Obviousness

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

The analysis of obviousness for US patent 9087321 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 considers whether the claimed invention, at the time it was made, would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art (POSA). This assessment involves identifying the scope and content of the prior art, comparing the differences between the prior art and the claimed invention, and determining the motivation a POSA would have had to combine or modify the prior art to arrive at the invention with a reasonable expectation of success. A POSA in this field (social networking and distributed computing in 2010) would likely possess a bachelor's degree in computer science or a related discipline, coupled with several years of experience in developing and implementing web-based applications involving user interaction, data processing, and scalable architectures.

Identified Prior Art:

The previously identified prior art references are:

1. US20090287763A1 (Kota Enterprise, Llc): Describes a "question server to facilitate communication between participants," suggesting a system for connecting users based on their interactions with questions [cite: US9087321B2].
2. US20120296749A1 (Zuckerberg Mark E): Describes an "auction-based selection and presentation of polls to users," indicating methods for dynamically presenting polls and engaging users [cite: US9087321B2].

Combination of Prior Art and Rationale for Obviousness:

A strong argument for obviousness can be made by combining the teachings of US20090287763A1 and US20120296749A1 with the general knowledge and common practices prevalent in the field of social networking and distributed computing at the priority date of US9087321 (March 1, 2010).

Motivation to Combine US20090287763A1 and US20120296749A1:

1. Enhancing User Engagement and Matching Relevance: A POSA working on a social networking platform would be motivated to improve user connections and engagement. US20090287763A1 provides a basic framework for connecting users via questions [cite: US9087321B2]. To make this more dynamic and engaging, a POSA would naturally look to techniques for presenting questions or polls effectively, such as those described in US20120296749A1, which focuses on the "selection and presentation of polls to users" [cite: US9087321B2]. Combining these would lead to a system that not only asks questions for connection but does so in a dynamic and potentially optimized manner.

2. Improving Matching Accuracy with More Data: Once a system is collecting user answers (as in US20090287763A1), a POSA would recognize that cumulative data provides a more accurate basis for matching. The "progressive poll query" and "cumulatively comparing" elements of US9087321 (Claim 2, 11, 20) would be an obvious refinement to any matching system to enhance precision. Using "all of the selected answers by the user and all of the selected answers by the other users" (Claim 3, 12, 21) to determine similarity is a fundamental concept in data analysis, where more data points generally lead to better insights.

3. Providing Real-Time Feedback: The patent emphasizes "real-time results" and "real-time updates" of matches (Abstract, Claims 1, 2, 10, 11, 19, 20). In 2010, the trend in web applications was towards more dynamic and responsive user interfaces, with real-time communication being a desirable feature for user engagement (e.g., chat applications, live feeds). A POSA would be motivated to provide immediate feedback to users as they answer polls, showing updated matches, to enhance the user experience.

4. Addressing Scalability Challenges with Distributed Systems: The background of US9087321 acknowledges the "plethora of social networking websites" and implies the need for efficient management of a "large number of members/users." The use of a "distributed architecture of match servers and a match aggregator" (Claim 6, 8, 15, 17, 24, 26) to handle this scale is a well-known engineering solution for high-volume, real-time data processing in networked environments. A POSA would routinely employ "divide and conquer" strategies, assigning "distinct subset[s] of the other users" to individual match servers, and using an aggregator to combine results. This is a common and predictable approach to distributing computational load.

5. Optimizing Performance with In-Memory Data Structures: To achieve "very rapid comparison and aggregation of result values" and "linear speed across all match servers and an almost immediate comparison," as described in US9087321, a POSA would readily turn to in-memory data storage (Claim 7, 9, 16, 18, 25, 27). Storing poll answers as an "in memory, two-dimensional array" is a straightforward and efficient way to organize and quickly access such data, providing significant performance benefits over disk-based storage for frequent comparison operations. The use of a reserved value (e.g., '255') for unanswered polls is a simple programming convention.

Conclusion:

The individual elements of US9087321, such as poll-based matching, dynamic poll presentation, cumulative comparison, real-time feedback, distributed server architectures, and in-memory data structures for performance, were either present in the cited prior art or were well-known design choices and engineering solutions in the context of social networking and scalable web applications in 2010.

A POSA, aiming to build a more efficient, accurate, and engaging social networking system, would have been motivated to combine the user-connecting aspects of US20090287763A1 with the dynamic poll presentation of US20120296749A1. Furthermore, to address the inherent challenges of scalability and real-time performance for a large user base, the POSA would have found it obvious to apply standard distributed computing patterns (e.g., multiple servers handling distinct data subsets, an aggregator) and performance optimization techniques (e.g., in-memory arrays for rapid comparison). The calculation of a "match percentage" (Claim 4, 13, 22) as a measure of similarity is a basic mathematical concept.

Therefore, the claimed invention, as described in independent claims 1, 10, and 19, and their dependent claims, would likely have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention. While the patent mentions an "unexpectedly realized that using a plurality of match servers would allow the system to quickly connect the users based on their similarities," this self-serving statement would require strong objective evidence of unexpected results to overcome a prima facie case of obviousness.