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
2. This action is in response to the amendment filed April 14, 2026.
3. Claims 1-20 have been examined and are pending with this action.
4. The information Disclosure Statement filed February 26, 2026 hac been considered.
Response to Arguments
5. Applicant's arguments filed March 19, 2026 with respect to the rejection of claims 1-20 previously rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Shuman et al. (US 2014/0241354 A1) have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made based on Cho et al. (US 2013/0082827 A1) in view of .
This action is Non-Final.
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.
6. Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cho et al. (US 2013/0082827 A1) in view of Shuman et al. (US 2014/0241354 A1).
INDEPENDENT:
As per claim 1, Cho teaches a control device comprising:
at least one processor (see Cho, [0053]: “For example, the portable terminal 300 may be embodied as, for example, a mobile communication terminal operating in accordance with corresponding communication protocols, a Personal Computer (PC), a smartphone, a Portable Multimedia Player (PMP), a media player, a portable game console, a laptop computer, and a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).”);
a network interface configured to communicatively couple the control device to a local area network (LAN) (see Cho, [0051]: “According to an embodiment of the present invention, the device management apparatus 200 and the cloud server 400 communicates through an IP-based wireless interface (e.g., a Wi-Fi communication standard interface).”); and
at least one tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the control device is configured (see Cho, [0107]: “The storage unit 250 may store various applications and data related to the operations of the device management apparatus 200, and includes at least one memory. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the storage unit 250 may be implemented with at least one of a Read Only Memory (ROM), a flash memory, a Random Access Memory (RAM), an internal Hard Disk, an external Hard Disk, and other storage media. The storage unit 250 may store, persistently or temporarily, the operating system of the device management apparatus 200, programs and data related to device information collection and management, programs and data related to control of the operation of the electronic devices 100”; [00]: “”; and [00]: “”) to:
communicate, to one or more remote servers, a request to allow the control device to control a media playback system, wherein the request includes an identifier of the media playback system (see Cho, [0168]: “The header field 1610 may include a type indicator for indicating the message type of the group information request message and an identifier for identifying the sender of the message. The identity information may be the identifier of the portable terminal 300 or the device management apparatus 200. The data field 1630 may include the device information (aggregation information) on the respective electronic devices for which the group information is generated.”; and [0170]: “The header field 1710 may include a type indicator for indicating the message type of the group control request message and an identifier for identifying the portable terminal 300 as the sender of the message”); and
following reception, from the one or more remote servers, of first configuration information including information enabling the control device to control the media playback system (see Cho, [0054]: “The cloud server 400 may store and manage the interoperability information about the interoperable electronic devices. If a request for the group information is received from the portable terminal 300 or the device management apparatus 200, the cloud server 400 may configure a group of the interoperable electronic devices by referencing the interoperability information, and generate the group information on the configured group. The cloud server 400 may transmit the group information to the portable terminal 300 or the device management apparatus 200, which has requested the group information. The cloud server 400 may communicate with the device manufacturer's server to acquire the additional information on the electronic devices and update the interoperability information with the acquired additional information.”; [0057]: “requests the group information of the interoperable devices identified based on the aggregation information from the cloud server 400, and receives the group information generated and provided by the cloud server 400.”; and [0106]: “The display unit 240 may also display a screen for the user to select at least one of the electronic devices, a screen for presenting information on the groups of the electronic devices managed by the device management apparatus 200, and a screen for receiving input of selection for device group configuration.”):
(a) communicate, one or more commands to control one or more playback devices of the media playback system to play back media content (see Cho, [0107]: “The storage unit 250 may store, persistently or temporarily, the operating system of the device management apparatus 200, programs and data related to device information collection and management, programs and data related to control of the operation of the electronic devices 100, programs and data related to group configuration of the electronic devices 100 and group information generation, and programs and data related to the group control of the electronic device according to the group information. The storage unit 250 may store diverse information related to the operation of the group control mode (e.g., device information, aggregation information, group information, interoperability information, and configuration information).”; [0131]: “For example, a TV may be set with a configuration value indicating the sound output path to the internal speakers as default. If the TV is interoperable with an external speaker system, the device management apparatus 200 may reset the configuration value of the sound output path to external speaker system to integrally control the TV and the external speaker as a group.”; and [0138]: “Under this group control of the device management apparatus 200, the sound output path configuration value and the display mode value are reset to "external speaker output" and "movie mode", respectively.”); and
(b) communicate, via the LAN, second configuration information to configure one or more operations of the one or more playback devices (see Cho, [0107]: “The storage unit 250 may store, persistently or temporarily, the operating system of the device management apparatus 200, programs and data related to device information collection and management, programs and data related to control of the operation of the electronic devices 100, programs and data related to group configuration of the electronic devices 100 and group information generation, and programs and data related to the group control of the electronic device according to the group information. The storage unit 250 may store diverse information related to the operation of the group control mode (e.g., device information, aggregation information, group information, interoperability information, and configuration information).”; and [0131]: “the configuration values of the electronic devices are values configured uniquely for the operations of the functions of the respective electronic devices. For example, a TV may be set with a configuration value indicating the sound output path to the internal speakers as default. If the TV is interoperable with an external speaker system, the device management apparatus 200 may reset the configuration value of the sound output path to external speaker system to integrally control the TV and the external speaker as a group”).
Cho does not teach a cellular network interface configured to communicatively couple the control device to a cellular network; communicate a request via the cellular network; and communicate commands via the cellular network.
