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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Status of Claims
This communication is a First Office Action on the merits in reply to application number 18/316,814 filed on 05/12/2023. The preliminary amendment filed on 06/23/2023 has been entered, which cancels claims 1-20 and adds new claims 21-40.
Claims 21-40 are currently pending and have been examined.
Continuation
This application is a continuation of US App. No. 17/576709 (filed 01/14/2022, now US Pat. No. 11,682,046), which is a continuation of US App. No. 16/906794 (filed 06/19/2020, now US Pat. No. 11,227,313). In accordance with MPEP §609.02 A. 2 and MPEP §2001.06(b) (last paragraph), the Examiner has reviewed and considered the prior art cited in the Parent Applications. Also in accordance with MPEP §2001.06(b) (last paragraph), all documents cited or considered ‘of record’ in the Parent Applications are now considered cited or ‘of record’ in this application. Additionally, Applicant(s) are reminded that a listing of the information cited or ‘of record’ in the Parent Application need not be resubmitted in this application unless Applicants desire the information to be printed on a patent issuing from this application. See MPEP §609.02 A. 2. Finally, Applicants are reminded that the prosecution history of the Parent Application is relevant in this application. See e.g., Microsoft Corp. v. Multi-Tech Sys., Inc., 357 F.3d 1340, 1350, 69 USPQ2d 1815, 1823 (Fed. Cir. 2004) (holding that statements made in prosecution of one patent are relevant to the scope of all sibling patents).
Priority
Applicant’s claim for the benefit of a prior-filed application under 35 U.S.C. 119 and/or 35 U.S.C. 120 is acknowledged.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) filed on 05/12/2023 has been considered.
Claim Objection
Claim 24 recites the limitation of “the selective active offer.” This term is grammatically inconsistent with the “selected active offer” in base claim 22. The terms “selective” and “selected” are not interchangeable because they have a slightly different meaning/scope. The expression “selective active offer” in claim 24 is best understood by the Examiner as merely a typographical error and therefore will be interpreted as “ the selected active offer” for purposes of examination. Appropriate correction is required.
Double Patenting
The nonstatutory double patenting rejection is based on a judicially created doctrine grounded in public policy (a policy reflected in the statute) so as to prevent the unjustified or improper timewise extension of the “right to exclude” granted by a patent and to prevent possible harassment by multiple assignees. A nonstatutory obviousness-type double patenting rejection is appropriate where the conflicting claims are not identical, but at least one examined application claim is not patentably distinct from the reference claim(s) because the examined application claim is either anticipated by, or would have been obvious over, the reference claim(s). See, e.g., In re Berg, 140 F.3d 1428, 46 USPQ2d 1226 (Fed. Cir. 1998); In re Goodman, 11 F.3d 1046, 29 USPQ2d 2010 (Fed. Cir. 1993); In re Longi, 759 F.2d 887, 225 USPQ 645 (Fed. Cir. 1985); In re Van Ornum, 686 F.2d 937, 214 USPQ 761 (CCPA 1982); In re Vogel, 422 F.2d 438, 164 USPQ 619 (CCPA 1970); and In re Thorington, 418 F.2d 528, 163 USPQ 644 (CCPA 1969).
A timely filed terminal disclaimer in compliance with 37 CFR 1.321(c) or 1.321(d) may be used to overcome an actual or provisional rejection based on a nonstatutory double patenting ground provided the conflicting application or patent either is shown to be commonly owned with this application, or claims an invention made as a result of activities undertaken within the scope of a joint research agreement.
Effective January 1, 1994, a registered attorney or agent of record may sign a terminal disclaimer. A terminal disclaimer signed by the assignee must fully comply with 37 CFR 3.73(b).
Claims 21-25, 27-32, and 34-40 are rejected on the ground of nonstatutory double patenting over claims 1, 4-5, 8, 11-12, 15, and 18-19 of U.S. Patent No. 11,682,046 since the claims, if allowed, would improperly extend the "right to exclude" already granted in the patent.
