DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Information Disclosure Statement
An Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) has not been submitted as of the mailing of the last Office Action dated 12 June 2025. Applicant is reminded of the continuing obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to timely apprise the Office of any information which is material to patentability of the claims under consideration in this application.
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 12 December 2025 has been entered.
Introductory Remarks
In response to communications filed on 12 December 2025, claims 1-2, 7, 10-13, and 18 are amended per Applicant's request. No claims were cancelled. No claims were withdrawn. No new claims were added. Therefore, claims 1-20 are presently pending in the application, of which claims 1, 13, and 18 are presented in independent form.
The previously raised 112 rejections of the pending claims is withdrawn in view of the amendments to the claims. Upon reconsideration, a new ground(s) of rejection has been issued for dependent claim 17.
The previously raised 103 rejection of the pending claims is withdrawn in view of the amendments to the claims. A new ground(s) of rejection has been issued.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed 12 December 2025 with respect to the 112 rejection of the claims (see Remarks, p. 12) have been fully considered and are persuasive. The 112 rejection of the independent claims have been withdrawn. However, upon reconsideration, a 112 rejection has been raised for dependent claim 17. See the 112 rejection below for further detail.
Applicant’s arguments filed 12 December 2025 with respect to the rejection of the claims under 35 U.S.C. 103 have been fully considered but are moot because the arguments do not apply to the new references (and thus new combination of references) being used in the current rejection.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 17 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
The claim recites “generating the first group profile comprises controlling a specificity with which the first group profile defines one or more characteristics of the first device based upon a third privacy requirement”. It is unclear what is meant by “specificity” with respect to “one or more characteristics of the first device” being “define[d] by” “the first group profile” as claimed. Therefore, it is unclear what the metes and bounds of such a limitation are with respect to the claimed invention.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-2, 10-11, 13-16, and 18-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang et al. (“Wang”) (US 2012/0116875 A1), in view of Barlik et al. (“Barlik”) (US 2020/0159955 A1), in further view of Eldering et al. (“Eldering”) (US 2002/0123928 A1, incorporating by reference DeWolf et al. (“IBR-DeWolf”) (App. No. 09/782,962, published as US 2002/0111172 A1) at [0010]).
Regarding claim 1: Wang teaches A method, comprising:
generating, by a hardware processor, a plurality of group profiles comprising a first group profile associated with a first group corresponding to a first set of devices and a second group profile associated with a second group corresponding to a second set of devices (Wang, [0026], where the system places a number of individuals 208 into one or more groups in order to determine advertisements to provide to each respective individual 208 in association with particular content requested by a respective individual 208. See Wang, [0057-0070], where the disclosed systems include various modules executable by a processor to perform the disclosed steps);
receiving a request for content associated with a first device of the first set of devices corresponding to the first group (Wang, [0015] and [0037], where a user of a client device may submit content requests, e.g., requests for content such as content of a website or content of a message such as an email);
determining the first group profile, of the plurality of group profiles, based upon the request for content (Wang, [0028-0029], where an individual 208 may be classified according to a different value group 220, 222 for each advertiser, e.g., individual 208 may be classified in association with the first value group 220 with respect to the first advertiser 210 and classified in association with the second value group 222 with respect to the second advertiser. Advertisers may direct funds to bidding for the individual 208 of particular value classes based on a business plan to target individuals associated with the particular value groups 220, 222. See Wang, [0038-0039], where advertisements are provided in association with the content satisfying the content request(s), where advertisements may be identified in association with responses to the content request(s). See Wang, [0045], where once value group(s) of the individual 302 are determined, the auction 320 is conducted with the bids of the advertisers 316, 318 that correspond to value group of the individual 302 with respect to the advertisers 316, 318. In particular, since the individual 302 is associated with the first value group with respect to the first advertiser 316 and the second value group with respect to the second advertiser 318, the auction 320 is conducted with the bid 322 of the first advertiser 316 with respect to the first value group and the bid 328 of the second advertiser 318 with respect to the second value group); and
selecting a first content item for presentation via the first device based upon the first group profile (Wang, [0046], where based on the results of the auction 320, the first advertisement 312 or the second advertisement 314 may be provided in association with a response to the content request 306. Specifically, the advertisement 312, 314 produced by the winner of the auction 320 may be displayed more prominently on the webpage(s) provided in response to the content request 306. See also Wang, [0049], where one or more advertisements 412 may be provided to the client device 406 in association with the electronic content 404, which may be based on a value group associated with a user 422 of the client device 406) … .
