PTAB

IPR2015-01972

Activision Blizzard Inc v. Acceleration Bay LLC

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Key Events
Petition
petition

1. Case Identification

2. Patent Overview

  • Title: Distributed Game Environment
  • Brief Description: The ’344 patent discloses a computer network for a multi-participant game environment where information is broadcast from one participant to all others. The invention centers on using a specific network topology, configured as a non-complete, m-regular graph, and employing a "flooding" technique for reliable data transmission.

3. Grounds for Unpatentability

Ground 1: Claims 1-19 are obvious over DirectPlay in view of Shoubridge.

  • Prior Art Relied Upon: DirectPlay (a 1998 book by Bargen & Donnelly, INSIDE DIRECTX) and Shoubridge (a 1997 IEEE paper, Hybrid Routing in Dynamic Networks).
  • Core Argument for this Ground:
    • Prior Art Mapping: Petitioner argued that DirectPlay discloses the framework for the claimed "computer network for providing a game environment." DirectPlay is an Application Program Interface (API) designed for developing multiplayer games, teaching broadcast messaging to all players in a "session" and supporting various underlying network architectures. However, DirectPlay does not specify a particular network topology, instead providing a flexible interface for developers to use custom "service providers." Petitioner asserted that Shoubridge discloses the specific network structure required by the claims. Shoubridge teaches a communications network using a "flooding" broadcast protocol over a 64-node, 4-regular, non-complete, and 4-connected "torus" graph, which directly maps to the key limitations of the independent claims.
    • Motivation to Combine: Petitioner presented three primary motivations for a person of ordinary skill in the art (POSITA) to combine the references. First, a POSITA would use the specific, reliable network taught by Shoubridge as a "service provider" for the flexible gaming API taught by DirectPlay, as DirectPlay expressly invited the use of third-party network solutions. Second, both references address the same technical problem of broadcasting information to multiple participants. Third, DirectPlay identified the need for network reliability and scalability for large-scale gaming, and Shoubridge provided a robust and reliable network topology and flooding protocol explicitly designed for dynamic environments, making it an advantageous solution.
    • Expectation of Success: A POSITA would have a high expectation of success because DirectPlay was intentionally designed as a flexible, open standard to be implemented over various network types. Applying Shoubridge's well-defined network topology and protocol to the DirectPlay framework would be a straightforward implementation of a known, reliable network solution to improve a known gaming environment.

Ground 2: Claims 1-11 and 16-19 are obvious over Shoubridge in view of the knowledge of a POSITA.

  • Prior Art Relied Upon: Shoubridge (a 1997 IEEE paper) and the general knowledge of a POSITA.
  • Core Argument for this Ground:
    • Prior Art Mapping: Petitioner contended that Shoubridge alone discloses nearly all the structural and functional limitations of the challenged claims. It explicitly teaches a computer communications network that is m-regular (specifically, 4-regular), non-complete (64 nodes with 4 connections each), m-connected (4-connected), and uses a flooding protocol for broadcasting data. The only element not explicitly taught by Shoubridge is the specific application to a "game environment." Petitioner argued that applying Shoubridge's generic, robust communication network to the well-known field of multiplayer computer gaming would have been an obvious design choice for a POSITA.
    • Motivation to Combine: The motivation was to apply a known solution to a known problem. By the filing date, multiplayer gaming was a prominent application requiring reliable, scalable, and robust networking for many participants. Shoubridge's disclosure of a highly reliable network using flooding in dynamic environments would have been immediately recognized by a POSITA as an ideal solution for improving the performance and stability of online games, which are inherently dynamic as players join and leave.
    • Expectation of Success: A POSITA would expect success because this ground merely involves applying a known networking technique (Shoubridge) to a suitable and predictable field of use (computer gaming) that was known to benefit from such improvements in network reliability and efficiency.

4. Key Claim Construction Positions

  • "m-regular": Construed as "each node is connected to exactly m other nodes."
  • "non-complete graph": Construed as a "graph in which at least two nodes are not connected to each other."
  • "means for identifying a broadcast channel for a game of interest" (cl. 13): For the IPR, Petitioner construed the structure for this means-plus-function term as "a game web site through which players can view the state of current games and register new games," such as the "lobby clients" disclosed in DirectPlay.
  • "means for connecting to the identified broadcast channel" (cl. 13): For the IPR, Petitioner construed the structure as a software "broadcaster component" that interfaces with a "game application program," such as the DirectPlay and DirectPlayLobby objects that provide methods for joining a game session.

5. Relief Requested

  • Petitioner requested the institution of an inter partes review and the cancellation of claims 1-19 of the ’344 patent as unpatentable under 35 U.S.C. §103.