U.S. Patent Position Review — 19/476,586
DATA COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING TASK SCHEDULES TO SERVICE PROVIDERS
Published international application: PCT/AU2024/050370 / WO2024216337A1
Section 02
The Patent Position
This page establishes the technical architecture against which Taskrabbit's publicly observable technology is subsequently compared. The patent position is not directed merely at finding a service provider or booking an appointment online: it concerns the computer-implemented orchestration of task, customer, provider capability, geography, availability, AI-assisted duration determination, provider identification and selection, and generation of an executable task schedule. The analysis that follows examines that architecture as an integrated process rather than as isolated marketplace features.
Section 1 — Patent Family
- U.S. Application
- United States Patent Application No. 19/476,586
- Title
- DATA COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING TASK SCHEDULES TO SERVICE PROVIDERS
- International Application
- PCT/AU2024/050370
- International Publication
- WO2024216337A1
- Australian Priority
- AU2023901123
- Priority Date
- 17 April 2023
- PCT Filing Date
- 17 April 2024
- PCT Publication Date
- 24 October 2024
- Inventor identified in published PCT
- Nicole Milatos
- Original applicant identified in published PCT
- Nicole Milatos
No U.S. publication number is asserted. U.S. prosecution or publication data will be added only after independent verification.
Section 3 — Independent Claim 1 Architecture
Claim 1 is presented below as eight functional modules rather than as a block of patent text. Each module shows its basis, its technical function and the Taskrabbit question it generates. Select “View Patent Basis” to open the underlying basis, extract, source records and the corresponding Taskrabbit analysis page.
Claim Element 01
Service Provider Data
The system receives information relating to a plurality of service providers, including skill and/or qualification and/or experience confirming the provider's ability to provide particular services.
Technical Function
The system maintains or receives capability information that can be used when determining whether a provider is suitable for a particular task.
Taskrabbit Review Question
Does Taskrabbit maintain or process information describing the skills, experience, qualifications or service categories of Taskers?
Claim Element 02
Provider Availability
Provider information includes available and/or preferred times and dates during which the service provider will attend to allocated tasks.
Technical Function
Availability is not merely profile information. It becomes an operational constraint used in constructing a provider's schedule.
Taskrabbit Review Question
How does Taskrabbit receive, store, expose and use Tasker availability?
- Does availability affect search eligibility?
- Does availability affect customer results?
- Does availability determine appointment windows?
- Does availability influence booking?
- Does availability influence scheduling?
Claim Element 03
Geographic Operating Region
Provider information also includes one or more preferred geographic regions in which the provider is available to operate for the indicated dates and times.
Technical Function
Provider geography forms part of provider suitability and scheduling. This is more specific than knowing the provider's home address; the relevant issue is where the provider is prepared to operate.
Taskrabbit Review Question
How does Taskrabbit's Tasker work area operate, how is the customer's task address compared with it, and does geography affect whether a Tasker is eligible to appear?
Claim Element 04
Customer Task + Location
The system receives, from a communications device associated with the service recipient, details relating to one or more tasks requiring completion at a particular location.
Technical Function
The system therefore holds both task information and location information available for subsequent processing.
Taskrabbit Review Question
What information does Taskrabbit receive when a customer creates a task?
- Category
- Description
- Address and task location
- Date and time
- Special requirements
- Tools and materials
- Photographs where applicable
- Other structured task information
Claim Element 05
AI-Assisted Task-Duration Intelligence
The system processes details relating to the task and uses one or more artificial intelligence techniques to assign a recommended amount of time required for one or more providers to complete the task or tasks.
Technical Function
Task-duration estimation is technically distinct from price estimation. The claim connects AI processing with determining the amount of time required to complete the task.
Taskrabbit Review Question
Does Taskrabbit publicly disclose technology that determines a recommended task duration — how, using what inputs, is AI involved, and does duration influence appointment availability or scheduling?
- If public evidence establishes only price estimation, this element must not be treated as established.
Initial status — Requires detailed evidence review
Claim Element 06
Generation of Suitable Provider Subset
The system generates a subset of selected service providers from the broader provider population, considering at least geographic region and skill / qualification / experience relative to the customer location and task requirements, satisfied according to predefined thresholds.
Technical Function
This is not merely maintaining a directory. The architecture computationally narrows a larger provider population into providers considered suitable for the particular task and location.
Taskrabbit Review Question
How does Taskrabbit determine which Taskers are eligible to appear for a particular customer request?
- Category
- Skills
- Work area
- Availability
- Price
- Business metrics
- Ranking and search eligibility
- Any other publicly disclosed variables
Claim Element 07
Customer Selection of Particular Provider
The architecture contemplates the service recipient selecting a particular provider from the identified subset.
Technical Function
The sequence is: the system identifies suitable providers, then the customer selects a particular provider. The patent should not be characterised as requiring AI to make the final provider choice.
Taskrabbit Review Question
Does Taskrabbit present an eligible or ranked provider population and then allow the customer to choose a Tasker, and what information supports that decision?
- Skills
- Experience
- Reviews
- Availability
- Price
- Profile information
Claim Element 08
Task Schedule Generation
Following provider selection and a request associated with the service provider, the system generates a task schedule including one or more tasks at a particular date and time that satisfies the provider's available/preferred dates and times and the assigned amount of time required to complete the task.
Technical Function
This is the central orchestration function: the schedule is generated using multiple previously established variables — provider, task, location, availability and assigned duration.
Taskrabbit Review Question
Does Taskrabbit merely permit appointment booking, or does its technology construct task schedules using task duration, provider availability and other constraints?
Section 4 — The Claim 1 Orchestration Chain
Each node links directly to the detailed Taskrabbit comparison for that function.
Section 5 — Why the Combination Matters
Do not analyse these functions only in isolation. Many digital service platforms independently contain profiles, calendars, locations, booking or reviews. The relevant technical analysis concerns whether and how those components are combined into the particular computer-implemented process described by the patent claims.
Data Input
What information enters the system?
Computational Processing
How is that information processed?
Provider Filtering
How is the candidate population determined?
AI
What role does AI perform?
Selection
Who or what selects the provider?
Scheduling
How is the date and time determined?
Output
What schedule or booking is ultimately produced?
Section 11 — Technical Significance Is Not a Legal Conclusion
This portal may identify areas where the architecture appears technically relevant to Taskrabbit. It does not state that the patent is valid, infringed, enforceable or broad.
The legal effect of any correspondence remains a matter for appropriately qualified patent counsel.
Section 12 — Existing Patent Position
Only technology supported by the claims and specification of United States Patent Application No. 19/476,586 — "DATA COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING TASK SCHEDULES TO SERVICE PROVIDERS" is presented as the existing patent position anywhere in this portal.
Section 12 — Potential Future Development
Multi-agent AI, provider digital twins, semantic task decomposition, autonomous negotiation, autonomous payments, evidence provenance and advanced fraud intelligence are not presented as existing claim elements. They are held separately in Page 23.
Page 23 — Potential Patent Evolution →Section 13 — Reviewer Takeaway: The Orchestration Chain
- 01Understand the task
- 02Understand the provider
- 03Understand where the provider operates
- 04Understand when the provider is available
- 05Computationally determine task duration using AI
- 06Identify suitable providers
- 07Enable provider selection
- 08Generate a task schedule
- 09Use performance information to improve future scheduling
The Taskrabbit analysis that follows determines, using publicly verifiable evidence, where Taskrabbit's architecture corresponds with this chain, where it differs, and where insufficient public evidence exists to make a determination.