Prior art — US Patent 9578092

To identify the most relevant prior art for US patent 9578092, I will examine the patent's cited references. A rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 102 for anticipation means that every element of a claimed invention must be identically disclosed in a single prior art reference. This disclosure can be explicit or inherent.

The patent document itself lists the following as "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS," indicating these are related prior art documents:

U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/846,958
- Filing Date: July 16, 2013
- Description: Entitled "SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING ADDITIONAL FUNCTIONALITY TO EXISTING SOFTWARE IN AN INTEGRATED MANNER." This provisional application serves as the priority document for the subsequent non-provisional applications and ultimately US9578092B1. It would disclose the foundational concepts of embedding a function block within a superblock application to provide integrated additional functionality via an API without context switching.
- Potential Anticipated Claims: This provisional application would likely anticipate all claims (Claim 1 and Claim 9) of US9578092B1, as it represents an earlier disclosure of the same inventive subject matter.
U.S. application Ser. No. 14/024,027 (Published as US Application Publication No. 2015-0026700, and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 9,027,032)
- Filing Date: September 11, 2013
- Publication Date: January 22, 2015
- Issue Date (U.S. Pat. No. 9,027,032): May 5, 2015
- Description: Entitled "SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING ADDITIONAL FUNCTIONALITY TO EXISTING SOFTWARE IN AN INTEGRATED MANNER." This is a non-provisional application that claims benefit from U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/846,958. It details the system and method for integrating a function block into a superblock application to provide additional capabilities without requiring context switching.
- Potential Anticipated Claims: As a direct lineage of applications claiming the same invention, U.S. Pat. No. 9,027,032 (and its publication) would likely anticipate all claims (Claim 1 and Claim 9) of US9578092B1.
U.S. application Ser. No. 14/690,619 (Published as U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2015-0229706, and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 9,270,744)
- Filing Date: April 20, 2015
- Publication Date: August 13, 2015
- Issue Date (U.S. Pat. No. 9,270,744): February 23, 2016
- Description: Entitled "SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING ADDITIONAL FUNCTIONALITY TO EXISTING SOFTWARE IN AN INTEGRATED MANNER." This is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 14/024,027. It further elaborates on the system and method for integrated software functionality.
- Potential Anticipated Claims: As a continuation of the direct lineage, U.S. Pat. No. 9,270,744 (and its publication) would likely anticipate all claims (Claim 1 and Claim 9) of US9578092B1.
U.S. application Ser. No. 15/049,891 (Published as U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2016-0173577)
- Filing Date: February 22, 2016
- Publication Date: June 16, 2016
- Description: Entitled "SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING ADDITIONAL FUNCTIONALITY TO EXISTING SOFTWARE IN AN INTEGRATED MANNER." This is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 14/690,619. It describes the same core invention.
- Potential Anticipated Claims: As a continuation of the direct lineage, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2016-0173577 would likely anticipate all claims (Claim 1 and Claim 9) of US9578092B1.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,656,870
- Filing Date: March 15, 2005
- Description: Entitled "SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PEER-TO-PEER HYBRID COMMUNICATIONS." This patent is incorporated by reference in its entirety into US9578092B1. The detailed description of US9578092B1 states that the "function block 200 may contain functionality similar to that of an endpoint as described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 7,656,870." It further explains that the graphical user interface (GUI) of the endpoint described in '870 may be replaced with the API 202 of US9578092B1, and some functionality may be removed or added.
- Potential Anticipated Claims: This patent would likely anticipate aspects related to the underlying communication technologies, peer-to-peer functionality, and endpoint capabilities that the function block 200 leverages. Depending on the specificity of the claims in US9578092B1, elements related to communication methods, network interfaces, and general software architecture for communications might be anticipated by US7656870B2, particularly those broadly covering the "function block" acting as an endpoint for various services. It is less likely to anticipate the specific integration method within a superblock application without context switching, as that appears to be the novel aspect of 9578092. However, the foundational communication features of the "function block" could be anticipated.

It is important to note that "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS" are typically used to establish priority and are often considered part of the same inventive entity, rather than distinct prior art in the sense of challenging novelty. However, for a comprehensive prior art analysis under 35 U.S.C. § 102, these earlier-filed, related applications and patents inherently disclose the same or similar subject matter and would technically anticipate claims of the later-filed patent if they precede its effective filing date. In practice, they are used to establish a chain of priority for the invention.

The prior art definition under 35 U.S.C. § 102 states that an invention cannot be patented if it was patented, described in a printed publication, in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. To anticipate, a single prior art reference must disclose every element of the claimed invention.