PTAB

IPR2026-00112

Meta Platforms Inc v. SitNet LLC

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Petition
petition

1. Case Identification

2. Patent Overview

  • Title: Forming a Situational Network
  • Brief Description: The ’463 patent discloses methods and systems for forming a “situational network.” The technology involves maintaining a database of users, detecting the occurrence of a "situation" (e.g., a social event, emergency, or natural disaster), identifying users in geographic proximity to that situation, and providing them with pertinent information.

3. Grounds for Unpatentability

Ground 1: Claims 1-12 are obvious over Kraft in view of Altman.

  • Prior Art Relied Upon: Kraft (Patent 7,747,648) and Altman (Application # 2007/0281690).
  • Core Argument for this Ground:
    • Prior Art Mapping: Petitioner argued that Kraft disclosed a "world model" social network system that creates a network of interrelated entities, including people, places, and events. This system established connections between nodes (e.g., a "Person" node participating in an "Event" node). However, Kraft's system was based on static location information entered by a user. Petitioner asserted that Altman taught a social networking system that initiated communication and alerts among users based on their dynamic, real-time geographic location.
    • Motivation to Combine: A Person of Ordinary Skill in the Art (POSA) would combine Altman’s dynamic geolocation techniques with Kraft’s social network framework. Kraft’s system was limited by static location data. Incorporating Altman’s teachings would have been a predictable improvement, allowing Kraft’s system to connect users to events based on their actual proximity, thereby better achieving Kraft’s goal of facilitating multi-user discussions around real-world events.
    • Expectation of Success: A POSA would have had a high expectation of success. The combination involved integrating a known technique (geolocation-based user identification) into a known system (a social network with event entities) using conventional user devices and network structures, which required no significant modification or invention.

Ground 2: Claims 1-12 are obvious over Wong in view of Gogic and Gage.

  • Prior Art Relied Upon: Wong (Application # 2008/0103784), Gogic (Patent 8,103,300), and Gage (Application # 2008/0139165).
  • Core Argument for this Ground:
    • Prior Art Mapping: Petitioner contended that Wong taught a foundational social network comprising nodes for various entities (people, places, objects) connected by different relationship types. Gogic was argued to teach a system for forming ad-hoc communication groups for users in proximity to an event, particularly for emergency response. Finally, Gage disclosed a disaster response system that provided situational status and location information of affected subscribers to "concerned parties," such as family members.
    • Motivation to Combine: A POSA would combine these references to create a comprehensive emergency response communication system. First, a POSA would incorporate Gogic’s ad-hoc, location-based grouping feature into Wong's more general social network to efficiently form communication groups during an emergency. This was a known application for online forums at the time. Second, a POSA would integrate Gage's notification system to automatically provide status and location updates to concerned family members or contacts stored in the Wong network, improving the system by eliminating the need for direct contact in a crisis.
    • Expectation of Success: Success was predictable, as the combination involved applying known emergency communication principles (Gogic) to a standard social network (Wong) and adding a logical feature for such a system (automated status updates from Gage). The integration would use conventional methods to yield predictable results.

Ground 3: Claims 1-12 are obvious over Wong, Gogic, and Gage in view of Kraft.

  • Prior Art Relied Upon: Wong (Application # 2008/0103784), Gogic (Patent 8,103,300), Gage (Application # 2008/0139165), and Kraft (Patent 7,747,648).
  • Core Argument for this Ground:
    • Prior Art Mapping: This ground was presented as an alternative to Ground 2. Petitioner argued that to the extent the Wong-Gogic-Gage combination was found not to explicitly teach an "event node" as a specific node type, Kraft explicitly disclosed this concept. Kraft’s "world model" included distinct "Event" entity models representing occurrences like elections, natural disasters, and sports events.
    • Motivation to Combine: The motivation was to supplement the primary combination with Kraft's explicit teaching of an "Event" node. A POSA seeking to build the emergency communication system described in Ground 2 would have been motivated to incorporate Kraft's well-defined event-entity structure to further extend and formalize the types of nodes available in Wong's network, making the system more robust for handling various situations.
    • Expectation of Success: A POSA would have had a reasonable expectation of success, as this addition merely involved defining a new node type within the existing, flexible architecture of the Wong social network, requiring no significant technical changes to the underlying combined system.

4. Relief Requested

  • Petitioner requests institution of an inter partes review and cancellation of claims 1-12 of Patent 12,256,463 as unpatentable.