Obviousness

Obviousness Analysis of US Patent 11664123 under 35 U.S.C. § 103

This analysis identifies combinations of prior art references that would render the claims of US Patent 11664123 obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art (PHOSITA) as of the patent's priority date of August 5, 2011. The motivation to combine these references is also discussed.

Prior Art References:

1. US2011/0267232 A1 (McKirdy, Sean): Filed on March 9, 2011, and published on November 3, 2011, this prior art describes a system and method for creating and implementing an exercise regime based on user data, including biometric data and exercise equipment data. It specifically discusses generating unique codes, which could be barcodes, based on this data to track and manage workouts.
2. US8118709 B2 (McKirdy, Sean): Filed on March 9, 2011, and issued on February 21, 2012, this patent describes a method and system for controlling and communicating with exercise equipment. It includes the ability to transfer data to and from mobile devices and backend systems, focusing on using a "communication module" to obtain data from exercise machines. This patent is explicitly incorporated by reference into US11664123.

Both US2011/0267232 A1 and US8118709 B2 are considered prior art because their effective filing dates (March 9, 2011) precede the priority date of US11664123 (August 5, 2011). Furthermore, both references are by the same inventor, Sean McKirdy, indicating a strong inherent motivation for a PHOSITA to combine or integrate aspects of these related disclosures.

Combination: US2011/0267232 A1 in view of US8118709 B2

A PHOSITA, at the time of the invention, would have been aware of:

• The widespread use of barcodes (including 2D barcodes like QR codes) for storing various types of information, such as URLs, and their scanning by mobile device cameras.
• Mobile applications capable of decoding barcodes and performing actions based on their content (e.g., opening web pages, storing data).
• The growing need for efficient collection and management of personal health and fitness data.
• Existing methods for transferring data between electronic devices and backend systems.

The motivation to combine US2011/0267232 A1 with US8118709 B2 would be to create a more comprehensive and integrated system for managing exercise and health-related information, leveraging the strengths of both prior art documents.

Analysis of Claims:

Independent Claim 1: Method for generating and implementing a barcode.
Claim 1 outlines a method including:

• Receiving user data associated with device use.
• Generating barcode data responsive to the user data.
• Sending barcode data to a generator to create and display a barcode.
• Uploading the barcode data into a mobile device.
• Processing the barcode data, optionally involving a URL for data transfer to a web server or for authentication, or direct processing if no URL is present.

US2011/0267232 A1 explicitly teaches the core elements of generating codes (including barcodes) from user data (such as individual/machine performance and biological data) obtained from devices like exercise equipment, and then displaying these codes for scanning by a mobile device for processing and interaction.

The aspect of determining if a URL is present and then sending data to a web server or using the URL for authentication is made obvious by combining US2011/0267232 A1 with US8118709 B2. US2011/0267232 A1 broadly mentions "user data may include hyperlink information (i.e. Universal Resource Locator data)." Given the common knowledge that 2D barcodes (which are encompassed by the term "barcode" as defined in US11664123) can embed URLs, a PHOSITA would readily envision embedding a URL in the barcode data generated as per US2011/0267232 A1. US8118709 B2 explicitly describes methods for "sending data to a smart phone, USB drive, computer, tablet PC, etc using a method such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,118,709, the contents of which is incorporated herein in its entirety." This clearly teaches the transfer of data to mobile devices and backend systems. The use of a URL to direct this data transfer to a web server, or to authenticate the barcode content, would be a conventional and obvious application of known internet and security protocols by a PHOSITA when combining the barcode generation and data communication aspects taught by these two references.

Independent Claim 10: System for generating and implementing a barcode.
Claim 10 describes a system comprising a data generation device, a barcode generation device, a display device, and a barcode receiving device (e.g., a mobile device).

The individual components of this system are either explicitly taught or clearly implicit in the combination of US2011/0267232 A1 and US8118709 B2. US2011/0267232 A1 describes a "data generation device" (e.g., an exercise device) that receives user data, and a "barcode generator internal or external to the machine" that processes this data to create a "barcode" for display. It also describes a mobile device for scanning the displayed barcode. US8118709 B2 further details communication modules for interacting with exercise equipment and mobile devices to transfer data. A PHOSITA would find it obvious to integrate these known functional blocks and devices to create the claimed system, as they are complementary and designed to work together to achieve the goal of data management, as already envisioned by the same inventor.

Independent Claim 19: Method for processing a barcode via a mobile device.
Claim 19 details a method where a mobile device uploads barcode data by scanning, determines if a URL is present, and then either uses the URL for data transfer/authentication or directly processes and stores the data.

US2011/0267232 A1 teaches that a "user may then upload the barcode data by scanning the barcode with their mobile device," and that the "mobile device processes the barcode data and if necessary, operates in response to the barcode data." This reference also discusses the mobile device storing and displaying processed barcode data for user interaction.

The addition of the URL-related logic (determining if a URL is present, using it for data transfer to a web server or for authentication) becomes obvious when considering the known capabilities of 2D barcodes (which were prevalent by the priority date) to embed URLs, combined with the data transfer mechanisms described in US8118709 B2. A PHOSITA would recognize that using an embedded URL for transferring scanned data to a web server, as enabled by the communication methods of US8118709 B2, is a conventional and logical extension of the mobile device processing described in US2011/0267232 A1. Similarly, using a URL for authentication is a standard practice in networked systems to ensure data integrity and user identity.

Conclusion:

The combination of US2011/0267232 A1 and US8118709 B2 would render the claims of US11664123 obvious to a PHOSITA. The motivation to combine these references is inherent due to their common inventorship and complementary subject matter aimed at developing an integrated solution for managing and processing health and exercise data. The specific features of embedding URLs in barcodes and using them for data transfer to web servers or authentication were well-known concepts in the art that a PHOSITA would have readily applied to the barcode generation and processing framework taught by the inventor's own prior work.