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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim 1 have been considered but are moot because the arguments do not apply in view of newly found reference Lal being used in the current rejection. See the new rejection below.
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 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US PG Pub 2016/0360297 to Bocharov (“Bocharov”) in view of US PG Pub 2025/0097512 to Lal (“Lal”).
Regarding claim 1, “A computer-implemented method for streaming media content with media events” reads on the method/system for providing metadata to be added to streaming media presentations and to be delivered to the client devices (abstract) disclosed by Bocharov and represented in Fig. 1.
As to “the method comprising: receiving, at a first time, a request for a manifest associated with media content for a live streaming event” Bocharov discloses (¶0024-¶0025) that based on the request a manifest for ongoing live events from the client, the system provides media fragments and manifest data to client, where the system creates a manifest that includes information about the encodings available from the system, and fragments stored by the system up to the current time based on the index table.
As to “generating the manifest based on the request, wherein the manifest includes one or more first media events…that have occurred prior to the first time” Bocharov discloses (¶0024) that in response to the manifest request, a manifest is created with all the fragments stored by the system up to the current time, where (¶0023) the system marks points within the sporting event that are appropriate breaks for advertising/commercials.
As to “transmitting, to a client application, the manifest and the media content for playback” Bocharov discloses (¶0024) that the system provides manifest data and media fragments to clients.
As to “transmitting, to the client application, a media events track that includes one or more second media events that represent additional supplemental content associated with the media content and that occur subsequent to the first time” Bocharov discloses (¶0033, ¶0051-¶0053) that the client continuously receives sparse fragments of the sparse track after the playback has started, where each continuous fragment includes a reference to the most recently created sparse fragment as represented in Fig. 5; (¶0056-¶0058) the sparse streaming system supports multiple sparse tracks associated with a particular continuous track where each sparse track has a different purpose such as a highlight track, advertisements, etc. (¶0061, ¶0063-¶0065) a sparse fragment contains an advertisement.
Bocharov meets all the limitations of the claim except “generating the manifest based on the request, wherein the manifest includes one or more first media events that represent supplemental content associated with the media content and that have occurred prior to the first time.” However, Lal discloses (¶0063-¶0066) that the manifest is generated based on the request where the manifest file includes all the key moments/events that have occurred prior to live segment during the playing of media asset as represented in Fig. 3; (¶0077-¶0079) the supplemental content is provided with the key moment. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Bocharov’s system by generating manifest to include media events associated with the media content that have occurred prior to the first time as taught by Lal in order to create supplemental content insertion points dynamically related to a view of the media asset that starts at a key moment (Lal - ¶0018).
Regarding claim 2, “The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more first media events and the one or more second media events include at least one of: a program start event; a program end event; an advertisement break event; or an advertisement break early termination event” Bocharov discloses (¶0023, ¶0063) that the system marks points within the sporting event that are appropriate breaks for advertising.
Regarding claim 3, “The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the manifest includes information on one or more media content tracks and the media events track” Bocharov discloses (¶0064) that the information about content tracks and sparse tracks are included in the manifest provided to the client.
Regarding claim 4, “The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting, to the client application, the media content for the live streaming event, wherein the client application plays back the media content, the supplemental content indicated by the one or more first media events, and the additional supplemental content indicated by the one or more second media events” Bocharov discloses (¶0057, ¶0063) that the media content is played back with various supplemental content such as highlights and advertisements.
Regarding claim 5, “The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the media events track is a moving picture experts group 4 part 14 (mp4) track” Bocharov discloses (¶0065, ¶0019) that the sparse track is an mp4 track.
Regarding claim 6, “The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising modifying at least one first media event included in the one or more first media events based on at least one second media event included in the one or more second media events” Bocharov discloses (¶0063) that the system provides a list of ads (first media event) in an initial manifest; for a live event, it is unknown at the start of the event when commercial breaks will occur so an event coordinator presses a button during production when it is time for a commercial, causing the system to insert an advertising marker in the media stream metadata or as a sparse track (second media event).
Regarding claim 7, “The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising receiving metadata associated with the one or more first media events, wherein the manifest is further generated based on the metadata” Bocharov discloses (¶0023-¶0025) that the information about the events are received and accumulated in the manifest up to the current time of the manifest request; (¶0063) when it is time for a commercial, the system inserts an advertising marker in the media stream metadata.
Regarding claim 8, “The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising receiving the media events track and one or more media content tracks, wherein each media content track included in the one or more media content tracks comprises an encoding of at least a portion of the media content” Bocharov discloses (¶0037) that the encoders encode the data from the media source in one or more encoding formats and produces encoded media in a variety of bit rates, where (¶0039) information about these formats are encapsulated in mp4 and described in the manifest.
Regarding claim 9, “The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first time occurs during the live streaming event” Bocharov discloses (¶0024-¶0025) that the client joins a live event already in progress and the manifest is generated up to the current time, where the current time is interpreted as first time occurred during the live streaming event.
Regarding claim 10, “The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more first media events indicate a start time and an end time for one or more first supplemental content, and wherein the one or more second media events indicate a start time and an end time for one or more second supplemental content” Bocharov discloses (¶0023) that the events already known such as breaks for ads are included in the manifest, and it is inherent that these events have start/end time; (¶0033, ¶0056-¶0058, ¶0063-¶0065) any event, which is not known, is received later via the sparse track, and these events also have start/end time inherently.
Regarding claim 11, see rejection similar to claim 1. Furthermore, Bocharov discloses (¶0034, claim 19) that the CRM stores instructions that implement the method/system.
Regarding claim 12, see rejection similar to claim 2.
Regarding claim 13, see rejection similar to claim 3.
Regarding claim 14, see rejection similar to claim 4.
Regarding claim 15, see rejection similar to claim 5.
Regarding claim 16, see rejection similar to claim 6.
Regarding claim 17, see rejection similar to claim 10.
Regarding claim 18, “The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 11, wherein the step of transmitting, to the client application, the manifest and the media content for playback further comprises transmitting, to the client application, one or more media content tracks, wherein the one or more media content tracks include at least one portion of the media content for playback” Bocharov discloses (¶0037) that the encoders encode the data from the media source in one or more encoding formats and produces encoded media in a variety of bit rates, where (¶0039) information about these formats are encapsulated in mp4 and described in the manifest; (¶0024) the system provides manifest data and media fragments to clients.
Regarding claim 19, “The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 11, wherein the instructions, when executed by one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to perform the step of receiving the media events track from a packager” Bocharov discloses (¶0017-¶0018) that the server includes an encoder interface component that provides encoded media data.
Regarding claim 20, see rejection similar to claims 1 and 11.
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PINKAL R CHOKSHI whose telephone number is (571)270-3317. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 8am-5pm.
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/PINKAL R CHOKSHI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2425
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