PTAB

IPR2019-01245

Google LLC v. Virentem Ventures LLC

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Key Events
Petition
petition

1. Case Identification

2. Patent Overview

  • Title: Method and Apparatus for Controlling Presentation Rates of Broadcast Multi-Media
  • Brief Description: The ’188 patent discloses methods for controlling the playback of broadcast information, such as streaming media, on a client device. The system uses "guidance information" and "state values" to determine and provide one or more presentation rates (e.g., normal speed, fast forward, skip) for the media content.

3. Grounds for Unpatentability

Ground 1: Anticipation of Claims 1, 2, and 7 under §102 by Logan

  • Prior Art Relied Upon: Logan (Patent 7,055,166)
  • Core Argument for this Ground:
    • Prior Art Mapping: Petitioner argued that Logan discloses every limitation of claims 1, 2, and 7. Logan describes a system for monitoring and personalizing a broadcast programming signal received by a user device. Petitioner asserted that Logan’s "marking signal," which provides supplemental information to modify the broadcast (e.g., to skip or block commercials), is the claimed "guidance information." Logan’s system analyzes this marking signal in conjunction with the user’s service level (e.g., whether the user has paid to skip commercials) to alter playback. Petitioner contended this payment-based authority corresponds to the claimed "state values" that are used to alter or override the guidance information and provide different presentation rates, such as skipping a commercial. For dependent claims 2 and 7, Petitioner argued Logan explicitly teaches allowing users to pay fees to skip commercials, which constitutes "paying for predetermined values of the state values" to enable an "enhanced presentation rate for commercials."

Ground 2: Obviousness of Claim 4 under §103 over Logan

  • Prior Art Relied Upon: Logan (Patent 7,055,166)
  • Core Argument for this Ground:
    • Prior Art Mapping: Claim 4 adds the limitation that the user-paid "predetermined values" are effective for a limited time or a set number of presentations. Petitioner argued that while Logan teaches paying for enhanced viewing abilities (like skipping commercials), it does not explicitly state that these abilities are time-limited.
    • Motivation to Combine: Petitioner contended it would have been an obvious design choice for a person of ordinary skill in the art (POSA) to modify Logan’s payment system to be temporary. A POSA would have recognized that subscription-based or limited-duration services were common and would have been motivated to limit the purchased ability to a specific period or number of uses to align with business practices and encourage repeat payments.
    • Expectation of Success: Modifying Logan's system to limit the duration of a purchased feature would have been a routine and predictable implementation. The system would simply revert to its default state (e.g., with commercial blocking enabled) after the purchased period or number of uses expired, which was a well-understood method for managing paid content services.

Ground 3: Obviousness of Claims 1, 2, 4, and 7 under §103 over Logan in view of De Lang

  • Prior Art Relied Upon: Logan (Patent 7,055,166) and De Lang (WO 1997/03521)
  • Core Argument for this Ground:
    • Prior Art Mapping: This ground was presented as an alternative, arguing that if Logan is found not to explicitly teach "guidance information" with explicit presentation rates or "state values" corresponding to a purchased service level, De Lang supplies these missing elements. De Lang discloses a video-on-demand system where users can purchase different levels of playback control. For example, a user can pay more for advanced functions like threefold or sevenfold fast-forward speeds. This tier-based system with explicit playback options tied to payment directly teaches the concepts of "state values" representing a purchased service level and "guidance information" providing specific presentation rates.
    • Motivation to Combine: A POSA would combine Logan and De Lang to improve the user experience and commercial viability of Logan’s system. Logan provides a framework for personalizing broadcast content, and De Lang provides a well-defined, tiered model for monetizing different playback capabilities. A POSA would have been motivated to incorporate De Lang’s explicit, multi-level playback options into Logan's system to offer users more granular control and create additional revenue streams.
    • Expectation of Success: The combination would have been straightforward and predictable. A POSA would have understood that incorporating De Lang’s data for different playback tiers into Logan’s "marking signal" was a simple modification. Since both systems transmit control data to a user device to manage playback, combining them would involve known techniques to yield the predictable result of a more robust, personalized, and tiered media playback system.

4. Key Claim Construction Positions

  • "Broadcast Information": Petitioner proposed this term be construed as "information received from a broadcaster," consistent with its ordinary meaning and the specification.
  • "Guidance Information": Petitioner proposed this term be construed as "information broadcast in conjunction with an audio or audio-visual work from a broadcast server to restrict, or direct, playback rates at a client device." This construction was argued to be central to linking the control signals of the prior art to the claims.
  • "State Value": Petitioner proposed this term be construed as "a value that represents a level of service the user has purchased, or the feature set or model of user system purchased by the user." This construction was critical to Petitioner's argument that payment-based features in the prior art, like paying to skip commercials in Logan or selecting a service tier in De Lang, met this limitation.

5. Relief Requested

  • Petitioner requested the institution of an inter partes review and the cancellation of claims 1, 2, 4, and 7 of the ’188 patent as unpatentable.