Wang does not appear to explicitly teach [selecting the first content item for presentation], wherein at least one of: the method comprises determining that one or more first privacy regulations apply to the first device based upon first location information for the first device corresponding to the first device being covered by a first jurisdiction regulated by the one or more first privacy regulations, and determining that a first privacy requirement defined by the one or more first privacy regulations is indicative of one or more sets of information, wherein based upon the first device being associated with the one or more first privacy regulations defining the first privacy requirement indicative of the one or more sets of information, the selecting the first content item is performed without using the one or more sets of information indicated by the first privacy requirement while selecting a second content item for presentation via a second device, to which the first privacy requirement does not apply based upon second location information for the second device corresponding to the second device not being covered by the first jurisdiction regulated by the one or more first privacy regulations, is performed with the one or more sets of information indicated by the first privacy requirement; or generating the first group profile comprises determining that one or more second privacy regulations apply to the first device based upon the first location information for the first device corresponding to the first device being covered by the first jurisdiction regulated by the one or more second privacy regulations, determining that a second privacy requirement defined by the one or more second privacy regulations requires exclusion of at least some information and excluding the at least some information from the first group profile based upon the second privacy requirement that requires exclusion of the at least some information while generating the second group profile associated with the second set of devices, to which the second privacy requirement does not apply based upon location information for the second set of devices corresponding to the second set of devices not being covered by the first jurisdiction regulated by the one or more second privacy regulations, is performed based upon a different privacy requirement that does not require exclusion of the at least some information.
Barlik teaches [selecting the first content item for presentation], wherein at least one of: the method comprises determining that one or more first privacy regulations apply to the first device based upon first location information for the first device corresponding to the first device being covered by a first jurisdiction regulated by the one or more first privacy regulations, and determining that a first privacy requirement defined by the one or more first privacy regulations is indicative of one or more sets of information (Barlik, [0027], where the third party systems request online user settings (e.g., opt ins and opt outs) with respect to privacy rules and regulations, identifying an online user and a location of the online user to allow the clearinghouse 112 to determine whether the online user has opted into or out of respective rules and regulations for a jurisdiction associated with the online user’s location, and may delete some online user information for compliance based on the online user’s settings, as well as activating/deactivating some tracking, analysis, and content generation functions based on the online user’s settings. See, e.g., Barlik, [0028], where each of the data privacy law opt in or opt out indicators are associated with a particular data privacy law and/or specific permission associated with a particular data privacy law, e.g., a first indicator (FLAG 1 as depicted in [FIG. 1]) may be associated with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) permission regarding the tracking and use of data associated with the user device for monetization activity by a third party) … .
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have combined the teachings of Wang and Barlik (hereinafter “Wang as modified”) with the motivation of ensuring data privacy compliance even within different jurisdictions having one or more unique data privacy laws with distinct compliance requirements (Barlik, [0001] and [0011-0013]).
Wang as modified does not appear to explicitly teach the selecting the first content item is performed without using the one or more sets of information indicated by the first privacy requirement while selecting a second content item for presentation via a second device, to which the first privacy requirement does not apply based upon second location information for the second device corresponding to the second device not being covered by the first jurisdiction regulated by the one or more first privacy regulations, is performed with the one or more sets of information indicated by the first privacy requirement; or generating the first group profile comprises determining that one or more second privacy regulations apply to the first device based upon the first location information for the first device corresponding to the first device being covered by the first jurisdiction regulated by the one or more second privacy regulations, determining that a second privacy requirement defined by the one or more second privacy regulations requires exclusion of at least some information and excluding the at least some information from the first group profile based upon the second privacy requirement that requires exclusion of the at least some information while generating the second group profile associated with the second set of devices, to which the second privacy requirement does not apply based upon location information for the second set of devices corresponding to the second set of devices not being covered by the first jurisdiction regulated by the one or more second privacy regulations, is performed based upon a different privacy requirement that does not require exclusion of the at least some information.
