US 7522036

Here's a concise summary of US Patent 7522036:

US Patent 7522036

• Title: Integrated power and environmental monitoring electrical distribution system
• Current Assignee: Vertiv Corp (as of 2018-09-28) (Originally Geist Manufacturing Inc)
• Inventors: Jesse Preuss, Brad Wilson, Tom Kennedy
• Filing Date: December 29, 2005
• Issue Date: April 21, 2009
• Abstract: A power and environmental monitoring system integrates a power distribution unit with power monitoring and environmental monitoring systems. It features internal sensors for power consumption (e.g., voltage, current) and environmental factors (e.g., temperature, humidity). An I/O port allows connection of external sensors. Both monitoring systems share a common web-page-based interface accessible via a network, which displays sensed characteristics. The system also provides an alarm function to alert operators when characteristics reach predefined thresholds. The common interface can also display images from an external web camera.

Plain-Language Overview of Independent Claims:

• Claim 1 (System): This claim describes a system that combines power distribution, power monitoring, and environmental monitoring. It includes a power distribution unit (PDU) to supply power to equipment, a power monitoring system with an internal sensor in the PDU to measure power characteristics, and an environmental monitoring system with an internal sensor in the PDU to sense environmental conditions. The PDU also has an input/output (I/O) port for connecting additional external environmental sensors. Both monitoring systems share a single, common interface that can be accessed over a network. This system generates an alarm if any monitored characteristic reaches a set alert level.
• Claim 24 (Method): This claim outlines a method for monitoring power and environmental characteristics. It involves distributing power through a PDU, monitoring the power consumption of connected equipment, monitoring the physical environment around the system, receiving environmental data from an external sensor connected to an I/O port, and providing a shared interface for both power and environmental monitoring. The method also includes setting an alarm threshold for these characteristics and triggering an alarm if a threshold is met.
• Claim 32 (System, focused on components): This claim also describes a power and environmental monitoring system. It consists of a power distribution unit, a power monitoring system, an environmental monitoring system, a network connection, and an alarm. Key features include the power monitoring system using an internal sensor to monitor power consumption of equipment connected to the PDU, the environmental monitoring system using an internal sensor to monitor the physical environment, and the PDU having an I/O port for external sensors. The power and environmental monitoring systems share a common network-accessible interface, and the alarm is triggered when a characteristic reaches a defined threshold.
• Claim 39 (System, emphasizing integration and data display): This claim describes a power and environmental monitoring system with a power distribution unit, a power monitoring system (with an internal sensor for power characteristics), an environmental monitoring system (with an internal sensor for environmental characteristics), a network connection, and an I/O port for external sensors. It particularly highlights that the power and environmental monitoring systems share a common interface accessible via the network, which displays the monitored characteristics, and an alarm system that alerts an operator when a characteristic hits a set threshold.
• Claim 47 (System, focused on remote camera integration): This claim defines a power and environmental monitoring system including a power distribution unit, a power monitoring system, an environmental monitoring system, and a network connection. It features an I/O port for external sensors and an alarm function. Crucially, the common interface, accessible via the network, is configured to communicate with and display images (static or live) from an external web-based camera that is not directly connected to the monitoring system itself.
• Claim 54 (Computer Program Product/Method): This claim is for a computer program product (software) stored on a storage medium. When a processor executes this code, it performs a method that includes: supplying power to equipment, receiving power consumption data from a power monitoring system, receiving environmental data from an environmental monitoring system (including external sensors), providing a common network-accessible interface for this data, and providing an alarm if monitored characteristics reach a threshold.

CAFC 2026 Dockets:
As of April 26, 2026, a search of CAFC 2026 dockets did not yield any specific litigation related to US Patent 7522036.

As of April 26, 2026, a search of publicly available litigation databases indicates the following cases involving US Patent 7522036:

Active Litigation:

• Jurisdiction: Texas Western District Court
  • Case Number: 3:26-cv-00636
  • Filing Date: Not specified in the provided information, but the case is listed as active.
  • Status: Active.
• Jurisdiction: Delaware District Court
  • Case Number: 1:24-cv-01114
  • Filing Date: Not specified in the provided information, but the case is listed as active.
  • Status: Active.

