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. Claims 1-21 are pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
3. In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AlA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AlA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis 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.
4. 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 of this title, 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.
5. Claims 2-3 ,6-8,12,14,17 and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over He et al. (CN 111835531 B) hereinafter He in view of Wooldridge (US 20090094369 A1) hereinafter Wooldridge.
Regarding claims 2, 17 and 21, He discloses a method for joining a playback group session (see [AB]), the method comprising:
receiving a request to join the playback group session from a device associated with a user account (page 1, para [7] receiving an application joining request of a terminal, wherein the application joining request carries a first face image acquired by the terminal, a first user account of the terminal and a session identifier of the target session, (page 4, para. [8] when the face image of the user account meets the adding condition of the target session, the user account is allowed to be added into the group session);
storing the user account as a member of the playback group session (page 12, para. [1] the database is used for storing data such as user account numbers, session identifications, face images, joining conditions, group session records);
connecting the device to the playback group session),
connecting the device to the playback group session ( page4 para. [8] …the first user account number and the session identifier of the audio-video session carried in the request for adding. If the joining condition is met, the server joins the first user account into the audio-video session).
He may not explicitly discloses transferring a session state for the playback group session to the device. However, Wooldridge discloses transferring a session state for the playback group session to the device (para. [0093] the session management protocol is used to establish sessions and keep the session state in participating terminals synchronized. That session state includes details of the participants, identified by their unique identifiers, a list of shared applications 10, and associated media streams. Whenever a participant adds or removes a shared application, the session management protocol is used to notify the other participants and maintain a consistent session state on all terminals. Each terminal that has the smart client 2 uses the shared application references in the session description to dynamically load the appropriate shared application module 10).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of He and include transferring a session state for the playback group session to the device using the teaching of Wooldridge. One would have been motivated to do so in order to enable efficient sharing of media applications among all participants.
Regarding claims 3 and 18, claim 2 is incorporated. He further discloses wherein the device comprises a media playback device (page 11, para. [4-5] the first terminal 101 and the second terminal 102 are an intelligent terminal, such as a smart phone, a tablet computer, a notebook computer, a desktop computer, a smart speaker, a smart watch, a smart television, and the like. Page 21, para. [12] the terminal 1500 may be a portable mobile terminal, such as: a smart phone, a tablet computer, an MP3 player, a notebook computer, or a desktop computer. Terminal 1500 may also be referred to as user equipment, a portable terminal, a laptop terminal, a desktop terminal, etc.)
Regarding claim 6, claim 2 is incorporated. He further discloses prior to storing the user account as a member of the playback group session, determining whether the user account is able to join the playback group session ( page 4 para. [1] joining conditions of a target session are obtained according to a session identifier carried in the application joining request, whether a first face image carried in the application joining request meets the joining conditions or not is determined, and then a first user account is added into the target session when the joining conditions are met, so that users who do not meet the joining conditions of a group session can be automatically and effectively filtered)
Regarding claim 7, claim 6 is incorporated. He further discloses wherein determining whether the user account is able to join the playback group session comprises checking whether the user account contains a relationship with an administrator member account (page 5, para. [8], receiving a session establishing request, wherein the session establishing request carries a management account and a joining condition of the target session; and creating the target session, and adding the management account into the target session)
Regarding claim 8, claim 6 is incorporated. He in view of Wooldridge discloses wherein determining whether the user account is able to join the playback group session comprises determining that the user account has access to an ID of the playback group session. (Wooldridge para. [0024] The core application preferably associates with each user identifier a set of subscriptions to shared applications. The core application preferably allows the terminal user to access any shared application to which they have subscribed. [0072] The unique identifier for the user of the terminal identifies a user profile 8 that includes a set of subscriptions 9 to shared applications. [0034] Each shared application preferably included in a session provides a temporary secure key by which session participants may gain access to the shared application).
Regarding claim 12, claim 2 is incorporated. He may not explicitly disclose wherein connecting the device to the playback group session comprises controlling a playback state of the device. However, Wooldridge wherein connecting the device to the playback group session comprises controlling a playback state of the device (para. [0093] the session management protocol is used to establish sessions and keep the session state in participating terminals synchronized. That session state includes details of the participants, identified by their unique identifiers, a list of shared applications 10, and associated media streams. Whenever a participant adds or removes a shared application, the session management protocol is used to notify the other participants and maintain a consistent session state on all terminals. Each terminal that has the smart client 2 uses the shared application references in the session description to dynamically load the appropriate shared application module 10).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of He and include wherein connecting the device to the playback group session comprises controlling a playback state of the device using the teaching of Wooldridge. One would have been motivated to do so in order to enable efficient sharing of media applications among all participants.
