Obviousness

Obviousness Analysis under 35 U.S.C. § 103

Under 35 U.S.C. § 103, a patent claim is considered obvious if "the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious... to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains." This analysis often involves identifying a primary prior art reference and then looking for motivations to combine it with other references to arrive at the claimed invention.

A person having ordinary skill in the art (PHOSITA) in this field would likely be familiar with interactive media systems, digital video recording (DVR) and video-on-demand (VOD) technologies, user interface design, and data management, particularly in the context of media consumption.

The patent US9860595 focuses on tracking a user's viewing progress through serial programming and filtering inconsistent media content (e.g., spoilers) based on that progress.

Potential Combinations of Prior Art and Rationale for Combination

Given the "Prior art keywords" listed in US9860595 as "user, media, content, progress, serial program," the following combinations of prior art could render the claims obvious:

Combination 1: Existing Interactive Media Environments + General Knowledge of User Profiles and Content Filtering

• Prior Art: The patent itself acknowledges "Known interactive media environments" that allow users to customize their media experience, including setting program reminders, recording media content, searching for content, and enforcing parental controls. These environments also provide DVR and VOD services, allowing users to watch media content at their own pace, disconnected from rigid broadcast schedules. The patent further states that "Known interactive media environments do not track and report a user's progress through a series of related programming, such as a broadcast television series or a set of movie sequels." This establishes that interactive media environments with various personalization features existed.
• Rationale for Combination: A PHOSITA, aware of existing interactive media environments offering features like personalized recommendations, parental controls, and scheduling, would have been motivated to extend the concept of user preferences to include viewing progress in serial programming. The desire to enhance the user experience by preventing spoilers or irrelevant content is a clear motivation. It would be a logical step to maintain a "user media profile" that, instead of just general preferences, explicitly tracks progress (e.g., "season number and/or episode number" as mentioned in the patent) for serial content.
  • Filtering: The concept of filtering content based on user preferences or ratings was already established in prior art (e.g., parental controls filter content based on age ratings). Extending this filtering mechanism to viewing progress would be an obvious application. If a system can filter out content based on a "parental rating," it would be an obvious design choice to filter out content based on a "viewing progress rating" (i.e., whether the user has seen certain episodes).
  • Motivation: The explicit problem identified in the patent—that users watching serial programming out of sequence "may not recognize or understand certain characters, themes, or plot elements" and "often causes the viewer to be confused or lose interest in the media content"—provides a strong motivation for a PHOSITA to implement a solution. Tracking progress and filtering content to address this known problem would be an obvious improvement to existing interactive media environments.

Combination 2: Remote Recording Systems (Ellis et al. U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos. 20030149988 and 20050229213) + Interactive Program Guides with Content Metadata

• Prior Art: US9860595 explicitly references "Systems for remote recording of media content are described in more detail in Ellis et al. U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos. 20030149988 and 20050229213, both of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties." These references teach remote recording. The patent also describes data source 120 containing "program schedule and content data," including "program number, episode number, and season information for programs that are part of program series" and "media content attribute flags."
• Rationale for Combination: A PHOSITA combining Ellis et al.'s remote recording capabilities with the detailed program metadata already present in interactive program guides (like that from data source 120) would find it obvious to track user progress and filter content.
  • Tracking Progress: If a system can remotely schedule a recording of a specific episode of a series (as implied by remote recording systems), it inherently has access to the information needed to track which episodes a user has intended to watch or has recorded. By integrating this recording history with the "program number, episode number, and season information," a system could easily deduce a user's viewing progress.
  • Content Filtering: Once viewing progress is established, the motivation for filtering content (as described in Combination 1) becomes evident. The "media content attribute flags" could be expanded or re-purposed to include "spoiler flags" or "relevance flags" tied to specific episodes or seasons. A system could then check these flags against the user's viewing progress when displaying advertisements, news, or web content, and filter as needed. The patent mentions "content metadata in the form of profile flags associated with certain media content," which could readily be incorporated into existing metadata systems.

Combination 3: Interactive Media Guidance Applications (e.g., Interactive Television Program Guides) with User Preferences + Monitoring of Content Usage

• Prior Art: The patent defines "Interactive media guidance applications" as those that "allow users to navigate among and locate television programming viewing choices" and describes them providing "television program listings and summaries, pay-per-view (PPV) services, web browsing services, and other interactive features." It also classifies "Monitoring of content usage, e.g. the number of times a movie has been viewed, copied or the amount which has been watched" under H04N21/44204.
• Rationale for Combination: Given that interactive media guidance applications already managed user preferences and presented program information, and that monitoring of content usage was a known concept, combining these elements to track progress in serial programming would be obvious.
  • User Preferences & Content Usage: Interactive program guides already managed user preferences (e.g., favorite genres, actors). Integrating "content usage" data (i.e., what a user has watched and for how long) with these preferences would be a natural extension. If a guide knows a user watched "episode 1," it's a small step to infer "episode 2" is next.
  • Applying to Serial Content: Recognizing that "Serial programming is any programming containing a temporal component, such as a recommended order of viewing," a PHOSITA would be motivated to apply existing user preference and content usage monitoring to this specific type of content to enhance the user experience by guiding them through the series and preventing premature disclosures.

In summary, the core inventive step of US9860595—tracking viewing progress of serial content and filtering inconsistent information—appears to be an obvious extension of existing interactive media guidance systems, remote recording technologies, and user preference/content usage monitoring, driven by the clear motivation to improve the user experience by avoiding spoilers and maintaining narrative consistency.