Invalidity dossier
US 5721914
System and method for hierarchical data distribution
Current assignee: MCI Corp
Added 9/24/2026, 12:57:45 AM
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Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
Patent Overview: US5721914A — System and Method for Hierarchical Data Distribution
Bibliographic data (from supplied text):
- Title: System and Method for Hierarchical Data Distribution
- Patent number: US5721914A; Application number: US08/527,901
- Inventor: Larry R. DeVries
- Original assignee: MCI Corp (current assignee listed: MCI Corp; Verizon Patent and Licensing Inc)
- Priority/filing date: 1995-09-14; Publication/grant date: 1998-02-24
- Legal status: Expired – Fee Related; anticipated expiration 2015-09-14
- Classification: G06F16/27 (replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases); also G06F16/275 (synchronous replication) — per the supplied classifications
- Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US5721914](/patent/US5721914)/en
Purpose: The invention "relates generally to distributed databases, and in particular, to hierarchical distribution of data to distributed databases." It addresses throughput limits when many clients access a database held on one server, and the shortcomings of prior "puller" approaches (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,251,094 to Everson et al.), where the master only sends updates on request, so a server out of communication may never be updated and the failure goes undetected.
Plain-language scope: The hierarchical data distribution system (HDDS) has a top-level master database system, bottom-level client servers each holding a database copy, and at least one intermediate database level. Updates entered at the master flow down level by level: the master updates several first-intermediate systems, each of which updates systems at the next lower level, until client servers are updated. Because each higher level updates fewer lower-level servers, overall update performance improves. HDDS is an "event driven pusher type system": entering update data invokes distribution, so non-functional communications are detected immediately, transitional inconsistency is reduced, and resources are not wasted. It provides guaranteed delivery despite interruptions, plus reformatting, data assembly, and data view processing before transmission.
Not established by the excerpt: The full claims, the complete detailed description, the remaining figures' contents (beyond listings), and the full text of incorporated prior art are absent. No litigation, ownership-transfer, validity, or prior-art conclusions are drawn.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:31:38 PM
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Assignment history
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Prior art
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