PTAB

IPR2016-00594

Xactware Solutions, Inc. v. Pictometry International Corp.

Title: System and Process for Roof Measurement Using Aerial Imagery
Brief Description: The ’880 patent is directed to a system for determining attributes of a building's roof structure. The process involves a user inputting location data to retrieve an overhead aerial image, using a moveable visual marker to precisely identify the building's final location, and then receiving one or more oblique images corresponding to that final location for measurement.

Prior Art Relied Upon: Abhyanker (Application # 2007/0220174).
Core Argument for this Ground:
- Prior Art Mapping: Petitioner argued that Abhyanker discloses every element of the challenged claims. Abhyanker teaches a system for placing markers in a mapping environment by querying a database of geo-referenced images using a street address. It provides a drag-and-drop marker that can be moved from an initial position to a more precise final position over a roof structure, provides both top-down and oblique views corresponding to the marker's location, and includes a "locking module" for the user to accept and save the final location. This mapping system, which retrieves images of buildings and allows for precise marker placement and viewing from multiple angles, was asserted to anticipate the process described in independent claims 1 and 14.

Prior Art Relied Upon: Pictometry (Publication entitled "Pictometry Visual Intelligence, Electronic Field Study User Guide," Version 2.7, July 2007).
Core Argument for this Ground:
- Prior Art Mapping: Petitioner asserted that the Pictometry user guide discloses a system that anticipates all challenged claims. The guide describes a system for displaying three-dimensional, real-world images in response to an address input. It provides a movable "Navigation Point" (a red crosshair) that serves as a visual marker, initially placed based on the address. The user can reposition this marker onto a roof structure by panning the image. The system displays both orthogonal (straight-down) and oblique images, which are automatically updated when the marker is moved to a final location. The user accepts the final location by clicking "Center Navigation," which fixes the crosshair and refreshes the associated oblique views.

Prior Art Relied Upon: Abhyanker (Application # 2007/0220174) and Hsieh (Publication entitled "Design and Evaluation of a Semi-Automated Site Modeling System," Nov. 1995).
Core Argument for this Ground:
- Prior Art Mapping: This ground asserted that the additional limitations of claims 4, 7, 17, and 19, which require "generating... outline drawings around outlines corresponding to roof planes based on tracing," were obvious. Abhyanker was asserted to teach the base system of image and marker manipulation. Hsieh, a publication on semi-automated site modeling, was asserted to teach the missing element by disclosing a system that generates a 3D outline model of a building, including the roof, by having a user outline the roof in an aerial image.
- Motivation to Combine: A POSITA would combine these references to improve the functionality of the Abhyanker system. Adding Hsieh's known roof-outlining capability to Abhyanker's mapping interface would be a common-sense combination of prior art elements according to known methods to yield the predictable result of a system with both mapping and roof-outlining features.
- Expectation of Success: A POSITA would have a reasonable expectation of success in combining the two systems, as Hsieh's outlining functionality was well-suited for integration into an image manipulation system like Abhyanker's.

Prior Art Relied Upon: Pictometry (Publication entitled "Pictometry Visual Intelligence, Electronic Field Study User Guide," Version 2.7, July 2007) and Hsieh (Publication entitled "Design and Evaluation of a Semi-Automated Site Modeling System," Nov. 1995).
Core Argument for this Ground:
- Prior Art Mapping: This ground presented an argument analogous to Ground 3. It asserted that it would have been obvious to combine the Pictometry system, which provides the base mapping and viewing interface, with the 3D roof outline modeling taught by Hsieh to arrive at the invention claimed in claims 4, 7, 17, and 19. Pictometry provides the core functionality, and Hsieh supplies the specific feature of generating outline drawings of roof planes.
- Motivation to Combine: The motivation was to improve the existing Pictometry system by incorporating a known technique (Hsieh's outlining) to add a desirable feature. Petitioner argued that Pictometry itself teaches measurement and annotation tools, providing a clear suggestion to incorporate more advanced modeling features like those in Hsieh.
- Expectation of Success: A POSITA would have expected success because integrating Hsieh's model generation into Pictometry's image viewing and manipulation platform was a straightforward application of known techniques to improve a similar device.

"location data": Petitioner proposed this term means "information which uniquely identifies a geographic position, such as latitude and longitude coordinates and/or a street address." This construction was argued to be consistent with the specification's examples of entering a street address.
"visual marker": Petitioner proposed this term means "any shape, pointer, label, icon, avatar or other indicator which is movable or displayable on a computer screen... and which may be visually differentiated from other objects." This broad construction was important for arguing that the "marker" in Abhyanker and the "crosshair" in Pictometry met this limitation.
"final location": Petitioner proposed this term means "a location at which a marker is placed and which corresponds to unique latitude and longitude coordinates." This construction was used to link the repositioned marker in the prior art to the claimed concept of a finalized, coordinate-based location.

Petitioner requested institution of an inter partes review and cancellation of claims 1-10 and 13-20 of the ’880 patent as unpatentable.