PTAB

IPR2019-00837

Microsoft Corp v. IPA Technologies Inc

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Key Events
Petition
petition

1. Case Identification

2. Patent Overview

  • Title: Highly Scalable Software-Based Architecture for Communication and Cooperation Among Distributed Electronic Agents
  • Brief Description: The ’560 patent discloses a system for collective task completion among distributed software agents using a proprietary Inter-agent Communication Language (ICL). The architecture features facilitator agents and an agent registry to coordinate communication and problem-solving via "arbitrarily complex goal expressions."

3. Grounds for Unpatentability

Ground 1: Obviousness over Kiss and FIPA97 - Claims 1-4, 14-19, 26, and 36-44 are obvious over Kiss in view of FIPA97.

  • Prior Art Relied Upon: Kiss (Patent 6,484,155) and FIPA97 (1997 FIPA v. 1.0 Specification).
  • Core Argument for this Ground:
    • Prior Art Mapping: Petitioner argued that Kiss discloses the foundational architecture challenged in the ’560 patent, including a distributed system of cooperative intelligent agents, a "meta-agent" acting as a facilitator, an agent registry, and the ability to generate solution plans based on non-syntactic decomposition of user goals. Petitioner asserted that the primary novelty argued during prosecution—the specific structure of the Inter-agent Communication Language (ICL)—is rendered obvious by FIPA97. The claims require an ICL with a "layer of conversational protocol defined by event types and parameter lists" where the parameters "further refine" the events. Petitioner contended that FIPA97's Agent Communication Language (FIPA-ACL) directly teaches this structure, disclosing messages with a "communicative act" (the claimed "event type") and various parameters. Crucially, Petitioner argued that certain FIPA97 parameters, such as the :protocol parameter that alters a "call for proposals" message, or a multi-recipient :receiver parameter, change the principal meaning of the communicative act itself, thereby satisfying the claim limitation that the parameters "refine" the event.
    • Motivation to Combine: Petitioner asserted that a person of ordinary skill in the art (POSITA) implementing the multi-agent system of Kiss would have recognized the fundamental need for a common, robust communication protocol to enable agent interaction. FIPA97 was a well-known, publicly available industry standard developed specifically to provide such interoperability. A POSITA would combine Kiss's system architecture with the FIPA97 communication standard as a predictable and logical step to create an effective, interoperable multi-agent system.
    • Expectation of Success: The combination involved integrating well-understood technologies for their known purposes. FIPA97 was designed for use in agent systems like Kiss, giving a POSITA a high expectation of success.

Ground 2: Obviousness over Kiss, FIPA97, and Cohen - Claims 2-4, 14-17, and 39-42 are obvious over Kiss in view of FIPA97 and Cohen.

  • Prior Art Relied Upon: Kiss (Patent 6,484,155), FIPA97, and Cohen (a 1994 publication, "An Open Agent Architecture").
  • Core Argument for this Ground:
    • Prior Art Mapping: This ground builds on the primary combination of Kiss and FIPA97, adding Cohen to address specific limitations in dependent claims related to distributed facilitator architectures. Petitioner argued that to the extent Kiss/FIPA97 might not explicitly teach a distributed facilitator agent composed of a plurality of single process facilitator agents, Cohen provides this disclosure. Cohen describes a hierarchical network of "Blackboard servers" where each server functions as a distinct, single-process facilitator. These servers are interconnected over a network and operate on separate computer systems, satisfying limitations regarding the structure and distribution of multiple, coupled facilitator agents.
    • Motivation to Combine: Petitioner argued that Cohen is analogous art that describes an architecture similar to that of the ’560 patent and encourages the incorporation of external components. A POSITA, seeking to enhance the scalability and distributed problem-solving capabilities of the Kiss/FIPA97 system, would have been motivated to integrate Cohen's hierarchical facilitator model. Combining the similar functionalities of Cohen's blackboard servers with the Kiss/FIPA97 system would have been an obvious design choice to achieve the benefits of each.

4. Key Claim Construction Positions

  • "layer of conversational protocol ... wherein the parameter lists further refine the one or more events": Petitioner argued this phrase, added during prosecution to overcome prior art, requires a specific function. Based on the prosecution history distinguishing the language from a reference called Nwana, Petitioner contended that "refine" means the parameters must alter the fundamental meaning of the event (the message's communicative act), not merely provide metadata (e.g., specifying the content language). Petitioner's obviousness argument relied on showing that parameters in FIPA97 performed this semantic-altering function.
  • "Goal": Petitioner proposed construing "goal" as "a request for a service," aligning the term with its use in the specification and prosecution history, where "goal" and "sub-goal" were equated with "request" and "sub-request." This construction supports mapping service requests in the prior art to the claimed "goals."

5. Relief Requested

  • Petitioner requests institution of an inter partes review and cancellation of claims 1-4, 14-19, 26, and 36-44 as unpatentable.