Claims of instant App.
(as filed on 06/23/2023)
Claims of US Pat. No. 11,682,046
(issued on 06/20/2023)
21
15
22
15
23
19
24
15
25
18
27
15
28
1
29
1
30
5
31
1
32
4
34
1
35
8
36
8
37
12
38
8
39
11
40
8
The chart above maps claims 21-25, 27-32, and 34-40 of the instant application to corresponding claim of U.S. Patent 11,682,046 that are patentably indistinct, though not identical. For example, the chart below maps the limitations of independent claim 21 of the instant application to corresponding limitations of independent claim 15 of the ‘046 patent deemed as being identical, functionally equivalent, or patentably indistinct:
Limitations of claim 21 of
the instant application
Corresponding limitations of
claim 15 of US Pat. No. 11,682,046
A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising computer readable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors to: communicate with a database, the database storing sponsor profiles for a plurality of sponsors and user profiles for a plurality of users, each sponsor registered for recommending vendors to users;
At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage media of a sponsor portal system and including computer-executable instructions for implementing a graphical user interface (GUI) at a user computing device, the sponsor portal system including a sponsor engine comprising a processor in communication with a database, the database storing sponsor profiles for a plurality of sponsors and user profiles for a plurality of users, each sponsor registered for recommending vendors to users,
cause display, on a graphical user interface (GUI) of a computing device, of one or more of: a first display area displaying a plurality of tabs for different elements of a sponsor portal system; and a second display area, wherein the second display area is dynamically updated in response to a selection of a leads tab in the first display area to display a list of active offers, each active offer selectable by the sponsor and associated with a vendor;
cause display, on a first display area of the GUI, of a plurality of tabs for different elements of the sponsor portal system; dynamically update a second display area of the GUI to display, in response to a selection of a leads tab in the first display area, a list of active offers, each active offer selectable by the sponsor and associated with a vendor;
in response to selection of an active offer from the list of active offers, cause display in overlay over the second display area of a draft offer message corresponding to the selected active offer;
in response to selection of an active offer from the list of active offers in the second display area, cause display in overlay over the second display area of a draft offer message corresponding to the selected active offer,
determine, based on the user profiles and at least one of the offer or the vendor associated with the offer, a subset of the plurality of users to receive the offer; and
determine, based upon the user profiles and at least one of the offer or the vendor associated with the offer, a subset of the plurality of users to receive the offer;
transmit an interactive graphic to mobile computing devices of the subset of the plurality of users, the interactive graphic configured to communicate to the mobile computing devices a limited amount of information that is associated with the selected active offer and is sized to fit respective displays of the mobile computing devices.
transmit an interactive graphic to mobile computing devices of the subset of the plurality of users, the interactive graphic configured to communicate to the mobile computing devices a limited amount of information associated with the selected active offer, … the limited amount of information sized for ease of display on a smart phone screen of limited size.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized the slight differences between the claim language/limitations of claims 22-25, 27-32, and 34-40 of the instant application and claims 1, 4-5, 8, 11-12, 15, and 18-19 of the ‘046 Patent as being directed towards intention, non-functional and non-structural field-of-use language, slight variations in terminology, and/or obvious variants of claim elements, and therefore these claims are not patentably distinct from one another despite these slight differences.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
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 of this title, 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 21-24, 26-31, 33-38, and 40 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. §103 as unpatentable over Wickam (US 2015/0242919) in view of Kodali (US 2015/0332305).
