Patexia seeks prior art for US Patent 7,228,054 (US ‘054) - “Automated playlist generation.” The patent allegedly describes a portable media playback device that includes a method of generating a playlist of media files based on two audio file attributes.

At the time of the patent, innovations in portable storage and processing units allowed portable media playback devices to store a large amount of audio and visual media content on the device itself. With such a large wealth of content for a user to enjoy, the user interface to select a particular file would be particular unwieldy if the user had to manually navigate to each file. US ‘054 proposes an invention that can assist the user by offering a generated playlist based on two selection criteria chosen by the user.

In the preferred embodiment, the portable media playback device generates these playlists from audio files stored on the device from the following pairs of selected criteria:

• a principal (e.g. singer, composer, songwriter, group, or similar criteria) and frequency of playback
• a principal and recency of playback
• a time range and recency of playback
• a frequency and recency of playback
• a genre and frequency of playback

After generating the playlist, the playback device creates a representation of the playlist in its user interface for the user to conveniently access and play the media files that they desire.

Figure 1. Overview of a notification of delivery and/or opening of a message

Questions

1. Was the source filed or published before July 29th, 2002? (Qualified / Disqualified)
2. ​Does the source describe a portable media playback device with a user interface, a memory unit for storing multimedia files, a display for video data, and logic to process a playlist of multimedia files? (10 points)
3. Does the source describe the portable media playback device as being able to generate a playlist of media files stored in the storage unit based on user input? (20 points)
4. ​Can the portable media playback device generate the playlist based on the media files matching two media file attributes? (20 points)
5. Can the portable media playback device provide a representation of the playlist on the user interface? (10 points)
6. ​Can the device generate an audio playlist based on the audio files matching a selected principal (e.g. singer, composer, songwriter, group, or similar criteria) and frequency of playback? (8 points)
7. Can the device generate an audio playlist based on the audio files matching a selected principal (e.g. singer, composer, songwriter, group, or similar criteria) and recency of playback? (8 points)
8. ​Can the device generate an audio playlist based on the audio files matching a selected time range and recency of playback? (8 points)
9. Can the device generate an audio playlist based on the audio files matching a selected frequency and recency of playback? (8 points)
10. ​Can the device generate an audio playlist based on the audio files matching a selected genre and frequency of playback? (8 points)