US 7055169

US Patent 7055169, titled "Supporting common interactive television functionality through presentation engine syntax," was assigned to OpenTV Inc.. The patent lists Alain Delpuch, James Whitledge, Jean-Rene Menand, Emmanuel Barbier, Kevin Hausman, Debra Hensgen, and Dongmin Su as inventors. The filing date for this patent was April 21, 2003, and it was issued on May 30, 2006.

The abstract describes a method and mechanism for creating and controlling interactive television content using directives like HTML or scripting languages. It involves a centrally located proxy server that receives, transcodes, and conveys web-based content to client devices. When the proxy server detects directives indicating that specific resources for a presentation are prerequisites, it sends signals to the client device. The client device then prefetches these resources and withholds the initiation of the presentation until all prerequisite resources are acquired.

A search of the USPTO database confirms these details and indicates that the patent's legal status is "Expired - Lifetime," with an adjusted expiration date of September 28, 2023.

Regarding CAFC 2026 dockets, a search for "US7055169" or "7055169" does not yield any cases specifically filed in the CAFC in 2026. However, the Google Patents information indicates that the patent family has litigation history, including various US District Court cases and PTAB cases (IPR and CBM), with the most recent PTAB case (IPR2025-01184) filed but not instituted procedurally. There is also a US case filed in Delaware District Court on 2024-10-18 (1:24-cv-01301). No live CAFC cases for 2026 were found.

Here's a plain-language overview of each independent claim:

• Independent Claim 1: Method for Controlling Interactive Television Presentation
  • This claim describes a method where a system receives instructions (directives) from a content creator for an audio/video presentation. The system identifies certain resources within these instructions that are marked as "prerequisites." The core of the method is that the presentation will not start until all these identified prerequisite resources have been obtained.
• Independent Claim 9: System for Controlling Interactive Television Presentation
  • This claim describes a system that includes a "content processing mechanism" to receive directives from a content author for a presentation. A "proxy server" is connected to this mechanism and is responsible for identifying prerequisite resources from these directives. The proxy server then signals a "client device" (like a set-top box) about these prerequisites. The client device is configured to prefetch these resources and, crucially, to prevent the presentation from starting until all the prerequisite resources are acquired.
• Independent Claim 14: Non-Transitory Computer Readable Medium
  • This claim covers a computer-readable storage medium (like a hard drive or flash memory) that contains program instructions. When a processing device executes these instructions, it performs a method similar to Claim 1: receiving content author directives for a presentation, detecting prerequisite resources among them, and holding back the presentation until those prerequisites are obtained. This essentially protects the software implementation of the method.