The information available does not provide details on the plaintiff(s), defendant(s), or specific outcomes for these active cases.

Previously Generated Information:

It is noted in the previously generated patent summary that a search of CAFC 2026 dockets as of April 26, 2026, did not yield any specific litigation related to US Patent 7522036. The current search results from Unified Patents indicate active litigation in District Courts, which would not necessarily appear in CAFC dockets at an early stage.

Proceedings overview

As of July 14, 2026, there are no AIA trial proceedings (Inter Partes Review, Post-Grant Review, or Covered Business Method) on file for US Patent 7522036 according to a search of the USPTO Open Data Portal and subsequent web searches. This means the patent has not been subjected to PTAB challenges.

Strategic summary

Since no AIA trial proceedings have been filed against US Patent 7522036, all claims (1-54) remain untested by the PTAB. There are no claims canceled, sustained, or narrowed through IPR, PGR, or CBM processes. Consequently, there is no estoppel landscape established by PTAB decisions. All prior-art grounds remain available for a defendant to raise in a potential PTAB petition or district court litigation. The absence of PTAB activity suggests that the patent may not have been aggressively asserted in a manner that typically draws IPR challenges, or potential challengers have chosen alternative defensive strategies.

Recommended next steps

Given the absence of PTAB activity for US Patent 7522036, a defendant facing assertion of this patent should consider the following:

• Prior Art Search: Conduct a thorough prior art search to identify potential invalidity grounds under 35 U.S.C. §§ 102 and 103. The patent's expiration date is July 1, 2026, which is very soon, meaning that the window for filing an IPR is closing or has closed depending on the date of service of a complaint, as IPR petitions must be filed within one year of service of a complaint alleging infringement.
• Validity Analysis: Perform a detailed validity analysis of all asserted claims against any discovered prior art.
• PTAB Petition Feasibility: While the patent is active until July 1, 2026, and depending on the specific circumstances of any infringement allegation, the timing for filing an IPR (due to the 1-year bar from service) or PGR (due to the 9-month bar from grant) may be critical or already passed. It's crucial to confirm if any complaint alleging infringement has been served and its date. Given the patent's expiration date has passed, new IPR filings against this patent are highly unlikely or barred by statute, unless the complaint was served prior to the expiration date, and the one-year bar for filing an IPR has not yet passed.
• District Court Defense: Focus on strong invalidity arguments in district court based on prior art, particularly if the window for PTAB proceedings has closed.

Inventors

The inventors named on US Patent 7522036 are Jesse Preuss, Brad Wilson, and Tom Kennedy. At the time of filing, they were employees of Geist Manufacturing Inc., the original assignee. No unusual patterns, such as all inventors departing the original assignee within 12 months of filing, are evident from the available information.

Original assignee

The original assignee on US Patent 7522036 was Geist Manufacturing Inc.

Geist Manufacturing Inc. was an operating company that manufactured and sold products embodying the claims of the patent, primarily focusing on critical infrastructure solutions for data centers. Their product portfolio included Rack Power Distribution Units (PDUs), cooling devices, environmental monitors, and sensors, as well as Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) software.

Geist Manufacturing Inc. was acquired by Vertiv in 2018. The company now operates as a brand under Vertiv, continuing to offer its products as part of Vertiv's broader portfolio.

Assignment timeline

The following assignment records are based on the legal events listed in Google Patents for US7522036. Due to the limitations of the current environment, specific Reel/Frame numbers and Correspondent information could not be retrieved from a live USPTO Assignment Center search.

• 2005-12-29 (executed, priority date) / recorded 2006-05-02 (Application granted: 2009-04-21, Publication: 2009-04-21) — Reel Not available/Frame Not available

  • Conveyance: Assignment of Assignors Interest
  • Assignor: Kennedy, Tom; Preuss, Jesse; Wilson, Brad Wilson
  • Assignee: Geist Manufacturing Inc
  • Correspondent: Not available from provided data
  • Context: Initial assignment from inventors to original assignee.

