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
This Office Action is made in reply to Application 19/214,311 filed 21 May 2025. As originally filed, Claims 1 – 20 are presented for examination.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 3, 8 - 10 and 17 – 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Claim 3 recites that creating the output file comprises creating “a first temporary file” containing a first set of segment and creating “a second temporary file” containing a second set of segments and then concatenating the first and second temporary files to produce the output file. The specification discloses creating an output file containing encoded media data from a fist set of media content segment and a second set of media content segments ([008]) but does not appear to disclose any temporary files or discuss producing the output file by concatenating temporary files, as claimed. Therefore, the limitations of Claim 3 are considered new matter and Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement.
Claims 8 – 10 recite a first and second set of video content segments that do not contain any encoded audio data and a first and second set of audio content segments that do not contain any video data. There does not appear to be any discussion in the specification regarding these limitations. The specification discloses that the player has a display screen for displaying decoded video frames and a speaker for playing decoded audio frames, (Fig. 1 and [0020]) but there appears to be no mention of video without audio and audio without video, as claimed. Therefore, these limitations in Claims 9 – 10 are considered new matter and Claims 8 – 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement.
Claims 17 - 20 recite a presentation segment identifier for identifying a segment of first media content, a presentation segment request, a segment identifier identifying a segment of the second media content and a second presentation segment request. However, the specification appears not to disclose these terms. In paragraph 9, various server identifiers are disclosed but not segment identifiers. In paragraph 4, the specification discloses that there is information for identifying segments of selected media to be inserted into a manifest but does not refer to this information as presentation segment identifiers but lists ad segment URLs as exemplary. It is unclear if “a presentation segment identifier” is “a set of ad segment URLs”. While the specification discloses segment requests, the specification appears to be silent regarding presentation segment requests and it is unclear how a presentation segment request differs from a segment request. Therefore, Claims 17-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1 – 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 1 recites the limitation "the player" in line 19. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. It is unclear if “the player” refers to “a player” in Claim 1 line 2 or “a player” in Claim 1 line 18.
Claim 1 recites the limitation "the third set of media content segments" in line 20. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 2 recites the limitation "the first set of media content segments" in lines 3-4. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 2 recites the limitation "the second set of media content segments" in lines 4-5. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 2 recites the limitation "the second set of media content segments" in lines 4-5. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 3 recites the limitation "the first set of segments" in line 3. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 3 recites the limitation "the second set of segments" in line 4. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 4 recites the limitation "the player" in line 2. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. It is unclear if “the player” refers to “a player” in Claim 1 line 2 or “a player” in Claim 1 line 18.
Claim 5 recites the limitation "the player" in line 2, line 4 and line 5. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. It is unclear if “the player” refers to “a player” in Claim 1 line 2 or “a player” in Claim 1 line 18.
Claim 8 recites the limitation "the first set of media content segments" in line 2. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 8 recites the limitation "the second set of media content segments" in line 5. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 9 recites the limitation "the player" in line 12. line 13 and line 14. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. It is unclear if “the player” refers to “a player” in Claim 1 line 2 or “a player” in Claim 1 line 18.
Claim 10 recites the limitation "the first set of media content segments" in line 2. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 10 recites the limitation "the second set of media content segments" in line 5. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 12 recites “a manifest” in line 2, “the manifest” in lines 3 and 5, “the requested manifest” in line 5 and “the received manifest” in line 9. It is unclear if these instantiations of manifest refer to the same manifest or different manifests.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4 – 10 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if the current rejections under 35 USC § 112 for these claims were overcome and the claims were rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Note: Independent Claim 12 and its dependent claims would be allowable if the current rejections under 35 USC § 112 for these claims were overcome.
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.
Claim(s) 1 – 3, 11 and 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Mills et al., US Patent 10,217,138 B1 (hereinafter Mills).
