Invalidity dossier
US 7143431
Method for reduced bandwidth for on-demand data streaming using mini-clusters
Current assignee: Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation
Added 9/23/2026, 4:07:58 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 — US 7,143,431 B1
Title: Method for reduced bandwidth for on-demand data streaming using mini-clusters
Patent number: US 7,143,431 B1
Application number: US 09/633,506
Inventors: Derek L. Eager; Mary K. Vernon
Original/current assignee: Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation
Priority date: 1999-08-06
Filing date: 2000-08-07
Grant/publication date: 2006-11-28
Legal status: Expired – Lifetime; adjusted expiration 2023-02-14
Purpose (from the supplied text): The invention relates to methods of transmitting "continuous media programs" — video or audio files, including movies, television shows, news clips, advertisements, and medical, recreational, or educational programs — to multiple consumers at arbitrary starting times selected by those consumers within a delivery period. The stated aim is to reduce the bandwidth that must be reserved to transmit such data. "On-demand delivery" is described as delivery of a program beginning at a consumer-selected time.
Plain-language scope (from the supplied text): The approach groups consumer requests and structures program transmission using "mini-clusters," with the prior-art keywords being group, mini, cluster, program, and segments. The classification listing places it in data switching networks, multicast with schedule organisation (H04L12/18), network streaming of media packets (H04L65/61), video-on-demand servers and bandwidth allocation (H04N21/2385), staggered-format near-video-on-demand distribution scheduling (H04N21/26275), and time-domain content decomposition into segments (H04N21/8456). Technical effects indexed in the text include buffering, session management, bandwidth allocation/adjustment, and responding to quality-of-service conditions. The text also includes NSF confirmatory-license reassignments (2002, 2018, 2021) and an inventor assignment (2003).
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US7143431/en
What the excerpt does not establish: It does not include the full claims, abstract, or detailed description; the quoted definitions and classifications are excerpts only. It does not establish specific bandwidth-reduction mechanisms, cluster sizing, or segment scheduling rules. It does not establish litigation, validity, enforceability, ownership-chain completeness, or prior-art relationships — and no legal conclusion is implied by the listed status.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:51:07 PM
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Litigation summary
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PTAB challenges
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Assignment history
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Prior art
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Obviousness
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Extensions
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Derivative works
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