Claims 21/35: As per claim 21, Wickam teaches a non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising computer readable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors to (par. 81 and Fig. 5: program code may be stored on a computer-readable storage medium, for example, in the form of a computer program comprising a plurality of instructions executable by one or more processors. The computer-readable storage medium may be non-transitory):
communicate with a database, the database storing sponsor profiles for a plurality of sponsors and user profiles for a plurality of users, each sponsor registered for recommending vendors to users (Abstract, pars. 36, 45-46, 51, 54, 91, 134, and Fig. 28: e.g., systems and methods permit a real estate agent [i.e., sponsors] to provide personal service provider recommendations to their homeowners [i.e., plurality of users]; platform may include one or more memory storage units, such as one or more databases; The real estate platform 200 may include personalized real estate agent information 210a, 210b [i.e., sponsor profiles]. Such information may be stored in the real estate platform, or may be stored elsewhere and accessible via the real estate platform. For example, Real Estate Agent A and Real Estate Agent B [i.e., sponsors] may use the real estate platform; user may be a real estate agent, or buyer/seller; images of the user's home and/or floor plan information may be presented. Any of this information may be accessed through the real estate platform. In some instances, the information may be stored in databases of the real estate platform; FIG. 28 provides an example of a user interface through which a user may manage the user's profile; user may be a real estate agent who may manage his or her profile; user may be a real estate agent who may manage his or her profile);
cause display, on a graphical user interface (GUI) of a computing device, of one or more of [Examiner’s Note: Although the claim scope only requires one of the first or second displays due to the “one or more of” claim phrase, the Examiner notes that Wickam teaches both the displays, and therefore the rejection provides citations/evidence showing how both of these alternative limitations are taught by the reference]:
a first display area displaying a plurality of tabs for different elements of a sponsor portal system (pars. 85-91, 95, 98, 130-133, and Figs. 6-9 and 27: displaying/describing display of a plurality of tabs, e.g., buttons, drop down menus, etc. of a sponsor portal system, such as the one shown in Fig. 6 – e.g., FIG. 6 provides an example of a user interface which may show personalized real estate agent information. Such information may include the real estate agent's name 602, contact information, image 604, information about the real estate agent's relationship with the homeowner 610a, 610b, value information; For example, user input regions 630, such as buttons, drop down menus, or other user interactive displays, may permit a user to directly email, text, call, send vcard, or add contact for the real estate agent; Another option may show service providers. These may include trusted service providers that are referred by the real estate agent. In some instances, the service provider information may include personal vendors for the homeowner that may include trusted service providers originally recommended by the real estate agent); and
a second display area, wherein the second display area is dynamically updated in response to a selection of a leads tab in the first display area to display a list of active offers, each active offer selectable by the sponsor and associated with a vendor (pars. 44, 98-102, 130-133 and Figs. 9 and 27: e.g., Agent Negotiated Rates or Offers [accessible via the Vendors, i.e., leads tab as shown in fig. 9]; agent may be able to provide specialized deals or offers to the homeowner. For example, coupons or VIP deals [i.e., active offers] may be presented to the homeowner. Such deals may be for home-related items or services. For example, one or more service providers may have a coupon or discount that may be presented to the homeowner. The discount may be presented by the real estate agent; A current offer 930 may be displayed. For example, a coupon may be presented to save at a home-related store or using a service provider. Navigation features 920 may be provided to permit a user to navigate between multiple offers [i.e., active offers]. For example, a user may hit a back arrow to view a previous offer, or a forward arrow to view a next offer; region may be presented for additional new offers or communications from the real estate agent [i.e., active offers]; Examiner’s Note - Fig. 9 further displays a “current offer” display area at the bottom of the mobile interface via elements 920 and 930 for using arrows to view a list of active offers selected by the real estate agent for a homeowner);
in response to selection of an active offer from the list of active offers, cause display in overlay over the second display area of a draft offer message corresponding to the selected active offer (pars. 98-103 and Fig. 9: describing/displaying selection of a current offer using the Previous and Next arrows, along with an overlaid draft offer message depicted in elements 940 of Fig. 9 corresponding to the offer - e.g., A current offer 930 may be displayed. For example, a coupon may be presented to save at a home-related store or using a service provider. Navigation features 920 may be provided to permit a user to navigate between multiple offers. For example, a user may hit a back arrow to view a previous offer, or a forward arrow to view a next offer; A region may be presented for additional new offers or communications from the real estate agent 940 [i.e., draft offer message]. For example, note [which is provided in partial overlay of the active offer, as shown in Fig. 9] may be presented by a real estate agent reminding the homeowner to contact the real estate agent to personally find a gift or award);