In regards to Claim 1, Mills discloses a method, comprising:
providing a modified manifest to a player, the modified manifest containing a period element corresponding to a content break (Mills: Abstract, where a second manifest is generated based on a combination of a manifest associated with requested content and targeted advertising; col. 311. 39-45, where in response to a request for content, an advertisement is identified, a manifest file associated with the content is obtained and a second manifest file is generated based on the first manifest file and the advertisement; col. 11 II. 20-27, where the manifest map can indicate timing for advertisement clips by quartiles, a relative timing reference or an absolute timing reference);
receiving the manifest for the content break, wherein the manifest for the content break comprises i) a first period element containing first segment locator information for use in retrieving a first ordered set of media content segments and ii) a second period element containing second segment locator information for use in retrieving a second ordered set of media content segments (Mills: Fig. 2 and col. 5 line 59 - col. 6 line 11, where manifest files for advertisements comprise a listing of references or uniform resource indicators URls referring to locations at which the respective clips of the advertisements may be retrieved for playback. Advertisements 210, 212 and 214 include a plurality of consecutive clips and manifest files for advertisements 210, 212 and 214 comprise listings of URls to the clips of the advertisements; col. 9 II. 52-66, where a map of the manifest file, which is received with the manifest, identifies which clips in the manifest correspond to content and advertisement as well as relative positions of content clips and advertisement clips; col. 11 II. 20-27, where the manifest map can indicate timing for advertisement clips by quartiles, a relative timing reference or an absolute timing
reference);
using the received first and second segment locator information to retrieve the first ordered set of media content segments and the second ordered set of media content segments, respectively (Mills Figs. 2-3, col. 5 line 59- col. 6 line 11 and II. 50-65, where manifest files comprising uniform resource indicator URls may be used to retrieve advertisements, e.g. A1 and A2, which include a plurality of consecutive clips; col. 911. 52-66, where a map of the manifest file, which is received with the manifest, identifies which clips in the manifest correspond to content and advertisement as well as relative positions of content clips and advertisement clips; col. 11 II. 20-27, where the manifest map can indicate timing for advertisement clips by quartiles, a relative timing reference or an absolute timing reference);
generating a third ordered set of media content segments using the first ordered set of media content segments and the second ordered set of media content segments, wherein each media content segment included in the third ordered set of media content segments has a timestamp and the timestamps are consistent with the modified manifest provided to the player (Mills: Fig. 3 and col. 611. 50-65, where the single stream represented by manifest 310 comprises clips C1 of the content 220 with the clips of the advertisements A1 and A2; col. 911. 52-66, where a map of the manifest file, which is received with the manifest, identifies which clips in the manifest correspond to content and advertisement as well as relative positions of content clips and advertisement clips; col. 11 II. 20-27, where the manifest map can indicate timing for advertisement clips by quartiles, a relative timing reference or an absolute timing reference);
receiving a segment request transmitted by a player (Mills: Fig. 9 and col. 12 II. 41-45, where a request for content is received from the client device); and
after receiving the segment request, transmitting to the player a media content segment from the third set of media content segments (Mills: Fig. 9 and col. 12 line 65 - col. 13 line 21, where the second manifest file which is generated by interleaving advertisement clip references among content clip references may be rendered into an integrated content stream where the client device receives and plays back clips of the requested content and the targeted advertisements).
Regarding Claim 2, Mills discloses the method of claim 1, wherein
generating a third ordered set of media content segments comprises:
creating an output file containing encoded media data from the first set of media content segments and encoded media data from the second set of media content segments (Mills: Fig. 3 and col. 6 ll. 50-65, where the single stream represented by manifest 310 comprises clips C1 of the content 220 with the clips of the advertisements A1 and A2); and
segmenting the output file to produce the third ordered set of media content segments (Mills: Fig. 9 and col. 12 line 65 - col. 13 line 21, where the second manifest file which is generated by interleaving advertisement clip references among content clip references may be rendered into an integrated content stream).