Eldering teaches the selecting the first content item is performed without using the one or more sets of information indicated by the first privacy requirement while selecting a second content item for presentation via a second device, to which the first privacy requirement does not apply based upon second location information for the second device corresponding to the second device not being covered by the first jurisdiction regulated by the one or more first privacy regulations, is performed with the one or more sets of information indicated by the first privacy requirement (Eldering, [0029-0030], where ad profiles are correlated with one or more subscriber profiles or one or more groups of subscribers, in which an operator is applied to the subscriber profiles to determine if a particular ad is applicable to the subscriber. See Eldering, [0154-0155], where the groups are formed by developing a restricted operator or set of operators to apply to the subscriber profiles, where the restricted operator allows the measurement of certain parameters (non-deterministic) to be made, but prohibits the measurement of other parameters (privacy invading determinations). In other words, the operators are used to group or cluster subscribers, and proper construction of the operators prevents inappropriate (privacy violating) measurements from being made.
See Barlik, [0027], where the third party systems request online user settings (e.g., opt ins and opt outs) with respect to privacy rules and regulations, identifying an online user and a location of the online user to allow the clearinghouse 112 to determine whether the online user has opted into or out of respective rules and regulations for a jurisdiction associated with the online user’s location (i.e., “the first location…corresponding to the first device being covered by the first jurisdiction regulated by the one or more second privacy regulations”)); or
generating the first group profile comprises determining that one or more second privacy regulations apply to the first device based upon the first location information for the first device corresponding to the first device being covered by the first jurisdiction regulated by the one or more second privacy regulations, determining that a second privacy requirement defined by the one or more second privacy regulations requires exclusion of at least some information and excluding the at least some information from the first group profile based upon the second privacy requirement that requires exclusion of the at least some information while generating the second group profile associated with the second set of devices, to which the second privacy requirement does not apply based upon location information for the second set of devices corresponding to the second set of devices not being covered by the first jurisdiction regulated by the one or more second privacy regulations, is performed based upon a different privacy requirement that does not require exclusion of the at least some information (Eldering, [0114] and [0156], where groups of subscribers may be based on geographic segmentation, e.g., grouping is based on geographic mechanisms for determining applicability of an ad. See Eldering, [0154-0155], where the groups are formed by developing a restricted operator or set of operators to apply to the subscriber profiles, where the restricted operator allows the measurement of certain parameters (non-deterministic) to be made, but prohibits the measurement of other parameters (privacy invading determinations). In other words, the operators are used to group or cluster subscribers, and proper construction of the operators prevents inappropriate (privacy violating) measurements from being made.
See Barlik, [0027], where the third party systems request online user settings (e.g., opt ins and opt outs) with respect to privacy rules and regulations, identifying an online user and a location of the online user to allow the clearinghouse 112 to determine whether the online user has opted into or out of respective rules and regulations for a jurisdiction associated with the online user’s location (i.e., “the first location…corresponding to the first device being covered by the first jurisdiction regulated by the one or more second privacy regulations”). See also Barlik, [0015], [0018], [0020], and [0028], where the user privacy settings may be in accordance with privacy laws and regulations by various jurisdictions).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have combined the teachings of Wang as modified and Eldering with the motivation of increasing the effectiveness of ads by delivering ads that have been determined to be relevant to subscribers even when profiles are not comprehensive and also in order to protect users’ privacy (see, e.g., Eldering, [0019-0022] and [0089]).
Regarding claim 2: Wang as modified teaches The method of claim 1, wherein:
the different privacy requirement used to generate the second group profile is based upon the second location information for the second device corresponding to the second device being covered by a second jurisdiction regulated by one or more different privacy regulations defining the different privacy requirement (Eldering, [0114] and [0156], where groups of subscribers may be based on geographic segmentation, e.g., grouping is based on geographic mechanisms for determining applicability of an ad. See Barlik, [0015], [0018], [0020], and [0027-0028], where the user privacy settings may be in accordance with location-based privacy laws and regulations by various jurisdictions).
Regarding claim 10: Wang as modified teaches The method of claim 1, wherein:
the first location information is obtained from a first global positioning system (GPS) receiver of the first device; and the second location information is obtained from a second GPS receiver of the second device (IBR-Dewolf, [0054], where the wireless device 110 learns its location by utilizing the GPS chipset contained within it, where the GPS chipset receives the location coordinates for the wireless device 110 from the GPS network 160, and the GPS chipset knows the location of the device at all times, and the wireless device 110 may transmit the location data. The wireless device 110 then stores the location data. See, e.g., Wang, [0052], where multiple customers visited a website (implying multiple devices, i.e., a “first device” and “second device” as claimed)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have combined the teachings of Wang as modified and Eldering with the motivation of utilizing built-in components for determining location, which improves convenience for the developer, as well as providing precise location tracking.