transmit an interactive graphic to mobile computing devices of the subset of the plurality of users, the interactive graphic configured to communicate to the mobile computing devices a limited amount of information that is associated with the selected active offer and is sized to fit respective displays of the mobile computing devices (pars. 98-103, 107, 114, Fig. 9, and claims 1 and 17: describing/displaying transmission of offers to a homeowner/client mobile device, which may be triggered by agent action for particular homeowners and which, as shown in Fig. 9 element 930, is depicted with limited information and size to fit the shown portion of the mobile computing device – e.g., user may select a vendor pool (e.g., `real estate agent recommendations`) to access the vendors recommended by the real estate agent; real estate agent may invite a homeowner to view the real estate agent's preferred vendor list; transmitting, to the user device, the personalized information for the real estate agent to be displayed on the user interface of the user device, wherein the user interface permits a user of the user device to search and access the real estate agent's personal vendor recommendations; current offer 930 may be displayed. For example, a coupon may be presented to save at a home-related store or using a service provider. Navigation features 920 may be provided to permit a user to navigate between multiple offers [i.e., mobile device screen is suitable for displaying limited information that fits at bottom portion of mobile device as shown in Fig. 9, element 930]; See also, par. 66: application may be a mobile application. A viewable area of the canvas on the display may be a viewport).
Wickam does not explicitly teach determine, based on the user profiles and at least one of the offer or the vendor associated with the offer, a subset of the plurality of users to receive the offer.
Kodali teaches determine, based on the user profiles and at least one of the offer or the vendor associated with the offer, a subset of the plurality of users to receive the offer (pars. 78, 107, and 150: describing features for allowing determination of users based on user profile, the deal, and merchant preferences associated therewith – e.g., customer filtering unit enables the merchant to filter and view the profiles of the customers based on one or more parameters. The one or more preferred may include but is not limited to spending activities, customer demographics, interests, profile score and the like for categorizing and identifying the preferred customers; merchant may be enabled to post an advertisement/deal to the selected preferred customers. The preferred customers may be selected based on the spending habits, manually customized filters and analytically predicted requirements…deals would increase the sales of the merchant and further pay the system after getting the customers from it).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Wickam with Kodali because the references are analogous since they are each directed to features for connecting customers with providers, which is within Applicant’s field of endeavor of connecting vendors and offers with users, and because modifying Wickam to incorporate Kodali’s feature for determining a subset of users to receive an offer based on user profiles and the offer or vendor, as claimed, would serve the motivation to aid merchants in identifying customers and providing services more efficiently (Kodali at par. 6) and to ensure that relevant and customized offers are provided for customers (Kodali at par. 111); and further obvious because the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in the combination each element merely would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Claim 35 is directed to a computer-implemented method for performing substantially similar limitations as those recited in claim 21 and addressed above. Wickam, in view of Kodali, teaches a computer-implemented method for performing the limitations discussed above (Wickam at pars. 54, 78, and Fig. 5: e.g., platform may be implemented with aid of one or more servers; FIG. 5 illustrates example components of a device 500 for implementing aspects of the present invention, in accordance with at least one embodiment. In some embodiments, the device 500 may include or may be included in the real estate management system discussed in connection with FIG. 4. In some embodiments, computing device 500 may include many more components than those shown in FIG. 5), and claim 35 is therefore rejected using the same references and for substantially the same reasons as set forth above.
Claims 22/29/36: Wickam further teaches wherein the draft offer message includes one or more of an offer title, a details section, or a hyperlink to additional information regarding the offer (par. 102 and Fig. 9: e.g., note may be presented by a real estate agent reminding the homeowner to contact the real estate agent to personally find a gift or award [wherein Fig. 9, element 940 shows details to the user and depicts a clickable contact link to additional information via communication with the real estate agent]).
