Appeal 2007-0635
Application 10/176,598
expresses a dislike for a particular content item, either by skipping the item
or through a rating system, the system records such instances in the meta-
data associated with the user," (Ward, col. 8, lines 27-31). Hence, the system
of Ward keeps track of media files in a generalized manner where a metric is
developed in view of whether a song or video was played back or not.
…
… a user may play back an entire song (1 minute and 20 seconds long) and
"then rewound it to replay the last 20 seconds" whereby the developed
popularity metric is proportional to the total amount of time the media file
was played (1 minute and 40 seconds, see specification, Background of the
Invention and page 10, line 20 to page 11, line 2). When considering the
variability of how a media file may be played back on modem media devices
(see above), keeping track of the "total amount of times a user plays back a
media file" in the manner suggested by the Examiner, does not account for
such operations where a user repeats a portion of a song or fast forwards to
other parts of the song. The Examiner, in the reasoning of the Final
Rejection, could not come to such a conclusion to arrive at the elements of
Claim 2, without applying hindsight analysis in view of Ward as to develop
the Examiner's cited combination.
By applying the invention of Claim 2 where "each of the popularity
metrics being proportional to an total amount of playback time that the user
plays back a corresponding one of the media files", a media device provides
a more accurate way of monitoring the playback of media files than
disclosed or suggested in Ward in combination with the Examiner’s stated
rationale.
Applicant asserts that there is appreciable difference between keeping
track of the "total amount of time" a media file is played, as claimed in
Claim 2, versus the whether a media file was played back or not (see Ward,
col. 7, lines 40-47, and col. 8, lines 28-40) for the reasons listed above.
Appeal Br. 4-5. Emphasis added.
9. Appellant further argues that another difference between the claimed method
and Ward is that the claimed method keeps track of the total time a media file has
been played back.
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