Invalidity dossier
US 11263998
Embedding animation in electronic mail, text messages and websites
Current assignee: Individual
Added 9/23/2026, 6:56:01 PM
Active provider: DeepSeek · deepseek-flash
Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
Patent Overview — US11263998B2
Title: "Embedding animation in electronic mail, text messages and websites."
Patent number / application: US11263998B2; application US17/063,875, filed 2020-10-06; published as US20210090525A1 (2021-03-25); granted 2022-03-01.
Inventor / assignee: Inventor Douglas G. Richardson. Original assignee and current assignee both listed as "Individual" (Google notes the listed assignees may be inaccurate).
Priority / status: Priority date shown as 2005-04-12, with priority claimed from US11/403,374 (2006-04-12), US12/140,060 (2008-06-16), and US13/232,306 (2011-09-14). Legal status: "Expired - Lifetime," with anticipated expiration 2026-04-12.
Purpose: The patent addresses transmitting dynamic images ("movies") efficiently over wired and wireless electronic communication media. It describes problems with Flash-based animation: programming instructions are difficult to write, results are limited to what the transmitted code can express, and the receiving computer needs a specific plug-in.
Plain-language scope (per the supplied excerpt): Multiple photographs are captured in sequence from a camera or video camera, typically at a fixed position and focal length (or handheld/tripod with slight or large motion). The first photograph is the "key photo." Using a graphics program such as Adobe Photoshop, later photos are edited to select an element in motion; the moving element may or may not appear in the key photo. The modified key photo is transmitted with a web-enabled communication such as an email, text message or website, and displayed. Added layers are then displayed and removed in the order pasted and flattened onto the key photo, with short delays, to create multiple display frames — yielding a movie with much smaller files than the prior art.
Figures identified: FIG. 1 (computing system architecture), FIG. 2 (eight photographs), FIG. 3 (modified photographs), FIG. 6 (Display Animation process), FIG. 7 (Edit Image block), FIG. 8 (Detect Changes process), FIG. 9 (Change Frame process).
What the excerpt does not establish: Full claim language, the complete specification, all figures, the full prosecution history, and whether the listed litigation links or classifications reflect current or accurate status. The excerpt is explicitly partial and directs readers to the source.
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US11263998](/patent/US11263998)/en
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:42:25 PM
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Litigation summary
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Proceedings on file (0)
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No PTAB proceedings on file. This patent has not been challenged via IPR, PGR, or CBM. The absence is itself a signal — well-asserted patents eventually attract IPRs. The LLM analysis below may surface filings the ODP feed hasn’t indexed yet.
PTAB challenges
AIA trial proceedings at the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board — IPR, PGR, and CBM. Petitioners, judge panels, claim-level invalidation outcomes from Final Written Decisions, and Federal Circuit appeals. The single most important defensive datapoint after litigation history.
Assignment history
Inventors, original assignee, and the chain of ownership recorded with the USPTO — including the correspondent attorney who recorded each assignment, since shell-LLC chains often share one repeat-player attorney even when the entity names look unrelated. Surfaces NPE / patent-troll patterns: shell-entity transfers, known asserters in the chain, repeat correspondent fingerprints, pre-litigation assignments, and bankruptcy fire-sales.
Prior art
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Obviousness
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Extensions
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Derivative works
Defensive disclosure: derivative variations of each claim designed to render future incremental improvements obvious or non-novel.