Claims 23/30/37: Wickam does not teach the limitation of claims 23/30/37.
However, Kodali further teaches wherein the additional information regarding the offer comprises a vendor rating from a reviewer and at least one review comprising at least one comment from the reviewer, wherein the reviewer satisfies at least one standard regarding how the reviewer is connected with a respective user profile (par. 95 and Fig. 2C: displaying/describing additional information in the form user’s review of the business, including a rating and comments, and including an indication of “Transaction Verified Review,” which satisfies a standard of the review is connected with a user profile - e.g., FIG. 2C is a diagram 200c illustrating an exemplary user interface of reviews provided by the customer. The user interface 200c may also be configured to display the reviews provided the customer at 220. The system 106 authenticates the customer to write review for the visit of the store/service provided by the merchant and also displays the reviews provided by the customer; See also, pars. 81-82: The transaction based review authenticating unit 130 enables the customers to write authenticated reviews. The transaction based review authenticating unit 130 generates a review authentication code in response to the user performing a spending activity with the merchant).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify the combination of Wickam/Kodali to incorporate Kodali’s reviewer rating, comment and standard by which a reviewer is connected with a profile, as claimed, in order to serve the motivation to provide feedback to aid the merchant or other users in making a purchase decision and to ensure that reviews are provided by authentic, trusted, and/or real users (Kodali at par. 95), which would be appreciated as ensuring integrity of a rating/review and/or the reviewer; and further obvious because the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in the combination each element merely would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Claims 24/31/38: Wickam further teaches wherein the limited amount of information associated with the selective active offer comprises one or more of a portion of the offer title, the details section, or the hyperlink to additional information regarding the offer (pars. 98-103 and Fig. 9: describing/displaying limited amount of information in elements 930 and 940 in relation to the displayed current offer, providing details and link to additional information, which is limited in amount to be presentable in the portion of the mobile device screen shown in Fig. 9 - e.g., current offer 930 may be displayed; note may be presented by a real estate agent reminding the homeowner to contact the real estate agent to personally find a gift or award).
Claims 26/33: Wickam further teaches wherein the user profiles include home details data, based on which one or more of a plurality of upgrades or a plurality of enhancements are recommended via the interactive graphic (pars. 39-43, 59, 98, and 100: e.g., real estate agent-sponsored platform for a homeowner to collect, access and manage home data. This may include personal recommendations of service providers (e.g., vendors) that may be needed by homeowners to help manage their home; throughout the real estate cycle, needs may arise for use of various service providers, and the homeowner can benefit from the agent's experience and knowledge in the field; In one example, after a homeowner buys a home, he may wish to change the flooring. Rather than randomly sifting through flooring specialists, the homeowner may access the agent's list of personally recommended flooring specialists; user may be a homeowner who may wish to access information about his or her home. The relevant documents may be accessible through the platform. The homeowner may have a device through which the homeowner may interact with the platform. The device may have a display which may show a user interface through which the homeowner may interact with the platform. The user interface may display information about the homeowner's home; user interface which may show information about service providers that may be used in relation to a homeowner's home).
Claims 27/34/40: Wickam further teaches wherein the respective displays comprise at least one smart phone screen of limited size and wherein the limited amount of information is sized for ease of display on the at least one smart phone screen of limited size (pars. 64-67, 98-103, Figs. 6-24, and claim 1: describing/displaying smartphone and mobile application with icons, menus, information and interface features sized for ease of display on a smartphone of limited size – e.g., real estate management system may include a plurality of devices…smartphone; display may permit a visual display of information; smartphone (e.g., iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Palm, Symbian, Windows), cellular phone; user interface permits a user of the user device to search and access the real estate agent's personal vendor recommendations; current offer 930 may be displayed; permit a user to navigate between multiple offers; application may be a mobile application. A viewable area of the canvas on the display may be a viewport).
