Niantic, Inc.

Prosecution History analysis

Examiner Search analysis

Invalidity Framework analysis

Petition

Petition Analysis

## 1. Case Identification
- Case #: [IPR2025-01274](https://ai-lab.exparte.com/case/ptab/IPR2025-01274)
- Patent #: [10,946,284](https://ai-lab.exparte.com/patent/10946284)
- Filed: July 14, 2025
- Petitioner(s): [Niantic, Inc.](https://ai-lab.exparte.com/party/niantic-inc)
- Patent Owner(s): [ImagineAR, Inc.](https://ai-lab.exparte.com/party/imaginear-inc) and Imagine AR, Inc.
- Challenged Claims: 1-28

## 2. Patent Overview
- Title: Method of Enabling Virtual Gameplay Based on Real-World Location
- Brief Description: The ’284 patent discloses systems and methods to make virtual gameplay more meaningful by modifying a game’s storyline based on real-world "local elements" tied to a player's geographic location. These elements can include weather, news events, or other location-specific data that trigger a "local element script" to alter gameplay.

## 3. Grounds for Unpatentability
#### Ground 1: Claims 1-22, 24, and 27 are obvious over Kolo
  - **Prior Art Relied Upon:** [Kolo](https://ai-lab.exparte.com/case/ptab/IPR2025-01274/doc/1013) (Application # 2012/0244945).
  - **Core Argument for this Ground:**
    - **Prior Art Mapping:** Petitioner argued that Kolo, which describes incorporating geolocation information into Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMOs), renders the challenged claims obvious. Kolo teaches a battle system where game mechanics are influenced by real-world conditions at player locations. For instance, a weapon's effectiveness or the probability of creating an item (e.g., a "rain potion") depends on the weather at the player's geolocation. Petitioner asserted this weather-dependent game mechanic constitutes the claimed "local element script." The script is actuated to modify player statistics (e.g., weapon damage, which relates to a character's strength attribute) and plot nodes (a battle outcome determines the game's progression). The key limitation of actuating a script only when a player's location is "not represented by another player" was allegedly met by Kolo's battle scenario, which requires a "wielding player" and a "victim player" to be in different locations for maximum weapon effectiveness.
    - **Motivation to Combine (for §103 grounds):** As a single-reference ground, the argument focused on obvious design choices. For example, Petitioner contended a person of ordinary skill in the art (POSA) would find it obvious to store Kolo's game logic (the "local element script") in a database, rather than embedding it directly in the game code, to make the code more modular and easier to debug.
    - **Expectation of Success (for §103 grounds):** A POSA would have a reasonable expectation of success in making such modifications, as Kolo already discloses using databases for game information, and storing and retrieving code from a database was a well-known and predictable practice.

#### Ground 2: Claims 23, 25, 26, and 28 are obvious over Kolo in view of Zyda
  - **Prior Art Relied Upon:** Kolo (Application # 2012/0244945) and [Zyda](https://ai-lab.exparte.com/case/ptab/IPR2025-01274/doc/1014) (Application # 2011/0214071).
  - **Core Argument for this Ground:**
    - **Prior Art Mapping:** This ground combines Kolo's foundational MMO system with Zyda's teachings on integrating a broader range of real-world information into games. While Kolo teaches using environmental data like weather, Zyda specifically discloses a game that receives real-time news, extracts occurrences, and modifies the virtual world accordingly. Zyda teaches that "real world news may be of any type," and suggests modifying non-player characters (NPCs) or character attributes based on these occurrences. Petitioner asserted that Zyda’s teachings would make it obvious to use local news items referring to crowds of people (claim 25), local celebrities (claim 28), or keywords extracted from a news stream (claim 26) as the "local element" in Kolo's system to trigger gameplay changes, such as introducing a crowd of NPCs into the storyline.
    - **Motivation to Combine (for §103 grounds):** A POSA would combine Zyda's real-world news integration with Kolo's location-based game engine to create a more customized, immersive, and engaging player experience. Since Kolo already used local weather data, expanding this concept to include other types of local news as taught by Zyda was presented as a small and logical step to improve interaction with the broader physical world.
    - **Expectation of Success (for §103 grounds):** Success would be expected because the combination merely applies known techniques from Zyda (e.g., accessing news feeds based on location, extracting keywords) to the existing, compatible framework of Kolo. This application of a known technique to a known system to achieve predictable results would have been obvious.

## 4. Key Claim Construction Positions
- **"storage means" (claims 1, 11, 12):** Petitioner argued that although the term uses the word "means," it does not invoke means-plus-function treatment under 35 U.S.C. §112(f). The argument was that the word "storage" itself connotes sufficient and definite structure (i.e., memory) to a POSA, thus overcoming the presumption.
- **"local element script":** Petitioner contended this term is not a means-plus-function term. However, should the Board find that it is, Petitioner asserted that the corresponding structure is sufficiently disclosed in the ’284 patent specification (e.g., a processor and memory performing the recited functions) and that the prior art discloses the same or equivalent structure.

## 5. Relief Requested
- Petitioner requested the institution of an inter partes review and the cancellation of claims 1-28 of Patent 10,946,284 as unpatentable under 35 U.S.C. §103.

Niantic targets location-based AR game patent: Kolo & Zyda art cited for all 28 claims as obvious over using real-world weather and news events.