Prior art

To identify the most relevant prior art for US Patent 7,987,002, I will search the USPTO patent citations for this specific patent.

As of April 26, 2026, the Central Reexamination Unit (CRU) has already granted Unified Patents' request for ex parte reexamination of US Patent 7,987,002, finding substantial new questions of patentability on the challenged claims. This indicates that prior art has been identified and deemed significant enough to warrant reexamination. Unified Patents has also previously announced that prior art was found on this patent. While the full list of prior art references considered in the reexamination is not directly available in the search snippets, the fact that a reexamination was instituted points to the existence of relevant prior art impacting the claims.

The provided information also mentions ongoing contests by Unified Patents to find prior art for US Patent 7,987,002, specifically seeking prior art on at least claim 15. This suggests that prior art relevant to claim 15, and potentially other claims, is still being actively sought or evaluated.

Without direct access to the full prosecution history or the specific prior art documents cited by the USPTO in the reexamination or submitted by Unified Patents, I cannot provide a definitive list of all the most relevant prior art. However, the initiation of the ex parte reexamination (Control No. 90/019,867) confirms that relevant prior art has been brought to the attention of the USPTO and is being formally evaluated against the patent's claims.

To obtain the specific prior art citations and their details, one would typically need to access the public records of the ex parte reexamination proceeding for US Patent 7,987,002 (Control No. 90/019,867) through the USPTO's Patent Center or Public PAIR system. These systems provide access to the complete file wrapper, including all cited prior art during examination and reexamination.