Claim 28: Wickam teaches a sponsor portal system comprising at least one processor and at least one memory, wherein the sponsor portal system is programmed to cause to be displayed on a graphical user interface (pars. 38, 45, 80- 84, and Fig. 5: invention provides systems and methods for real estate service provider recommendation; platform may include one or more memory storage units; computer program comprising a plurality of instructions executable by one or more processors. The computer-readable storage medium may be non-transitory; one or more user interfaces may be provided in order to provide information to a user; provide a graphical user interface to a user operating the device):
a first display area displaying a plurality of tabs for different elements of the sponsor portal system (pars. 85-91, 95, 98, 130-133, and Figs. 6-9 and 27: displaying/describing display of a plurality of tabs, e.g., buttons, drop down menus, etc. of a sponsor portal system, such as the one shown in Fig. 6 – e.g., FIG. 6 provides an example of a user interface which may show personalized real estate agent information. Such information may include the real estate agent's name 602, contact information, image 604, information about the real estate agent's relationship with the homeowner 610a, 610b, value information; For example, user input regions 630, such as buttons, drop down menus, or other user interactive displays, may permit a user to directly email, text, call, send vcard, or add contact for the real estate agent; Another option may show service providers. These may include trusted service providers that are referred by the real estate agent. In some instances, the service provider information may include personal vendors for the homeowner that may include trusted service providers originally recommended by the real estate agent);
a second display area, wherein the second display area is dynamically updated in response to a selection of a leads tab in the first display area to display a list of active offers, each active offer selectable by the sponsor and associated with a vendor (pars. 44, 98-102, 130-133 and Figs. 9 and 27: e.g., Agent Negotiated Rates or Offers [accessible via the Vendors, i.e., leads tab as shown in fig. 9]; agent may be able to provide specialized deals or offers to the homeowner. For example, coupons or VIP deals [i.e., active offers] may be presented to the homeowner. Such deals may be for home-related items or services. For example, one or more service providers may have a coupon or discount that may be presented to the homeowner. The discount may be presented by the real estate agent; A current offer 930 may be displayed. For example, a coupon may be presented to save at a home-related store or using a service provider. Navigation features 920 may be provided to permit a user to navigate between multiple offers [i.e., active offers]. For example, a user may hit a back arrow to view a previous offer, or a forward arrow to view a next offer; region may be presented for additional new offers or communications from the real estate agent [i.e., active offers]; Examiner’s Note - Fig. 9 further displays a “current offer” display area at the bottom of the mobile interface via elements 920 and 930 for using arrows to view a list of active offers selected by the real estate agent for a homeowner), wherein in response to selection of an active offer from the list of active offers (pars. 98-103 and Fig. 9: e.g., current offer 930 may be displayed; Navigation features 920 may be provided to permit a user to navigate between multiple offers. For example, a user may hit a back arrow to view a previous offer, or a forward arrow to view a next offer), the sponsor portal system further programmed to:
cause display in overlay over the second display area of a draft offer message corresponding to the selected active offer (pars. 98-103 and Fig. 9: describing/displaying selection of a current offer using the Previous and Next arrows, along with an overlaid draft offer message depicted in elements 940 of Fig. 9 corresponding to the offer - e.g., A current offer 930 may be displayed. For example, a coupon may be presented to save at a home-related store or using a service provider. Navigation features 920 may be provided to permit a user to navigate between multiple offers. For example, a user may hit a back arrow to view a previous offer, or a forward arrow to view a next offer; A region may be presented for additional new offers or communications from the real estate agent 940 [i.e., draft offer message]. For example, note [which is provided in partial overlay of the active offer, as shown in Fig. 9] may be presented by a real estate agent reminding the homeowner to contact the real estate agent to personally find a gift or award);
