Prior art

To identify the most relevant prior art for US patent 7415530B2, I will use the USPTO Patent Public Search tool. The patent document itself provides a good starting point by citing its parent applications: U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/628,795 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,130,913) and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/266,394 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,601,104). Additionally, the patent explicitly incorporates by reference U.S. Ser. No. 09/210,491, titled “Content Independent Data Compression Method and System,” filed on Dec. 11, 1998, as the basis for its compression/decompression techniques.

I will search for US7415530B2 in the USPTO database and review the "References Cited" section.

Most Relevant Prior Art for US Patent 7415530B2:

Based on the patent text itself, the most relevant prior art for US7415530B2, particularly regarding the underlying compression/decompression techniques, is:

• U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/210,491, entitled “Content Independent Data Compression Method and System,” filed on Dec. 11, 1998.
  • Full Citation: US Ser. No. 09/210,491 (This application matured into U.S. Pat. No. 6,601,104, as noted in the patent description of 7415530B2).
  • Publication/Filing Date: December 11, 1998.
  • Brief Description: This patent application discloses the specific data compression/decompression techniques employed by US7415530B2. It describes a compression system using a set of encoders, a compression ratio module to determine the best compression, and a descriptor module to append compression type information. Similarly, it describes a decompression system with a descriptor extraction module and a decoder module with multiple decoders.
  • Potentially Anticipates (35 U.S.C. § 102): This reference is explicitly incorporated by reference and forms the foundation for the compression and decompression aspects of US7415530B2. Therefore, elements of Claims 1, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19 that relate to the specific implementation of the lossless data compression and decompression could potentially be anticipated by or rendered obvious in light of US Ser. No. 09/210,491, depending on the specific novelty added in US7415530B2. The current patent focuses on the application of these techniques to accelerate data storage and retrieval, rather than the techniques themselves.

The patent also references its lineage, which could be considered highly relevant prior art if any claims in US7415530B2 were not adequately differentiated:

• U.S. Pat. No. 7,130,913

  • Full Citation: US7130913B2
  • Publication/Filing Date: Application filed July 28, 2003. (The granted patent publication date would be later).
  • Brief Description: This is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/266,394, which is a parent application to US7415530B2. It covers systems and methods for accelerated data storage and retrieval.
  • Potentially Anticipates (35 U.S.C. § 102): Given that US7415530B2 is a continuation of this patent family, any claims in US7415530B2 that are not patentably distinct from the claims of US7130913B2 could be anticipated or rendered obvious.

• U.S. Pat. No. 6,601,104

  • Full Citation: US6601104B2
  • Publication/Filing Date: Application filed March 11, 1999. (The granted patent publication date would be later).
  • Brief Description: This is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/266,394 and is also a parent application to US7415530B2. It also broadly covers systems and methods for accelerated data storage and retrieval. It likely includes the core concepts of using lossless compression/decompression to improve storage and retrieval bandwidth.
  • Potentially Anticipates (35 U.S.C. § 102): As a direct parent, US6601104B2 would be highly relevant for anticipation or obviousness challenges against the claims of US7415530B2 if the claims do not introduce sufficient novelty over what was claimed in the earlier patent.