Invalidity dossier
US 9407384
System for the integration of signal-transmission/-reception technologies for highway use
Current assignee: Radioestrada Comunicacoes Ltda
Added 9/23/2026, 5:41:34 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 — US 9,407,384 B2
Title: System for the integration of signal-transmission/-reception technologies for highway use
Assignee: Radioestrada Comunicações Ltda (original assignee and current assignee as listed). Inventor: Carlos Antônio Coelho.
Key dates: Priority date 2012-03-26 (Brazilian application BR 10 2012 006742-0); PCT filing 2013-03-25 (PCT/BR2013/000092); US national-phase application 14/387,666; granted 2016-08-02; adjusted expiration listed as 2033-07-28, status active.
Purpose and plain-language scope: The patent describes integrating several signal transmission/reception technologies — C- or Ku-band satellite, FM, GPS, telemetry and synchronization software — for highway-specific use, so that one single FM frequency can serve an entire road in a synchronized way. Audio is sent from an Operational Control Center (OCC) or Radio-path Production Center (RPC) via digital satellite uplink; downlink signals are received by roadside units called radio-path transmitting cells (CETRAs) and rebroadcast in FM. Each CETRA comprises a housing, an FM transmitter unit, a satellite digital receiver unit, a GPS unit, a telemetry unit and proprietary synchronization software. Overlapping adjacent cells provide continuous, interference-free coverage on one tunable FM channel; the number of CETRAs depends on road length, tower height and transmission power. The specification mentions, by example, using 107.5 MHz on the "Nova Dutra" highway, self-supporting towers averaging 30 m, and amplification up to 100 W using directive antennas concentrating the signal on the roadway. A "UNICLOCK" method is defined generically as any approach letting physically separated FM transmitters share one frequency, synchronized by GPS and specific software, from a single audio source, without discontinuities. The description states the invention is not limited to Brazilian highways.
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US9407384/en
What the excerpt does not establish: It omits the full claim set and detailed description text, so exact claim scope is not verified here; it does not establish litigation, ownership transfers beyond the recorded assignment, validity, or prior-art comparisons. Legal status is stated in the source as an assumption, not a legal conclusion.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:43:24 PM
Cases on file (0)
Specific litigation cases in our database that name US patent 9407384. 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.