Regarding claim 11: Wang as modified teaches The method of claim 1, wherein:
the first location information is obtained from device information of the first device; and the second location information is obtained from second device information of the second device (IBR-Dewolf, [0041], where the location of the subscriber can be identified by the wireless system, e.g., determining the difference in time that a signal is received at three towers, or the difference in the angle that the signal is received at two towers connected to the network such as a telecommunications network (see, e.g., IBR-Dewolf, [0040]). See, e.g., Wang, [0052], where multiple customers visited a website (implying multiple devices, i.e., a “first device” and “second device” as claimed)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have combined the teachings of Wang as modified and Eldering with the motivation of utilizing built-in components for determining location, which improves convenience for the developer, as well as providing precise location tracking.
Regarding claim 13: Claim 13 recites substantially the same claim limitations as claim 1, and is rejected for the same reasons.
Note that Wang teaches A computing device comprising: a hardware processor; and a memory device comprising processor-executable instructions that when executed by the hardware processor cause performance of operations, the operations comprising [the claimed steps] (Wang, [0051] and [Claim 8], where the disclosed system may be implemented as a server 402 that includes one or more processors and memory that is accessible by the processor, where the memory is an example of computer-readable storage media that may include nonvolatile memory, and the computer-readable storage media includes instructions that are executable by the processor that perform the disclosed operations).
Regarding claim 14: Claim 14 recites substantially the same claim limitations as claim 2, and is rejected for the same reasons.
Regarding claim 15: Wang as modified teaches The computing device of claim 13, wherein:
based upon the first device being associated with the first privacy requirement indicative of the one or more sets of information, the selecting the first content item is performed without using the one or more sets of information indicated by the first privacy requirement while selecting the second content item for presentation via the second device is performed with the one or more sets of information indicated by the first privacy requirement (Eldering, [0029-0030], where ad profiles are correlated with one or more subscriber profiles or one or more groups of subscribers, in which an operator is applied to the subscriber profiles to determine if a particular ad is applicable to the subscriber. See Eldering, [0154-0155], where the groups are formed by developing a restricted operator or set of operators to apply to the subscriber profiles, where the restricted operator allows the measurement of certain parameters (non-deterministic) to be made, but prohibits the measurement of other parameters (privacy invading determinations). In other words, the operators are used to group or cluster subscribers, and proper construction of the operators prevents inappropriate (privacy violating) measurements from being made).
Regarding claim 16: Wang as modified teaches The computing device of claim 13, wherein:
generating the first group profile comprises excluding the at least some information based upon the second privacy requirement while generating the second group profile is performed based upon the different privacy requirement that does not require exclusion of the at least some information (Eldering, [0154-0155], where the groups are formed by developing a restricted operator or set of operators to apply to the subscriber profiles, where the restricted operator allows the measurement of certain parameters (non-deterministic) to be made, but prohibits the measurement of other parameters (privacy invading determinations). In other words, the operators are used to group or cluster subscribers, and proper construction of the operators prevents inappropriate (privacy violating) measurements from being made. Note that there are multiple groups/clusters, where groups may be formed based on some combination of characteristics (Eldering, [0084]), implying that there is a first group that may have a set of parameters that are prevented from being used, and a second group that may have a different set of parameters that are prevented from being used).
Regarding claim 18: Claim 18 recites substantially the same claim limitations as claim 1, and is rejected for the same reasons.
Note that Wang teaches A non-transitory machine readable medium having stored thereon processor-executable instructions that when executed cause performance of operations, the operations comprising [the claimed steps] (Wang, [0051] and [Claim 8], where the disclosed system may be implemented as a server 402 that includes one or more processors and memory that is accessible by the processor, where the memory is an example of computer-readable storage media that may include nonvolatile memory, and the computer-readable storage media includes instructions that are executable by the processor that perform the disclosed operations).
Regarding claim 19: Claim 19 recites substantially the same claim limitations as claim 2, and is rejected for the same reasons.
