Obviousness

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

To establish obviousness under 35 U.S.C. § 103, it must be shown that the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art. This analysis requires identifying: (1) the scope and content of the prior art; (2) the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue; (3) the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art; and (4) secondary considerations of non-obviousness (e.g., commercial success, long-felt but unsolved needs, failure of others).

Based on the provided patent text, the "Prior art keywords" listed for US10009304 include "message," "conversation," "messages," "interface," and "interface device." The patent also explicitly references several prior art documents in its "Citations" section. These citations, along with the descriptions of existing messaging environments, form the basis for the prior art in this analysis. A person of ordinary skill in the art (POSITA) in this field would likely be a software developer or computer engineer with experience in developing messaging applications and user interfaces.

The core of US10009304 lies in correlating conversations within a messaging environment by using visual cues and an active conversation designation. The patent acknowledges the problem of confusion in extended chat sessions due to chronological message ordering, where multiple conversations can run in parallel.

Combination of Prior Art References for Obviousness

Several combinations of the cited prior art, potentially alongside general knowledge in the field, could render the claims of US10009304 obvious.

1. US 7,475,110 B2 (IBM) in view of US 2007/0203985 A1 (Abernethy):

• US 7,475,110 B2 (IBM): This patent, titled "Method and interface for multi-threaded conversations in instant messaging," teaches managing and distinguishing instant messaging sessions and threads. The very title suggests a solution to the problem identified in US10009304 regarding intertwined conversations in a chronological stream. A POSITA would understand that a system for "multi-threaded conversations" would inherently involve some mechanism to differentiate these threads.
• US 2007/0203985 A1 (Abernethy): This publication, titled "Response linking in instant messaging," describes linking responses to specific earlier messages in an instant messaging context. This directly addresses the problem of identifying what a participant is responding to.

Motivation for Combination: A POSITA, facing the known problem of confusing, chronologically ordered messages in multi-participant messaging environments as described in US10009304's background, would be motivated to combine the multi-threading concept of IBM's '110 patent with Abernethy's "response linking." The IBM patent provides the overarching structure for managing multiple conversation threads, while Abernethy offers a specific mechanism for explicitly linking a response to a prior message.

Why it renders claims obvious:

• Claim 1 (Method):

  • "providing a discussion interface at a first interface device, wherein the discussion interface displays a first message and a second message;" This is standard in messaging applications.
  • "providing a message entry location for inputting new messages, the message entry location visually associated with the discussion interface," Also standard.
  • "receiving, at the first interface device, a first indication that a first new message is responsive to the first message;" Abernethy's "response linking" would provide this functionality, likely through a selection method (e.g., tapping, highlighting) as described in US10009304.
  • "changing a visual element of the message entry location upon receipt of the first indication to match a first visual cue shared with the first message;" The concept of using visual cues (like color coding, text size, indentation) for conversation correlation is a common user interface design principle. Once a message is identified as part of a thread (from IBM '110) or a response is linked (from Abernethy), a POSITA would find it obvious to apply a visual cue to the message entry location to indicate the active thread or linked response. The patent itself states that visual cues can be "color coding of messages," "text size," "symbols or icons," "indentation levels," "font formatting," "bullet styles," or "characters preceding the message." These are all well-known ways to visually distinguish information in a user interface.
  • "receiving the first new message at the message entry location; and" Standard messaging input.
  • "displaying the first new message with the first visual cue applied within the discussion interface at the first interface device, wherein the first visual cue is shared by the first message and the first new message." This is the direct result of applying a visual cue to the linked response and the original message, a logical step for clarity once linking is established.

• Claim 14 (System): The system claim would be obvious for similar reasons, as it describes the hardware and software instructions to perform the method outlined in Claim 1. The components (processor, memory, transmission unit, display) are generic computing elements. The instructions for providing interfaces, recording indications, changing visual elements, receiving/transmitting messages, and displaying with visual cues would be obvious implementations given the combination of IBM '110 and Abernethy.

2. US 8,024,412 B2 (Microsoft) in view of US 2010/0023586 A1 (IBM):

• US 8,024,412 B2 (Microsoft): This patent describes a "User interface reading email conversations." While focused on email, the concept of "reading email conversations" implies a method for grouping or displaying related messages, thereby addressing the issue of intertwined discussions. Email threading is a long-standing practice for managing conversational flow.
• US 2010/0023586 A1 (IBM): This publication describes a "System and method for correlating questions and answers in an instant messaging environment." This reference directly addresses the correlation of specific types of messages (questions and answers) in an instant messaging context, which is a key problem US10009304 aims to solve.

Motivation for Combination: A POSITA would be motivated to adapt email conversation threading principles (Microsoft '412) to an instant messaging environment, especially when seeking to correlate specific question-and-answer exchanges as taught by IBM '586. The chronological display in instant messaging, as highlighted by US10009304, presents a similar challenge to email, where long threads can become difficult to follow. The email threading mechanisms would provide a framework for grouping, and the IBM '586 reference provides the motivation for explicitly linking questions and answers.

Why it renders claims obvious:

• Claim 1 (Method):

  • The provision of a discussion interface and message entry location are standard.
  • The "first indication that a first new message is responsive to the first message" would be a natural extension of correlating questions and answers (IBM '586) within a threaded conversation structure (Microsoft '412).
  • The "changing a visual element of the message entry location" and "displaying the first new message with the first visual cue" are common methods to indicate association within a conversation, whether in email or instant messaging. For instance, an email client often visually indicates which message in a thread is being replied to (e.g., by quoting or indenting), and a new reply would typically inherit some visual characteristic of the thread. Applying this to an instant messaging entry location upon selecting a message to reply to would be an obvious design choice for a POSITA to enhance user clarity.

• Claim 14 (System): The system implementation would be obvious as it simply describes the computational means to achieve the method, using commonly available hardware and software techniques.

General Obviousness Considerations:

The patent US10009304 itself states that "Extended chat sessions therefore often comprise different types of messages... and typically involve multiple conversations continuing in parallel, with messages... presented to users in chronological order. This simple chronological ordering can lead to confusion, since it may not be clear what the participant is responding to..." This explicitly acknowledges the known problem that the claimed invention seeks to address. The proposed solution—using visual cues to correlate messages within conversations and dynamically updating a message entry location—relies on established user interface principles and messaging functionalities present in prior art.

For instance, the use of "color coding of messages," "text size," "symbols or icons appended to the message," "indentation levels," "font formatting such as italics, bold, or underline," "bullet styles," or "characters preceding the message" as visual cues are all well-known techniques in graphical user interfaces for grouping or highlighting information. A POSITA would readily apply these established techniques to messaging environments to improve clarity, especially when explicit message linking or conversation threading is available.

The idea of dynamically changing a visual element of the message entry location to match the active conversation's visual cue is a straightforward application of user interface design best practices. It provides immediate feedback to the user about which conversation their new message will be associated with, directly improving usability and addressing the "confusion" problem.

In summary, the problem of intertwined conversations in chronological messaging streams was known. Solutions involving message linking, multi-threaded conversations, and visual grouping in messaging environments (including email) existed in the prior art. A POSITA would have been motivated to combine these known elements to create a more intuitive and less confusing messaging experience, using well-established visual communication techniques.