Regarding claim 14, claim 12 is incorporated. He may not explicitly disclose wherein the member has a connect state, and for the device to join the playback group session, control of the connect state is transferred to the playback group session. However, Wooldridge discloses wherein the member has a connect state, and for the device to join the playback group session, control of the connect state is transferred to the playback group session (para. [0093] the session management protocol is used to establish sessions and keep the session state in participating terminals synchronized. That session state includes details of the participants, identified by their unique identifiers, a list of shared applications 10, and associated media streams. Whenever a participant adds or removes a shared application, the session management protocol is used to notify the other participants and maintain a consistent session state on all terminals. Each terminal that has the smart client 2 uses the shared application references in the session description to dynamically load the appropriate shared
application module 10. [0015] a multiplicity of shared applications maintainable on shared application servers in the network for execution by the client on demand, and when executed, the shared applications provide a user interface for presenting and controlling a variety of multi-media content from the one or more second communication terminals).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of He and include wherein the member has a connect state, and for the device to join the playback group session, control of the connect state is transferred to the playback group session using the teaching of Wooldridge. One would have been motivated to do so in order to enable efficient sharing of media applications among all participants.
6. Claims 4 and 19 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over He et al. (CN 111835531 B) hereinafter He in view of Wooldridge (US 20090094369 A1) hereinafter Wooldridge and further in view of Krasadakis et al.(US 20170289202 A1) hereinafter Krasadakis.
Regarding claims 4 and 19, claim 2 is incorporated. He in view of Wooldridge may not explicitly disclose wherein receiving the request to join the playback group session comprises receiving an indication that the playback group session is listened to on one or more devices of the member. However, Krasadakis discloses wherein receiving the request to join the playback group session comprises receiving an indication that the playback group session is listened to on one or more devices of the member (para. [0030] creating and facilitating a shared playback session between
playback devices in separate media playback systems. A first playback device or group of playback devices) that is playing back media items from a playback queue may initiate sharing of a playback session, which may cause indications of the one or more media items and a playback position within the one or more media items to be sent to a computing device. A second playback device (or one or more groups of playback devices) may join the playback session by requesting and then receiving, from the computing device, an indication of the one or more media items and the playback
position. In some cases, the shared playback session may facilitate additional interactions between users of the participating playback devices [0053] the first playback device may be a portable playback device, such as a pair of headphones or a car speaker, among other possibilities. This may allow for the sharing of a “portable” playback session that is associated with an activity such as walking through a park or driving through a scenic landscape, among numerous other possibilities. Further, the playback session might be associated with a particular location where the playback session occurs. For instance, the first listener may share a playback session while walking through Central Park in New York. While other listeners of other portable playback devices might join the shared playback session)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of He in view of Wooldridge and include wherein receiving the request to join the playback group session comprises receiving an indication that the playback group session is listened to on one or more devices of the member using the teaching of Krasadakis. One would have been motivated to do so in order to control selection of music which is played locally and on the guest computing device at the same time.
7. Claims 5 and 20 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over He et al. (CN 111835531 B) hereinafter He in view of Wooldridge (US 20090094369 A1) hereinafter Wooldridge and further in view of Jung et al.( US 20140143338 A1) hereinafter Jung.
Regarding claims 5 and 20, claim 2 is incorporated. He in view of Wooldridge may not explicitly disclose providing one or more options to a user associated with the user account of different playback group session experiences. However, Jung discloses providing one or more options to a user associated with the user account of different playback group session experiences (para. [0161] it may be desired to allow a certain shared audio device 101 to join a plurality of concurrent sharing sessions. A user would then be able to determine which one of multiple sharing sessions they wished to be a member. As such, such a shared audio device 101 could obtain or retain information from at least certain other shared audio devices from both/all of the concurrent sharing sessions)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of He in view of Wooldridge and include providing one or more options to a user associated with the user account of different playback group session experiences using the teaching of Jung. One would have been motivated to do so in order to efficiently control the shared audio and/or the temporally-associated dissimilar-media information that is being provided by the shared audio device.
7. Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over He et al. (CN 111835531 B) hereinafter He in view of Wooldridge (US 20090094369 A1) hereinafter Wooldridge and further in view of Talukder et al.( US 20170134831 A1) hereinafter Talukder.
Regarding claim 9, claim 2 is incorporated. He in view of Wooldridge may not explicitly disclose wherein storing the user account as a member of the playback group session comprises storing the user account with a list of members in a session data store. However, Talukder discloses wherein storing the user account as a member of the playback group session comprises storing the user account with a list of members in a session data store (para. [0044] the application server 202 is responsible for initiating sessions, holding the state information of all active sessions, maintaining communications with each participants on one-to-one group chat sessions [0081] Once the application server 202 receives the request to start the SGVC session with the list of participants of Group 1 from the initiator's FC client application (402), the application server 202 establishes the session ID for the SGVC session, and verifies that the participants in Group 1 are valid (403). The application server 202 instructs the notification manager 203 to send the Group 1 participants requests to join the SGVC session initiated by the initiator (404). [0091] The iBM can decide to select one or several chat/text participant from the area C1 704. iBM also has a list of participants who have joined the session and can decide to select anyone from this list to place on the iBroadcast session)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of He in view of Wooldridge and include wherein storing the user account as a member of the playback group session comprises storing the user account with a list of members in a session data store using the teaching of Talukder. One would have been motivated to do so in order to dynamically morphing a management infrastructure to handle the sessions for providing real-time interactive broadcast stream to reach out a global community with an independent mechanism, while maintaining the active session with no interruption.
8. Claim 10 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over He et al. (CN 111835531 B) hereinafter He in view of Wooldridge (US 20090094369 A1) hereinafter Wooldridge and further in view of Marchuk (US 20220377409 A1) hereinafter Marchuk.
Regarding claim 10, claim 2 is incorporated. He in view of Wooldridge may not explicitly disclose wherein storing the user account as member of the playback group session comprises storing the user account in one or more of a host role, a guest role, and an administrator role, each of the host role, the guest role and the administrator role having a given level of permission. However, Marchuk discloses wherein storing the user account as member of the playback group session comprises storing the user account in one or more of a host role, a guest role, and an administrator role, each of the host role, the guest role and the administrator role having a given level of permission (para. [0044] access permissions of each user device may vary based on the implementation and user roles or types involved in the recording session. [0032] each user device may be associated with a user type, where each user type has differing permissions with respect to the master session 218. For example, the first user device is configured as the controller user device 208, such that the local session user interface 238 may provide updates to the master session 218. The second user device is configured as the contributing user device 210, which does not provide updates to the master session 218, but provides updates (e.g., audio recordings) to audio storage 228 utilized by the master session 218. The contributing user device type may be further divided into other user types, such as an actor user device, an editor user device, and a director user device, each having different permissions to the master session 218 based on the role played in the recording session by an actor, editor, or director).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of He in view of Wooldridge and include wherein storing the user account as member of the playback group session comprises storing the user account in one or more of a host role, a guest role, and an administrator role, each of the host role, the guest role and the administrator role having a given level of permission using the teaching of Marchuk. One would have been motivated to do so in order to provide updates to the web interface, which updates the master session to be a unique to a local application rendered at the user device associated with the controller role.
Regarding claim 11, claim 10 is incorporated. Marchuk further discloses wherein storing the user account as a member of the playback group session comprises allowing an administrator role to modify media content items (para. [0051] At step 406, the master session 218 receives a playback timestamp and audio input settings for the actor from the controller. The playback timestamp generally reflects a location of a play head when the controller user initiates playback of the video content at the controller user device 208. The timestamp may reference a time code with respect to the master timeline, reference a particular frame of the video content, or use other references to reflect playback location of the video content. For example, the user of the controller device 208 may press a “play” button the user interface 200, which may then transmit a command to the server 202 hosting the master recording session. The command may, in some implementations, update the local session state 236 of the local application 232 and may be provided to the server 202 by a communication from the local interface 234 to the web interface 222 of the master session 218. The master session state 224 may then be updated to reflect the play command).
