US 10510341

Patent Analysis: US 10510341 B1

Date of Analysis: April 26, 2026

Summary

This report provides a concise analysis of United States Patent 10,510,341 B1. The patent describes a "System and method for a cooperative conversational voice user interface." Essentially, it details a technology for a more natural and human-like voice assistant that can understand and respond to complex, and even imperfect, spoken commands.

Title: System and method for a cooperative conversational voice user interface

Assignee: VB Assets LLC

Inventors: Larry Baldwin, Tom Freeman, Michael Tjalve, Blane Ebersold, Chris Weider

Filing Date: August 29, 2019

Issue Date: December 17, 2019

Abstract:
"A cooperative conversational voice user interface is provided. The cooperative conversational voice user interface may build upon short-term and long-term shared knowledge to generate one or more explicit and/or implicit hypotheses about an intent of a user utterance. The hypotheses may be ranked based on varying degrees of certainty, and an adaptive response may be generated for the user. Responses may be worded based on the degrees of certainty and to frame an appropriate domain for a subsequent utterance. In one implementation, misrecognitions may be tolerated, and conversational course may be corrected based on subsequent utterances and/or responses."

Plain-Language Overview of Independent Claims

US Patent 10,510,341 B1 contains several independent claims that form the core of its protected invention. In simple terms, these claims cover:

Claim 1: A method for a voice-controlled computer system to understand and respond to a user's spoken request. The system identifies the user's likely intention by considering not just the immediate words spoken, but also past conversations and user preferences. It then formulates a response that is tailored to how certain it is about the user's intent.

Claim 12: A computer-readable medium (like a software program) that contains instructions for carrying out the method described in Claim 1. This means the patent covers the software that would enable a device to perform these advanced conversational functions.

Claim 19: The physical system or device itself that is capable of performing the method outlined in Claim 1. This could be a smart speaker, a smartphone, a car's infotainment system, or any other device with a voice interface that uses this technology.

Litigation Search

A search of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) 2026 dockets for litigation involving patent 10,510,341 was conducted. As of the date of this report, no records of appeal or other litigation at the CAFC specifically mentioning this patent number were found. However, this does not rule out the possibility of ongoing or past litigation at the district court level. Further investigation would be required for a comprehensive litigation history.