DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Application Status
This office action is responsive to amendments filed on 08/28/2026 for the Application No.:18/933,944 filed on 10/31/2024 (Provisional Priority Date: 04/24/2013).
Claims 1-20 are pending and presented for examination.
This action has been made FINAL.
Response to Amendment
The double patenting rejection is withdrawn in view of the filing of a terminal disclaimer.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 08/28/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
The Applicant alleged the following: “a) The applied references fail to disclose or suggest the claimed nested media container and panel architecture.” The examiner is not persuaded. The combination of KWON and Soroushian discloses the Applicant’s claim language. KWON discloses this feature in Figure 5, Item 211-212; Paragraph 0071. Moreover, KWON teachings of “a first display object 211 refers to a display object corresponding to the first input means 181, and a second display object 212 refers to a display object corresponding to the second input means 182” in paragraph 0071 is equivalent to the Applicant’s teachings of “nested media containers comprising one or more nested media containers.” MPEP § 2106 states Office personnel are to give claims their broadest reasonable interpretation in light of the supporting disclosure. In re Morris, 127 F.3d 1048, 1054-55, 44 USPQ2d 1023, 1027-28 (Fed Cir. 1997). Accordingly, the examiner maintains the rejection.
The Applicant alleged the following: “b) Amended claims 6 and 17 recite additional features absent from the applied references”. The examiner is not persuaded. The combination of the KWON, Souroushian and Sandorfi discloses the Applicant’s claim language recited in claims 6 and 17. Moreover, Sandorfi Column 3, Lines 33-45 discloses the Applicant’s claim language of “wherein the segmented content data is dynamically tethered to a server array via a metadata tether that provides real-time authentication of each piece of content data as it is rendered.” Additionally, Sandorfi Column 13, Lines 33-55 discloses the Applicant’s claim language of “a unified data wrapper that creates, manages, and tracks metadata links from a content source through viewer interactivity.” Accordingly, the examiner maintains the rejection.
The Applicant alleged the following: “c) The Office Action Does Not Provide Sufficient Reasoning for the Proposed Combination” and “d) Kwon and Soroushian Are Not Analogous Art.” The examiner is not persuaded. In this case, we find such a modification of an old process using a new source of data to be obvious. In KSR Int’l Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 417 (2007), the Supreme Court held that “if a technique has been used to improve one device, and a person of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that it would improve similar devices in the same way, using the technique is obvious unless its actual application is beyond his or her skill.” Id. at 417. “The combination of familiar elements according to known methods is likely to be obvious when it does no more than yield predictable results.” Id. at 416; see also id. at 417 (“If a person of ordinary skill can implement a predictable variation, § 103 likely bars its patentability.”); In re Schreiber, 128 F.3d 1473, 1477 (Fed. Cir. 1997) (“It is well settled that the recitation of a new intended use for an old product does not make a claim to that old product patentable.” (citations omitted)). We do not find that the evidence shows incorporating content location and metadata “uniquely challenging or difficult for one of ordinary skill in the art.” Leapfrog Enters., Inc. v. Fisher-Price, Inc., 485 F.3d 1157, 1162 (Fed. Cir. 2007) (citing KSR, 550 U.S. at 418). Accordingly, we do not consider Applicant’s argument to sufficiently demonstrate the Examiner’s rejection is in error. Accordingly, the examiner maintains the rejection.
The Applicant alleged the following: “e) Weatherhead Does Not Cure the Deficiencies of Kwon and Soroushian”. The examiner is not persuaded. The combination of KWON, Soroushian and Weatherhead discloses the Applicants’s claim language of claims 4 and 18. Moreover, Weatherhead Paragraph 0081 discloses “sensory feedback” and a “polygon model” in Weatherhead’s Paragraph 0012. Accordingly, the examiner maintains the rejection.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 7-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter because the term "computer readable storage medium" as used herein, can refer to non-statutory subject matter since the medium is not adequately defined by the specification. The question becomes whether non-statutory embodiments would be fairly conveyed to one of ordinary skill given the terminology utilized. In this instance, because the specification fails to limit expressly the term “computer readable storage medium” to exclude signals, carrier waves, etc, the term encompasses transitory propagating signals. Therefore, it would appear to be reasonable to interpret medium for “carrying” as fairly conveying signals and other forms of propagation or transmission media to one of ordinary skill (See Ex parte Mewherteri). To overcome this rejection, the examiner suggests amending claim 20 to recite “a non-transitory computer readable storage medium”.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
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.
