US 9269097

A detailed analysis of U.S. Patent 9,269,097 reveals its focus on enhancing natural language processing in voice-activated systems by using advertisements to interpret user commands. The patent is currently the subject of significant litigation initiated by its current owner.

Patent Details:

• Title: System and method for delivering targeted advertisements and/or providing natural language processing based on advertisements
• Assignee: The original assignee was VoiceBox Technologies Corp. As of the date of this report, the current assignee is VB Assets LLC.
• Inventors: Tom Freeman, Mike Kennewick
• Filing Date: November 10, 2014
• Issue Date: February 23, 2016
• Abstract: The patent describes a system that uses natural language models to deliver targeted ads and to process spoken language based on those ads. In one application, an advertisement for a product or service is presented to a user. When the user speaks, the system interprets their utterance in the context of the ad. Specifically, if the user employs a pronoun, the system determines if that pronoun refers to the product, the service, or the provider mentioned in the advertisement.

Litigation:

As of April 26, 2026, there is no record of U.S. Patent 9,269,097 being a subject of a case in the 2026 docket of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC). However, this patent is part of active litigation in U.S. District Courts.

Notably, on April 17, 2026, VB Assets LLC filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Google LLC, Alphabet Inc., Android, Inc., XXVI Holdings Inc., and YouTube, LLC in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware (Case 1:26-cv-00443). U.S. Patent 9,269,097 is one of eleven patents asserted in this case. VB Assets LLC, doing business as Voicebox Tech, has been actively enforcing a portfolio of patents originally developed by VoiceBox Technologies, a company described as a pioneer in conversational AI. This portfolio has also been asserted in lawsuits against other major technology companies, including Apple, Amazon, and Samsung.

Plain-Language Overview of Independent Claims:

U.S. Patent 9,269,097 has two independent claims, one outlining a method and the other a system.

• Independent Claim 1 (the Method Claim): This claim describes a computer-implemented method for understanding a person's spoken request. The process begins by presenting an advertisement for a product or service to the user. The system then listens to what the person says. The key part of the invention is that the system interprets the person's speech in the context of the advertisement it just showed. Specifically, if the person uses a pronoun (like "it," "them," or "they"), the system is designed to figure out if that pronoun is referring to the product or service in the ad, or to the company that provides it.

• Independent Claim 23 (the System Claim): This claim describes a physical system designed to perform the method outlined in Claim 1. The system is composed of one or more physical processors that are programmed with computer instructions. When these instructions are executed, they cause the processors to carry out the steps of providing the advertisement, receiving the user's spoken words, and interpreting those words—including any pronouns—by linking them back to the advertised product, service, or provider. In essence, this claim covers the tangible hardware that is configured to perform the inventive method.