transmit an interactive graphic to mobile computing devices of the subset of the plurality of users, the interactive graphic configured to communicate to the mobile computing devices a limited amount of information that is associated with the selected active offer and is sized to fit respective displays of the mobile computing devices (pars. 98-103, 107, 114, Fig. 9, and claims 1 and 17: describing/displaying transmission of offers to a homeowner/client mobile device, which may be triggered by agent action for particular homeowners and which, as shown in Fig. 9 element 930, is depicted with limited information and size to fit the shown portion of the mobile computing device – e.g., user may select a vendor pool (e.g., `real estate agent recommendations`) to access the vendors recommended by the real estate agent; real estate agent may invite a homeowner to view the real estate agent's preferred vendor list; transmitting, to the user device, the personalized information for the real estate agent to be displayed on the user interface of the user device, wherein the user interface permits a user of the user device to search and access the real estate agent's personal vendor recommendations; current offer 930 may be displayed. For example, a coupon may be presented to save at a home-related store or using a service provider. Navigation features 920 may be provided to permit a user to navigate between multiple offers [i.e., mobile device screen is suitable for displaying limited information that fits at bottom portion of mobile device as shown in Fig. 9, element 930]; See also, par. 66: application may be a mobile application. A viewable area of the canvas on the display may be a viewport).
Wickam does not explicitly teach determine, based on user profiles and at least one of the offer or the vendor associated with the offer, a subset of the plurality of users to receive the offer.
Kodali teaches determine, based on user profiles and at least one of the offer or the vendor associated with the offer, a subset of the plurality of users to receive the offer (pars. 78, 107, and 150: describing features for allowing determination of users based on user profile, the deal, and merchant preferences associated therewith – e.g., customer filtering unit enables the merchant to filter and view the profiles of the customers based on one or more parameters. The one or more preferred may include but is not limited to spending activities, customer demographics, interests, profile score and the like for categorizing and identifying the preferred customers; merchant may be enabled to post an advertisement/deal to the selected preferred customers. The preferred customers may be selected based on the spending habits, manually customized filters and analytically predicted requirements…deals would increase the sales of the merchant and further pay the system after getting the customers from it).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Wickam with Kodali because the references are analogous since they are each directed to features for connecting customers with providers, which is within Applicant’s field of endeavor of connecting vendors and offers with users, and because modifying Wickam to incorporate Kodali’s feature for determining a subset of users to receive an offer based on user profiles and the offer or vendor, as claimed, would serve the motivation to aid merchants in identifying customers and providing services more efficiently (Kodali at par. 6) and to ensure that relevant and customized offers are provided for customers (Kodali at par. 111); and further obvious because the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in the combination each element merely would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Claims 25, 32, and 39 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. §103 as unpatentable over Wickam (US 2015/0242919) in view of Kodali (US 2015/0332305), as applied to claims 21, 28, and 35 above, and further in view of Crane-Baker (US 2009/0083095).
Claims 25/32/39 Wickam does not teach the limitation of claims 25/32/39.
Kodali teaches wherein the subset of the plurality of users to receive the offer is determined based upon vendor ratings, each respective vendor rating of the vendor ratings associated with the vendor and a respective user of the plurality of users (pars. 78, 107, and 150: e.g., customer filtering unit enables the merchant to filter and view the profiles of the customers based on one or more parameters. The one or more preferred may include but is not limited to spending activities, customer demographics, interests, profile score and the like for categorizing and identifying the preferred customers; merchant may be enabled to post an advertisement/deal to the selected preferred customers. The preferred customers may be selected based on the spending habits, manually customized filters and analytically predicted requirements…deals would increase the sales of the merchant and further pay the system after getting the customers from it; For example among the filtered customers, the highest profile score customer may be provided enhanced privileged services).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify the combination of Wickam/Kodali to incorporate Kodali’s vendor based ratings associated with a vendor and user, as claimed, in order to serve the motivation to identify preferred customers with respect to particular merchants (Kodali at par. 15); and further obvious because the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in the combination each element merely would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Wickam and Kodali do not explicitly teach and comprising a hierarchal connection identifying how the respective user is connected with rating providers of the vendor rating.
