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
Claims 2-21 have been examined.
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.
Claims 2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 12, 13, 16, 18, 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over McGowan (20170142180).
Claims 2, 12. Examiner notes that the 2nd manifest files is found in the originally filed claim but not anywhere else in the original Spec. McGowan discloses the method comprising:
receiving, by an application executing on a user device, a first manifest file from at least one of a plurality of servers associated with a content provider, wherein the first manifest file comprises ([69, 9, 11]):
a list of a plurality of segments corresponding to media content (see segment at [69, 9, 11]); and
a first ad break marker indicating a first ad insertion opportunity in the list of the plurality of segments corresponding to the media content (see ad, insert, manifest [48, 49, 60, 61]);
playing, by the application, a first subset of the plurality of segments corresponding to the media content using data from the first manifest file (see segments and manifest [8-12]; see playback [34]);
during the playing of the first subset of the plurality of segments corresponding to the media content, transmitting, by the application, a first request to at least one of the plurality of servers for a second manifest file associated with at least one content, wherein the first request is transmitted based at least in part on a position of the first content marker in the list of the plurality of segments corresponding to the media content (see second manifest files, claim 2; see request multiple manifest files at [33, 59]; Fig. 6 at item 635 with manifest file info for first content and also different content);
McGowan does not explicitly disclose with at least one first advertisement or of the first ad break marker. That is McGowan does not explicitly disclose that the content for the 2nd manifest file is an ad. However, McGowan discloses the preceding for 2nd and multiple manifest files for new segments of content of multiple segments of content. And, McGowan discloses that ads can be a type of content ([45, 6, 26, 31]) and manifest files and ads as content [45] and manifest files and advertising [9, 11] and creating manifest files for ads at ad break markers [48]. McGowan also further discloses additional metadata regarding the ad [48] and ads and manifest files and metadata [48, 49]. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to add McGowan’s ads as a type of content to McGowan’s 2nd manifest file or multiple manifest files for different/additional segment of content such that McGowan can have a 2nd manifest file for ad types of content. One would have been motivated to do this in order to better insert and provide ad types of content.
McGowan further discloses receiving, by the application, the second manifest file from at least one of the plurality of servers, wherein the second manifest file comprises a list of plurality of segments corresponding to the at least one first content/advertisement (see second manifest files, claim 2; see request multiple manifest files at [33, 59]; Fig. 6 at item 635 with manifest file info for first content and also different content; and see obviousness statement preceding for ads as a type of content);
playing, by the application, the plurality of segments corresponding to the at least one first advertisement using data from the second manifest file (see playback [34; see second manifest files, claim 2; see request multiple manifest files at [33, 59]; Fig. 6 at item 635 with manifest file info for first content and also different content; and see obviousness statement preceding for ads as a type of content); and
after conclusion of the playing the plurality of segments corresponding to the at least one first advertisement, playing, by the application, a second subset the plurality of segments corresponding to the media content using the data from the first manifest file (see content, ad break “and so forth” at [47]; see request multiple manifest files for multiple segment of content at [33, 59]; see Fig. 6 at item 635 with manifest file info for first content and also different content; see ad, insert, manifest [48, 49, 60, 61] so there is live content, an inserted ad and then more live content).
In regards to claim 12, input/output circuitry (see input and output [78, 83]; see Fig. 1 with input and output of content and devices/servers/networks).
Claim 3, 13. McGowan further discloses the method of claim 2, further comprising: receiving an identification of a second ad break marker indicating a second ad insertion opportunity; transmitting, while playing another segment of the plurality of segments corresponding to the media content and before reaching the second ad break marker, a second request to one of the plurality of servers; and receiving, based at least in part on transmitting the second request to the one of the plurality of servers, a third manifest file comprising a list of a plurality of segments corresponding to at least one second advertisement for display at the second ad insertion opportunity (see multiple ads inserted at different points in content [6, 47] ), wherein the third manifest file is dynamically generated based at least in part on information associated with the user device (see second manifest files, claim 2; see request multiple manifest files at [33, 59]; Fig. 6 at item 635 with manifest file info for first content and also different content so there is manifest file associated with each new ad/content as obviousness statement above states; also for manifest and info on user device see manifest and client at [9, 11, 13] and [44, 48, 49]).
Claim 6, 16. McGowan further discloses the method of claim 2, wherein the second manifest file is dynamically generated based at least in part on client state metadata (see manifest and client at [9, 11, 13] and [44, 48, 49).
Claim 8, 18. McGowan further discloses the method of claim 2, wherein the second manifest file is generated based on stored rules and identifying information associated with a client device (see manifest, client and rules [10]; see manifest and client at [9, 11, 13] and [44, 48, 49]).
