US 8711408

US 8,711,408 B2 — Patent Summary

Verification notes on the searches

• USPTO/patent databases (Google Patents, FreePatentsOnline, uspto.report, Unified Patents): All consistently confirm the patent US8711408B2 (application 13/108,925). I found no results suggesting a different number or a misreading — the identifier 8711408 maps cleanly to this patent.
• CAFC 2026 dockets: My searches returned no CAFC (Federal Circuit) 2026 docket entries for this patent. The litigation records found are at the district-court level: Stanford NPE Litigation Database lists Flexiworld Technologies, Inc. v. Sony Corporation, 2:23-cv-00616 (E.D. Tex.), and Google Patents' litigation metadata flags a Texas Eastern District Court case 2:22-cv-00228. I did not find any pending or decided Federal Circuit appeal in the 2026 docket from my searches — this should be verified independently if you need appellate-level certainty.

Bibliographic data (as confirmed by search results)

Abstract (verbatim, from the issued patent)

"Smart television systems and methods for rendering digital content accessed from over the Internet is disclosed. The smart television system is a device that may include an operating system, and one or more applications installed or installable for accessing digital content over the Internet. The method may include providing security or authentication information to one or more servers over the Internet, providing payment or subscription information to the one or more servers, selecting a reference from a list of references to digital content, and providing, to the one or more servers, a content object that includes the selected reference to digital content. Subsequently, the smart television system may receive, from the one or more servers over the Internet, the digital content corresponding to the selected reference to digital content for rendering. The smart television system may further include a touch sensitive screen."

Plain-language overview of the independent claims

Important caveat: The full claim text was not reachable within my search results (the specification text supplied with the request cuts off before the claims section), and I do not have high-confidence verbatim claim language memorized. The following overview is therefore reconstructed from the abstract and the specification of the issued patent and should be verified against the actual claim text (e.g., via the USPTO Patent Center or the Google Patents "Claims" tab for US8711408B2) before use in any formal analysis.

Based on the abstract and specification, the independent claims appear to be directed to two statutory categories — a smart television system (apparatus) and a method of accessing and rendering paid/subscribed digital content:

1. Smart television system claim (apparatus). A television device configured with:

   • a housing and a display (with the abstract noting the system "may further include a touch sensitive screen");
   • an operating system;
   • one or more applications installed or installable for accessing digital content over the Internet;
   • communication capability to reach servers over the Internet;
   • functionality to provide security/authentication information and payment or subscription information to the server(s);
   • functionality to present or receive a list of references to digital content, and to select a reference from that list;
   • functionality to provide to the server(s) a content object containing the selected reference; and
   • functionality to receive, from the server(s), the digital content corresponding to the selected reference for rendering on the television.

2. Method claim(s). A method performed by a smart television system that includes the corresponding steps: providing security/authentication information to one or more servers over the Internet; providing payment or subscription information to the server(s); selecting a reference from a list of references to digital content; providing a content object containing the selected reference to the server(s); and subsequently receiving the digital content from the server(s) for rendering.

The specification context (a divisional of the "pervasive output" family) indicates the claimed invention is aimed at letting a television with limited local storage/processing obtain full-fidelity, paid or subscription-protected content from the Internet — using lightweight "content object" references rather than requiring the device itself to fetch, store, or process the content locally — with the server handling authentication, payment, and content delivery.

Bottom line

• Confirmed: US 8,711,408 B2 is the "Smart television system … accessing paid or subscribed digital content from the internet" patent, assigned to Flexiworld Technologies, Inc., invented by William Ho Chang and Christina Ying Liu, filed May 16, 2011, granted April 29, 2014, with a 2000 priority date; now expired/fee-related.
• Uncertain: The verbatim independent-claim language (claim numbering and exact elements) could not be retrieved from my searches within the allowed steps; the overview above is derived from the abstract/specification and should be confirmed against the official claim text. No CAFC 2026 docket activity for this patent was found in the searches.