Claims 3-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang et al. (“Wang”) (US 2012/0116875 A1), in view of Barlik et al. (“Barlik”) (US 2020/0159955 A1), in further view of Eldering et al. (“Eldering”) (US 2002/0123928 A1, incorporating by reference DeWolf et al. (“IBR-DeWolf”) (App. No. 09/782,962, published as US 2002/0111172 A1) at [0010]), in further view of Smallwood et al. (“Smallwood”) (US 2014/0156385 A1).
Regarding claim 3: Wang as modified teaches The method of claim 1, comprising:
responsive to the receiving the request for content, analyzing the user profile database based upon second identification information comprised within the request for content to identify the first user profile, wherein the selecting the first content item based upon the first group profile is performed based upon a determination that the first user profile comprises the first group profile (Wang, [0045], where once value group(s) of the individual 302 are determined, the auction 320 is conducted with the bids of the advertisers 316, 318 that correspond to value group of the individual 302 with respect to the advertisers 316, 318. In particular, since the individual 302 is associated with the first value group with respect to the first advertiser 316 and the second value group with respect to the second advertiser 318, the auction 320 is conducted with the bid 322 of the first advertiser 316 with respect to the first value group and the bid 328 of the second advertiser 318 with respect to the second value group).
Wang as modified does not appear to explicitly teach prior to the receiving the request for content, generating a first user profile associated with the first device, wherein the first user profile comprises the first group profile and first identification information associated with the first device; storing the first user profile in a user profile database; and [wherein selecting the first content item based upon the first group profile is performed based upon a determination that the first user profile] comprises [the first group profile].
Smallwood teaches prior to the receiving the request for content, generating a first user profile associated with the first device, wherein the first user profile comprises the first group profile and first identification information associated with the first device; storing the first user profile in a user profile database; and [wherein selecting the first content item based upon the first group profile is performed based upon a determination that the first user profile] comprises [the first group profile] (Smallwood, [0019] and [0026], where the user profile may be used to associate the user identity and user information (i.e., “first identification information”) with one or more market segments (i.e., “first group profile”) used for targeting an ad to the user. See Smallwood, [0036], where the ad 114 is provided for access by recipient device 104, where the ad server 224 maintains a reference to the identity (or user profile) of the recipient (device) of the ad and a reference to the ad provided to the user (i.e., “user profile associated with the first device”). See also Smallwood, [0053], where a subset of recipients are selected having a particular market segment profile, implying that the steps of associating recipients to user profiles and ads, etc., occurs “prior to the receiving the request for content”, as claimed.
See Smallwood, [0024], where the user profile information is stored in a user profile store 204. Note that although the user profile store 204 is not explicitly stated to be a “database” as claimed, one of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to have modified Smallwood’s disclosure to explicitly be a database for storing user profile information with the motivation of more efficient organization (e.g., relational), thereby more efficient querying (i.e., faster search)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have combined the teachings of Wang as modified and Smallwood with the motivation of greater efficiency by avoiding having to recalculate Wang’s value group(s), and instead perform a lookup operation which is much faster computationally.
Regarding claim 4: Wang as modified teaches The method of claim 1, comprising:
responsive to the receiving the request for content, analyzing the user profile database based upon second identification information comprised within the request for content to identify the first user profile, wherein the selecting the first content item based upon the first group profile is performed based upon a determination that the first user profile comprises the indication of the first group profile (Wang, [0045], where once value group(s) of the individual 302 are determined, the auction 320 is conducted with the bids of the advertisers 316, 318 that correspond to value group of the individual 302 with respect to the advertisers 316, 318. In particular, since the individual 302 is associated with the first value group with respect to the first advertiser 316 and the second value group with respect to the second advertiser 318, the auction 320 is conducted with the bid 322 of the first advertiser 316 with respect to the first value group and the bid 328 of the second advertiser 318 with respect to the second value group).
Wang as modified does not appear to explicitly teach prior to the receiving the request for content, generating a first user profile associated with the first device, wherein the first user profile comprises an indication of the first group profile and first identification information associated with the first device; storing the first user profile in a user profile database; and [wherein selecting the first content item based upon the first group profile is performed based upon a determination that the first user profile] comprises [the first group profile].
