Obviousness

Obviousness Analysis of US12131357 under 35 U.S.C. § 103

This analysis identifies combinations of prior art references that would render the independent claims of US patent 12131357 obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art (POSITA) at the time of the invention's priority date (February 12, 2010). The motivation for combining these references stems from the common desire to enhance user engagement, facilitate content sharing, and build community around user-generated streaming media on mobile platforms.

The independent claims (1, 8, 14, and 21) of US12131357 generally describe:

• Receiving and storing media messages from mobile applications at servers.
• Providing at least two distinct feeds of these media messages to a mobile application.
• Presenting a media message within a feed along with interactive prompts for commenting, sharing, and bookmarking.
• Allowing a user to switch between the different feeds.
• (For claims 8 and 21) The media messages explicitly include images or videos captured by the mobile device's camera.

Identified Prior Art Combinations and Motivation

A POSITA at the priority date would have been familiar with mobile applications, streaming media, user-generated content, social networking features, and various monetization models.

Combination 1: User-Generated Streaming Media with Social Interaction and Multiple Feeds

This combination addresses the core elements of claims 1, 8, 14, and 21, including user-generated content, streaming feeds, social interaction prompts, and multiple feeds with switching capabilities.

References:

1. US20100161635A1 (Spondon Dey): "Method and apparatus for providing a mobile video blog service".

   • Disclosure: Dey describes a service where users can create and publish video content directly from mobile communication devices, effectively establishing a "mobile video blog service." This directly addresses the creation, transmission (receiving at servers), and distribution of user-generated streaming media from mobile devices, covering elements such as mobile applications, receiving media messages, storing them on servers, and providing a feed for display (even if implicitly a single blog feed initially). For claims 8 and 21, this reference strongly supports "generating... media messages at one or more mobile applications... include an image or video captured by... one or more cameras".
   • Priority Date: 2008-12-22.

2. US8037093B2 (Facebook, Inc.): "Feeding updates to landing pages of users of an online social network from external sources".

   • Disclosure: This patent describes the fundamental concept and implementation of presenting "feeds" of updates within an online social network. This provides the context for organizing and delivering content, including user-generated media, in a dynamic stream format. The concept of different types of "updates" or content sources implies the potential for multiple feeds.
   • Priority Date: 2006-09-12.

3. US20100241968A1 (Yahoo! Inc.): "Tool for embedding comments for objects in an article".

   • Disclosure: Yahoo! teaches systems for enabling users to embed and display comments associated with various online content. This directly covers the "comment prompt" and the ability for "interaction with the comment prompt via the mobile application enables a comment to be associated with the media message".
   • Priority Date: 2009-03-23.

4. US8997006B2 (Facebook, Inc.): "Interface for sharing posts about a live online event among users of a social networking system".

   • Disclosure: This reference describes sharing mechanisms for online content within a social networking environment, which would include generating links for access. This directly covers the "sharing prompt" and that "interaction with the sharing prompt via the mobile application facilitates generation of a link configured to enable access to the media message".
   • Priority Date: 2009-12-23.

5. General Knowledge / Common Features in Social Media and Browsing:

   • Bookmarking: The inclusion of a "bookmark prompt" enabling "association with another bookmarked media message" was a widely known and implemented feature in web browsers, social media platforms, and content consumption applications (e.g., saving favorites, creating playlists) prior to 2010. It would have been a routine design choice to include such functionality in an application presenting media content.
   • Multiple Feeds and Switching: The concept of providing multiple categorized feeds (e.g., "breaking news, religion, music, or pets" as mentioned in US12131357's description) and allowing users to switch between them was standard practice in news aggregators, content portals, and even within social networks (e.g., viewing a "news feed" vs. a "profile feed"). A POSITA would readily implement different content categories as distinct feeds and provide a user interface element for switching between them.

Motivation for Combination:

A POSITA, motivated to create a comprehensive and engaging mobile media application akin to a modern social media platform, would find it obvious to combine these references:

• From Dey to a Social Feed: Dey provides the core technology for a "mobile video blog service", enabling users to generate and publish video from their phones. A POSITA would logically look to integrate this user-generated content into a more discoverable and interactive format.
• Integrating Feeds (Facebook '093): The widely adopted "feed" model, as shown in Facebook '093, was an established and effective way to present a stream of dynamic content. A POSITA would naturally apply this structure to the content generated by Dey's mobile video blog service to improve content discovery and consumption.
• Adding Social Interaction (Yahoo! '968 and Facebook '006): To increase user engagement and foster community around the shared media, a POSITA would readily incorporate interactive features that were common in other online content platforms. Yahoo! '968 demonstrates commenting functionality, and Facebook '006 shows sharing mechanisms. Adding these prompts (comment, share) to each media message in the feed would be a straightforward and obvious step to enhance user interaction and content virality.
• Enhancing Content Management (Bookmarking): Just as web browsers and media players allowed users to bookmark or save content, extending this functionality to a mobile media feed would be an obvious way to empower users to manage their preferred content, making the application more valuable.
• Diversifying Content (Multiple Feeds): To cater to diverse user interests and organize large volumes of content, a POSITA would find it obvious to implement multiple thematic feeds (e.g., for news, music, or specific topics) and provide a mechanism for users to switch between these feeds, much like tuning into different channels or categories. This would be a routine design choice for any content aggregation platform.

Therefore, the combination of a mobile video blog service (Dey), social networking feeds (Facebook '093), commenting features (Yahoo! '968), and sharing mechanisms (Facebook '006), augmented by common bookmarking functionality and the provision of multiple, switchable feeds, would have been obvious to a POSITA by the priority date. The overarching motivation would be to develop a rich, interactive, and socially integrated mobile media experience, leveraging well-known elements from existing online and mobile platforms.