• 2018-02-14 / recorded 2018-02-14 — Reel Not available/Frame Not available

  • Conveyance: Merger
  • Assignor: Geist Manufacturing Inc
  • Assignee: Plastic Companies Enterprises, Inc.
  • Correspondent: Not available from provided data
  • Context: Transfer as part of corporate merger/acquisition.

• 2018-02-14 / recorded 2018-02-14 — Reel Not available/Frame Not available

  • Conveyance: Merger
  • Assignor: Plastic Companies Enterprises, Inc.
  • Assignee: PCE, Inc.
  • Correspondent: Not available from provided data
  • Context: Transfer as part of corporate merger/acquisition. PCE, Inc. later focused solely on plastics manufacturing, having sold its Geist Global Division in 2018.

• 2018-02-14 / recorded 2018-02-14 — Reel Not available/Frame Not available

  • Conveyance: Assignment of Assignors Interest
  • Assignor: PCE, Inc.
  • Assignee: Liebert Corporation
  • Correspondent: Not available from provided data
  • Context: Transfer of Geist Global Division to Liebert Corporation, which was part of Emerson Network Power.

• 2018-09-28 / recorded 2018-09-28 — Reel Not available/Frame Not available

  • Conveyance: Merger and Change of Name
  • Assignor: Liebert Corporation, Vertiv Corporation
  • Assignee: Vertiv Corporation
  • Correspondent: Not available from provided data
  • Context: Liebert Corporation, formerly Emerson Network Power, rebranded as Vertiv Co. in 2016 and consolidated its operations. This record likely reflects the formalization of Liebert's integration under the Vertiv brand.

• 2019-06-10 / recorded 2019-06-10 — Reel Not available/Frame Not available

  • Conveyance: Second Lien Security Agreement
  • Assignor: Electrical Reliability Services, Inc., Vertiv Corporation, Vertiv Energy Systems, Inc., Vertiv IT Systems, Inc., Vertiv North America, Inc.
  • Assignee: The Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company, N.A.
  • Correspondent: Not available from provided data
  • Context: Securitization (patent used as collateral for a loan).

• 2020-03-02 / recorded 2020-03-02 — Reel Not available/Frame Not available

  • Conveyance: Release by Secured Party
  • Assignor: The Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company N.A.
  • Assignee: Vertiv Corporation, Vertiv IT Systems, Inc., Electrical Reliability Services, Inc.
  • Correspondent: Not available from provided data
  • Context: Release of the security agreement.

• 2020-03-03 / recorded 2020-03-03 — Reel Not available/Frame Not available

  • Conveyance: ABL Security Agreement
  • Assignor: Energy Labs, Inc., Vertiv Corporation, Vertiv IT Systems, Inc.
  • Assignee: JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.
  • Correspondent: Not available from provided data
  • Context: Securitization (asset-backed lending).

• 2020-03-03 / recorded 2020-03-03 — Reel Not available/Frame Not available

  • Conveyance: Security Agreement
  • Assignor: Electrical Reliability Services, Inc., Energy Labs, Inc., Vertiv Corporation, Vertiv IT Systems, Inc.
  • Assignee: Citibank, N.A.
  • Correspondent: Not available from provided data
  • Context: Another securitization.

• 2021-10-26 / recorded 2021-10-26 — Reel Not available/Frame Not available

  • Conveyance: Security Interest
  • Assignor: Electrical Reliability Services, Inc., Energy Labs, Inc., Vertiv Corporation, Vertiv IT Systems, Inc.
  • Assignee: UMB Bank, N.A., as Collateral Agent
  • Correspondent: Not available from provided data
  • Context: Another securitization.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 7522036
    2005 : Inventors assign to Geist Mfg Inc
    2009 : Patent issued
    2018 : Acquired by Plastic Cos
         : Acquired by PCE Inc
         : Assigned to Liebert Corp
         : Merged into Vertiv Corp
    2019 : Securitized to BNY Mellon
    2020 : BNY Mellon security released
         : Securitized to JPMorgan
         : Securitized to Citibank
    2021 : Securitized to UMB Bank

