Invalidity dossier
US 9184920
Federated digital rights management scheme including trusted systems
Current assignee: Divx LLC
Added 9/22/2026, 4:48:51 AM
Active provider: DeepSeek · deepseek-flash
Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
Patent Overview: US 9,184,920 B2
Title: Federated digital rights management scheme including trusted systems
Patent number: US 9,184,920 B2
Application number: US 14/183,360
Filing date: 2014-02-18
Publication date / grant date: 2015-11-10
Priority date (as listed): 2006-03-14
Anticipated expiration (as listed): 2027-03-14 (listed as an assumption, not a legal conclusion)
Status (as listed): Active
Current assignee (as listed): Divx LLC. Original assignee: Sonic IP LLC.
Inventors: Eric William Grab; Chris Russell; Francis Yee-Dug Chan; Michael George Kiefer.
Classifications (from the excerpt): H04L9/32 and H04L9/3263–3268 (cryptographic mechanisms, certificates/PKI and certificate validation); G06F21/10 and G06F21/105 (digital rights management, license management); H04L63/04 and H04L63/0428 (network security, encrypted payloads); H04N21 categories (selective content distribution, VOD servers, key and entitlement message generation, rights management associated with content, client device content operations).
Plain-language scope: The classification data and prior-art keywords (content, encryption key, encrypted, playback, playback device) indicate subject matter directed to a federated digital rights management scheme using trusted systems—i.e., protecting distributed content (e.g., video) by encrypting it with an encryption key and managing licenses, keys, and entitlements across devices, with certificate-based verification (PKI) and trusted playback components.
Purpose: As reflected in the title and classifications, the patent addresses secure distribution and playback of encrypted digital content under a DRM framework.
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US9184920/en
What the excerpt does not establish:
- It contains no claim text, abstract, or detailed description, so the actual claimed scope, claim limitations, and precise inventive features cannot be determined from it.
- It does not establish prior art, validity, patentability, or enforceability.
- It does not establish current legal status as a legal conclusion; the "Active" designation and expiration date are explicitly stated as assumptions, not legal conclusions.
- Assignment and reassignment entries are listed data points only; ownership history is not verified here.
- Litigation references appear in the source but are outside this overview's scope per instruction.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:54:24 PM
Cases on file (0)
Specific litigation cases in our database that name US patent 9184920. The free-form analysis below may also discuss cases beyond this list.
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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.