Obviousness

Under 35 U.S.C. § 103, a patent claim is considered obvious if 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 (POSITA) in that field. The effective prior art date for US Patent 11416898 is November 12, 2004.

The core of US Patent 11416898, as exemplified by independent Claim 1, describes a computer-implemented method for financing a project. This method involves using a system to:

1. Receive advertising material from a client over an internet-based link.
2. Identify the client using an identifier.
3. Generate a webpage presenting advertising buy options.
4. Obtain a client's selection of advertising buy options, including a target website and a predetermined number of impressions.
5. Create a repository (fund) for advertising revenue.
6. Populate the advertising material on the selected website.
7. Monitor and determine the validity of impressions.
8. Cease populating the advertising material once the predetermined number of valid impressions is met.
9. Electronically collect a share of the advertising revenue to be transmitted to the web property content owner (which funds the project).

Identification of Prior Art References

Based on the patent text, the following prior art references are relevant and predate the critical date of November 12, 2004:

• US20030229536A1 (House): "Media planning and buying system and method" (Priority: 2002-03-14). This reference teaches a computer-implemented system for managing media buys, which would encompass many technical aspects of online advertising.
• US20020049816A1 (Gilmore): "System and method for raising funds and establishing user affinity over a distributed network" (Priority: 2000-03-24). This reference addresses online fundraising.
• US6792411B1 (Massey): "Method for the sale of movies prior to the production thereof" (Priority: 1999-08-27). This reference specifically teaches methods of financing creative media projects.
• US7885887B2 (Artistshare): "Methods and apparatuses for financing and marketing a creative work" (Priority: 2002-07-09). This reference also focuses on financing creative works.
• WO2002001391A2 (Ecomsystems): "System and method for computer-created advertisements" (Priority: 2000-06-23). This reference teaches systems for creating and likely serving online advertisements.
• Non-Patent Literature (NPL):
  • Kaplan, K. (2000): Discusses "RepublicanShopping.com" taking political fund-raising into new territory by offering goods online and getting a cut of profit.
  • Online fund-raising malls (Raddatz, 2000): Highlights "fund raising goes high-tech".
  • ZDNet (1999): Reports on ZDNet donating "advertising availabilities to benefit tomorrows children fund". These NPL references demonstrate the general concept of online fundraising and linking commercial activities, including advertising, to support projects or causes.

Obviousness Analysis: Combination of House, Gilmore/Massey/Artistshare, and NPL

A person having ordinary skill in the art (POSITA) in 2004, working in the fields of internet advertising and online fundraising, would have been motivated to combine the teachings of these references to achieve the functionality claimed in US11416898.

1. The Online Advertising System Components (Elements 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10):
Many steps of Claim 1, related to the mechanics of online advertising, would be obvious from references like US20030229536A1 (House) and WO2002001391A2 (Ecomsystems), or were well-known practices in the art.

• Receiving advertising material (element 1), identifying clients (element 2, often via cookies as acknowledged in US11416898's description), generating webpages with ad buy options (element 3), obtaining selections of ad buys including websites and impressions (element 4), populating ads on websites (element 6), monitoring impressions (element 7), determining valid impressions based on tracking (element 8), determining when impression targets are met (element 9), and ceasing ad display (element 10) are all fundamental operations of an online advertising platform. House's "media planning and buying system" would inherently include these functionalities. Similarly, Ecomsystems' "computer-created advertisements" would involve their placement and management online. The concept of "valid impressions" being filtered from robotic activity was a standard concern in online advertising measurement by 2004, as even described in the US11416898 patent's own definitions.

2. The Project Financing Components (Elements 5, 11):
The crucial aspect of US11416898 is the specific linkage of advertising revenue to project funding (element 5, 11). This concept was also present in the prior art:

• US20020049816A1 (Gilmore) teaches a "system and method for raising funds" over a network, which would necessarily involve generating a repository for collected funds and electronically collecting revenue.
• US6792411B1 (Massey) discloses a method for "sale of movies prior to the production thereof," explicitly involving collecting funds to finance a project. Similarly, US7885887B2 (Artistshare) teaches "financing and marketing a creative work," which would involve establishing a fund and receiving revenue.
• The Non-Patent Literature further illustrates the motivation for this linkage. Kaplan's article highlights an e-commerce site for political fundraising where a percentage of sales (akin to advertising revenue) goes to the cause. ZDNet's donation of "advertising availabilities" to a fund directly demonstrates the idea of using advertising resources to finance a project or cause. These examples show that the concept of generating revenue through commercial activities (like advertising or e-commerce) and directing that revenue to a specific fund for a project was known.

Motivation for Combination

The primary motivation for a POSITA to combine these references would be to address the known challenges in project fundraising, particularly the reliance on speculative investment or pure charitable donations, as described in the background of US11416898. A POSITA would have recognized the burgeoning online advertising market as a powerful mechanism to generate revenue.

By combining the sophisticated online advertising management capabilities (from House, Ecomsystems) with the principles of online project financing (from Gilmore, Massey, Artistshare, and the NPL), a POSITA would find it obvious to create a system where advertisers purchase targeted impressions (receiving tangible value for their money), and the revenue generated from these ad buys is then directed to a fund for a specific project.

The specific idea of creating a media outlet (e.g., a website) whose content is related to the subject matter of the project (e.g., a film, a non-profit cause) to attract a target audience, and then selling advertising space on that outlet to advertisers whose target audience aligns with the project's subject matter, would be an obvious commercial and marketing strategy. This integration would provide a "risk-free" funding model for advertisers, as they receive dollar-for-dollar advertising value, while simultaneously providing a reliable funding source for projects. The NPL explicitly shows this concept of using commercial activity (like advertising space or sales) to raise funds for projects was already in practice by the early 2000s.

Conclusion

The combination of:

• US20030229536A1 (House), providing the framework for an online advertising planning and buying system;
• US20020049816A1 (Gilmore), teaching online fundraising and establishing user affinity;
• US6792411B1 (Massey) or US7885887B2 (Artistshare), providing specific examples of financing creative projects; and
• The general knowledge of online fundraising and the use of advertising/commercial activity to support causes as evidenced by the Non-Patent Literature,

would have rendered the method, system, and computer program product of US Patent 11416898 obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art by November 12, 2004. The motivation would be to create a more effective, less risky, and commercially viable model for project financing by leveraging existing online advertising technologies and established online fundraising concepts. The dependent claims merely add features that are either standard in online advertising or routine for project management and fundraising, and thus would also be obvious.