PTAB

IPR2017-01002

Facebook Inc v. Sound View Innovations LLC

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Petition
petition

1. Case Identification

2. Patent Overview

  • Title: Methods and Apparatus for Providing A Web Based Messaging System
  • Brief Description: The ’486 patent discloses a web-based messaging system that establishes and maintains an open connection between a client (e.g., a standard web browser) and a server. The system is designed to provide a continuous stream of messages to the client using only standard hypertext-related protocols and simple scripting languages, without requiring proprietary software, applets, or plug-ins on the client device.

3. Grounds for Unpatentability

Ground 1: Obviousness over van den Broecke, Wagner, Hethmon, DeSimone, and Orwant - Claim 19 is obvious over van den Broecke in view of Wagner, Hethmon, DeSimone, and Orwant under 35 U.S.C. §103.

  • Prior Art Relied Upon:
    • van den Broecke (a March 2000 article describing a "pushlet" mechanism)
    • Wagner (a 1997 reference book on JavaScript)
    • Hethmon (a 1997 reference book on the HTTP protocol)
    • DeSimone (Patent 6,212,548, describing a real-time chat system)
    • Orwant (a 1996 reference book on the Perl programming language)
  • Core Argument for this Ground:
    • Prior Art Mapping: Petitioner argued that the combination of references taught every limitation of claim 19, which describes a messaging system with a client and server.
      • van den Broecke was asserted as the primary reference, disclosing the core system architecture. It taught a "pushlet" technique for a server to send event data to a client over a persistent HTTP connection ("HTTP streaming"), allowing fresh data to be pushed to the client without closing the connection. Petitioner argued this taught a messaging client, server, and an open message connection, and noted that van den Broecke explicitly suggested its use for web chat applications that operate without special applets or plug-ins.
      • Wagner was introduced to teach establishing the message connection using "a simple scripting language." While van den Broecke taught the server-side pushlet mechanism, Petitioner argued it was obvious to use JavaScript, as taught by Wagner, to have the client initiate the HTTP request that establishes the open connection, a common practice for creating dynamic web applications.
      • Hethmon was used to supply the well-known, standard details of the HTTP/1.1 protocol that van den Broecke's system utilized. Hethmon taught that persistent (open) connections were the default behavior, and an HTTP response without a "Connection: close" header implicitly indicates an open connection. Hethmon also taught "chunked encoding," where a server can send a response as a series of data chunks over a persistent connection, with a final zero-length chunk serving as a "message termination indicator." This, Petitioner argued, rendered obvious the limitations related to a continuous stream of messages perceived as a single message.
      • DeSimone was cited to teach the claimed "first type" and "second type" of message data. While van den Broecke proposed a general chat system, DeSimone provided specific examples from a text-based chat system, including a first message type for user-generated text and a second "augmenting message" type for system notifications (e.g., a participant joining the chat).
      • Orwant was added to show that the server could be implemented using a "simple scripting language." van den Broecke's server was Java-based, which is not a scripting language. Orwant taught that web servers could be, and often were, written in simple scripting languages like Perl for ease of development and maintenance.
    • Motivation to Combine:
      • A POSITA implementing the web chat system suggested by van den Broecke would be motivated to consult standard references for implementation details. They would naturally turn to Hethmon for the specifics of HTTP, where they would find that persistent connections and chunked encoding were default, efficient methods for achieving the desired data streaming.
      • To implement the chat application, the POSITA would seek to include fundamental chat features, such as distinguishing user messages from system alerts, as detailed in analogous systems like DeSimone. This would be a simple and predictable integration to create a functional chat application.
      • It would have been an obvious design choice to use a simple scripting language like JavaScript (Wagner) on the client-side to initiate the connection for better control over the user interface (e.g., opening the chat in a new window). Similarly, it would be an obvious choice to implement the server using a simple, efficient scripting language like Perl (Orwant) instead of Java.
    • Expectation of Success: Petitioner argued a POSITA would have had a high expectation of success. The combination involved applying standard, well-documented web technologies (HTTP, JavaScript, Perl) and conventional messaging system features (distinct message types) to the foundational "pushlet" architecture. Each element was being used for its known purpose, and their integration would have yielded predictable results.

4. Relief Requested

  • Petitioner requests institution of an inter partes review and cancellation of claim 19 of Patent 7,412,486 as unpatentable.