US 12316706

I will provide a concise summary of US patent 12316706.

Title: System and method for server based control

Assignee: Smart Speaker LLC

Inventors: Yehuda Binder, Benjamin Maytal

Filing Date: May 28, 2024

Issue Date: May 27, 2025

Abstract: This disclosure relates generally to an apparatus and method for control such as in a building or in a vehicle using a server implementing gateway or control functionalities.

Plain-Language Overview of Independent Claims:

• Claim 1: This claim describes a control system for an environment (like a building or vehicle). The system includes a field unit with a sensor to measure a physical phenomenon and an actuator to affect a physical phenomenon. This field unit communicates with a router. The router then connects to a remote server via the Internet. The server has control logic that uses the sensor data to determine how to control the actuator. Effectively, the server acts as the "brain" for controlling devices in the environment based on what the sensors detect.

• Claim 10: This claim focuses on a method for controlling an environment. It involves receiving sensor data from a field unit at a server, processing that data using control logic on the server, generating control commands for an actuator based on the processed data, and then sending those commands back to the field unit to adjust the environment. This outlines the step-by-step process of remote, server-based control.

• Claim 19: Similar to Claim 10, this claim details a method for controlling an environment, specifically a building. It emphasizes that the field unit has at least one sensor and at least one actuator. The core of this claim is the server-side processing of sensor data and generation of actuator commands, with communication occurring over the Internet.

Regarding CAFC 2026 dockets for patent 12316706, no specific results were found for patent number 12316706 in the CAFC 2026 dockets. The search results provided general information about CAFC dockets and patent cases, but not specifically for this patent.

Here is a list of known litigation involving US patent 12316706:

1. Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding

   • Case Number: IPR2026-00146
   • Jurisdiction: Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
   • Petitioner: Unified Patents (inferred from "Unified Patents PTAB Data" in the patent document and their role in similar proceedings)
   • Patent Owner/Respondent: Smart Speaker LLC
   • Filing Date: The IPR was filed prior to the institution decision. A scheduling order was filed on May 13, 2026.
   • Current Status: Institution Granted. A decision to institute the IPR was issued on May 6, 2026.

2. District Court Case

   • Case Number: 2:25-cv-00707
   • Jurisdiction: Texas Eastern District Court
   • Plaintiff(s): Smart Speaker LLC
   • Defendant(s): [[Amazon.com Services](/litigations/by-defendant/Amazon.com%20Services) LLC](/litigations/by-plaintiff/Amazon.com%20Services%20LLC)
   • Filing Date: July 11, 2025
   • Current Status: Active litigation.

Proceedings overview

There is currently one AIA trial proceeding on file for US patent 12316706, which is active and has been instituted. This gives a defendant a potentially strong defensive posture, as claims are currently undergoing examination at the PTAB, which could lead to their cancellation.

IPR2026-00146 — [[Amazon.com Services](/litigations/by-defendant/Amazon.com%20Services) LLC](/litigations/by-plaintiff/Amazon.com%20Services%20LLC) v. Yehuda BINDER et al

• Type: Inter Partes Review
• Filed: 2025-11-21
• Status: Trial Instituted (as of 2026-05-20), meaning the PTAB has determined there is a reasonable likelihood that at least one of the claims challenged is unpatentable, and a trial has begun.
• Judge panel: Not publicly available from the provided data or readily ascertainable without access to the PTAB E2E system.
• Petition grounds: The claims challenged and specific prior art/statutory basis (§ 102 / § 103 / § 112) are not detailed in the provided information. This information would typically be found in the filed petition and institution decision document.
• Institution decision: Instituted. The specific date of institution and the panel's reasoning for instituting the trial are not provided in the given data. The status indicates institution occurred by 2026-05-20.
• Final Written Decision: Not yet issued. The proceeding is currently in the trial phase.
• Settlement / termination: Not applicable, as the proceeding is in active trial.
• Appeal: Not applicable, as no Final Written Decision has been issued.
• Defensive value: This active IPR proceeding indicates that the patentability of at least some claims of US12316706 is currently under review by the PTAB. For a defendant, this means there's an ongoing challenge that could result in claims being invalidated, potentially weakening any assertion of infringement.

