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)(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.
Claims 1, 8, 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Rowe et al. (US Pub. 2014/0026158), herein referenced as Rowe.
Regarding claim 1, Rowe discloses “A computing system comprising: a processor; and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, having stored thereon program instructions that ([0033]-[0034], [0046]-[0047], Figs. 2-3), upon execution by the processor, cause performance of a set of operations comprising:
obtaining media presentation data for media content presented in a household via an over-the-top (OTT) device during a time period; determining, from the media presentation data, an OTT viewership event ([0003]-[0004], [0019], [0021], [0028], Fig. 1A, i.e., TV broadcasters 102 may transmit television program to the household 180 by streaming over the Internet. Additionally, master device 105 can detect audio signals from the TV 116, convert the audio signals into audio fingerprints, and report the audio fingerprints to the TV viewership measurement server 150);
determining members of the household ([0018], [0028], [0059], i.e., every household member has a dedicated tag so that the master device 105 can tell who is currently watching the TV by interacting with different tags);
removing, based on the media content and the time period, one or more members of the household as candidate viewers of the OTT viewership event; and assigning a remainder of the members as viewers of the OTT viewership event.” ([0002], [0018], [0027]-[0028], Fig. 1A-B, i.e., through use of the electronic tags, the master device can determine when a particular panelist is close enough to the TV to be watching a program. Information from the tags can be used to eliminate false positives and false negatives. For example, if a panelist is not detected near the TV, then it can be inferred that he or she was probably not watching a program that was logged. Similarly, if a panelist is detected near the TV at a time when the TV was on, then it can be inferred that he or she was watching the TV programs that were tuned by the TV for as long as the viewer was in proximity to the TV).
Regarding claim 8, Rowe discloses “A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, having stored thereon program instructions that, upon execution by a processor ([0033]-[0034], [0046]-[0047], Figs. 2-3), cause performance of a set of operations comprising:
obtaining media presentation data for media content presented in a household via an over-the-top (OTT) device during a time period; determining, from the media presentation data, an OTT viewership event ([0003]-[0004], [0019], [0021], [0028], Fig. 1A, i.e., TV broadcasters 102 may transmit television program to the household 180 by streaming over the Internet. Additionally, master device 105 can detect audio signals from the TV 116, convert the audio signals into audio fingerprints, and report the audio fingerprints to the TV viewership measurement server 150);
determining members of the household ([0018], [0028], [0059], i.e., every household member has a dedicated tag so that the master device 105 can tell who is currently watching the TV by interacting with different tags);
removing, based on the media content and the time period, one or more members of the household as candidate viewers of the OTT viewership event; and assigning a remainder of the members as viewers of the OTT viewership event.” ([0002], [0018], [0027]-[0028], Fig. 1A-B, i.e., through use of the electronic tags, the master device can determine when a particular panelist is close enough to the TV to be watching a program. Information from the tags can be used to eliminate false positives and false negatives. For example, if a panelist is not detected near the TV, then it can be inferred that he or she was probably not watching a program that was logged. Similarly, if a panelist is detected near the TV at a time when the TV was on, then it can be inferred that he or she was watching the TV programs that were tuned by the TV for as long as the viewer was in proximity to the TV).
Regarding claim 15, Rowe discloses “A method for determining co-viewing, the method comprising: obtaining media presentation data for media content presented in a household via an over-the-top (OTT) device during a time period; determining, from the media presentation data, an OTT viewership event ([0003]-[0004], [0019], [0021], [0028], Fig. 1A, i.e., TV broadcasters 102 may transmit television program to the household 180 by streaming over the Internet. Additionally, master device 105 can detect audio signals from the TV 116, convert the audio signals into audio fingerprints, and report the audio fingerprints to the TV viewership measurement server 150);
determining members of the household ([0018], [0028], [0059], i.e., every household member has a dedicated tag so that the master device 105 can tell who is currently watching the TV by interacting with different tags);
removing, based on the media content and the time period, one or more members of the household as candidate viewers of the OTT viewership event; and assigning a remainder of the members as viewers of the OTT viewership event.” ([0002], [0018], [0027]-[0028], Fig. 1A-B, i.e., through use of the electronic tags, the master device can determine when a particular panelist is close enough to the TV to be watching a program. Information from the tags can be used to eliminate false positives and false negatives. For example, if a panelist is not detected near the TV, then it can be inferred that he or she was probably not watching a program that was logged. Similarly, if a panelist is detected near the TV at a time when the TV was on, then it can be inferred that he or she was watching the TV programs that were tuned by the TV for as long as the viewer was in proximity to the TV).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-7, 9-14, 16-20 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Alexander Q Huerta whose telephone number is (571)270-3582. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00 AM-5:00 PM.
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/ALEXANDER Q HUERTA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2425 July7, 2026
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