Ex Parte Piard et al

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

Feb 21, 2017

12412313 (P.T.A.B. Feb. 21, 2017)

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.
12/412,313 03/26/2009 Eric J. Piard 120-FLR-02-2009 6812
86548 7590
Garlick & Markison (IH)
106 E. 6th Street, Suite 900
Austin, TX 78701
EXAMINER
LIN, JASON K
ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER
2425
NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE
02/23/2017 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):
MMurdock@ TEX ASPATENTS .COM
ghmptocor@texaspatents.com
bpierotti @ texaspatents .com
PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07)
UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
Ex parte ERIC J. PIARD, SHAWN D. MAYNARD,
and GEORGE R. PEREZ
Appeal 2015-003628
Application 12/412,313
Technology Center 2400
Before JOHNNY A. KUMAR, JOHN P. PINKERTON, and
JAMES W. DEJMEK, Administrative Patent Judges.
KUMAR, Administrative Patent Judge.
DECISION ON APPEAL
Appeal 2015-003628
Application 12/412,313
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Appellants appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) from the Final Rejection
of claims 1—8 and 10-20. Claim 9 has been canceled. We have jurisdiction
under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b).
We affirm.
Exemplary Claim
1. A method comprising:
receiving, at a server, user group data;
receiving, at the server, information indicating a time at
which a selected program segment, selected from a plurality of
program segments and commercial segments of a commercial
media program, is to be provided via a first medium to be
displayed on a first display device;
receiving, at the server, content related to the selected
program segment;
providing users access to a chat room in accordance with
the user group data, the chat room provided via a second
medium to be displayed on a second display device;
providing the content related to the selected program
segment to chat room participants at a time corresponding to the
time at which the selected program segment is to be provided
via the first medium to be displayed on the first display device;
collecting information related to whether or not a chat
room participant interacted with the content provided to the chat
room, said information used to generate at least a portion of the
user group data; and
providing, within the chat room, a time display from the
server indicating an amount of time remaining before a next
program segment is scheduled to air.
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Appeal 2015-003628
Application 12/412,313
The Examiner’s Rejections
Claims 1—5, 8, 10-13, 15, 17, 18, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C.
§ 103(a) as being unpatentable over Tomsen (US 7,313,802 Bl, Dec. 25,
2007), Covell (US 2007/0130580 Al, June 7, 2007), Aven (US
2009/0171748 Al, July 2, 2009), and Liu (US 2009/0278987 Al, Nov. 12,
2009). Final Act. 2-20.
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable
over Tomsen, Covell, Aven, Liu, and McKissick (US 2010/0107194 Al,
Apr. 29, 2010). Final Act. 20—21.
Claims 7, 14, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being
unpatentable over Tomsen, Covell, Aven, Liu, and Hoang (US
2003/0051249 Al, Mar. 13, 2003). Final Act. 21-23.
Claim 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable
over Tomsen, Covell, Aven, Liu, and Ma (US 2005/0177861 Al, Aug. 11,
2005). Final Act. 23-24.
ANALYSIS
We have reviewed the Examiner’s rejections in light of Appellants’
contentions that the Examiner has erred. We have also reviewed and
considered Appellants’ arguments in the Appeal Brief and the Reply Brief.
Further, we have reviewed the Examiner’s response to Appellants’
arguments. The Examiner has provided a comprehensive response to each
argument presented by the Appellants on pages 33 through 40 of the
Answer. We have reviewed this response and concur with the Examiner’s
findings and conclusions. We adopt as our own (1) the findings and reasons
set forth by the Examiner in the action from which this appeal is taken and
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Appeal 2015-003628
Application 12/412,313
(2) the reasons set forth by the Examiner in the Examiner’s Answer in
response to Appellants’ Appeal Brief. Ans. 2 40.
DECISION
We affirm the Examiner’s rejections of claims 1—8 and 10—20 under
35 U.S.C. § 103(a).
No time period for taking any subsequent action in connection with
this appeal may be extended under 37 C.F.R. § 1.136(a)(l)(iv).
AFFIRMED
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