Claim 6 is 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.
Claim 6 recites “dynamically.” The term “dynamically” is indefinite because the specification lacked some standard for measuring the degrees intended (See MPEP 2173.05(b)). Therefore, this claim is rendered as indefinite.
Claim 6 recites “it.” However, it is unclear to the examiner exactly what the term “it” is referring to. Therefore, this claim is rendered as indefinite.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claim(s) 1-3, 5, 7-16, 19 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over in view of KWON, US 20140075330 in view of Soroushian, US 20140003501.
Claim 1:
KWON discloses an apparatus (See KWON Abstract). KWON failed to discloses an indication of a content location, a set of metadata describing the content data. However, Soroushian discloses this feature in Paragraphs 0024-0027. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified KWON by the teachings of Soroushian’s methods for compressing and sharing geotagged video by incorporating content location and metadata, more effectively (See Soroushian Abstract).
As modified:
The combination of KWON and Soroushian discloses the following:
one or more memory configured to store (KWON Paragraphs 0050; 01061):
a hierarchy (See KWON Paragraph 00562) of nested media containers comprising one or more nested media containers (See KWON Figure 5, Item 211-212; Paragraph 00713) comprising:
an indication of a content location (See Soroushian Paragraphs 0024-00274), a set of metadata describing content data (See Soroushian Paragraphs 0024-00275), and a set of links to nested media containers (See KWON Paragraphs 0073-0074 NOTE: KWON teachings of “sharing attribute” is the same as “links”);
and a plurality of nested media panels, each nested media panel configured with instructions to contextually render (See KWON Figure 5, Item 211-212; Paragraph 00716), based at least in part on content type, a three-dimensional context (See KWON Paragraph 0061 NOTE: The “content type” of Applicant is the same as KWON’s teachings of “a 3D image”) and linked nested media containers within the three-dimensional context (See KWON Paragraphs 0061; 0073-0074);
one or more processors configured to (KWON Paragraph 01077):
traverse the hierarchy (See KWON Paragraph 00568) of the one or more nested media containers (See KWON Figure 5, Item 211-212; Paragraph 00719);
and render and tether, in the three-dimensional context (See KWON Paragraph 0061) into a combined panel created from the plurality of nested media panels (See KWON Figure 5, Item 211-212; Paragraph 0071), a three-dimensional tactile user interface (See KWON Figure 5; Paragraph 0061) based on instructions configured by an associated nested media panel (See KWON Figure 5, Item 211-212; Paragraph 0071) and the set of metadata (See Soroushian Paragraphs 0024-0027) from an associated nested media container (See KWON Figure 5, Item 211-212; Paragraph 0071), and content data indicated by each nested media container (See KWON Figure 5, Item 211-212; Paragraph 0071) in the hierarchy (See KWON Paragraph 005610).
Claim 2:
The combination of KWON and Soroushian discloses wherein the one or more processors (KWON Paragraph 0107) are configured to ingest two-dimensional content and migrate the two-dimensional content to the three-dimensional context (See KWON Paragraph 0061).
Claim 3:
The combination of KWON and Soroushian discloses wherein to render and tether further comprises to: determine a geolocation of a user (See Soroushian Paragraphs 0024-0027); and optimize, based at least in part on the geolocation (See Soroushian Paragraphs 0024-0027), the three-dimensional tactile user interface for the user (KWON Figure 5; Paragraph 0061).
Claim 5:
The combination of KWON and Soroushian discloses wherein the three-dimensional tactile user interface is a three-dimensional augmented-reality tactile user interface (KWON Figure 5; Paragraphs 0061; 0066).
Claim 7:
Claim 7 is rejected on the same basis as claim 1.
Claim 8:
Claim 8 is rejected on the same basis as claim 5.
Claim 9:
The combination of KWON and Soroushian discloses wherein the hierarchy of the nested media containers comprise a tree (See KWON Paragraph 0056).