9. Claim 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over He et al. (CN 111835531 B) hereinafter He in view of Wooldridge (US 20090094369 A1) hereinafter Wooldridge and further in view of Chan et al. (US 20220210502 A1) hereinafter Chan.
Regarding claim 13, claim 12 is incorporated. He in view of Wooldridge may not explicitly disclose wherein controlling the playback state of the device comprises updating the playback state of the device to match the session state for the playback group session. However, Chan discloses wherein controlling the playback state of the device comprises updating the playback state of the device to match the session state for the playback group session (para. [0050] the leader device can transmit any suitable timestamps (e.g., an audio timestamp, a video timestamp, and/or any other suitable timestamps) to the follower devices at any suitable frequency (e.g., every five seconds, every ten seconds, and/or any other suitable frequency). The follower devices can then use the received timestamps to change a playback position to a playback position corresponding to a received timestamp, thereby maintaining synchronized playback across the devices in the group of devices. [0051] process 100 can loop back to 102, where the follower device can receive additional instructions from the leader device. For example, in some embodiments, as described above, the follower device can receive additional instructions that include an updated timestamp corresponding to an updated playback position of the content item. The follower device can then use the additional instructions to continue presentation of the content item concurrently with the other devices in the group of devices. For example, the follower device can adjust a current playback position of the content item on the follower device executing process 100 to an updated playback position corresponding to the additional instructions to maintain synchrony of playback of the content item with the other devices in the group of devices.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of He in view of Wooldridge and include wherein controlling the playback state of the device comprises updating the playback state of the device to match the session state for the playback group session using the teaching of Chan. One would have been motivated to do so in order to synchronously present media content on the follower devices in the group session.
10. Claim 15-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over He et al. (CN 111835531 B) hereinafter He in view of Wooldridge (US 20090094369 A1) hereinafter Wooldridge and further in view of Madison et al. (US 20220353569 A1) hereinafter Madison.
Regarding claim 15, claim 2 is incorporated. He in view of Wooldridge may not explicitly disclose wherein transferring the session state to the device comprises modifying a media content of the device, and displaying the modified media content to match the session state for the playback group session. However, Madison discloses wherein transferring the session state to the device comprises modifying a media content of the device, and displaying the modified media content to match the session state for the playback group session (para.[0050] If a user of one of the participating media player applications (e.g., media player application 210B) in the synchronized session wishes to seek to a different position in the content (e.g., changing the playback position by fast forwarding 60 seconds in the content), the media player application can send a message to the server to mutate the “reference position” and “timestamp” values for the corresponding shared playback session object 206. For example, at circle “9” in FIG. 2, if a user of the media player application 210B seeks to a different position in the content or otherwise causes a playback position change, the media player application 210B sends a state update request to indicate the change. For example, the state update request can indicate a playback state (e.g., “playing,” “paused,” etc.), a new position in the content, and a reference time at which the new position was measured).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of He in view of Wooldridge and wherein transferring the session state to the device comprises modifying a media content of the device, and displaying the modified media content to match the session state for the playback group session using the teaching of Madison. One would have been motivated to do so in order to provide iterative improvement to synchronization quality of playback after completing buffering process to reduce synchronization error over time.
Regarding claim 16, claim 15 is incorporated. Madison further discloses wherein displaying the modified media content to match the session state for the playback group session comprises displaying one or more user- selectable options that enable a user associated with the user account to provide commands to control the playback group session. (para. [0033]-[0034] … modifications to the media player applications that allow them to periodically obtain the “playback session” state from the server, estimate a target position to sync playback to and adjust their own playback positions to match it, and potentially send a message to modify the state on the server if a user using a media player application pauses playback or “seeks” (changes the playback position within the presentation). [0050] the set of participants that can modify the playback can be selected by the user initiating the shared playback session, limited to a total number of player applications, or based on any other types of access controls [0051] the server 202 can receive the state update request generated in circle “9,” update its shared playback session state object 206, and disseminate this new information to any other clients that are part of the shared playback session).
Conclusion
11. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Kidest Mendaye whose telephone number is (571)272-2603. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday through Friday 7:00 am-5:00pm EST. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ario Etienne can be reached on (571) 272-4001. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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02/05/2026
/KIDEST MENDAYE/
Examiner, Art Unit 2457
/ARIO ETIENNE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2457