Obviousness

Obviousness Analysis of US12112357B2 Under 35 U.S.C. § 103

This analysis identifies combinations of prior art references that would render the independent claims of US patent 12112357B2 obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art (POSA) as of the priority date, February 12, 2010.

Person Having Ordinary Skill in the Art (POSA)

A POSA in the field of "Mobile device streaming media applications" at the priority date of February 12, 2010, would possess knowledge of mobile application development, streaming media technologies, client-server architectures, database management, social networking features (e.g., sharing, commenting), and in-app purchasing mechanisms.

Obviousness of Independent Claim 1 (Method)

Claim 1 describes a method involving receiving, storing, selecting, and providing distinct media feeds to a mobile application, enabling sharing of media messages, and allowing users to switch between feeds.

The following combination of prior art references renders Claim 1 obvious:

1. US20070099659A1 to Borquez (hereinafter "Borquez"): "Systems and Methods for Uploading Content Over a Wireless Network Using a Mobile Communication Device" (Priority Date: November 3, 2005)
2. US7386623B2 to Sony (hereinafter "Sony"): "Content distribution notification method, reservation control apparatus and program storage medium" (Priority Date: August 31, 2000)
3. US20070262953A1 to Zackschewski (hereinafter "Zackschewski"): "Multiple-view display system having user manipulation control and method" (Priority Date: May 15, 2006)
4. US20090292762A1 to Nokia (hereinafter "Nokia"): "Method, Apparatus, and Computer Program Product for Publishing Content" (Priority Date: May 20, 2008)

Rationale for Combination:

A POSA in 2010 would have been motivated to combine the teachings of these references to create a comprehensive and interactive mobile media streaming application that leverages user-generated content, manages content availability, offers varied viewing experiences, and facilitates content sharing, all of which were desirable features in the rapidly evolving mobile application market.

• Receiving a plurality of media messages from one or more mobile applications executable on a corresponding one or more mobile devices: Borquez clearly teaches systems and methods for uploading user-generated content, such as video, audio, and images, over a wireless network from mobile communication devices. This content is received by servers for distribution [cite: US20070099659A1, Abstract,-].
• Storing the plurality of media messages on the one or more servers: Borquez further discloses that the uploaded content is processed and stored by a content server for subsequent distribution [cite: US20070099659A1,].
• wherein one or more stored media messages are associated with expiration information to determine when the one or more stored media messages can no longer be provided in a feed: Sony teaches a content distribution notification method including "reservation control" and program storage, which implies the ability to schedule content and manage its availability. This inherently includes the concept of content having a start and/or end time (i.e., expiration information) determining when it can be provided [cite: US7386623B2, Abstract,,-]. A POSA would find it obvious to apply Sony's content reservation and management principles to the user-generated content stored on Borquez's server to control its distribution and availability within feeds.
• Selecting, for inclusion in respective ones of a first feed and a second, corresponding ones of a first subset and a second subset of media messages from among the plurality of media messages stored on the one or more servers, wherein the respective selections of the first subset and the second subset of media messages are based at least in part on the expiration information, wherein the second feed differs from the first feed: Building on Borquez's content distribution system and Sony's concept of content expiration, a POSA would find it obvious to create different feeds. For example, a "current" feed could include only non-expired messages, while an "archive" feed could include past or expired messages. Zackschewski further teaches a "multiple-view display system having user manipulation control and method," where different content views can be presented [cite: US20070262953A1, Abstract,,]. Applying this to media messages, it would be obvious to provide distinct feeds (e.g., categories like "news" and "music" or "live" and "archived") by selecting different subsets of stored media messages, especially utilizing the expiration information for time-sensitive content.
• Providing the first feed from the one or more servers to a mobile application executable on a mobile device, the mobile application configured to present the first feed, wherein presentation of the first feed by the mobile application includes presentation of a sharing prompt with a media message included in the first feed, wherein interaction with the sharing prompt via the mobile application facilitates generation of a link configured to enable access to the media message: Borquez discloses distributing content to users on mobile devices for presentation via applications [cite: US20070099659A1,,]. Nokia explicitly teaches publishing content and facilitating content sharing, including the generation of links to enable access to shared content, often initiated via a sharing prompt [cite: US20090292762A1,,,]. Integrating sharing functionality into any mobile content application, as taught by Nokia, would be a conventional improvement for the Borquez system.
• And providing the second feed from the one or more servers to the mobile application, the mobile application configured to present the second feed, wherein the mobile application is further configured to switch a presentation of the first feed to a presentation of the second feed in response to a user interaction with the mobile application: As discussed, Zackschewski discloses a system with multiple views and the ability for users to switch between these views through manipulation [cite: US20070262953A1, Abstract,,,]. It would be obvious for a POSA to apply this well-known user interface paradigm to enable switching between distinct media feeds provided by the server within a mobile application.

