Prior art — US Patent 9860595

The USPTO website (uspto.gov) provides tools for searching patents and patent application publications. I will use the information from the search results to formulate the response.

Here's the analysis of US Patent 9860595 and its cited prior art, based on the provided patent text and search results:

US Patent 9860595: Systems and methods for episode tracking in an interactive media environment

Publication Date: 2018-01-02
Filing Date: 2015-03-17
Priority Date: 2005-12-29
Current Assignee: Adeia Guides Inc. (Previously Rovi Guides Inc.)
Inventors: Charles Cordray, Todd A. Walker, Samir B. Armaly

The invention relates to interactive media environments that monitor a user's viewing progress through a series of related programs (serial programming), such as a broadcast television series or a set of movie sequels. The interactive media monitoring application creates and maintains a user media profile, tracks viewing progress, and can filter or replace inconsistent media content (e.g., spoilers) with alternate content. This system can also enable users to interact with network communities based on their viewing progress.

Most Relevant Prior Art for US Patent 9860595

Based on the explicit references within the provided patent text, the following US patent application publications are identified as prior art:

U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20030149988
- Full Citation: Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20030149988, entitled "Interactive Television Program Guide With Remote Recording Capabilities."
- Publication/Filing Date:
  - Publication Date: August 7, 2003.
  - (Note: The filing date is not explicitly available in the search snippets, but the publication date is sufficient for prior art analysis.)
- Brief Description: This patent application describes systems for remote recording of media content. It enables users to control recording devices (like DVRs) remotely, for example, by accessing an online media guide and setting recordings on their in-home equipment.
- Potential Anticipation (35 U.S.C. § 102): The 20030149988 publication primarily focuses on remote recording capabilities. This may be relevant to claims in US9860595 that involve the scheduling and recording of content, particularly serial content, for later viewing. Given that US9860595 utilizes VOD and DVR services to allow users to watch media content on their own schedule, any claims in US9860595 relating to the mechanism of remote recording or time-shifted viewing could potentially be anticipated by this reference.
  - Specific Claims: (Cannot be determined without access to the claims of US9860595. If the claims of US9860595 relate to the fundamental ability to remotely schedule or record media content for later viewing, this reference would be highly relevant.)
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20050229213
- Full Citation: Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20050229213, entitled "Interactive Television Program Guide With Remote Recording Capabilities."
- Publication/Filing Date:
  - Publication Date: October 13, 2005.
  - (Note: The filing date is not explicitly available in the search snippets.)
- Brief Description: Similar to US20030144988, this patent application also describes systems and methods for remote recording of media content, further elaborating on the control of in-home equipment via an online media guide. It extends the concepts of remote scheduling and management of media recordings.
- Potential Anticipation (35 U.S.C. § 102): As with US20030149988, this reference would potentially anticipate claims in US9860595 that cover the core functionality of remote recording and time-shifted media consumption. The emphasis on users accessing an online media guide to set recordings on their in-home equipment directly relates to the underlying infrastructure that US9860595 leverages for tracking viewing progress of time-shifted content.
  - Specific Claims: (Cannot be determined without access to the claims of US9860595. If claims in US9860595 describe systems for remote control and scheduling of media recording, this reference would be very pertinent.)
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20010047298
- Full Citation: Moore et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20010047298, entitled "System for delivering metadata-linked content."
- Publication/Filing Date:
  - Publication Date: November 29, 2001.
  - (Note: The filing date is not explicitly available in the search snippets.)
- Brief Description: This patent application describes a system for delivering content that is linked with metadata. Metadata can describe programs, their content, or related services. In the context of US9860595, this would be relevant to how "profile flags" (metadata) are associated with media content to indicate program series, episode numbers, and other temporal components.
- Potential Anticipation (35 U.S.C. § 102): US9860595 heavily relies on metadata in the form of "media profile flags" (FIGS. 8A and 8B) to identify programs, seasons, and episodes for tracking and filtering purposes. Claims in US9860595 that broadly cover the association of descriptive metadata with media content for selection, filtering, or monitoring could potentially be anticipated by this reference. The core idea of linking content with descriptive data is present here.
  - Specific Claims: (Cannot be determined without access to the claims of US9860595. If claims in US9860595 describe the use of metadata or descriptive data associated with media content to enable content management or filtering, this reference would be highly relevant.)
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20070150917 (associated with Ser. No. 11/324,187)
- Full Citation: Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20070150917, entitled "Systems and Methods for Generating a Content Summary."
- Publication/Filing Date:
  - Publication Date: June 28, 2007.
  - Filing Date: December 29, 2005 (as per original US9860595 patent text for Ser. No. 11/324,187).
- Brief Description: This patent application describes systems and methods for generating content summaries, which can be derived from various data sources, including closed captioning data. US9860595 references this in the context of providing "catch-up" segments or summaries for users who wish to keep up with a series without watching an entire episode.
- Potential Anticipation (35 U.S.C. § 102): US9860595 mentions presenting users with content summaries as an option for missed episodes (FIG. 11, summary selection 1110) and explicitly states these summaries can be derived from closed captioning data, referencing this patent application. Therefore, any claims in US9860595 that cover the generation or provision of content summaries to help users "catch up" on missed media content, particularly when such summaries are automatically generated or derived from program data, could be anticipated by this reference.
  - Specific Claims: (Cannot be determined without access to the claims of US9860595. If claims in US9860595 detail the creation, retrieval, or presentation of content summaries for missed episodes based on program data, this reference would be highly relevant.)

Disclaimer Regarding Claim Anticipation:
I am unable to provide a definitive analysis of which specific claims of US9860595 are potentially anticipated under 35 U.S.C. § 102, as the full text of the claims for US9860595 was not provided in the prompt. The above analysis of potential anticipation is based on a general understanding of the invention described in US9860595 and the known subject matter of the cited prior art. A complete anticipation analysis would require a detailed, claim-by-claim comparison.