Crane-Baker teaches and comprising a hierarchal connection identifying how the respective user is connected with rating providers of the vendor rating (pars. 51, 61, 73, and 78: For example, if a user views an online advertisement from XYZ company, the user can check whether there is any rating data for XYZ company; A rating may be assigned to the source, based on the comments, as shown by step 460. This rating may be a number between for example, "1" and "5" representing a sliding scale of acceptability, with "5" being superior and "1" being unfavorable; Each user can identify a trusted primary source associated with the particular user, as shown in step 506. For example, if a user has a trusted relative or friend with a website, or other e-commerce site, or the user has previously dealt with an online vendor and had a favorable experience, the user can identify that site or URL (uniform resource locator) as a trusted primary source. The user can identify a plurality of trusted primary sources, as shown by step 508. If a user wishes to identify additional trusted primary sources, "yes" line 510 leads to step 506. Line 511 shows that the user can identify trusted secondary sources, as shown in step 514. A trusted secondary source has a lower level of trust than that of a trusted primary source. For example, a trusted secondary source may be an advertiser, or web site that a user has heard is trustworthy, or has had a previous experience that was favorable. The trusted secondary source typically has a lower degree of trustworthiness than a trusted primary source).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Wickam/Kodali with Crane-Baker because the references are analogous since they are each directed to features for connecting customers with providers, which is within Applicant’s field of endeavor of connecting vendors and offers with users, and because modifying Wickam/Kodali to incorporate Crane-Baker’s hierarchal connection identifying how a user is connected with rating providers of the vendor rating, as claimed, in order to serve the motivation to ensure a vendor is trusted (Crane-Baker at par. 12; See also, Wickam at par. 2: trying to find trusted service providers); and further obvious because the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in the combination each element merely would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Online Home Services Company Launches in Detroit; ServiceMagic.com Helps Consumers Take the Guesswork Out of Hiring Home Service Professionals PR Newswire [New York] 01 Nov 2000: 1. 2 pgs.: discloses an online marketplace that matches consumers' requests for services to qualified service professionals, including providing consumers with providers’ performance ratings, reviews, and the like.
Collins et al. (US 2005/0038688): discloses a system/method for matching local buyers and sellers for the provision of community based services.
Beaudoin et al. (US Patent No. 7,096,193): discloses features for matching consumers to pre-qualified service providers.
Condon et al. (US Patent No. 8,612,262): discloses features for rating performance of service providers relative to their peers.
Gonen et al. (US 2006/0136310): discloses features for routing customer contacts to service providers in real time.
Giovannoli (US Patent No. 5,842,178): discloses computerized features for connecting vendors with buyers, including a probability that an identified service provider will accept a communication session via a feature for filtering and selecting service providers based on their likelihood (i.e., probability) of responding to a request for a quotation (col. 8, lines 24-26).
Lurie (US 2003/0126205): discloses scheduling live advice with a selected service provider, including determining which service providers in the plurality of service providers are currently available to be instantly connected to the consumer (pars. 115-119 and Fig. 3: e.g., Fig. 3 showing a listing of service providers and their respective availability for a communication session, i.e., available for Live Advice, Away from phone, On the Phone, etc.); and an opportunity for each currently available service provider to be instantly connected to the consumer, via the communication session (Fig. 3 and pars. 15 and 115-119).
Anderson et al. (US 2009/0319523): disclose a system for matching users with service providers.
Any inquiry of a general nature or relating to the status of this application or concerning this communication or earlier communications from the Examiner should be directed to Timothy A. Padot whose telephone number is 571.270.1252. The Examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday, 8:30 - 5:30. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the Examiner’s supervisor, Brian Epstein can be reached at 571.270.5389. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571- 273-8300.
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/TIMOTHY PADOT/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3625
01/14/2016