Smallwood teaches prior to the receiving the request for content, generating a first user profile associated with the first device, wherein the first user profile comprises an indication of the first group profile and first identification information associated with the first device; storing the first user profile in a user profile database; and [wherein selecting the first content item based upon the first group profile is performed based upon a determination that the first user profile] comprises [the first group profile] (Smallwood, [0019] and [0026], where the user profile may be used to associate the user identity and user information (i.e., “first identification information”) with one or more market segments (i.e., “first group profile”) used for targeting an ad to the user. See Smallwood, [0036], where the ad 114 is provided for access by recipient device 104, where the ad server 224 maintains a reference to the identity (or user profile) of the recipient (device) of the ad and a reference to the ad provided to the user (i.e., “user profile associated with the first device”). See also Smallwood, [0053], where a subset of recipients are selected having a particular market segment profile, implying that the steps of associating recipients to user profiles and ads, etc., occurs “prior to the receiving the request for content”, as claimed.
See Smallwood, [0024], where the user profile information is stored in a user profile store 204. Note that although the user profile store 204 is not explicitly stated to be a “database” as claimed, one of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to have modified Smallwood’s disclosure to explicitly be a database for storing user profile information with the motivation of more efficient organization (e.g., relational), thereby more efficient querying (i.e., faster search)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have combined the teachings of Wang as modified and Smallwood with the motivation of greater efficiency by avoiding having to recalculate Wang’s value group(s), and instead perform a lookup operation which is much faster computationally.
Claims 5-9 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang et al. (“Wang”) (US 2012/0116875 A1), in view of Barlik et al. (“Barlik”) (US 2020/0159955 A1), in further view of Eldering et al. (“Eldering”) (US 2002/0123928 A1, incorporating by reference DeWolf et al. (“IBR-DeWolf”) (App. No. 09/782,962, published as US 2002/0111172 A1) at [0010]), in further view of Fordyce, III et al. (“Fordyce”) (US 2011/0302039 A1).
Regarding claim 5: Wang as modified teaches The method of claim 1, but does not appear to explicitly teach comprising: responsive to determining that the first content item is presented via the first device, generating an identifier; transmitting the identifier to a server associated with the first content item; receiving conversion information, wherein the conversion information is indicative of a conversion event associated with the presentation of the first content item via the first device; and determining that the conversion event is associated with the presentation of the first content item via the first device based upon a determination that the conversion information comprises the identifier.
Fordyce teaches responsive to determining that the first content item is presented via the first device, generating an identifier (Fordyce, [0128], where a cookie identity is used as user data (125) to obtain user specific profile (131), where when the user (101) makes an online purchase from a web page that contains an advertisement that is tracked with the cookie identity, the cookie identity can be correlated to the online transaction and thus to the account of the user (101).
Although Fordyce does not appear to explicitly state that the cookie identity (i.e., “identity”) is generated in response to the advertisement being presented to the user, Fordyce discloses associating the (browser) cookie identity to the advertisement. Thus, although Fordyce does not appear to explicitly state when the cookie identity is generated at what point in the process, one of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to modify Fordyce to (explicitly) generate the cookie identity after the advertisement is displayed with predictably equivalent operating characteristics, which is that an identifier is associated with the advertisement, and would have been motivated to do so such that the advertisement and identity are more uniquely associated);
transmitting the identifier to a server associated with the first content item (Fordyce, [0083-0087], where user data uses browser cookie information to identify the user (101), which is matched to account information or an account number to identify a user specific profile (131). A browser cookie can be used to map browser cookie information, e.g., cookie ID, to the account data that identifies the user (101) in the transaction handler (103). The cookie ID may be associated with a user account information (142) in a persistent way. See also Fordyce, [0187], where the retailer may provide the browser cookie associated with the user (101) to the operator of the transaction handler (103));
receiving conversion information, wherein the conversion information is indicative of a conversion event associated with the presentation of the first content item via the first device (Fordyce, [0104], where the correlator (117) receives information about the suer specific advertisement data (119), monitors the transaction data (109), identifies transactions considered results of the advertisement corresponding to the user specific advertisement data (119), and generates the correlation result (123). See also, e.g., Fordyce, [0094], where the correlator (117) identifies transactions resulting from searches or online advertisements, where the correlator identifies a transaction performed by the user and sends the correlation result about the transaction to the user tracker, which allows the user tracker to combine the information about the transaction and online activities); and
determining that the conversion event is associated with the presentation of the first content item via the first device based upon a determination that the conversion information comprises the identifier (Fordyce, [0105], where an advertisement and corresponding transaction may occur in an online checkout process, where the advertisement may be presented to a particular consumer (Fordyce, [0095]) (i.e., the advertisement corresponding to the claimed “presentation of the first content item via the first device”). See Fordyce, [0096], where the profile generator uses the correlation result (123) to augment the transaction profiles (127) with data indicating the rate of conversion from searches or advertisements to purchase transactions.
