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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1, 11, 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Belikov et al. (US 2024/0203387 A1, “Belikov”).
As to claims 1, 11, 20, Belikov discloses a method for processing music data, comprising:
dividing the music data into a plurality of segments according to a predetermined length (music in MIDI format is tokenized, para. 0038-0040);
determining a plurality of control tokens for the plurality of segments based on control information associated with the plurality of segments, respectively (timing information of the MIDI events may be tokenized, para. 0040-0041; music source type of the track, para. 0049);
determining a plurality of sound tokens for the plurality of segments based on sound information associated with the plurality of segments, respectively (each MIDI event type is converted to a corresponding music token, for a particular music note, para. 0039); and
obtaining a feature for the music data based on the plurality of control tokens and the plurality of sound tokens (determining intensity and polyphony configuration values, para. 0067-0070).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-10, 12-19 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Ramos Santos et al. (US 2026/0134031 A1) teach classifying music audio files.
Suzuki (US 2023/0162712 A1) teach a musical piece inference device.
Balassanian (US 2021/0089267 A1) teach determining one or more musical attributes.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Stella L Woo whose telephone number is (571)272-7512. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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STELLA L. WOO
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2693
/Stella L. Woo/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2693
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