Invalidity dossier
US 6421350
Device and method for controlling the quality-of service in data networks
Current assignee: Nokia of America Corp
Added 9/23/2026, 5:53:18 PM
Active provider: DeepSeek · deepseek-flash
Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
Patent Overview — US6421350B1
Title: Device and method for controlling the quality-of service in data networks
Patent number: US6421350B1
Application number: US08/940,781
Inventors: Edward Stanley Szurkowski; William Philip Weber, Jr.
Original assignee: Lucent Technologies Inc.
Current assignee (per Google Patents, which notes listed assignees may be inaccurate): Nokia of America Corp; WSOU Investments LLC
Priority/filing date: 1997-09-30
Publication (grant) date: 2002-07-16
Legal status: Expired – Lifetime (anticipated expiration 2017-09-30)
Purpose
The invention is directed to a device and method for controlling quality of service (QoS) in a data communication network, and more particularly to a network terminating unit for maintaining the QoS of the data communication network "at or below a level independent of network traffic."
Plain-language scope (from the supplied text)
The patent concerns packet-switched data networks — including frame relay and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks — and, in one application, Packet Telephony, where speech is compressed and carried in packets rather than over the PSTN. The background explains that packet networks do not typically reserve resources per active user, so end-to-end performance depends on uncontrollable traffic patterns. QoS in packet telephony depends on network parameters such as packet loss, bit errors, delay and delay variation (jitter). The described network terminating equipment (e.g., gateways, routers) accepts analog or constant-bit-rate digital voice, compresses and packetizes it, and performs the reverse at the far end. The prior-art keywords listed are network, packet, module, payloads, and parameter values.
Not established by this excerpt
The excerpt is partial (text is explicitly omitted and no claims are reproduced). It does not establish the specific claimed apparatus or method steps, claim scope, dependency, or limitations; the detailed embodiments; the figures' content; or any prior-art references. It also provides no basis for conclusions about validity, infringement, or ownership accuracy; classification and legal-status entries are presented as assumptions per the source.
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US6421350](/patent/US6421350)/en (fetched 2026-09-23).
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:43:13 PM
Cases on file (0)
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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.