Invalidity dossier
US 8651434
Methods and systems for rail communication
Current assignee: Transportation IP Holdings LLC
Added 9/23/2026, 10:21:51 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: US8651434B2 — Methods and Systems for Rail Communication
Title: Methods and systems for rail communication
Patent number / application: US8651434B2; Application US12/911,816
Inventors: Wolfgang Daum; Jared Klineman Cooper
Assignee (as listed): Original assignee General Electric Co; current assignee listed as Transportation IP Holdings LLC
Key dates (as listed): Priority/filing date 2010-10-26; publication of US20120097803A1 on 2012-04-26; granted 2014-02-18; legal status "Expired - Fee Related," adjusted expiration 2031-08-21
Purpose: The disclosure addresses communicating data over a rail. It notes that wireless communication in rail yards suffers from scarce frequency bandwidth and prevalent interference due to the density of rail vehicles and communication devices.
Plain-language scope: A remote control unit generates acoustic (structure-borne) signals and sends them through a rail of a designated section of track. A receiver unit coupled to a rail vehicle receives the signals, derives control commands, and sends them through an interface to control the vehicle — for example, adjusting speed or braking. The remote control unit may be positionally fixed and permanently coupled to a section of track defined by physical gaps in the rail (e.g., from switches), which limit acoustic signals to that section and reduce interference. Different sections may be assigned different transmission frequencies or identifiers; receiving a non-designated frequency can indicate that adjacent sections have been acoustically linked (e.g., by a vehicle traversing them), prompting operation adjustments to avoid collisions. The receiver unit may be portable and temporarily coupled to different vehicles. The remote control unit includes a processor, non-transitive storage, control inputs, and an audio transceiver, which may transmit at frequencies outside rail-vehicle wheel acoustic signatures. Alternatively, signals may pass through a third rail or catenary line.
What the excerpt does not establish: It does not provide full claims, complete specification text (the excerpt is truncated), detailed figures, or any analysis of validity, infringement, or prior art. Ownership and legal-status entries are listed as assumptions, not legal conclusions.
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US8651434](/patent/US8651434)/en
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:33:30 PM
Cases on file (0)
Specific litigation cases in our database that name US patent 8651434. The free-form analysis below may also discuss cases beyond this list.
No cases on file mention this patent. Upload a CSV or add a case manually in Admin → Manage litigation cases.
Litigation summary
Past and pending lawsuits — plaintiffs, defendants, jurisdictions, outcomes, and notable rulings.
Proceedings on file (0)
All PTAB activity →AIA trial proceedings (IPR / PGR / CBM) filed at the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board against this patent. Sourced from the USPTO Open Data Portal and refreshed every six hours; each proceeding number deep-links to the PTAB E2E docket.
No PTAB proceedings on file. This patent has not been challenged via IPR, PGR, or CBM. The absence is itself a signal — well-asserted patents eventually attract IPRs. The LLM analysis below may surface filings the ODP feed hasn’t indexed yet.
PTAB challenges
AIA trial proceedings at the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board — IPR, PGR, and CBM. Petitioners, judge panels, claim-level invalidation outcomes from Final Written Decisions, and Federal Circuit appeals. The single most important defensive datapoint after litigation history.
Assignment history
Inventors, original assignee, and the chain of ownership recorded with the USPTO — including the correspondent attorney who recorded each assignment, since shell-LLC chains often share one repeat-player attorney even when the entity names look unrelated. Surfaces NPE / patent-troll patterns: shell-entity transfers, known asserters in the chain, repeat correspondent fingerprints, pre-litigation assignments, and bankruptcy fire-sales.
Prior art
Earlier patents, publications, and products that may anticipate or render the claims unpatentable.
Obviousness
Combinations of prior art that suggest the claimed invention would have been obvious under 35 U.S.C. § 103.
Extensions
Patent term adjustments, term extensions, continuations, divisionals, family members, and expiration dates.
Derivative works
Defensive disclosure: derivative variations of each claim designed to render future incremental improvements obvious or non-novel.