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 .
Claims 1-20 have been examined.
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.
Claim(s) 1-3, 5-8, 11-13 and 15-18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application Publication 20230367855 by Garcia-Arellano et al. (“Garcia-Arellano”) in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication 20180232534 by Dotan-Cohen et al., (“Dotan-Cohen”).
Regarding claim 1, Garcia-Arellano discloses:
1. A method of automatically tailoring sub-accounts of an online user account, the method comprising: See Garcia-Arellano Fig. 2, broadly depicting a method.
accessing, via a computer-based user data agent, the online user account …; Garcia-Arellano, ¶ 0039, “user persona training data 132.”
Garcia-Arellano does not expressly disclose an account that includes the sub-accounts. This is taught by Dotan-Cohen. See Dotan-Cohen, ¶ 0086, “User account(s)/credentials 244 generally includes data associated with user accounts, such as online accounts (e.g., email, social media), Microsoft® Net passport, user data relating to user accounts such as user emails, texts, instant messages, calls, and other communications; social network accounts and data, such as news feeds; online activity; and calendars, appointments, application data, or the like.” Also see ¶ 0091. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the accounts sub-accounts of Dotan-Cohen with the account of Garcia-Arellano in order to manage privacy as suggested by Dotan-Cohen (see ¶ 0088).
identifying traits associated with each of the sub-accounts, the traits including: a first set of traits associated with a first sub-account; and a second set of traits associated with a second sub-account; Garcia-Arellano ¶ 0039, “user persona training data 132 includes the data, such as web traffic data collected from the acquisition phase for a particular user. For example, the data includes user web traffic or a record of websites, applications, or other platforms utilized on the device or by the user, user click data, or any type of information that can be gathered with respect to a user's interaction with a device or the internet.” Also see, e.g. ¶ 0048, “ For example, if one user is a “golf” persona, and another user is a “tennis” persona, the difference between their persona scores will be low since golf and tennis are both sports and sports typically played by the same type of person. In another example, if one user is a “golf” persona, and another user is a “hunting” persona, the difference between their persona scores will be high since golf and hunting are not activities typically carried out by the same type of person.”
generating a first alternate persona based on the first set of traits; generating a second alternate persona based on the second set of traits; and Garcia-Arellano, ¶ 0040, “synthetic data generating program 101 receives a user's data, such as web traffic data collected from the acquisition phase, and classifies the user data into one or more personas.”
automatically performing online activities based on the first alternate persona for the first sub-account and based on the second alternate persona for the second sub-account to produce artificial user data that tailors the sub-accounts according to user preferences. Garcia-Arellano Fig. 2 element 208, also ¶ 0042, “ In an embodiment, the generation phase includes generating synthetic traffic based on the online personas obtained from the curation phase.”
Regarding claim 2, Garcia-Arellano also discloses:
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of traits is different from the second set of traits. Garcia-Arellano ¶ 0044, “In an embodiment, synthetic data generating program 101 generates a conceptual table of personas mapped against their set of URLs, category of URLs or category of traffic data information. For example, Social Media Application A is categorized under “social media” or a search query of “how long to cook salmon” is categorized under “baking and cooking.” During the curation phase, synthetic data generating program 101 determines a user's browsing pattern with a combination of browsing personas. For example, synthetic data generating program 101 determines a user's likes or dislikes. For example, synthetic data generating program 101 may determine that a user online shopping for dog treats either owns, has, or likes dogs. In such example, synthetic data generating program 101 classifies this user with other users who like dogs, own a dog, or also online shop for dog treats.”
Regarding claim 3, Garcia-Arellano does not expressly disclose:
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of traits is identified based on user preferences associated with the first sub-account; and wherein the second set of traits is identified based on user preferences associated with the second sub-account. This is taught by Dotan-Cohen. See ¶ 0052, “Returning to FIG. 2, the user data may be controlled according to settings, which may indicate specific aspects of the user data to be controlled, and which may be specified in user settings/preferences 242 (in user profile 240) or IPM session settings 282 (in IPM quarantine 280), for example.” It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the user preferences of Dotan-Cohen with the traits of Garcia-Arellano in order to control data and preserve user privacy as suggested by Dotan-Cohen (see ¶ 0052).
Regarding claim 5, Garcia-Arellano also discloses:
5. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the first and second alternate personas further includes: training a model with machine learning using a set of sample user profiles; and using a trained model to generate the first and second alternate personas. Garcia-Arellano, ¶ 0056, “In an embodiment, the acquired training data includes data associated with, but not limited to, one or more of the active time of day of an online user session, web pages visited by a user, web browser activity of a user, and application activity of a user.” ¶ 0059-0060, “[0059] At step S204, synthetic data generating program 101 trains a machine learning model to classify the user training data, search patterns, and queries, into one or more persona clusters. [0060] At step S206, synthetic data generating program 101 receives and classifies new user data into the one or more persona clusters based, at least in part, on the trained machine learning model.”