Claim 10:
The combination of KWON and Soroushian discloses wherein the hierarchy (See KWON Paragraph 0056) indicates a rendering depth placement relative to other rendered elements from the hierarchy (See KWON Paragraph 0056).
Claim 11:
The combination of KWON and Soroushian discloses wherein the determining is performed at runtime (See KWON Paragraphs 0054-0055).
Claim 12:
The combination of KWON and Soroushian discloses wherein the nested media containers (See KWON Figure 5, Item 211-212; Paragraph 0071) comprise an indication of a content location (See Soroushian Paragraphs 0024-0027), a set of metadata describing the content data (See Soroushian Paragraphs 0024-0027), and a set of links to nested media containers (See KWON Paragraphs 0073-0074 NOTE: KWON teachings of “sharing attribute” is the same as “links”).
Claim 13:
The combination of KWON and Soroushian discloses wherein the nested media panels (See KWON Figure 5, Item 211-212; Paragraph 0071) are configured with instructions to contextually render, based at least in part on a content type, the three-dimensional context and linked nested media containers within the three-dimensional context (See KWON Figure 5; Paragraph 0061).
Claim 14:
The combination of KWON and Soroushian discloses wherein the method further comprises to ingesting two-dimensional content and migrate the two-dimensional content to the three-dimensional context (See KWON Figure 5; Paragraph 0061).
Claim 15:
Claim 15 is rejected on the same basis as claim 1.
Claim 16:
Claim 16 is rejected on the same basis as claim 5.
Claim 19:
The combination of KWON and Soroushian discloses wherein rendering further comprises adjusting, based on the content data, a volume of the three-dimensional virtual-reality user interface (See KWON Figure 5; Paragraph 0061).
Claim 20:
The combination of KWON and Soroushian discloses wherein the metadata (See Soroushian Paragraphs 0024-0027) indicates a content delivery network (See KWON Paragraphs 0061; 0068) that stores at least a portion of the content data (See KWON Figure 5, Item 211-212; Paragraphs 0071; 0108).
Claim(s) 4 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KWON, US 20140075330 in view of Soroushian, US 20140003501 and in further view of Weatherhead, US 20070104369.
Claim 4:
The combination of KWON and Soroushian failed to disclose sensory feedback. However, Weatherhead discloses this feature in paragraph 0081. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified KWON and Soroushian by the teachings of Weatherhead’s methods for incorporating sensory feedback, in dynamic regions of digital media data, thereby providing more effective impacts of different media layouts on the emotional response of those viewing them (See Weatherhead Technical Field of Invention).
As modified:
The combination of KWON, Soroushian and Weatherhead discloses the following:
wherein to render and tether further comprises to: receive a communication from the three-dimensional tactile user interface (See KWON Figure 5; Paragraph 0061) and associated with a first nested media panel (See KWON Figure 5, Item 211-212; Paragraph 0071); and transmit, based on instructions configured by the first nested media panel (See KWON Figure 5, Item 211-212; Paragraph 0071), sensory feedback (See Weatherhead Paragraph 0081).
Claim 18:
The combination of KWON, Soroushian and Weatherhead discloses the following:
wherein rendering further comprises rendering, based on the associated nested media panel (See KWON Figure 5, Item 211-212; Paragraph 0071), content data described (See KWON Figure 5, Item 211-212; Paragraphs 0071; 0108) by the associated nested media container (See KWON Figure 5, Item 211-212; Paragraph 0071) into a polygon model (See Weatherhead Paragraph 0012).
12. Claim(s) 6 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over in view of KWON, US 20140075330 in view of Soroushian, US 20140003501 and in further view of Sandorfi, US 8,200,924.
Claim 6:
The combination of KWON and Soroushian failed to disclose wherein the segmented content data is dynamically tethered to a server array via a metadata tether that provides real-time authentication of each piece of content data as it is rendered. However, Sandorfi discloses this feature in Column 3, Lines 33-45 and Column 13, Lines 33-55. Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified KWON and Soroushian by the teachings of Sandorfi to allow for improved viewing of the metadata, more effectively (See Sandorfi Summary of Invention). Additionally, the references teach features that are directed to analogous art and they are directed to the same field of endeavor, such as managing metadata. This close relation between both of the references highly suggests an expectation of success.
