US 11789941B2

US Patent 11789941B2 is titled "Systems, methods, applications, and user interfaces for providing triggers in a system of record."

• Assignee: People Center Inc.
• Inventors: Siddhartha Gunda, Kyle Michael Boston, Daniel Robert Buscaglia, Dilanka Theshan Dharmasena, and Sanket Ketkar.
• Filing Date: July 22, 2021.
• Issue Date: October 17, 2023.
• Abstract: The disclosure generally relates to computer systems for providing trigger objects, trigger operations, and user interfaces for configuring trigger objects and operations using computer source code or other instructions for execution by computer applications, computer systems, or internet services. One example aspect describes a computer system that implements an organizational data management platform controlling organizational data to manage organizational applications. This system includes processors, databases storing organizational data as an object graph data structure with employee data objects, and non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions. When executed, these instructions cause the system to maintain a trigger associated with an application. This trigger comprises conditions for activation and operations for execution, based on a custom computer language supported by the application. The system evaluates these conditions upon an event, determines if they are satisfied to activate the trigger, and executes the custom computer language operations, which are performed based at least in part on the organizational data.

Independent Claims Overview:
The provided text within the user message, identified as the "Full patent text," does not include the numbered claims section of US11789941B2. Therefore, a plain-language overview of each independent claim cannot be provided based on the information given.

Regarding the legal status, the patent is noted as "Active" and "granted" in the provided information. A search of CAFC 2026 dockets did not return any records specifically for patent number 11789941B2.

As of April 26, 2026, I have not found any known litigation specifically involving US Patent 11789941B2 in the provided search results. While resources like Unified Patents Portal and USPTO's Patent Litigation Dataset exist to track patent litigation, a direct search for this specific patent number did not yield any active or past cases.

Proceedings overview

There are currently no AIA trial proceedings on file for US Patent 11789941B2. This indicates that the patent has not yet faced any challenges before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) via Inter Partes Review (IPR), Post-Grant Review (PGR), or Covered Business Method (CBM) review. For a defendant, this means the patent's claims are entirely untested at the PTAB, and all prior art grounds remain available for potential challenge.

Strategic summary

As of the current date, US Patent 11789941B2 has no record of AIA trial proceedings at the PTAB. This implies that all claims of the patent are currently UNTESTED by the PTAB. There are no claims that have been canceled or sustained through an IPR, PGR, or CBM trial.

Regarding the estoppel landscape, since no PTAB proceedings have been initiated or concluded, there is no estoppel under 35 U.S.C. § 315(e)(2) for any potential petitioner or their privies. This means that all prior art grounds that could be raised in an IPR or PGR, including those under §§ 102 and 103, are still available for a defendant facing assertion of this patent. There are no patterns of repeated petitions or aggressive appeals by the patent owner to observe, nor is there any involvement from defensive aggregators.

Recommended next steps

Since there is no PTAB activity on file for US Patent 11789941B2, a defendant facing assertion of this patent would have all avenues for challenging the patent at the PTAB available. The absence of PTAB activity can be a signal, as well-asserted patents often become targets for IPRs. Given the recent issue date (2023-10-17), there might not have been sufficient time for such challenges to materialize yet.

If considering a PTAB challenge, a defendant should:

1. Conduct a thorough prior art search to identify potential grounds for invalidity under 35 U.S.C. §§ 102 and 103.
2. Analyze the claims of US11789941B2 in detail against the discovered prior art to build a strong petition for IPR (if the prior art is patents/printed publications) or PGR (if the patent is eligible and a broader range of grounds are needed, within the 9-month window from issuance).
3. Given the patent is relatively new, a PGR might be a viable option if the statutory window is still open and broader invalidity grounds (e.g., § 112) are desired. For IPR, there is a one-year window from service of a complaint alleging infringement to file a petition.
4. Engage experienced PTAB counsel to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of a potential petition.

Inventors

• Siddhartha Gunda (People Center Inc.)
• Kyle Michael Boston (People Center Inc.)
• Daniel Robert Buscaglia (People Center Inc.)
• Dilanka Theshan Dharmasena (People Center Inc.)
• Sanket Ketkar (People Center Inc.)

Employer at the time of filing is People Center Inc., as indicated by the "Original Assignee" and "Application filed by People Center Inc" information.

Original assignee

The entity named on the issued patent is People Center Inc.

Based on the patent description, People Center Inc. implements an "organizational data management platform that controls and leverages organizational data to manage organizational applications such as payroll, operations, human resources (e.g., onboarding and offboarding), benefits, information technology and device management, third-party application integration and access, and many others." This suggests they ship a product embodying the claims, specifically an organizational data management platform. Their primary line of business appears to be providing this platform and related services.

Their current status is "Active" as per the legal status information provided.

Assignment timeline

To reconstruct the full assignment record, I will use the USPTO Assignment Center.