Obviousness of Independent Claim 9 (Method)

Claim 9 expands on Claim 1 by specifying that the media messages include an image or video captured by the mobile application via a corresponding camera.

The combination for Claim 1 (Borquez + Sony + Zackschewski + Nokia) already renders Claim 9 obvious, primarily due to Borquez:

• Generating a plurality of media messages at one or more mobile applications executable on a corresponding one or more mobile devices, wherein respective ones of the plurality of media messages include an image or video captured by the one or more mobile applications via a corresponding one or more cameras of the corresponding one or more mobile devices: Borquez explicitly teaches "uploading content (e.g., video, audio, images) captured on mobile devices over a wireless network" [cite: US20070099659A1,]. The abstract further clarifies that the content is captured "via camera functionality of the mobile device" [cite: US20070099659A1, Abstract]. By the priority date, mobile devices equipped with cameras capable of capturing images and videos for sharing through applications were ubiquitous.

The remaining steps of receiving, storing, selecting feeds based on expiration, providing feeds with sharing prompts, and switching between feeds are covered by the same combination and rationale provided for Claim 1.

Obviousness of Independent Claim 16 (System)

Claim 16 describes a system counterpart to the method of Claim 1. Given the method claims are rendered obvious, the system performing those methods would also be obvious.

A POSA would understand how to implement the functionalities described in Claim 1 using conventional server architecture (processors, memory, machine-readable instructions) and mobile device components.

• One or more servers including memory, machine-readable instructions, and one or more processors, the one or more processors configured to execute the machine-readable instructions to perform operations comprising: This generic system architecture is widely known and taught in numerous prior art references, including Borquez [cite: US20070099659A1,,] and Sony [cite: US7386623B2,]. The specific operations performed by these servers are those made obvious by the combination of Borquez, Sony, Zackschewski, and Nokia as detailed for Claim 1.

Obviousness of Independent Claim 24 (System)

Claim 24 describes a system that includes both the mobile applications for generating camera-captured media messages and the servers for processing and distributing them, as outlined in Claim 9.

Similar to Claim 16, the system described in Claim 24 would be obvious for the same reasons as Claim 9.

• One or more mobile applications executable on a corresponding one or more mobile devices, the one or more mobile applications configured to create a plurality of media messages, wherein respective ones of the plurality of media messages include an image or video captured via a corresponding one or more cameras of the corresponding one or more mobile devices: This aspect is directly taught by Borquez, which describes mobile devices uploading content captured via their camera functionality [cite: US20070099659A1, Abstract,].
• And one or more servers including memory, machine-readable instructions, and one or more processors, the one or more processors configured to execute the machine-readable instructions to perform operations comprising: The server-side components and their operations are obvious for the reasons stated for Claim 16, executing the method steps found obvious for Claim 9.

Obviousness of Dependent Claims

Many dependent claims relate to features common in mobile applications by 2010:

• Claims 2 & 17 (Camera captured media): Taught by Borquez (US20070099659A1) [cite: US20070099659A1, Abstract,].
• Claims 3 & 18 (Attached media not native to camera capture): Common multimedia editing and messaging features. A POSA would know how to attach supplementary media (e.g., an external image or audio track) to any media message.
• Claims 4 & 19 (Internal links to webpages): Embedding hyperlinks within digital content was a fundamental aspect of the internet and digital documents long before 2010. Nokia (US20090292762A1) or Google's "Video object tag creation and processing" (US20090144772A1) show how links can be incorporated into shared content.
• Claims 5 & 20 (Comment prompt): The ability to comment on media content was prevalent in social media and video sharing platforms. Cisco's (US7735101B2) "System allowing users to embed comments at specific points in time into media presentation" or Yahoo's (US20100241968A1) "Tool for embedding comments for objects in an article" clearly demonstrate this. A prompt is a standard UI element.
• Claims 6 & 21 (Advertisement prompt): Displaying advertisements on mobile devices and within applications was a common business model. Avantgo (US20020052781A1) teaches an "Interactive advertisement mechanism on a mobile device," and the patent itself references Google AdSense or Apple in-app advertising as known solutions (Description,).
• Claims 7 & 22 (Item purchase prompt): In-app purchases and other e-commerce transactions on mobile devices were well-established. Olliphant's (US20080235123A1) "Micro payments" or Ekberg's (US20050283444A1) "Transaction & payment system" disclose related payment systems.
• Claims 8, 15, 23, & 30 (Scheduled airtimes): Sony (US7386623B2) directly teaches "reservation control" for content distribution, which is equivalent to scheduling airtimes [cite: US7386623B2, Abstract].

Therefore, a POSA would have found all independent and dependent claims of US12112357B2 obvious given the combination of prior art and the common knowledge in the field as of the priority date.