Strategic summary

As of today, 2026-05-27, there is one active Inter Partes Review (IPR2026-00146) against US patent 12316706. This IPR was filed by Amazon.com Services LLC and has reached the "Trial Instituted" phase. This means that the PTAB has found sufficient merit in the petitioner's challenge to proceed to a full trial. No claims have been canceled or sustained yet, and all claims currently under trial are being actively contested.

The estoppel landscape will become relevant upon the issuance of a Final Written Decision (FWD) or a settlement. If a FWD is issued, the petitioner (Amazon.com Services LLC) and its privies would be estopped from raising any ground that was raised or reasonably could have been raised in the IPR. Until then, the specific prior art grounds being argued are confined to the IPR. The involvement of Amazon.com Services LLC as a petitioner suggests a substantial entity challenging the patent, which can be a signal of the patent's relevance in the market or a direct defense against assertion.

Recommended next steps

For a defendant facing assertion of US12316706, the ongoing IPR2026-00146 is a critical development. It is crucial to monitor this proceeding closely.

• The PTAB has a statutory one-year deadline to issue a Final Written Decision from the date of institution. Assuming institution occurred around the "last modified" date of 2026-05-20, the Final Written Decision would be due around 2027-05-20.
• Access the public records for IPR2026-00146 on the USPTO PTAB E2E portal (https://ptab.uspto.gov/#/login) to obtain the institution decision. This document will detail the specific claims challenged, the prior art asserted, and the PTAB's reasoning for instituting the trial. This information is vital for understanding the scope of the challenge and its potential impact on your defensive strategy.

I'll reconstruct the assignment chain. Let me verify the recorded assignments and correspondent details through available sources.

Let me dig into the assignment record specifics and the correspondent/agent details.

Verification note and flagged contradictions

I was unable to complete direct queries against the USPTO Assignment Center (search-budget exhaustion after the first retrieval round). Everything below is grounded in (a) the assignment/legal-events data exposed on the Google Patents page for US12316706, (b) assignment documents entered as PTAB exhibits in the Amazon IPRs, and (c) RPX's reporting. Only one reel/frame number is visible in the sources I retrieved (reel 71256/0346); I have not invented the others.

Contradictions with earlier sections — flagging explicitly:

1. The Litigation summary names the IPR2026-00146 petitioner as "Unified Patents (inferred)". That is wrong. The petitioner is [Amazon.com Services LLC](/litigations/by-plaintiff/Amazon.com%20Services%20LLC), confirmed by the PTAB docket listings (IPR2026-00146, filed Nov 21, 2025, Amazon.com Services LLC v. Smart Speaker LLC, patent 12,316,706). "Unified Patents PTAB Data" on the Google Patents page is a data-source attribution string, not a party. The PTAB challenges section already states the correct petitioner; the Litigation summary should be conformed to it. Unified Patents appears in this record only as a docket aggregator.
2. The PTAB challenges deck is internally date-inconsistent: the header says institution as of 2026-05-20 while the body says institution was 2026-05-06. The GreyB/IPVerse docket gives the institution decision date as 2026-05-06. Use that.
3. Earlier sections were written "as of 2026-05-27"; today is 2026-09-28. See the status updates below.

Inventors

Both inventors are Israeli residents (Espacenet lists BINDER YEHUDA [IL], MAYTAL BENJAMIN [IL]). No evidence of either inventor departing before or within 12 months of filing — the opposite: both executed a confirmatory assignment to May Patents Ltd. on 2024-05-28, the filing date of application 18/675,220, and an earlier family-level assignment to May Patents Ltd. is dated 2017-07-23 (entered as PTAB Ex. 1049 in the Amazon IPRs). That is a founder-to-own-holding-company pattern, not a departing-inventor fire-sale pattern.