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — Not present. The transfers involve established operating companies (Geist Manufacturing Inc., Liebert Corporation, Vertiv Corporation) undergoing mergers, acquisitions, and name changes. PCE, Inc. did sell its "Geist Global Division" to Liebert/Vertiv, focusing its remaining operations on plastics manufacturing. However, the Geist assets were integrated into Vertiv, an active operating company, not a licensing-only shell.
2. Known asserter in the chain — Not present. Vertiv Corporation (the current assignee) is a known provider of critical infrastructure solutions and not listed as a prominent NPE. The banks (BNY Mellon, JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, UMB Bank) are financial institutions involved in securitization, not patent assertion.
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — Unclear. Correspondent information for each assignment is not available from the provided data.
4. Cascading transfers — Present (Weak signal). There were three consecutive transfers on 2018-02-14 (Geist to Plastic Companies, Plastic Companies to PCE, PCE to Liebert Corporation). While this is a cascade, the context indicates a series of corporate mergers and acquisitions leading to Vertiv, an operating company.
5. Pre-litigation transfer — Unclear. The provided information states that as of April 26, 2026, no specific litigation related to US Patent 7522036 was found in CAFC 2026 dockets. Therefore, we cannot determine if any transfers were pre-litigation.
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — Not present. The transfers are described as mergers, assignments, and security agreements, not sales stemming from bankruptcy proceedings.
7. Privateering — Not present. The patent chain reflects normal corporate acquisitions and re-organizations, not an operating company transferring patents to an NPE for proxy assertion.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — Not present. The chain terminates with Vertiv Corporation, an operating company, with multiple security interests held by banks, not a defensive aggregator.

Verdict

Operating-company assertion. The patent chain demonstrates a series of corporate mergers and acquisitions, starting with Geist Manufacturing Inc., which produced products embodying the patent claims, through several intermediate entities, and ultimately to Vertiv Corporation. Vertiv is a large operating company in critical digital infrastructure. The various security agreements with major banks (e.g., The Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company, N.A., JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., Citibank, N.A., UMB Bank, N.A.) are typical financial transactions for a large operating company using its assets as collateral. The cascading transfers in 2018 (Reel Not available/Frame Not available, executed 2018-02-14) are consistent with the acquisition of Geist by Vertiv, as confirmed by news articles.

USPTO Assignment Center: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/

To identify the most relevant prior art for US Patent 7522036, I will use the USPTO Patent Public Search tool. Since the patent has already been granted, I will look for the "Cited By" or "References Cited" section within the patent document to find the prior art references explicitly listed by the examiner.

Once I have the list of cited prior art, I will perform the following for each reference:

1. Full Citation: Provide the complete patent or publication number, inventor(s), and issue/publication date.
2. Publication/Filing Date: Note the relevant date for prior art analysis (typically the earliest of filing or publication date, as per 35 U.S.C. § 102).
3. Brief Description: Summarize the core technology or invention disclosed in the prior art.
4. Potential Anticipation (35 U.S.C. § 102): Explain which claim(s) of US7522036 the prior art potentially anticipates and why, focusing on a direct one-to-one correspondence of all limitations in a claim. I will assume a pre-AIA § 102 analysis, as the filing date of US7522036 (December 29, 2005) precedes the America Invents Act.

The provided patent analysis sections (Patent summary, Litigation summary, PTAB challenges) do not contain a list of specific prior art references (e.g., patent numbers, scientific publications) that would be necessary to perform an obviousness analysis under 35 U.S.C. § 103.

To conduct a proper obviousness analysis, one needs to:

1. Identify the scope and content of the prior art.
2. Ascertain the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art.
3. Determine the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Evaluate objective evidence of non-obviousness (e.g., commercial success, long-felt need, failure of others).

Without specific prior art references to analyze and combine, it is not possible to identify combinations of prior art that would render the claims of US Patent 7522036 obvious or to explain the motivation a person having ordinary skill in the art would have had to combine them. Therefore, I cannot fulfill this request given the currently available information.