12450755 (P.T.A.B. Dec. 9, 2016)

Ex Parte Mardigian et al

Patent Trial and Appeal BoardDec 9, 2016

12450755 (P.T.A.B. Dec. 9, 2016)

United States Patent and Trademark Office UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE United States Patent and Trademark Office Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS P.O.Box 1450 Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450 www.uspto.gov APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE FIRST NAMED INVENTOR ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO. 12/450,755 06/01/2010 Shant H. Mardigian PU070074 3947 24498 7590 12/13/2016 Robert D. Shedd, Patent Operations THOMSON Licensing LLC 4 Research Way 3rd Floor Princeton, NJ 08543 EXAMINER CHOWDHURY, NIGAR ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER 2484 NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE 12/13/2016 ELECTRONIC Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding. The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication. Notice of the Office communication was sent electronically on above-indicated "Notification Date" to the following e-mail address(es): uspto@technicolor.com pat. verlangieri @ technicolor.com russell. smith @ technicolor.com PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07) UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD Ex parte SHANT H. MARDIGIAN, MICHAEL ZINK, and JEREMY L. NELSON1 Appeal 2015-007112 Application 12/450,755 Technology Center 2400 Before JASON V. MORGAN, JEREMY J. CURCURI, and DANIEL N. FISHMAN, Administrative Patent Judges. MORGAN, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON APPEAL Introduction This is an appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) from the Examiner’s Final Rejection of claims 1—10 and 16—24. Claims 11—15 are withdrawn. App. Br. 17—18. We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b). We REVERSE. Invention Appellants disclose a user interface that allows an author of Blu-Ray Discs and other media to provide required additional information without 1 Appellants identify THOMSON LICENSING as the real party in interest. App. Br. 3. Appeal 2015-007112 Application 12/450,755 XML or Java coding such that authoring tools produces the relevant XML file and Java code, as needed. Abstract. Exemplary Claim Claim 1, reproduced below with key limitations emphasized, is illustrative: 1. A method for authoring a content-storing medium comprising: accepting a user-entered declaration of content-related information for authoring content on the medium, the declaration of content-related information containing at least one user- created script having at least one operation; providing a preview of user entry of the declaration of content to show progress of entry; mapping the least one user-created script into commands to execute the at least one operation within the at least one user- created script during contentplayout; generating a set of programming instructions in a programming language to execute the at least one operation within the at least one user-created script to author the content on the medium upon content playout; and storing the set of programming instructions on the medium for execution upon playback of the content storing medium to provide information in addition to content. Rejections The Examiner rejects claims 1—8 and 16—23 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over Eklund ’938 (US 2008/0238938 Al; publ. Oct. 2, 2008) and Okada (US 7,764,868 B2; iss. July 27, 2010). Final Act. 10-18, 20. 2 Appeal 2015-007112 Application 12/450,755 The Examiner rejects claims 9, 102, and 24 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over Eklund ’938, Okada, and Eklund ’407 (US 2008/ 0244407 Al; publ. Oct. 2, 2008). Final Act. 19-20. ISSUE Did the Examiner err in finding the combination of Eklund ’938 and Okada teaches or suggests “mapping the [at] least one user-created script into commands to execute the at least one operation within the at least one user-created script during content playout” and “generating a set of programming instructions in a programming language to execute the at least one operation,” as recited in claim 1? ANALYSIS In rejecting claim 1, the Examiner finds that Okada’s branching from a MOVIE object to a Java object teaches or suggests the recited mapping at least one user-created script into commands to execute the at least one operation within the at least one user-created script during content playout. Final Act. 13—14 (citing Okada Figs. 13—22, 26, col. 14,1. 65—col. 15,1. 19, and col. 22,11. 45—55); Ans. 16—17. The Examiner further relies on Okada’s use of Java programming instructions (i.e., the Java object) to teach or suggest generating a set of programming instructions in a programming language to execute the at least one operation. Final Act. 14 (citing Okada Figs. 13—22, 26); Ans. 18. The Examiner does not rely on Eklund ’938 (or Eklund ’407) to teach or suggest these recitations. See, e.g., Final Act. 12. 2 The Examiner erroneously omitted Eklund ’407 from the rejection of claim 10, which depends from claim 9. We hold this error harmless. 3 Appeal 2015-007112 Application 12/450,755 Appellants contend the Examiner erred because Okada merely shows the use of Java instructions without describing where the disclosed program code originates. App. Br. 7. Appellants contrast this with their claimed invention, which recites “mapping of a user-created script to a set of operations, and then generating programming instructions to execute such operations.” Id. Appellants’ arguments are persuasive because the Examiner relies on Okada’s use of a POST-COMMAND for instructing the playback device to perform branching to another dynamic scenario, but does not show that Okada teaches or suggests generating programming instructions to perform this operation. Final Act. 13. Rather, the Examiner merely identifies teachings and suggestions in Okada related to Java instructions in a Java OBJECT that represents a branch destination, not instructions generated to perform the branching itself. Id. at 13—14 (citing Okada col. 22,11. 45—55, Figs. 13—22, 26). The distinction between the operation of branching to a new destination and the Java OBJECT that may be the destination itself is illustrated in Okada’s Figure 26, reproduced below. 4 Appeal 2015-007112 Application 12/450,755 M--08J PRE-COMMAND POST-COMMAND FIG. 2 6 Plsy 0PRM{P}M} a C«4» V IF{GPRM{0)*0) IJmpTiifcimS JJJnp Title #m+U- ]»1- PL INFORMATION 7 STREAM MANAGEMENT INFORMATION AV STREAM 1ST& II I' TITLE m INDEX TITLE #2 INDEX TITLE m INDEX TITLE #rp INDEX TITLE #rn> I INDEX TITLE #m+2 INDEX TITLE#*? INDEX TITLE Ao INDEX ,jf;2 j WHEN CHARACTER ,A SELECTED ! GPRM-O}-) \ WHEN CHARACTER & SELECTED GPRM(0}-2 WHEN CHARACTER C SELECTED GPRM(0}*~3 N8 INFORMATION Java OBJECT (J-OBJ) if(GFRM(0)~-1) {A.