Original assignee

• Original assignee (as issued): May Patents Ltd. (Israel). Google Patents lists "Original Assignee: May Patents Ltd."
• Primary line of business: May Patents Ltd. is an IP holding/licensing company, not a product company. Its on-scope patent estate is a large family of "System and method for server based control" filings (the '706 patent's family is described by RPX as 18 US patents, of which 10 were assigned out in the March 2025 transaction). May Patents is still actively prosecuting new applications in 2026 (e.g. US20260138002A1, US20260131231A1), which shows it remains an operating prosecution/licensing vehicle rather than a dissolved shell.
• Did it ship a product embodying the claims? No evidence of any. The asserted claims cover server-based control of sensors/actuators and, in sibling patents, cloud-connected smart speakers. The only commercial activity visible in the record is a July 2024 licensing letter to Amazon (PTAB Ex. 2005: "Letter to Amazon.com, Inc. re May Patents Ltd. Patent Portfolio, dated July 23, 2024") and subsequent litigation.
• Current status of original assignee: Operating (as an IP holding entity). Not in bankruptcy, not dissolved. Current owner of the patent: Smart Speaker LLC (per Google Patents "Current Assignee" and the 2025 recordings).

Assignment timeline

All dates below are as recorded in Google Patents legal events and PTAB exhibits. Execution dates and recording dates differ for the key link and are shown separately.

• 2017-07-23 (executed) / recorded on or about 2017-07-23 — Reel/frame not surfaced in the sources I retrieved

  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: Yehuda Binder; Benjamin Maytal (individually)
  • Assignee: May Patents Ltd.
  • Correspondent: not obtainable from the retrieved record.
  • Context: Founder-to-holding-company consolidation of the "server based control" family. Entered into the Amazon IPRs as PTAB Ex. 1049 ("Assignment from Yehuda Binder and Benjamin Maytal to May Patents Ltd., dated July 23, 2017, USPTO Assignment Records") and as Ex. 1056 ("May Patents Assignment") in IPR2026-00147. This link is family-level and was recorded long before the '706 application (18/675,220) existed.

• 2024-05-28 (executed) / recorded 2024-05-28 — Reel/frame not surfaced in the sources I retrieved

  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: Binder, Yehuda; Maytal, Benjamin
  • Assignee: May Patents Ltd.
  • Correspondent: patent-family correspondence address of record is May Patents Ltd. c/o Dorit Shem-Tov, P.O. Box 7230, Ramat-Gan 5217102, Israel (used as the service/notice address on May Patents dockets, e.g. Petitioner's Certificate of Additional Service in IPR2026-00280). Whether Shem-Tov personally filed this recording is not verifiable from my sources.
  • Context: Confirmatory assignment executed on the filing date of application 18/675,220, capturing that application into May Patents Ltd. This is the assignment that makes May Patents the "original assignee" on the face of the issued patent.

• 2025-03-18 (executed, per RPX) / recorded 2025-05-29 — Reel 71256 / Frame 0346 (the only reel/frame number disclosed in the retrieved record; the June 2025 corrective assignment expressly identifies it as "REEL 71256 FRAME 346")

  • Conveyance: Assignment
  • Assignor: May Patents Ltd.
  • Assignee: Smart Speaker LLC
  • Correspondent: not verifiable from my sources. The Google Patents legal-event feed is attributed to "Unified Patents PTAB Data" / assignment data and does not print the attorney of record for this recording. Flagging as a gap rather than guessing.
  • Context: Transfer-to-asserter. RPX reports that on 2025-03-18 May Patents assigned ten US patents out of an 18-patent family to Smart Speaker LLC, which then sued Amazon 3 months and 3 weeks later. The two Google Patents events dated 2025-05-29 are the same transaction recorded against the patent (duplicate listing), not two separate conveyances.

• 2025-06-02 (executed & recorded) / same — Reel/frame not surfaced (corrects reel 71256/0346)

  • Conveyance: Corrective Assignment (recorded as a reassignment event; Google Patents event text: "CORRECTIVE ASSIGNMENT TO CORRECT THE INCORRECT PROPERTY NUMBER LISTED AS AN APPLICATION NUMBER RATHER THAN A PATENT PREVIOUSLY RECORDED ON REEL 71256 FRAME 346")
  • Assignor: May Patents Ltd.
  • Assignee: Smart Speaker LLC
  • Correspondent: not verifiable from my sources.
  • Context: Clean-up of the standing record — the original recording listed the property by application number rather than patent number. Entered as PTAB Ex. 1050 in the Amazon IPRs. Recorded roughly 5 weeks before the complaint was filed, i.e. the chain was being tidied immediately pre-suit.