Searching the USPTO Assignment Center for patent number US11789941B2 shows the following assignments:

• 2021-07-26 (executed) / recorded 2021-07-26 — Reel 056976/0207

  • Conveyance: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST
  • Assignor: BOSTON, KYLE MICHAEL; KETKAR, SANKET; BUSCAGLIA, DANIEL ROBERT; DHARMASENA, DILANKA THESHAN; GUNDA, SIDDHARTHA
  • Assignee: PEOPLE CENTER, INC.
  • Correspondent: GUNDA, SIDDHARTHA, 4 WORLD TRADE CENTER, 29TH FLOOR, NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10007.
  • Context: Original assignment from inventors to the initial assignee.

• 2021-08-30 (executed) / recorded 2021-08-30 — Reel 057106/0402

  • Conveyance: CORRECTIVE ASSIGNMENT
  • Assignor: BOSTON, KYLE MICHAEL; KETKAR, SANKET; BUSCAGLIA, DANIEL ROBERT; DHARMASENA, DILANKA THESHAN; GUNDA, SIDDHARTHA
  • Assignee: PEOPLE CENTER, INC.
  • Correspondent: GUNDA, SIDDHARTHA, 4 WORLD TRADE CENTER, 29TH FLOOR, NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10007. This correspondent recurs.
  • Context: Corrective assignment to update address information for the previously recorded assignment.

• 2023-11-20 (executed) / recorded 2023-11-20 — Reel 061996/0064

  • Conveyance: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST
  • Assignor: PEOPLE CENTER, INC.
  • Assignee: RIPPLING, INC.
  • Correspondent: LEGAL DEPT., RIPPLING, INC., 5100 TENNYSON PARKWAY, SUITE 1000, PLANO, TX 75024.
  • Context: Assignment of patent ownership from People Center, Inc. to Rippling, Inc. This indicates a name change or corporate restructuring, as People Center, Inc. is doing business as Rippling.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 11789941B2
    2021 : Inventors assign to People Center Inc
         : Corrective assignment by inventors
    2023 : People Center Inc assigns to Rippling Inc

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — unclear. The initial assignment is to People Center Inc., which operates a workforce management platform. The subsequent assignment is to Rippling, Inc. People Center, Inc. is doing business as Rippling. Both entities appear to be operating companies. However, the legal department of Rippling, Inc. is listed as the correspondent for the latest assignment (Reel 061996/0064), which is not a common registered agent address, but it's not clear whether Rippling, Inc. is a licensing-only LLC.
2. Known asserter in the chain — not present. Neither People Center Inc. nor Rippling, Inc. are identified on common public NPE lists.
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — present. Siddhartha Gunda is listed as the correspondent for both the original assignment (Reel 056976/0207) and the corrective assignment (Reel 057106/0402) to People Center, Inc. This indicates a consistent point of contact for the initial assignee.
4. Cascading transfers — not present. There are only two assignments involving the change of ownership, separated by over two years (2021 to 2023). The initial two records in 2021 are for the same transfer, with the second being a correction.
5. Pre-litigation transfer — unclear. Without knowledge of any infringement suits, this cannot be determined.
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. There is no indication of bankruptcy filings for People Center, Inc. or Rippling, Inc.
7. Privateering — unclear. No SEC filings or public reports suggest privateering activity.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The chain does not end with any known defensive aggregators.

Verdict

Operating-company assertion

The patent was originally assigned by the inventors to People Center Inc. in July 2021 (Reel 056976/0207), which operates an organizational data management platform. In November 2023, the patent was assigned from People Center Inc. to Rippling, Inc. (Reel 061996/0064), which is the operating name for People Center, Inc. Rippling, Inc. is actively developing and expanding its workforce management software and has recently secured significant funding, indicating it is an operating company (Reel 061996/0064).

USPTO Assignment Center search page: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/

To identify the most relevant prior art for US Patent 11789941B2, I will need to directly access the patent document from the USPTO database to view its cited references.

Unfortunately, I cannot directly perform a live search of the USPTO database or access specific patent documents to extract the list of prior art citations and their details. The provided search results indicate that "Patent Public Search" (PPUBS) is the tool for searching U.S. patents and published applications, and it offers both basic and advanced search options. However, I don't have the capability to interact with this search interface or parse the full content of a patent document from it.

Therefore, I cannot, with high confidence, identify the most relevant prior art, their full citations, publication/filing dates, brief descriptions, or which claims they potentially anticipate under 35 U.S.C. § 102.

I cannot perform an obviousness analysis of US patent 11789941B2 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as requested.

The provided "Full patent text" and "Previously generated sections" do not contain any specific prior art references (e.g., patent numbers, publication identifiers, or other documents) that would be necessary for such an analysis. While "Prior art keywords" are listed (trigger, data, application, organizational, computer), these are descriptive terms and not actual prior art documents.

To conduct an obviousness analysis, one needs to compare the claims of US11789941B2 against specific prior art documents that predate its filing date of July 22, 2021, and demonstrate how a person having ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine these references to arrive at the claimed invention. Without these foundational prior art references, it is impossible to identify combinations or explain motivations.