Linkedln Corporation

Patent Trials and Appeals Board

Sep 2, 2021

2020004427 (P.T.A.B. Sep. 2, 2021)

UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
United States Patent and Trademark Office
Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS
P.O. Box 1450
Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450
www.uspto.gov
APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE FIRST NAMED INVENTOR ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO.
14/880,992 10/12/2015 Wayne Pan 3080.C93US1 7269
45839 7590 09/02/2021
SCHWEGMAN LUNDBERG & WOESSNER / LINKEDLN/MICROSFT
PO BOX 2938
MINNEAPOLIS, MN 55402
EXAMINER
COX, NATISHA D
ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER
2448
NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE
09/02/2021 ELECTRONIC
Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding.
The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication.
Notice of the Office communication was sent electronically on above-indicated "Notification Date" to the
following e-mail address(es):
USPTO@slwip.com
slw@blackhillsip.com
PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07)
UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
Ex parte WAYNE PAN, NICHOLAS DAVID SNYDER, and
WILLIAM JAYANG SUN
Appeal 2020-004427
Application 14/880,992
Technology Center 2400

Before TERRY J. OWENS, MAHSHID D. SAADAT, and
BRIAN D. RANGE, Administrative Patent Judges.

OWENS, Administrative Patent Judge.

DECISION ON APPEAL
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 134(a), the Appellant1 appeals from the
Examiner’s decision to reject claims 1–20. We have jurisdiction under
35 U.S.C. § 6(b).
We AFFIRM.

1 “Appellant” refers to “applicant” as defined in 37 C.F.R.
§ 1.42(a). Appellant identifies the real party in interest as Microsoft
Technology Licensing, LLC. (Appeal Br. 2).
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Application 14/880,992

2
CLAIMED SUBJECT MATTER
The claims are directed to an online social networking method,
system, and non-transitory machine-readable storage medium. Claim 1,
reproduced below, is illustrative of the claimed subject matter:
1. A method comprising:
displaying, via an administrator user interface for a first
online social networking service, to a user associated with a
company, a plurality of content items;
receiving, via the administrator user interface, a user
specification of a topic-based group and a user request to
broadcast a recommendation to view a specific content item to
one or more employees of the company that are members of the
first online social networking service and that are associated
with the topic-based group;
identifying the one or more employees of the company
that are associated with the topic-based group, the one or more
employees not including the user associated with the company;
broadcasting the recommendation to view the specific
content item to the one or more employees of the company that
are associated with the topic-based group, causing the specific
content item to be displayed via a user interface of the first
online social networking service on mobile devices of the one
or more employees of the company, the specific content item
displayed along with a listing of one or more other social
networking services and corresponding user interface elements,
wherein the one or more other social networking services are
different than the first online social networking service, and the
corresponding user interface elements enable each respective
employee to share the specific content item on a selected one of
the one or more other online social networking services that are
different than the first online social networking service;
receiving, from a mobile device of a first employee of the
one or more employees, a share request to share the specific
content item amongst the first employee’s connections on a
second online social networking service that is different than
the first online social networking service; and
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in response to receiving the share request, sharing the
specific content item among the first employee’s connections
on the second online social networking service, the employee's
connections on the second online social networking including at
least one user that is not included in the one or more employees
of the company that are associated with the topic-based group,
wherein sharing the specific content item among the first
employee’s connections on the second online social networking
service causes the specific content item to be displayed via a
user interface of the second online social networking service on
a mobile device of the at least one user.
REFERENCES
The prior art relied upon by the Examiner is:
Name Reference Date
Roman US 2012/0042013 A1 Feb. 16, 2012
Travilla US 2012/0159337 A1 June 21, 2012
Thorne-Yocam US 2014/0317188 A1 Oct. 23, 2014
Yu US 2015/0025950 A1 Jan. 22, 2015
Pattan US 9,524,077 B1 Dec. 20, 2016
REJECTIONS
The claims stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as follows: claims 1–
4, 11–13, and 16–18 over Travilla in view of Pattan and Yu;2 claims 5–7, 14,
and 19 over Travilla in view of Pattan, Yu, and Roman; and claims 8–10,
15, and 20 over Travilla in view of Pattan, Yu, Roman, and Thorne-Yocam.
OPINION
The Appellant provides a substantive argument with respect to only
claim 1 (Appeal Br. 9–15). The claims, therefore, stand or fall together.

2 The Examiner omitted Yu from the statement of this rejection (Final 3, 7–
8).
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Accordingly we limit our discussion to one claim, i.e., claim 1. Claims 2–20
stand or fall with that claim. See 37 C.F.R. § 41.37(c)(1)(iv) (2013).
Claim 1 requires causing to be displayed on mobile devices of one or
more employees of a company via a user interface of a first online social
networking service, a specific content item along with a listing of one or
more other social networking services and corresponding user interface
elements, the corresponding user interface elements enabling each of the one
or more employees to share the specific content item on a selected one of the
one or more other online networking services.
To meet that claim requirement, the Examiner relies upon the
following disclosure by Pattan (col. 9, ll. 52–59) (Ans. 4):3
The designated social content and interaction space 130 may be for
the display of relevant social network content (e.g., social annotations
provided to the user device 105 via a social network application 150) and
various user interaction tools, such as a user recommendation control that
may be configured to allow a user to make a recommendation of content to
other users in one or more social networks.

That disclosure would have suggested, to one of ordinary skill in the
art, the Appellant’s claim requirement of enabling of content sharing via one
or more other online networking services.
The Appellant argues that “Pattan only discusses sharing the content
among a first degree of connections on a single social networking service,
not sharing content among multiple degrees of connection on multiple social
networking services” (Appeal Br. 13), and “[d]ifferent social networking
service generally compete with each other, and thus allowing users of one
social networking service (e.g., LinkedIn) to share content on a different

3 Examiner’s Answer mailed Dec. 13, 2019.
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social networking service (e.g., Facebook) would not be obvious or readily
apparent based on these two references [Travilla and Pattan]” (id.). The
Appellant does not challenge the Examiner’s reliance upon the above-cited
portion of Pattan.
Accordingly, we affirm the Examiner’s rejections.
CONCLUSION
The Examiner’s rejections are affirmed.
DECISION SUMMARY
In summary:
Claims
Rejected
35 U.S.C.
§
Reference(s)/Basis Affirmed Reversed
1–4, 11–13,
16–18
103 Travilla, Pattan,
Yu
1–4, 11–13,
16–18

5–7, 14, 19 103 Travilla, Pattan,
Yu, Roman
5–7, 14, 19
8–10, 15, 20 103 Travilla, Pattan,
Yu, Roman,
Thorne-Yocam
8–10, 15, 20
Overall
Outcome
1–20
TIME PERIOD FOR RESPONSE
No time period for taking any subsequent action in connection with
this appeal may be extended under 37 C.F.R. § 1.136(a). See 37 C.F.R.
§ 1.136(a)(1)(iv).
AFFIRMED