Invalidity dossier
US 6000000
Added 9/23/2026, 10:26:52 PM
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Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
Patent Overview — US 6,000,000
Title: Extendible method and apparatus for synchronizing multiple files on two different computer systems
Patent number: US 6,000,000 A (application US09/072,274)
Inventors: Jeffrey C. Hawkins; Michael Albanese
Original assignee: 3Com Corp. Current assignee listed as Access Co Ltd (per the source's assignee field).
Key dates: Priority date 1995-10-13; filing date 1998-05-04; granted/publication date 1999-12-07; anticipated expiration 2015-10-13. Status: Expired – Lifetime.
Purpose and plain-language scope: The patent concerns synchronizing data between two computer systems — illustrated as a handheld computer system (e.g., a cellular phone or personal information manager) and a personal computer — joined by a communication link such as a serial data line. Earlier approaches either transferred whole files without record-level analysis (failing to reconcile files changed on both sides) or required each matched pair of applications to be run separately, which the text calls laborious. The described system is "extendible" and can reconcile several databases under a single synchronization system started with a single key press. In the described architecture, applications on each system have associated databases, and a handheld communication program handles external communication. A hotsync memory-resident program consults a sync registry listing conduit libraries, then invokes each conduit library one by one; each conduit library synchronizes one particular application by calling synchronization functions provided in a sync manager library, after which the user is informed that synchronization is complete. Figures illustrate the architecture, the overall control flow, a conduit library's control flow, and communication between the Sync Manager and a Conduit library, including record-level merging of an address book.
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US6000000/en
What the excerpt does not establish: The supplied text is explicitly an excerpt with omitted portions. It does not provide the full claims, the detailed description, or the complete list of cited prior art. It also states the assignee listing "may be inaccurate" and describes the priority date as an assumption, not a legal conclusion. Accordingly, the precise claim scope, claim count, and any legal conclusions cannot be determined from this excerpt alone.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:33:22 PM
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Litigation summary
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Proceedings on file (0)
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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.