Help us defeat a patent troll claiming methods for “manipulation of complex hierarchical data” and “analysis of hierarchical data” were invented in 2005.
We’re excited to launch 2 additional Cloud Native Heroes Challenge contests in which you can earn swag, a ticket to attend a KubeCon+CloudNativeCon, and/or a US $3,000 cash prize by helping defend our ecosystem from patent trolls.
We’re seeking information to invalidate claims of 2 different US patents asserted by patent troll Lower48 IP, LLC against Shopify. Each patent is featured in a separate contest with its own prizes. You can enter either contest without entering the other, but if you do enter both contests, you’ll have 2 chances to win!
Keep reading to learn about these contests and how you can enter.
First Contest & Challenged Patent
The first challenged patent (US-7681177-B2) relates to a method and system for transforming data between hierarchical structures, notably trees and symbol strings, aiming to simplify manipulation of complex hierarchical data. We’re seeking prior art to invalidate Claim 1 of this patent, which reads as follows:
| 1. A method comprising:executing instructions by a processor to:transform one or more electrical digital signals representing one or more trees to one or more electrical digital signals representing one or more corresponding symbol strings according to an association of trees and symbol strings comprising up to two or more grouping symbol types, said one or more symbol strings being associated with one or more corresponding numerals according to an association of symbol strings and numerals; andmanipulate said one or more signals representing said one or more symbol strings to provide one or more electrical digital signals representing a resulting symbol string corresponding with a resulting numeral according to said association of symbol strings and numerals,wherein said resulting numeral is representative of an arithmetic operation on said one or more corresponding numerals. |
This patent has a priority date of February 27, 2005. For more information, see the ’77 contest entry page and ’77 patent information.
Second Contest and Challenged Patent
The second challenged patent (US-11100070-B2) focuses on methods and systems for manipulating and analyzing hierarchical data, particularly through transformations into tree structures. We’re seeking prior art to invalidate Claim 1 of this patent. The full text of Claim 1 is below:
| 1. A method of querying a database, or a portion thereof, comprising:accessing instructions from one or more physical memory devices for execution by one or more processors;executing the instructions accessed from the one or more physical memory devices by the one or more processors;storing, in at least one of the physical memory devices, signal values, including numerical signal values, resulting from having executed the accessed instructions on the one or more processors, wherein the one or more physical memory devices also store the database, or the portion thereof;wherein the accessed instructions to transform the database, or the portion thereof, to the form of a hierarchically structured tree via one or more numerical signal values corresponding to content within the database, or the portion thereof;wherein the executing the transformation instructions comprises:generating the hierarchically structured tree via the one or more numerical signal values, the hierarchically structured tree comprising electronic content including binary digital signals and/or states; andwherein the executing the transformation instructions comprises:presenting a query to the database, or the portion thereof, via at least one numerical signal value to fetch the content within the database, or the portion thereof. |
This patent has a priority date of April 28, 2005. For more information, see the ’70 contest entry page and the ’70 patent information.
Call for Prior Art
“Prior art” is a legal term that refers to technical know-how that predated the patent application. Prior art can be used to invalidate or weaken a troll’s patent by demonstrating that the patented invention already existed and wasn’t “new” when the application for a patent was filed.
If you are aware of any publicly available materials demonstrating that know-how regarding all of the elements of the invention described above already existed prior to September 26, 2017 (the priority date of the challenged patent), please submit that evidence as “prior art” in this contest. However, please note that materials already listed in the “known references” tab of the Contest Description do not qualify and cannot be submitted in this contest.
Examples of materials that can be provided as prior art include:
- Open source documentation, including release notes
- Articles, books, and other publications
- Written records of presentations at tech conferences
- Product manuals or descriptions
- Standards and specification documents
- Any other publicly available documentation (in English) that existed prior to the challenged patent priority date
- Other patents with a priority date earlier than the priority date for the challenged patents
Instructions for Participating
Please see our Participation Instructions and the Heroes Challenge program page for more information and step-by-step instructions for entering this contest. Remember, a variety of prizes are available, and all entrants will receive a free Cloud Native Hero t-shirt.
If you have questions or would like to request a 1:1 help session where a member of our Heroes Challenge team walks you through any aspect of the contest entry process, please message us at the CNCF slack channel #heroes-challenge or at heroes@cncf.io.
Know of Prior Art but don’t want to enter the Contest?
If you would like to inform us of prior art without entering the contest, please email us at heroes@cncf.io.
About Our Co-Host for the Cloud Native Heroes Challenge
CNCF is co-hosting this program with Unified Patents, the Linux Foundation’s partner in patent troll deterrence since 2019. Unified Patents is the only organization that uses offensive community-driven strategies to deter patent trolls.
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