As modified:
The combination of the KWON, Souroushian and Sandorfi discloses the following:
wherein to render and tether further comprises to: segment the content data to form segmented content data for transmission; and provide a combined content view that combines the segmented content data (See KWON Figure 5, Item 211-212; Paragraphs 0071; 0108) wherein the segmented content data is dynamically tethered to a server array via a metadata tether that provides real-time authentication of each piece of content data as it is rendered (See Sandorfi Column 3, Lines 33-45).
Claim 17:
The combination of KWON and Soroushian discloses wherein rendering further comprises tethering the associated nested media panel and the associated nested media container (See KWON Figure 5, Item 211-212; Paragraph 0071) via a unified data wrapper that creates, manages, and tracks metadata links from a content source through viewer interactivity (See Sandorfi Column 13, Lines 33-55).
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHEREE N BROWN whose telephone number is (571)272-4229. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 5:30-2:00 PM 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, SAID BROOME can be reached at (571) 272-2931. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/SHEREE N BROWN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2612 October 5, 2026
i
http://www.uspto.gov/ip/boards/bpai/decisions/prec/fd2012007692.pdf
1 KWON Paragraph 0106 recites “The non-transitory computer readable medium refers to a medium which does not store data for a short time such as a register, a cache memory, a memory, or the like but semi-permanently stores data and is readable by a device. In detail, the above-described applications or programs may be stored and provided on a non-transitory computer readable medium such as a CD, a DVD, a hard disk, a blue-ray disk, a universal serial bus (USB), a memory card, a ROM, or the like.”
2 KWON Paragraph 0056 recites “A method of classifying and displaying a plurality of display objects has been described with reference to FIG. 2. A method of simultaneously executing a plurality of display objects will now be described by using a system hierarchy.”
3 KWON teachings of “a first display object 211 refers to a display object corresponding to the first input means 181, and a second display object 212 refers to a display object corresponding to the second input means 182” in paragraph 0071 is equivalent to the Applicant’s teachings of “nested media containers comprising one or more nested media containers.”
4 Soroushian Paragraph 0024 recites “In a further additional embodiment, identifying a set of relevant video segments from a geotagged video database using the encoding server based on the at least one geotag associated with the captured video sequence and geotags associated with video segments in the geotagged video database further includes determining a capture location for the selected video segment based on information in the at least one geotag associated with the captured video sequence, and searching the geotagged video database for video segments having geotags indicating proximity to the capture location of the selected video segment..”
5 Soroushian Paragraph 0027 recites “geotagged video database includes metadata indicating the video recording device that captured a video segment, a plurality of video segments in the geotagged video database were captured using the same recording device used to capture the received video sequence, and identifying a set of relevant video segments from a geotagged video database using the encoding server based on the at least one geotag associated with the captured video sequence and geotags associated with video segments in the geotagged video database further includes searching for relevant video segments captured by the same recording device used to capture the received video sequence using the metadata in the geotagged video database indicating the video recording devices that captured video segments..”
6 KWON teachings of “a first display object 211 refers to a display object corresponding to the first input means 181, and a second display object 212 refers to a display object corresponding to the second input means 182” in paragraph 0071 is equivalent to the Applicant’s teachings of “nested media containers comprising one or more nested media containers.”
7 KWON Paragraph 0107 recites “The components constituting the display apparatus and corresponding methods for controlling the display apparatus according to the above-described example embodiments, may use one or more processors, which may include a microprocessor, central processing unit (CPU), digital signal processor (DSP), or application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), as well as portions or combinations of these and other processing devices.”
8 KWON Paragraph 0056 recites “A method of classifying and displaying a plurality of display objects has been described with reference to FIG. 2. A method of simultaneously executing a plurality of display objects will now be described by using a system hierarchy.”
9 KWON teachings of “a first display object 211 refers to a display object corresponding to the first input means 181, and a second display object 212 refers to a display object corresponding to the second input means 182” in paragraph 0071 is equivalent to the Applicant’s teachings of “nested media containers comprising one or more nested media containers.”
10 KWON Paragraph 0056 recites “A method of classifying and displaying a plurality of display objects has been described with reference to FIG. 2. A method of simultaneously executing a plurality of display objects will now be described by using a system hierarchy.”