Shuman teaches a cellular network interface configured to communicatively couple the control device to a cellular network (see Shuman, [0048]: “While not shown explicitly as part of IoT device 200A, the IoT device 200A may include one or more external antennas and/or one or more integrated antennas that are built into the external casing, including but not limited to Wi-Fi antennas, cellular antennas, satellite position system (SPS) antennas (e.g., global positioning system (GPS) antennas), and so on.”); and communicating via the cellular network (see Shuman, [0049]: “The platform 202 can receive and execute software applications, data and/or commands transmitted over a network interface, such as air interface 108 in FIGS. 1A-B and/or a wired interface. The platform 202 can also independently execute locally stored applications. The platform 202 can include one or more transceivers 206 configured for wired and/or wireless communication (e.g., a Wi-Fi transceiver, a Bluetooth transceiver, a cellular transceiver, a satellite transceiver, a GPS or SPS receiver, etc.) operably coupled to one or more processors 208, such as a microcontroller, microprocessor, application specific integrated circuit, digital signal processor (DSP), programmable logic circuit, or other data processing device, which will be generally referred to as processor 208.”).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the system of Cho in view of Shuman by implementing a cellular network interface configured to communicatively couple the control device to a cellular network; and communicating via the cellular network.
One would be motivated to do so because cellular communication with wireless telephone devices are well known, routine, and conventional and because Cho teaches in paragraphs [0048], “The electronic devices 100 connect to the device management apparatus 200 through wired or wireless interfaces.”, [0051], “According to an embodiment of the present invention, the device management apparatus 200 and the cloud server 400 communicates through an IP-based wireless interface (e.g., a Wi-Fi communication standard interface).”, and [0053], “the portable terminal 300 may be embodied as, for example, a mobile communication terminal operating in accordance with corresponding communication protocols, a Personal Computer (PC), a smartphone… ”.
As per claim 8, Cho and Shuman teach a tangible, non-transitory computer-readable media having program instructions stored therein, wherein the program instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause a control device to perform functions comprising:
communicating, to one or more remote servers, via a cellular network, a request to allow the control device to control a media playback system, wherein the request includes an identifier of the media playback system; and
following reception, from the one or more remote servers, via the cellular network, of first configuration information including information enabling the control device to control the media playback system:
(a) communicating, via the cellular network, one or more commands to control one or more playback devices of the media playback system to play back media content; and
(b) communicating, via a local area network (LAN), second configuration information to configure one or more operations of the one or more playback devices (see Claim 1 rejection above).
As per claim 15, Cho and Shuman teach a method comprising:
communicating, to one or more remote servers, via a cellular network, a request to allow a control device to control a media playback system, wherein the request includes an identifier of the media playback system; and
following reception, from the one or more remote servers, via the cellular network, of first configuration information including information enabling the control device to control the media playback system:
(a) communicating, via the cellular network, one or more commands to control one or more playback devices of the media playback system to play back media content; and
(b) communicating, via a local area network (LAN), second configuration information to configure one or more operations of the one or more playback devices (see Claim 1 rejection above).
DEPENDENT:
As per claims 2, 9, and 16, which respectively depend on claims 1, 8, and 15, Cho and Shuman further teach wherein the tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium further comprises program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the control device is configured to: receive, from the one or more remote servers, via the cellular network, the first configuration information (see Claim 1 rejection above).
As per claims 3, 10, and 17, which respectively depend on claims 1, 8, and 15, Cho and Shuman further teach wherein the program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the control device is configured to communicate, via the cellular network, one or more commands to control one or more playback devices of the media playback system to play back media content comprises program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the control device is configured to: communicate, to the one or more remote servers, via the cellular network, the one or more commands to control the one or more playback devices of the media playback system to play back the media content (see Claim 1 rejection above).
As per claims 4, 11, and 18, which respectively depend on claims 1, 8, and 15, Cho further teaches wherein the program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the control device is configured to communicate, via the LAN, second configuration information to configure one or more operations of the one or more playback devices comprises program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the control device is configured to: communicate, to the one or more playback devices, via the LAN, the second configuration information to configure the one or more operations of the one or more playback devices (see Cho, [0049]: “The device management apparatus 200 performs the device information collection process for the electronic devices 100 to update the previously stored information with the new aggregation information when any change is detected in the connected electronic devices 100 (e.g., a connection release of an electronic device or a connection of a new electronic device).”; [0054]: “The cloud server 400 may communicate with the device manufacturer's server to acquire the additional information on the electronic devices and update the interoperability information with the acquired additional information.”; and Claim 1 rejection above).
As per claims 5, 12, and 19, which respectively depend on claims 1, 8, and 15, Cho further teaches wherein the second configuration information configures the one or more playback devices to operate as a synchrony group of playback devices (see Cho, Abstract: “Methods and apparatus are provided for group-controlling devices”).
As per claims 6, 13, and 20, which respectively depend on claims 5, 12, and 19, Cho and Shuman further teach wherein the first configuration information received via the cellular network specifies the synchrony group (see Claim 1 rejection and Claim 5 rejection above).
As per claims 7 and 14, which respectively depend on claims 5 and 12, Cho and Shuman further teach wherein the first configuration information received via the cellular network specifies a particular playback device of the synchrony group (see Cho, [0073]: “The device management apparatus 200 may generate two control signals for controlling the electronic device 1 110 and the electronic device 2 120 as a group, and sends the control signals to the respective electronic devices 110 and 120, such that the electronic devices 110 and 120 execute the functions indicated by the control signals received from the device management apparatus 200.”).
Conclusion
7. For the reasons above, claims 1-20 have been rejected and remain pending.
8. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL Y WON whose telephone number is (571)272-3993. The examiner can normally be reached on Wk.1: M-F: 8-5 PST & Wk.2: M-Th: 8-7 PST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Nicholas R Taylor can be reached on 571-272-3889. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Michael Won/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2443
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