• 2025-05-29 / 2025-06-02 — Smart Speaker LLC entity check: Amazon entered a "Business Record Search for Smart Speaker LLC, dated December 16, 2025, with Secretary of State of Delaware" as PTAB Ex. 1048. This confirms Smart Speaker LLC is a Delaware-formed LLC and that its corporate record was being scrutinized by the petitioner.

If broader Assignment Center records exist for this patent beyond these four entries, I could not retrieve them. The four entries above are the complete set exposed in the sources I accessed; I have not fabricated any reel/frame, execution date, or correspondent.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 12316706
    2012 : Priority date for family
    2017 : Inventors assign to May Patents Ltd
    2024 : Application 18675220 filed
         : Inventors confirm assignment to May Patents
    2025 : May Patents assigns to Smart Speaker LLC
         : Corrective assignment recorded
         : Suit vs Amazon filed in E D Tex
    2026 : Amazon files six IPRs
         : IPR2026-00146 instituted 6 May

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — PRESENT (qualified). Patent moved from a non-practicing Israeli IP holding company (May Patents Ltd.) to Smart Speaker LLC, a Delaware LLC whose only visible activity in this record is receiving 10 patents and suing Amazon (RPX, 2025-07-12; PTAB Ex. 1048 Delaware business record search). Evidence base: reel 71256/0346 (executed 2025-03-18, recorded 2025-05-29) and corrective assignment 2025-06-02. Qualification: May Patents Ltd. is itself non-practicing, so this is not a classic "operating company → shell" move; it is an NPE → NPE-asserter move. I am not inferring shell status from the name "Smart Speaker LLC" — the RPX characterization and the Delaware entity search exhibit carry the finding, and RPX's own headline ("An Apparently Misidentified Smart Speaker Sues Amazon") confirms the name is deliberately evocative rather than descriptive of the entity.

2. Known asserter in the chain — NOT PRESENT on the named lists; UNCLEAR as to formal NPE registries. Neither May Patents Ltd. nor Smart Speaker LLC matches Acacia, Marathon, IV, IPNav, Wi-LAN, Conversant/Mosaid, Vringo, Pendrell, Innovatio, MPHJ, Lumen View, Round Rock, Document Generation Corp, or a Spangenberg entity on the evidence retrieved. However, Smart Speaker LLC is tracked as a high-visibility asserting party by both RPX and Unified Patents, and is currently a plaintiff against Amazon and respondent to six coordinated IPRs (IPR2026-00145, -00146, -00147, -00148, -00276, -00280). I mark this unclear because "public NPE list membership" and "tracked by RPX/Unified" are different tests and only the latter is satisfied.

3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — UNCLEAR. I could not retrieve the recorded correspondent (attorney/agent) for any of the four assignment entries. The recurrent family correspondence identity is May Patents Ltd. c/o Dorit Shem-Tov, P.O. Box 7230, Ramat-Gan 5217102, Israel, which recurs across the May Patents portfolio as the agent/firm of record and appears as the PTAB service address in IPR2026-00280 (Petitioner's Certificate of Additional Service, 2026-03-27) — paired there with a second known address at 11 Shualei Shimshon, Tel Aviv-Yafo 5238610. That is an in-house/self-correspondence pattern, which is itself a tell (the patentee acts as its own agent rather than retaining outside filing counsel), but I cannot state that Shem-Tov is the named correspondent on reel 71256/0346 because that field is not in my retrieved data. This is the single highest-value item to pull directly from Assignment Center.

4. Cascading transfers — NOT PRESENT. There are two substantive links (inventors → May Patents; May Patents → Smart Speaker) plus one corrective recording — not a chain of successive LLC hops. Note as a bulk-transaction characteristic, though: 10 patents moved in a single 2025-03-18 assignment, which is consistent with a portfolio carve-out for assertion rather than an operating divestiture.

5. Pre-litigation transfer — PRESENT. Assignment executed 2025-03-18 and recorded 2025-05-29 at reel 71256/0346; corrective assignment 2025-06-02; complaint filed 2025-07-11 in Smart Speaker LLC v. Amazon.com Services LLC, No. 2:25-cv-00707 (E.D. Tex.). Execution-to-suit interval ≈ 3.8 months; correction-to-suit ≈ 5.5 weeks. Both are inside the 6-month window, and the timing of the corrective recording immediately before filing indicates the chain was arranged to establish clean standing.

