Invalidity dossier
US 11597402
Controlling driving modes of self-driving vehicles
Current assignee: Tesla, Inc.
Added 9/24/2026, 1:26:34 AM
Active provider: DeepSeek · deepseek-flash
Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
Patent Overview: US11597402B2
Title: Controlling driving modes of self-driving vehicles
Patent Number: US11597402B2
Application Number: US17/719,541
Inventors: Michael S. Gordon; James R. Kozloski; Ashish Kundu; Peter K. Malkin; Clifford A. Pickover
Current Assignee (as listed): Granite Vehicle Ventures LLC
Original Assignee: Slingshot IoT LLC
Key Dates (as listed in the source):
- Priority date: 2015-09-25
- Filing date: 2022-04-13
- Publication date: 2023-03-07
- Anticipated expiration: 2035-09-25
- Legal status: Active
Purpose and Plain-Language Scope
Based only on the supplied excerpt, the patent relates to controlling driving modes of self-driving vehicles (SDVs). The listed prior-art keywords—"sdv," "determining," "sensor," "fault," and "human driver"—indicate the subject matter concerns determining a sensor fault and the interaction between an SDV and a human driver. The classifications confirm this: B60W60/0059 covers estimation of risk associated with autonomous or manual driving (e.g., sensor failure or driver incapacity); B60W60/005 covers handover processes; G05D1/81 covers handing over between on-board automatic and on-board manual control; and B60W2050/0072 covers a controller asking the driver to take over.
In plain terms, the patent appears directed to switching a self-driving vehicle between autonomous and human-driven modes, including sensing faults, assessing risk, and handing control to a human driver. The excerpt provides classifications, bibliographic data, and prior-art keywords but does not include the claims or detailed description, so the precise scope of any claim cannot be stated from this text alone.
What the Excerpt Does Not Establish
The supplied text does not include the patent's claims, abstract, or written description. It therefore does not establish the specific claimed subject matter, claim limitations, or the exact mechanisms disclosed. It also does not establish the legal status as a conclusion, the accuracy of assignee listings, or dates beyond the assumptions noted in the source. Litigation, ownership transfers, validity, and prior art are not addressed here per scope limitations.
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US11597402](/patent/US11597402)/en
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:31:25 PM
Cases on file (2)
Group view →Specific litigation cases in our database that name US patent 11597402. The free-form analysis below may also discuss cases beyond this list.
- Tesla, Inc. v. Granite Vehicle Ventures LLCfiled May 5, 2025IPR2025-00943Patent Trial and Appeal Boardterminated Dec 17, 2025institution denied
Defendants: Granite Vehicle Ventures LLC
Other patents asserted: 9566986
- 26-116U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuitdenied
Litigation summary
Past and pending lawsuits — plaintiffs, defendants, jurisdictions, outcomes, and notable rulings.
Proceedings on file (0)
All PTAB activity →AIA trial proceedings (IPR / PGR / CBM) filed at the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board against this patent. Sourced from the USPTO Open Data Portal and refreshed every six hours; each proceeding number deep-links to the PTAB E2E docket.
Current assignee: Tesla, Inc.
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
Earlier patents, publications, and products that may anticipate or render the claims unpatentable.
Obviousness
Combinations of prior art that suggest the claimed invention would have been obvious under 35 U.S.C. § 103.
Extensions
Patent term adjustments, term extensions, continuations, divisionals, family members, and expiration dates.
Derivative works
Defensive disclosure: derivative variations of each claim designed to render future incremental improvements obvious or non-novel.
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This patent in court (2)
2 tracked lawsuits name US 11597402.