See Fordyce, [0107], where user specific advertisement data is associated with the identity or characteristics of the user, such as global unique identifier (GUID), name or user name, user group, and/or user data. The correlator (117) can link or match the transactions with the advertisements based on the identity or characteristics of the user (101) associated with the user specific advertisement data (119). The portal (143) may receive a query identifying the user data (125) that tracks the user (101) and/or characteristics of the user specific advertisement data (119); and the correlator (117) identifies one or more transactions matching the user data (125) and/or the characteristics of the user specific advertisement data (119) to generate the correlation result (123)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have combined the teachings of Wang as modified and Fordyce (hereinafter “Wang as modified”) with the motivation of presenting effective, timely, and relevant marketing information to the user, where based on transaction data, the user specific profile can improve audience targeting for online advertising where customers will get better advertisements and offers presented to them, and advertisers will achieve better return-on-investment for their advertisement campaigns (Fordyce, [0082]).
Regarding claim 6: Wang as modified teaches The method of claim 5, comprising:
storing, in a transaction data structure, an indication of the identifier, wherein the determining that the conversion event is associated with the presentation of the first content item comprises analyzing the transaction data structure based upon the conversion information to determine that the identifier in the transaction data structure matches the identifier in the conversion information (Fordyce, [0107], where user specific advertisement data is associated with the identity or characteristics of the user, such as global unique identifier (GUID), name or user name, user group, and/or user data. The correlator (117) can link or match the transactions with the advertisements based on the identity or characteristics of the user (101) associated with the user specific advertisement data (119). The portal (143) may receive a query identifying the user data (125) that tracks the user (101) and/or characteristics of the user specific advertisement data (119); and the correlator (117) identifies one or more transactions matching the user data (125) and/or the characteristics of the user specific advertisement data (119) to generate the correlation result (123).
See Fordyce, [0037], where transaction data (109) is stored in a data warehouse (140) in the form of transaction records (see Fordyce, [0338] and [0361]) (i.e., “transaction data structure”)).
Regarding claim 7: Wang as modified teaches The method of claim 1, but does not appear to explicitly teach wherein: the first group profile comprises first group information associated with the first set of devices corresponding to the first group; the first group profile is generated based upon a first plurality of sets of device information associated with the first set of devices corresponding to the first group; the second group profile comprises second group information associated with the second set of devices corresponding to the second group; and the second group profile is generated based upon a second plurality of sets of device information associated with the second set of devices corresponding to the second group.
Fordyce teaches wherein: the first group profile comprises first group information associated with the first set of devices corresponding to the first group; the first group profile is generated based upon a first plurality of sets of device information associated with the first set of devices corresponding to the first group; the second group profile comprises second group information associated with the second set of devices corresponding to the second group; and the second group profile is generated based upon a second plurality of sets of device information associated with the second set of devices corresponding to the second group (Fordyce, [0249], where the profile generator may consolidate transaction data for a group of persons, after the group is identified by certain characteristics. The consolidated transaction data can be used to derive intelligence information about the group to generate a profile for the group. See also, e.g., Fordyce, [0337], where accumulated transaction data (109) and the corresponding account data (111) are used to generate intelligence information about the purchase behavior, pattern, preference, etc. as individuals or as a member of a group. See also Fordyce, [0051] and [0079], where a transaction profile of the group may be defined based on aggregate information (e.g., by time of day, household), or segment (e.g., by cluster, propensity, demographics, etc.), social networking information, characteristics related to online activities, offline purchase activities, merchant propensity, etc.).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have combined the teachings of Wang as modified and Fordyce with the motivation of presenting effective, timely, and relevant marketing information to the user, where based on transaction data, the user specific profile can improve audience targeting for online advertising where customers will get better advertisements and offers presented to them, and advertisers will achieve better return-on-investment for their advertisement campaigns (Fordyce, [0082]).
Regarding claim 8: Claim 8 recites substantially the same claim limitations as claim 5, and is rejected for the same reasons.
Regarding claim 9: Claim 9 recites substantially the same claim limitations as claim 6, and is rejected for the same reasons.
