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
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 51 – 52, 56 - 62 and 66 - 70 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kansara, patent number: US 9 418 296.
As per claim 51, Kansara teaches a computer-implemented method comprising;
determining to provide a first content item for playing at a user device (Binge watching, col. 1, lines 23-42);
determining that a user profile associated with a user of the user device indicates that the user previously consumed a second content item related to the first content item (Binge watching, col. 1, lines 23-42);
identifying an overlapping content portion in the first content item and the second content item (Summary segments and credits, col. 19, lines 4 - 20);
based at least in part on identifying the overlapping content portion, generating for display, on the user device, a selectable option to skip the overlapping content portion in the first content item (allowing the user to skip portions of the content, col. 20, lines 12-30); and
based at least in part on receiving a user selection of the selectable option, causing the playing of the first content item without the overlapping content portion in the first content item (skipping closing credits before playing next episode, col. 20, lines 12-30).
As per claim 52, Kansara teaches wherein:
the first content item comprises a recap of the second content item;
the first content item is a first episode of a series and the second content is a second episode of the series occurring earlier in the series than the first content item; and
the overlapping content portion corresponds to a portion of the second episode that is included in the recap of the second episode (summary segments and credits, col. 19, line 4 - 20).
As per claim 56, Kansara teaches wherein the identifying the overlapping content portion in the first content item and the second content item further comprises:
determining that one or more frames of the first content item match one or more frames of the second content item (summary segment, col. 19, lines 4 - 20).
As per claim 57, Kansara teaches wherein the determining that the one or more frames of the
first content item match the one or more frames of the second content item further comprises:
performing image processing to derive a similarity value between the one or more frames of the first content item and the one or more frames of the second content item; and
determining that the one or more frames of the first content item match the one or more frames of the second content item based at least in part on the similarity value being above a threshold (Matching, col. 17, lines 29-43, threshold, col. 15, lines 35-46).
As per claim 58, Kansara teaches wherein the determining that the user profile device indicates that the user previously consumed the second content item related to the first content item further comprises:
retrieving a viewing history corresponding to the user profile; and
determining that the viewing history indicates that the user previously consumed the second content item related to the first content item within a threshold period of time from a current time (Binging, col. 1, lines 23-42).
As per claim 59, Kansara teaches wherein the causing playing of the first content item without the overlapping content portion in the first content item further comprises editing the first content item to remove all frames corresponding to the overlapping content portion (Skipping portions of the content, col. 20, lines 12 - 30).
As per claim 60, Kansara teaches wherein the determining to provide the first content item for playing at a user device is based at least in part on detecting user input requesting playing of the first content item (Binging, col. 1, lines 23-42).
Claims 61-62 and 66- 70 are rejected based on claims 51 – 52 and 56 – 70.
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) 53 – 55 and 63 - 65 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kansara, patent number: US 9 418 296 in view of Vogel, patent number: US 9 418 296.
As per claim 53, Kansara teaches identifying and skipping repeated content portions.
Kansara does not teach further comprising:
generating for display a progress bar for the first content item, wherein a portion of the progress bar comprises an indication of a plurality of time positions, within a duration of the first content item, that correspond to the overlapping content portion.
In an analogous art, Vogel teaches further comprising:
generating for display a progress bar for the first content item, wherein a portion of the progress bar comprises an indication of a plurality of time positions, within a duration of the first content item, that correspond to the overlapping content portion (displaying a time line that indicates repeated content, Fig. 4, [0092][0094])
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, prior to the filing date of the invention to modify Kansara’s portion skipping system to include a visual representation of media content portions as described in Vogel’s content filtering system for the advantages better representing system functionality.
As per claim 54, the combination teaches wherein a visual appearance of the portion of the progress bar comprising the indication of the plurality of time positions is visually distinguished from visual appearances of other portions of the progress bar (Vogel: input and output streams, Fig. 4, [0092][0094]).
As per claim 55, the combination teaches wherein the indication of the plurality of time positions is
generated for display at a first time prior to receiving the user selection of the selectable option, and causing playing of the first content item without the overlapping content portion in the first content item further comprises:
at a second time after receiving the user selection of the selectable option causing removal, from the progress bar, of the plurality of time positions corresponding to the overlapping content portion, and based at least in part on the removal, causing display of an updated duration which is less than the duration (Vogel: stream with removed portions, Fig. 4, [0092][0094]).
Claims 63 - 65 are rejected based on claims 53 – 55.
Conclusion
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/OLUGBENGA O IDOWU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2494
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