 11, Tobin et al. teaches a method comprising:
identifying, by the computing hardware, a plurality of segments that make up the
piece of media content [media content being interval media segments, 0006: Tobin];
and processing the first activity by: digitally storing the first activity in memory; mapping the first activity to a first segment of the plurality of segments based at least in part on the first activity [activity data linked to segments of the media, 0043: Tobin]; but does not teach providing, by computing hardware, a user interface for submitting the one or more user activities regarding the piece of media content, the one or more user activities comprising a first activity and a second activity; electronically receiving, by the computing hardware via the user interface, the first activity at a first time; and electronically associating the first activity, the first segment, and the piece of media content in memory.
Smarr et al. teaches providing, by computing hardware, a user interface for submitting the one or more user activities regarding the piece of media content, the one or more user activities comprising a first activity and a second activity [multiple user activities with one media content, 0032: Smarr]; electronically receiving, by the computing hardware via the user interface, the first activity at a first time [receiving user activity, 0006: Smarr]; and electronically associating the first activity, the first segment, and the piece of media content in memory [categorizing activity and user identifier with same identifier, 0009: Smarr].
Tobin et al. (US 2015/0095937 A1) and Smarr et al. (US 2015/0339374 A1) are analogous art because they are from the same field of user media activity monitoring.
At the time of the invention it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to modify the user activity segmentation viewer as described by Tobin et al. with tracking user metadata as taught by Smarr et al.
The motivation for doing so would for organizing user activities “in a meaningful or interesting way” [0004: Smarr].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Tobin et al. (US 2015/0095937 A1) with Smarr et al. (US 2015/0339374 A1) for user activity data clarity.
For claim 12, Tobin et al. and Smarr et al. teaches:
The method of Claim 11, wherein the plurality of segments is defined by a plurality of distinct location segments that make up the piece of media content [segments of the media are specific locations in the timeline, 0043: Tobin].
For claim 13, Tobin et al. and Smarr et al. teaches:
The method of Claim 11, wherein mapping the first activity to the first segment of the plurality of segments based at least in part on the first activity comprises mapping the first activity to a first location segment of the plurality of location segments [activity data linked to segments of the media, 0043: Tobin].
For claim 14, Tobin et al. and Smarr et al. teaches:
The method Claim 11, wherein the plurality of segments is defined by a plurality of distinct time segments that make up the piece of media content [segments of the media are specific locations in the timeline, 0043: Tobin].
For claim 15, Tobin et al. and Smarr et al. teaches:
The method of Claim 14, wherein the plurality of distinct time segments comprise at least one of: a plurality of time slice segments; and a plurality of discrete times [activity summary from private times with public, 0083: Smarr].
For claim 16, Tobin et al. and Smarr et al. teaches:
The method of Claim 15, wherein mapping the first activity to the first segment of the plurality of segments based at least in part on the first activity comprises mapping the first activity to a first time segment of the plurality of time segments that corresponds to the first time [activity data linked to segments of the media, 0043: Tobin].
Conclusion
The Examiner requests, in response to this Office action, that support be shown for language added to any original claims on amendment and any new claims. That is, indicate support for newly added claim language by specifically pointing to page(s) and line no(s) in the specification and/or drawing figure(s). This will assist the Examiner in prosecuting the application.
When responding to this Office action, Applicant is advised to clearly point out the patentable novelty which he or she thinks the claims present, in view of the state of the art disclosed by the references cited or the objections made. He or she must also show how the amendments avoid such references or objections See 37 CFR 1.111(c).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AJITH M JACOB whose telephone number is (571)270-1763. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday: Flexible Hours.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Apu Mofiz can be reached on 571-272-4080. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/AJITH JACOB/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2161
11/29/2025