Claim 9, 19. McGowan further discloses the method of claim 8, wherein the identifying information comprises geographical data associated with the user device (McGowan discloses different users at different locations view different ads [36] and content distributed based on geography [43], hence Examiner interprets that McGowan inherently identifies the client geographically since the client receives different content based on client location).
Claims 4, 5, 7, 11, 14, 15, 17, 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over McGowan (20170142180) in view of McGowan 899 (20140316899).
Claim 4, 14. McGowan does not explicitly disclose method of claim 3, further comprising: generating a play session token for consumption of the media content; and wherein a generation of the second manifest file comprising the plurality of segments corresponding to the at least one first advertisement and the generation of the third manifest file comprising the plurality of segments corresponding to the at least one second advertisement are coordinated based on the play session token. However, McGowan discloses the segments and manifest files above. And, McGowan 899 discloses manifest files [9, 26] and manifest files and ads [53, 54] and play sessions [47] and play session tokens [49, 51]. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to add McGowan 899’s manifest files and inserting ads and play session tokens to McGowan’s manifest files and inserting ads. One would have been motivated to do this in order to better insert ads.
Claim 5, 15. McGowan does not explicitly disclose the method of claim 2, further comprising: configuring a tracking beacon for monitoring playback parameters of the media content; and transmitting data gathered by the tracking beacon to at least one server of the plurality of servers. However, McGowan discloses the inserting ads above. And, McGowan 899 discloses manifest files [9, 26] and manifest files and ads [53, 54] and tracking beacons [6, 8, 10, 43, 61]. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to add McGowan 899’s manifest files and inserting ads and tracking beacons to McGowan’s manifest files and inserting ads. One would have been motivated to do this in order to better insert relevant ads.
Claim 7, 17. McGowan further discloses the method of claim 2, wherein the second manifest file comprises one or more instructions for predetermined behaviors to be implemented on the user device while playing the plurality of segments of the at least one first advertisement (see behavior [34]). McGowan does not explicitly disclose the the predetermined behaviors comprising at least one of: displaying an interstitial banner, displaying an overlay advertisement, blocking fast-forward controls, enabling interactive content, or providing a tracking beacon. However, McGowan discloses the inserting ads above. And, McGowan 899 discloses manifest files [9, 26] and manifest files and ads [53, 54]. And, McGowan 899 further discloses ‘[6]… The set of predetermined behaviors can include at least one of displaying an interstitial banner, displaying overlay advertisements, blocking fast forward controls, enabling interactive content, and providing tracking beacons to monitor a corresponding playback experience of a user.“. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to add McGowan 899’s manifest files and inserting ads and further behaviors to McGowan’s manifest files and inserting ads and behavior. One would have been motivated to do this in order to better insert ads in a relevant manner.
Claim 11, 21. McGowan does not explicitly disclose the method of claim 2, wherein the second manifest file comprises one or more tracking URLs for monitoring at least one of: playing performance of the at least one first advertisement, advertisement impressions, or user interactions with the at least one first advertisement. However, McGowan discloses the inserting ads above. And, McGowan 899 discloses manifest files [9, 26] and manifest files and ads [53, 54]. And, McGowan 899 further discloses tracking URLs [37, 38, 43] and impressions [38] and tracking URLs for and info regarding interactive content [38] and tracking playback experience [6]. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to add McGowan 899’s manifest files and inserting ads and tracking to McGowan’s manifest files and inserting ads. One would have been motivated to do this in order to better insert ads in a relevant manner.
Claims 10, 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over McGowan (20170142180) in view of Ma (20140150019).
Claim 10, 20. McGowan does not explicitly disclose the method of claim 2, further comprising: transmitting a request for a list of one or more additional segments of the media content generated at one of the plurality of servers; receiving data for updating the first manifest file, wherein the updated first manifest file comprises the list of one or more additional segments. However, McGowan discloses the segment and manifest file features above. And, Ma discloses updating manifest files and lists of segments [49, 64]. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to add Ma’s updating manifest files and segments to McGowan’s manifest files and inserting ads. One would have been motivated to do this in order to better insert ads/content.
Conclusion
The following prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
aa) Note related parent CON Application 18761028;
a) Note ALLOWED parent patent CON applications 14069961 and 18357865, the current application on 3/7/25 did have manifest file but did Not have chunks, delays, index, or API features that were found in the allowed parents;
c) Rinehart discloses 2nd manifest;
b) note other PRIOR ART patent by same inventor McGowan patent 8145782 th at has pg_pub 20120005312; and PRIOR ART to McGowan 20120066386 that has ad insertion and manifest files; and McGowan 20120179788 that has a priority art date to 7/12/12 and is prior art depending on the current application provisional.
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/ARTHUR DURAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3622 6/2/26
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