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 .
Claims
The claim amendments filed 08/12/25 have been entered.
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on nonstatutory double patenting provided the reference application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with the examined application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement. See MPEP § 717.02 for applications subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA as explained in MPEP § 2159. See MPEP § 2146 et seq. for applications not subject to examination under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . A terminal disclaimer must be signed in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(b).
The filing of a terminal disclaimer by itself is not a complete reply to a nonstatutory double patenting (NSDP) rejection. A complete reply requires that the terminal disclaimer be accompanied by a reply requesting reconsideration of the prior Office action. Even where the NSDP rejection is provisional the reply must be complete. See MPEP § 804, subsection I.B.1. For a reply to a non-final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.111(a). For a reply to final Office action, see 37 CFR 1.113(c). A request for reconsideration while not provided for in 37 CFR 1.113(c) may be filed after final for consideration. See MPEP §§ 706.07(e) and 714.13.
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Claims 1-5, 6-15, 17-21 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over claims 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11-18 of U.S. Patent No. 12,335,563 in view of Nijim et al. (Nijim) (US 10,250,917).
Claim 2 of the instant application corresponds to claim 1 of U.S. Patent No. 12,335,563.
2. (New) A method, comprising:
1. A method of preventing stalling when streaming adaptive bitrate (ABR) content, the method comprising:
receiving, from a streaming server, a stream of a content item, wherein the stream includes one or more supplemental content insertion points;
receiving, from a streaming server, a stream of a content item;
receiving, from a content server, a manifest describing a plurality of supplemental content items;
instructing to store in a buffer a first segment corresponding to a first portion of the content item from the stream;
downloading, based on the manifest, a first supplemental content item from the plurality of supplemental content items;
determining whether a quality of experience (QoE) disturbance event is occurring or about to occur and that the occurrence of the QoE disturbance event exceeds a predetermined threshold of QoE disturbance events during a predetermined time period; and
determining whether a quality of experience (QoE) disturbance event is occurring or about to occur and that the occurrence of the QoE disturbance event exceeds a predetermined threshold of QoE disturbance events during a predetermined time period;
based at least in part on the determination that the QoE disturbance event exceeds the predetermined threshold of QoE disturbance events during the predetermined time period:
based at least in part on the determination that the QoE disturbance event is occurring or about to occur and that the occurrence of the QoE disturbance event exceeds the predetermined threshold of QoE disturbance events during the predetermined time period,
providing a first supplemental content item for consumption while receiving a portion of the content item from the stream, wherein the first supplemental content item was previously downloaded for play at a next supplemental content insertion point; and
simultaneously providing the downloaded first supplemental content item for consumption while receiving a second portion of the content item from the stream and instructing to store in the buffer a second segment corresponding to the second portion of the content item from the stream; and
providing a second supplemental content item in place of the first supplemental content item for consumption at the next supplemental content insertion point.
providing from the buffer the first segment for consumption after the QoE disturbance event.
Claim 1 of U.S. Patent No. 12,335,563 discloses all of the limitations of claim 2 of the instant application except providing a second supplemental content item in place of the first supplemental content item at the next supplemental content insertion point.
In an analogous art, Nijim discloses a mobile content distribution system for transmitting a stream of content (Fig. 1, column 3, line 65-column 4, line 23) wherein the stream of the content comprises a scheduled break (commercial breaks within the program; column 1, line 53-56, column 7, line 5-17) and wherein first secondary content is provided during a QoE disturbance event (disruption in the signal from the service provider; column 7, line 65-column 8, line 12, column 11, lines 35-39) and wherein second secondary content is provided after the QoE disturbance event at the scheduled break of the stream of the content item (resuming playback after every pause and playing different secondary content during the next pause; see Fig. 4, column 11, lines 29-56, column 12, line 30-49) so as to ensure every break within a program stream is provided with new replacement ad content (column 11, lines 29-56, column 12, line 63-column 13, line 13).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before
the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the claims of U.S. Patent No. 12,335,563 to include the stream of the content item comprising supplemental content insertion points, and providing the second supplemental content item in place of the first supplemental content item at the next supplemental content insertion point, as taught in combination with Nijim, for the typical benefit of replacing the ads with more recent versions.
Claim 3 of the instant application corresponds to claim 8 of U.S. Patent No. 12,335,563.
Claim 4 of the instant application corresponds to claims 1 and 9 of U.S. Patent No. 12,335,563.
Claim 5 of the instant application corresponds to claim 1 of U.S. Patent No. 12,335,563.
Claim 7 of the instant application corresponds to claim 2 of U.S. Patent No. 12,335,563.
Claim 8 of the instant application corresponds to claim 4 of U.S. Patent No. 12,335,563.
Claim 9 of the instant application corresponds to claim 5 of U.S. Patent No. 12,335,563.
Claim 10 of the instant application corresponds to claim 7 of U.S. Patent No. 12,335,563.
Claim 11 of the instant application corresponds to claim 9 of U.S. Patent No. 12,335,563.
Claim 12-15, 17-21 of the instant application correspond to claims 11-18 of U.S. Patent No. 12,335,563, in view of Nijim, for similar reasoning as shown above.
Claims 6 and 16 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent No. 12,335,563 and Najim and further in view of Stockhammer (US 2020/0275148).
The claims of U.S. Patent No. 12,335,563 and Najim fail to specifically disclose wherein supplemental content provided for consumption at the next supplemental content insertion point is provided from a content server, the method further comprising:
notifying the content server that the first supplemental content item has been provided for consumption during the QoE disturbance event, wherein the content server selects the second supplemental content item based on the notification.
In an analogous art, Stockhammer discloses an advertisement insertion system which inserts advertisements based upon dynamically changing events (paragraph 37-46, 108-120) wherein supplemental content provided for consumption at a next supplemental content insertion point is provided from a content server (paragraph 70) and wherein the receiver will notify the content server that the first supplemental content item has been provided for consumption during the QoE disturbance event (request for updated manifest with parameter indicating replacement content was inserted; Fig. 4, paragraph 79-85), wherein the content server selects the second supplemental content item based on the notification (paragraph 88-89) so as to enable the receiver to receive tailored updated replacement content suitable for playout after changes in an ad timeline (paragraph 38-40).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before
the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the claims of U.S. Patent No. 12,335,563 and Nijim to include wherein supplemental content provided for consumption at the next supplemental content insertion point is provided from a content server, the method further comprising:
notifying the content server that the first supplemental content item has been provided for consumption during the QoE disturbance event, wherein the content server selects the second supplemental content item based on the notification, as taught in combination with Stockhammer, for the typical benefit of replacing the ads with more recent versions.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to James R Sheleheda whose telephone number is (571)272-7357. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8 am-5 pm CST.
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/James R Sheleheda/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2424
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