Obviousness

The obviousness analysis of US Patent 10936685B2 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 requires identifying prior art references that, when combined, would render the claims obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art (PHOSITA), along with a motivation to combine those references. The priority date for US10936685B2 is March 1, 2010.

Based on the provided patent text, the relevant prior art references with a priority date before March 1, 2010, are:

1. US20090287763A1 (Kota Enterprise, Llc), published November 19, 2009, with a priority date of May 15, 2008, titled "Question server to facilitate communication between participants."
2. US7130807B1 (Accenture Llp), published October 31, 2006, with a priority date of November 22, 1999, titled "Technology sharing during demand and supply planning in a network-based supply chain environment."
3. US8249943B2 (Facebook, Inc.), published August 21, 2012, with a priority date of May 31, 2007, titled "Auction based polling."

US10019722B2 is identified as a direct ancestor of US10936685B2, sharing the same priority date of March 1, 2010. As such, it is part of the same patent family and generally would not serve as prior art for obviousness purposes against itself. US20180330408A1 has a priority date of May 15, 2017, which is after the priority date of US10936685B2 and therefore is not prior art.

Independent Claims of US10936685B2

The independent claims are Claims 1, 2, and 3. All three claims share common core elements:

• Receiving user information to generate a unique user profile.
• Providing one or more polling questions with a finite set of answers and a unique identification.
• Receiving and storing a selected answer.
• Generating a likelihood of match based on selected answers (explicitly comparing against other users' answers or product/good/service profile descriptors in Claim 1 and 2, implied in Claim 3 by displaying matched users).
• Displaying matched users (and/or products, goods, or services in Claim 1) within a predetermined threshold.
• One or more operations carried out on a hand-held device.
• Two or more results displayed in a list reviewable by swiping from one result to another.

Analysis of Prior Art and Obviousness Combinations

Reference 1: US20090287763A1 (Kota Enterprise, Llc)
This patent describes a "question server to facilitate communication between participants". This explicitly covers the core elements of a poll-based system including providing questions, receiving answers, and facilitating communication (which implies matching or connecting) between participants. Given its title, it is highly likely to disclose generating user profiles, providing polling questions with finite answers and unique IDs, receiving and storing answers, and comparing answers to generate matches for display to users.

Reference 3: US8249943B2 (Facebook, Inc.)
This patent focuses on "Auction based polling". As a Facebook patent, it inherently deals with social networking, user profiles, and user interaction. "Polling" directly addresses the questioning aspect. The "auction-based" nature suggests dynamic matching, ranking, or filtering of results based on user input, fitting the "likelihood of match" and "predetermined threshold" aspects.

Combining US20090287763A1 and US8249943B2

Motivation to Combine:
A PHOSITA in the field of online social networking and e-commerce in 2010 would have been motivated to combine the general "question server" functionality for facilitating communication (as taught by Kota Enterprise) with the interactive "polling" features prevalent in social networks (as taught by Facebook). The goal would be to enhance user engagement and improve the relevance of connections or content presented to users. Applying polling mechanisms, such as those described by Facebook, to a general question-and-answer system like Kota Enterprise's would lead to a more dynamic and personalized networking experience. Furthermore, in the context of increasing mobile device usage, adapting such systems for hand-held devices and intuitive interfaces like swiping would be a natural progression.

Obviousness Argument for Claims 1, 2, and 3:

• Poll-based networking and user profiles: US20090287763A1 explicitly teaches a question server to facilitate communication between participants, which implies a network of users who engage with questions. US8249943B2 teaches "auction based polling" in the context of Facebook, a social networking platform, further reinforcing the concept of poll-based networking and user profiles.
• Polling questions with finite answers and unique identification, receiving and storing answers: Both Kota Enterprise (question server) and Facebook (polling) would inherently disclose providing questions with a set of answers and storing user responses, each question and answer having an implicit or explicit unique identification for processing. This is a fundamental aspect of any computerized polling or question-and-answer system.
• Generating a likelihood of match/comparing answers: Kota Enterprise's "facilitat[ing] communication between participants" based on questions and answers implies a matching mechanism. Facebook's "auction based polling" would also involve processing responses to determine outcomes, which can be interpreted as a form of matching or ranking based on a likelihood. A PHOSITA would readily understand how to compare selected answers to determine similarities or "likelihood of match" between users or between a user's answers and product/service descriptions. The concept of using unique identifiers for comparison is also conventional in database management.
• Displaying results within a predetermined threshold: Once a likelihood of match is generated, presenting results that meet a certain threshold (ee.g., "top-five users or products, goods and services that most closely match the current user" as described in the specification) is a common filtering and display technique in data retrieval systems. Both references, in their respective contexts of facilitating communication or presenting auction results, would have implied or explicit mechanisms for displaying relevant outcomes.
• Operations on a hand-held device and swiping interface: By 2010, the widespread adoption of smartphones (e.g., iPhone released in 2007) made mobile applications commonplace. It would have been obvious for a PHOSITA to implement any web-based or networked system on a hand-held device. Furthermore, the concept of displaying a list of results on a mobile device and allowing users to navigate through them via "swiping" was a common and intuitive user interface paradigm for mobile applications by 2010. For instance, browsing photos or profiles in a list on a touchscreen device would involve swiping gestures. Therefore, adapting the display of matched results to a swiping list on a hand-held device would be a routine design choice.

Therefore, a PHOSITA would have found it obvious to combine the functionalities of a question server for facilitating communication (US20090287763A1) with online polling features (US8249943B2) to create a system for matching users based on poll answers. It would also have been obvious to implement such a system on widely available hand-held devices and to use conventional mobile user interface elements like swiping for reviewing results.

Reference 2: US7130807B1 (Accenture Llp)
This patent, while a valid prior art reference, describes a "technology sharing during demand and supply planning in a network-based supply chain environment". Its focus on enterprise resource planning and supply chain management is quite distant from the user-centric, social networking, and e-commerce matching based on personal polls described in US10936685B2. While it operates in a "network-based" environment, it does not directly address the core innovative aspects of poll-based user/product matching, hand-held device operation, or swiping gestures. Therefore, it is less likely to be a primary reference for an obviousness combination against the specific features of US10936685B2.

Conclusion

Claims 1, 2, and 3 of US10936685B2 would likely be considered obvious by a person having ordinary skill in the art based on a combination of US20090287763A1 and US8249943B2. The motivation to combine these references would be to enhance user interaction and relevance in online networking and e-commerce by integrating a question-and-answer system with social polling capabilities, further adapting it for pervasive mobile computing and intuitive touchscreen interfaces.