Regarding claim 6, Garcia-Arellano also discloses:
6. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the first and second alternate personas further includes: generating multiple candidate personas; and selecting the first and second alternate personas from amongst the candidate personas. Garcia-Arellano, ¶ 0056, “The method further includes, in a curation phase, training a machine learning model to classify the training data collected in the acquisition phase by clustering search patterns and queries into multiple persona clusters representing online personas.”
Regarding claim 7, Garcia-Arellano also discloses:
7. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically performing the online activities based on the first alternate persona further includes accessing the first sub-account; and wherein automatically performing the online activities based on the second alternate persona further includes accessing the second sub-account. ¶ 0033, “application 114 can be an application that a user of user device 110 utilizes to browse the web, internet, social media, or any other web traffic enabling use.”
Regarding claim 8, Garcia-Arellano also discloses:
8. The method of claim 1, wherein the online user account is an online content service account; and wherein automatically performing the online activities based on the first and second alternate personas further includes interacting with content from the online content service. Garcia-Arellano, ¶ 0033, “In an embodiment, application 114 is representative of one or more applications (e.g., social media applications, web applications, and email applications) located on user device 110.” Also ¶ 0045, “In the generation phase, synthetic data generating program 101 generates synthetic traffic based on the determined personas …”
Regarding claim 11, Garcia-Arellano discloses:
11. A system for automatically tailoring sub-accounts of an online user account, the system comprising: a user device; and a computer-based user data agent including: one or more processors; and computer-readable memory encoded with instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computer-based user data agent to: See Garcia-Arellano Fig. 1, broadly depicting a system. Also see Fig. 4, depicting a computer system.
All further limitations of claim 11 have been addressed in the rejection of claim 1 above.
Regarding claims 12-13 and 15-18, parent claim 11 is addressed above.
All further limitations of claims 12-13 and 15-18 have been addressed in the above rejections of claims 2-3 and 5-8, respectively.
Claim(s) 4, 9-10, 14 and 19-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Garcia-Arellano and Dotan-Cohen as applied above, and further in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication 20210350202 by Zachariah et al. (“Zachariah”).
Regarding claim 4, Garcia-Arellano does not expressly disclose:
4. The method of claim 3, wherein the first and second sets of traits are identified from a collection of pre-defined traits. This is taught by Zachariah. See ¶ 0028, “Personas can include inputs from customer demographics, behaviors, motivations, goals, data of existing customers, data from competitor's customers, research, etc.” Also ¶ 0041, “Attributes of the example generated persona of screenshots 300 can be inferred and/or be directly abstracted based on data.” Also ¶ 0047, “Process 500 can segment groups based on behavioral/demographic/transactional/psychographic attributes used for automated segmentation. These can include, inter alia: engagement, context, intent, actions, age, gender, language(s), job function, industry, transactions/revenues, product/service/category affinity based on purchase history, lifestyle, values, hobbies, personality traits, social class, interests, etc.” It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use Zachariah’s pre-defined traits with the traits of Garcia-Arellano in order to utilize filtering to provide for segment narrowing as suggested by Zachariah (see ¶ 0036).
Regarding claim 9, Garcia-Arellano also discloses:
9. The method of claim 8, wherein the content is a … media resource; and wherein automatically performing the online activities based on the first and second alternate persona further includes automatically playing or subscribing to the … media resource. ¶ 0033, “In an embodiment, application 114 is representative of one or more applications (e.g., social media applications, web applications, and email applications) located on user device 110. In various example embodiments, application 114 can be an application that a user of user device 110 utilizes to browse the web, internet, social media, or any other web traffic enabling use.”
Garcia-Arellano does not expressly disclose: video. This is taught by Zachariah. See ¶ 0041, “movies.” It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to try the movie video of Zachariah in the system of Garcia-Arellano in an attempt to provide a full media experience, as a person with ordinary skill has a good reason to pursue the known media options within his or her technical grasp. In turn, because the video when used in the system of Garcia-Arellano has the predicted properties of the known media options, it would have been obvious.
Regarding claim 10, Garcia-Arellano also discloses:
10. The method of claim 8, wherein the content is an … media resource; and wherein automatically performing the online activities based on the first and second alternate persona further includes automatically playing or subscribing to the … media resource. ¶ 0033, “In an embodiment, application 114 is representative of one or more applications (e.g., social media applications, web applications, and email applications) located on user device 110. In various example embodiments, application 114 can be an application that a user of user device 110 utilizes to browse the web, internet, social media, or any other web traffic enabling use.”
Garcia-Arellano does not expressly disclose: audio. This is taught by Zachariah. See ¶ 0041, “music.” It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to try the music of Zachariah in the system of Garcia-Arellano in an attempt to provide a full media experience, as a person with ordinary skill has a good reason to pursue the known media options within his or her technical grasp. In turn, because the music when used in the system of Garcia-Arellano has the predicted properties of the known media options, it would have been obvious.
Regarding claims 14 and 19-20, parent claims 13 and 18 are addressed above.
All further limitations of claims 14 and 19-20 have been addressed in the above rejections of claims 4 and 9-10, respectively.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to James D Rutten whose telephone number is (571)272-3703. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00-5:30 ET.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Li B Zhen can be reached at (571)272-3768. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/James D. Rutten/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2121
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