Regarding Claim 3, Mills discloses the method of claim 2, wherein
creating the output file comprises:
creating a first temporary file containing the first set of segments (Mills: col. 6 ll. 3-7, where a manifest file for advertisement 210 is retrieved);
creating a second temporary file containing the second set of segments (Mills: col. 6 ll. 7-11, where manifest files for advertisement 212 and 214 may be retrieved); and
concatenating the first and second temporary files, thereby producing the output file, each segment in the second temporary file contains one or more timestamps (Mills: Fig. 3 and col. 6 ll. 50-65, where the single stream represented by manifest 310 comprises clips C1 of the content 220 with the clips of the advertisements A1 and A2), and
concatenating the first and second temporary files comprises modifying the timestamp(s) of each segment in the second temporary file (Mills: Fig. 3 and col. 6 ll. 50-65, where the single stream represented by manifest 310 comprises clips C1 of the content 220 with the clips of the advertisements A1 and A2; col. 9 ll. 52-66, where a map of the manifest file, which is received with the manifest, identifies which clips in the manifest correspond to content and advertisement as well as relative positions of content clips and advertisement clips; col. 11 ll. 20-27, where the manifest map can indicate timing for advertisement clips by quartiles, a relative timing reference or an absolute timing reference).
Regarding Claim 11, Mills discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the content break is an ad break (Mills: col. 2 ll. 25-32, where advertisements are inserted within requested content streams).
Regarding Claim 15, Mills discloses a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing a computer program for causing an apparatus to perform the method (Mills: col. 16 ll. 11-28, where a non-transitory computer-readable medium may store software or executable-code where the execution of the instructions to perform certain processes) of claim 1.
Claim(s) 17 - 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Ma et al., US Pub. 2014/0150019 A1 (hereinafter Ma).
In regards to Claim 17, Ma discloses a method comprising:
providing a manifest to a player, wherein the manifest comprises a presentation segment identifier for identifying a segment of first media content or template information for generating the presentation segment identifier (Ma: [0039], where metadata in manifest files indicates upcoming advertisement boundaries including the actual start and end of each advertisement; [0054], where advertisement media identifiers are associated with segment location information as part of advertisement replacement and modification of the manifest; [0068], where the modified manifest is forwarded to the client);
receiving, from the player, a presentation segment request comprising the presentation segment identifier (Ma: [0078], where a segment request is received from the player; [0008], where segment URLs associated with advertisements are replaced in the manifest file with URLs point to the segment specified in the advertisement placement response; [0076], where an advertisement media identifier associated with segment location information for the selected advertisement is returned); and
in response to receiving the presentation segment request, i) providing to the player a response message responsive to the presentation segment request and ii) performing a process for enabling the player to obtain second media content to be played by the player during a break in the first media content (Ma: [0054], where after looking up the segment location information for the given advertisement media identifier, replacing the in-stream advertisement segment URLs with the replacement advertisement segment URLs; [0069], where if cues indicate the start of a new advertisement, the response is to truncate the current segment and start a new segment).
Regarding Claim 18, Ma discloses the method of claim 17, wherein the process for enabling the player to obtain the second media content comprises sending a request for metadata for the second media content (Ma: [0069]-[0070], where advertisement start/stop metadata may be included in the updated manifest file; [0052]-[0053], where a manifest file which includes metadata is requested upon detection of an upcoming advertisement break).
Regarding Claim 19, Ma discloses the method of claim 18, wherein the metadata for the second media content comprises segment locator information for retrieving segments of the second media content (Ma: [0007], where advertisement decision server, program identifier and advertisement spot information is included in the metadata; [0018], where the modified manifest reflects the encryption key URL and metadata associated with the advertisement segment used to replace the corresponding live stream segment).
Regarding Claim 20, Ma discloses the method of claim 19, wherein
the segment locator information for retrieving segments of the second media content comprises a segment identifier identifying a segment of the second media content (Ma: [0064], where an updated manifest is generated which includes multiple segments for the advertisement based on the advertisement segment sequence number. URL pointing to a manifest file specifying the segments for the replacement advertisement), and
the method further comprises:
after providing to the player the response message responsive to the presentation segment request, receiving from the player a second presentation segment request (Ma: [0078], where a segment request is received from the player); and
in response to receiving the second presentation segment request, providing to the player i) the segment identifier identifying the segment of the second media content or ii) the segment of the second media content (Ma: [0008], where segment URLs associated with advertisements are replaced in the manifest file with URLs point to the segment specified in the advertisement placement response; [0076], where an advertisement media identifier associated with segment location information for the selected advertisement is returned).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Benson et al., US Patent 10,904,639 B1 teach generating a manifest including fragments associated with the requested media content and fragments associated with different media content, (Abstract). Manifests can be generated dynamically based on a combination of data from a feature manifest and an advertisement manifest, (col. 5 II. 24-60).
