Invalidity dossier
US 5264822
System for transmitting audio advertising messages to shopping carts moving through spatially defined transmission zones arranged in a store
Current assignee: Individual
Added 9/24/2026, 2:10:23 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 — US 5264822 A
Title: System for transmitting audio advertising messages to shopping carts moving through spatially defined transmission zones arranged in a store.
Patent number / application: US 5264822 A; application US07/660,740.
Inventors: Joseph H. Vogelman and Edward R. Palombi.
Assignee: Individual (original assignee listed as Individual).
Dates: Priority/filing date 1991-02-22; granted/publication date 1993-11-23; anticipated expiration 2011-02-22. Legal status listed as "Expired – Fee Related."
Classification: G09F 25/00 (Audible advertising); G09F 27/00 (Combined visual and audible advertising or displaying); G09F 2027/001 (Comprising a presence or proximity detector).
Purpose: To audibly advertise products to shoppers at the point-of-purchase in a store using essentially portable components that can be selectively repositioned to establish spatially separable local advertising zones. The system addresses drawbacks of prior shelf-mounted ultrasonic systems (loud messages, discordant interference among adjacent advertisers) and cart-mounted video systems (permanently mounted sensor networks, complex and maintenance-intensive cart computers, and required shopper attention to a display).
Plain-language scope (per the excerpt): The apparatus includes at least one local transmitter selectively placeable in a store and one or more cart receivers attachable to shopping carts. Each local transmitter stores and plays back audio messages and transmits them. Embodiments include: portable, battery-operated local transmitters; infrared detection of cart presence to trigger an infrared message signal; rechargeable plug-in power modules; end-less loop cassette tape message storage; elevated/ceiling-mountable remote transmitters working with shelf-mountable local transceivers; a central message console feeding optical signals; passive optical components directing beams to transceivers to form non-overlapping zones in aisles; cart receivers rechargeable in parallel when carts are nested; and an alarm sounding if a cart leaves a predefined region, plus general announcements from a remote location.
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US5264822/en
What the excerpt does not establish: The full claims, the complete written description, the full prior-art discussion, and the specific operation of all components are not included. The excerpt is explicitly noted as partial ("[Excerpt only; consult the source for omitted text.]").
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:40:47 PM
Cases on file (0)
Specific litigation cases in our database that name US patent 5264822. The free-form analysis below may also discuss cases beyond this list.
No cases on file mention this patent. Upload a CSV or add a case manually in Admin → Manage litigation cases.
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.
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.