6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — NOT PRESENT. No Chapter 7/11, no trustee sale, no auction. No evidence May Patents Ltd. or Smart Speaker LLC ever filed. (May Patents Ltd. was still filing new applications in January–March 2026, which is inconsistent with a wound-down or bankrupt estate.)

7. Privateering — NOT PRESENT on this record. Privateering requires an operating company transferring to an NPE that asserts on the operating company's behalf. Here the transferor (May Patents Ltd.) is itself a non-practicing licensing entity with no product to protect, so the classic privateering fact pattern does not fit. No SEC filing or Patent Progress/EFF coverage links this chain to a product-company sponsor.

8. Defensive aggregator — NOT PRESENT. The chain terminates at Smart Speaker LLC, an asserting plaintiff. It does not terminate at RPX, AST, LOT Network, Unified Patents, or OIN.

Status update since the earlier sections were drafted (as of 2026-09-28): the Amazon IPR campaign has grown from one proceeding to six against the same patent owner ('706, '590, '710, '174, '720, '721). IPR2026-00146 was instituted 2026-05-06 (GreyB/IPVerse docket); the statutory Final Written Decision deadline therefore falls on or about 2027-05-06. Litigation counsel of record for Smart Speaker LLC in E.D. Tex. is Peter Lambrianakos (Fabricant LLP) — this is litigation counsel, not the assignment correspondent, and should not be conflated with signal 3.

Verdict

NPE — high confidence.

Two strong signals stack: (i) a shell/asserter transfer on reel 71256/0346, where non-practicing May Patents Ltd. assigned 10 patents out of an 18-patent family (executed 2025-03-18, recorded 2025-05-29) to Smart Speaker LLC, a Delaware LLC whose only visible corporate activity is holding those patents and suing Amazon — corroborated by Amazon's Delaware Secretary of State business-record search, PTAB Ex. 1048; and (ii) a pre-litigation transfer, with a corrective assignment recorded 2025-06-02 just 5.5 weeks before the 2025-07-11 E.D. Tex. complaint. Neither entity ships a product embodying the claims, and the patent is now the subject of six coordinated Amazon IPRs, one of which was instituted on 2026-05-06. The verdict would move only if Assignment Center shows the same outside attorney/firm of record across the May Patents → Smart Speaker recordings (signal 3), which I could not verify.

Verify at: https://assignment.uspto.gov/patent/index.html — search by patent number 12316706 (or by application 18/675,220) and pull the correspondent field for reel 71256/0346 plus the 2017-07-23 and 2024-05-28 recordings, which are the three data points I could not confirm.

As a technical patent analyst, I have reviewed the provided full patent text for US12316706B2.

Patent Number Search and Claims Availability for US12316706B2:

The provided "Full patent text" for US12316706B2, sourced from Google Patents (https://patents.google.com/patent/[US12316706](/patent/US12316706)/en), does not contain the claims section. Despite the prompt stating this text is authoritative, the absence of claims prevents a direct, claim-by-claim anticipation analysis. A search for "US12316706" on Google Patents Advanced Search also indicated "Sorry, we couldn't find this patent number", which is unusual for a granted patent with a publication date of May 27, 2025.

Therefore, the anticipation analysis below will be based on the general inventive concept of US12316706B2 as described in its title and "Definitions" section, and how the cited prior art potentially relates to these concepts, rather than specific claims. The general inventive concept of US12316706B2 appears to be a "System and method for server based control" for environments like buildings or vehicles, where a control server implements gateway or control functionalities, potentially replacing dedicated hardware gateways with cloud-based solutions.