Regarding claim 20: Claim 20 recites substantially the same claim limitations as claim 5, and is rejected for the same reasons.
Claim 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang et al. (“Wang”) (US 2012/0116875 A1), in view of Barlik et al. (“Barlik”) (US 2020/0159955 A1), in further view of Eldering et al. (“Eldering”) (US 2002/0123928 A1, incorporating by reference DeWolf et al. (“IBR-DeWolf”) (App. No. 09/782,962, published as US 2002/0111172 A1) at [0010]), in further view of Hirsch et al. (“Hirsch”) (US 2017/0171580 A1).
Regarding claim 12: Wang as modified teaches The method of claim 1, but does not appear to explicitly teach wherein the generating the plurality of group profiles comprises: performing, using at least one of one or more decomposition techniques or one or more reconstruction techniques, dimensional reduction of one or more sets of device information to generate a plurality of segments defining the plurality of group profiles including the first group profile, wherein the first group profile is represented as a plurality of dimensions associated with one or more group facts.
Hirsch teaches performing, using at least one of one or more decomposition techniques or one or more reconstruction techniques, dimensional reduction of one or more sets of device information to generate a plurality of segments defining the plurality of group profiles including the first group profile, wherein the first group profile is represented as a plurality of dimensions associated with one or more group facts (Hirsch, [0134-0136] and [0190], where the system reduces high-dimensional spaces to a set of linear decision regions, where to facilitate dimension reduction and feature synthesis, each raw sparse vector of terms are segmented into syntactic blocks (groups of terms having similar forms or type), and/or into semantic blocks: groups of terms having similar function or meaning. Each of the raw text vector segments can be synthesized/encoded into a relatively small number of numeric scores, and are used for defining closeness in space, e.g., for clustering (see, e.g., Hirsch, [0176-0230]). See Hirsch, [0138-0139], where subscribers can be clustered using linear, nonlinear, and/or nonlinear manifold techniques, using feature selection. See Hirsch, [0217-0223] and [0230], where a distance matrix from the input data contained within the formed clusters may be developed, such as using Singular Value Decomposition).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have combined the teachings of Wang as modified and Hirsch with the motivation of providing complexity savings through dimensionality reduction (Hirsch, [0190]) and improve the speed of performance of the linear, nonlinear, and/or NLM clustering (Hirsch, [0136]).
Claim 17 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang et al. (“Wang”) (US 2012/0116875 A1), in view of Barlik et al. (“Barlik”) (US 2020/0159955 A1), in further view of Eldering et al. (“Eldering”) (US 2002/0123928 A1, incorporating by reference DeWolf et al. (“IBR-DeWolf”) (App. No. 09/782,962, published as US 2002/0111172 A1) at [0010]), in further view of Kong et al. (“Kong”) (US 2017/0032143 A1).
Regarding claim 17: Wang as modified teaches The computing device of claim 13, but does not appear to explicitly teach wherein: generating the first group profile comprises controlling a specificity with which the first group profile defines one or more characteristics of the first device based upon a third privacy requirement.
Kong teaches generating the first group profile comprises controlling a specificity with which the first group profile defines one or more characteristics of the first device based upon a third privacy requirement (Kong, [0217], where the computing system 100 can determine a general baseline 318 as the settings, configurations, etc., of the grouping of end users having similarities or associations to user 110. The computing system 100 can set the general baseline 318 as the privacy baseline 314 of the user 110, and can determine the privacy baseline 314 of the user 110 based on settings or configurations of the users within the groupings, e.g., based on the closest matching end user or based on averaging within the group. See Kong, [0074] and [0076], where the privacy baseline 314 can be a standard or initial representation of a level or quality of protection or control for the information associated with the user 110, and can include a categorization or a type for the user’s information, such as address or contact information, identification information, current location of the user, etc., as well as being specific to one or a set of devices (see Kong, [0081]), where these various categorizations may each represent “a third privacy requirement” as claimed).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have combined the teachings of Wang as modified and Kong with the motivation of automatically grouping users into privacy groups for convenience and ease of management (e.g., being able to suggest a baseline set of preferences for a user without the user having to manually go through all possible privacy configurations/settings), as well as providing additional granularity for users to control the dissemination of their information.
Conclusion
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/IRENE BAKER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2152
3 January 2026