Oyman et al., US Pub. 2015/0081851 A1 teach the elements from a second MPD and be inserted into a first MPD, thereby resulting in a larger MPD, which is used for advertisement insertion, ([0062]).
Gabin et al., US 2012/0290644 A1 teach that there are different ways to describe a sequence of URI's of a respective representation in an MPD, by applying a template approach, or the media segments may be explicitly described by a list, ([0082]).
Fisher et al., US Pub. 2021/0152896 A1 teach an advertisement insertion unit which inserts links to advertisements to the manifest and replaces links to filler block with links to blocks forming advertisements and information associated with the links includes the ad break duration in seconds, (Fig. 1, [0019], [0031], [0039]).
Li et al., US Patent 11,336,506B1 teach ad insertion where a request to the ad server is sent and includes the amount of time to be filled with ads, i.e. the length of an ad break (col. 33 II. 24 - 54).
Nugent et al., US Pub. 2018/0376177 A1 teach total duration of the ad segments is not less than the duration of the ad break specified in the break notification, ([0110]).
Chen et al. US Pub. 2017/0310722 A1 disclose inserting and providing alternative content such as targeted content or replacement ad content by dynamically modifying MPD or manifest file ([0012], [0045] - [0046], Fig. 2).
Swaminathan et al., US Pub. 2014/0040026 A1 disclose replacing advertising segments in a manifest file depending on whether the number of ad segments being inserted is greater or lesser than the main content replaced and using the duration and a threshold to fine tune the insertion/replacement process, ([0086]).
Ghadi et al., US Pub. 2016/0316233 disclose inserting ads into a program content where ads are divided into multiple segments of sub-advertisement and each segment includes a URL such that the advertisement content includes a plurality of URLs and each URL is associated with a sub-advertisement and a manifest server creates a playlist by stitching URLs of the sup- programs with URLs of the sub-ads or ad chunks (Fig. 8 and [0050]).
Olsson, US Pub. 2021/0392393 A1 discloses advertisement playlists and insertion of ad pods in a live content and may utilize template manifests unique for client device, (Abstract and [0002]).
Pathak et al., US Pub. 2019/0313135 A1 disclose inserting ads into a stream using a manifest file (Fig. 1c and [0068]).
Cherry et al., US Patent 9,066,115 B1 disclose that generic advertisement can play as defaults or backups in the event that specific targeted ads for specific clients are not received by the encoder (col. 3 II. 49 - 59).
Bjordammen, US Pub. 2015/0371280 A1 discloses updating manifest/playlist with references to the ad content ([0107]).
Sodagar, US Pub. 2020/0213645 A1 discloses signaling a shortening in the duration of advertisements by updating the manifest or MPD ([0012]-[0013], [0038] - [0039] and [0042]- [0043]).
Stockhammer, US Pub. 2020/0275148 A1 discloses determining a maximum and minimum duration delta when replacing ads in a manifest file, ([0037], [0130] and [0136]-[0137]).
Pressnell et al., US Patent 11,438,675 B1 discloses modified manifest is created from replacement ads stitched with content segments, (col. 14 line 64 through col. 15 line 24).
Examiner’s Note: The Examiner has cited particular paragraphs or columns and line numbers in the references applied to the claims above for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings of the art and are applied to specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested from the applicant in preparing responses, to fully consider the references in their entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the Examiner.
In the case of amending the claimed invention, Applicant is respectfully requested to indicate the portion(s) of the specification which dictate the structure relied on for proper interpretation and also to verify and ascertain the metes and bounds of the claimed invention.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Cynthia M FOGG whose telephone number is (571)272-2741. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 7:00-3:30.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Nathan Flynn can be reached at (571)272-1915. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/CYNTHIA M FOGG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2421
Prosecution Insights