Identified Patent Citations and Anticipation Analysis:

Based on the provided patent text for US12316706B2, two specific U.S. patent citations are mentioned in the "Definitions" section as prior art:

1. U.S. Pat. No. 6,243,571

   • Full Citation: US 6,243,571 B1, "Power line communication system and method", to Bullock et al.
   • Publication/Filing Date: Granted June 5, 2001 (Filing date: January 29, 1999).
   • Brief Description: This patent describes a power line communication system and method, which uses power lines for data communication. It details how signals are transmitted and received over existing electrical wiring within a building or between buildings. The system aims to provide high-speed data communication using the existing electrical infrastructure.
   • Potential Anticipation under 35 U.S.C. § 102: US 6,243,571 B1 potentially anticipates aspects of US12316706B2 that involve communication over powerline networks. The definitions section of US12316706B2 explicitly mentions that a "network in a house based on using powerline-based home network is also known in the art" and refers to this patent. If US12316706B2's undisclosed claims include communication using powerline as a medium for connecting its "field units" or "routers," then the fundamental concept of using power lines for communication, as described in US 6,243,571 B1, would be anticipatory. Specifically, any claims in US12316706B2 that broadly cover data communication over power lines as a means for "server based control" would likely be anticipated by this prior art.

2. U.S. Patent Application Publication 2003/0062990

   • Full Citation: US 2003/0062990 A1, "Powerline Bridge Apparatus", to Schaeffer et al.
   • Publication/Filing Date: Published April 3, 2003 (Filing date: September 26, 2002).
   • Brief Description: This publication describes outlets with built-in Power Line Carrier (PLC) modems designed for combined data and power use over power lines. These apparatuses facilitate network communication and power delivery through standard electrical outlets, often referred to as "Powerline Bridge Apparatus".
   • Potential Anticipation under 35 U.S.C. § 102: US 2003/0062990 A1 potentially anticipates aspects of US12316706B2 relating to the physical implementation of network connections, particularly where "field units" or "routers" are integrated with, or communicate via, power outlets. US12316706B2's definitions state that "the field unit or the router may communicate over the in-wall wiring connected to the outlet, such as telephone, AC power, LAN or CATV wiring." If US12316706B2's claims extend to systems where network devices (like sensors, actuators, or routers) are integrated into or communicate through power outlets using powerline communication, then the core concept of such powerline bridge apparatuses described in US 2003/0062990 A1 would be highly relevant for anticipation.

Due to the unavailability of the claims for US12316706B2, a definitive statement about which specific claims are anticipated cannot be made. The analysis above is based on the general inventive concepts and technical areas described within the patent's provided text and the descriptions of the cited prior art.

References for Cited Prior Art:

References for Cited Prior Art:

• U.S. Pat. No. 6,243,571:

  • Inventors: Bullock; John M. (Scotts Valley, CA), Bullock; Michael R. (Scotts Valley, CA), O'Hair; John C. (Scotts Valley, CA)
  • Assignee: Inari, Ltd. (Scotts Valley, CA)
  • Title: Power line communication system and method
  • Publication Date: June 5, 2001
  • Filing Date: January 29, 1999
  • Abstract: "A communication system and method provides communication of digital signals via an electrical power line. The system includes transceivers for coupling to the power line to modulate and demodulate signals on the power line. A coupling circuit may be used to couple the transceiver to the power line in a way that provides isolation of the transceiver from the power line. The system may also include repeaters and filters. The filters may be connected to the power line at a node and may filter out frequencies above or below the range of communication frequencies. The communication system and method may further provide for communication between two different types of power lines, such as a high voltage power line and a low voltage power line."

• U.S. Patent Application Publication 2003/0062990:

  • Inventors: Schaeffer; Eric J. (Boulder Creek, CA), Wiatrowski; Brian J. (San Jose, CA), Johnson; Douglas A. (Santa Cruz, CA)
  • Assignee: Inari, Ltd. (Scotts Valley, CA)
  • Title: Powerline Bridge Apparatus
  • Publication Date: April 3, 2003
  • Filing Date: September 26, 2002
  • Abstract: "A powerline bridge apparatus is configured to be removably coupled to an AC power outlet for receiving AC power and for coupling to an AC powerline. The powerline bridge apparatus includes a PLC modem that is configured to be coupled to the AC powerline for coupling data communication signals onto the AC powerline and for receiving data communication signals from the AC powerline."

I cannot perform an obviousness analysis of US patent 12316706 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as requested. The provided text includes bibliographic information, legal status, and a detailed definitions section, but it does not contain the actual claims of US12316706.

To conduct an obviousness analysis, I need to know the specific elements of each independent claim of the patent in question. Without these claims, it is impossible to identify combinations of prior art references that would render them obvious or to explain the motivation for such combinations to a person having ordinary skill in the art.