US 9889340

US Patent 9889340, titled "Method for providing a coach with live training data of an athlete as the athlete is training," was invented by Todd Martin. The current assignee is Finish Time Holdings LLC. The patent was filed on May 23, 2016, under application number US15/162,613, and issued on February 13, 2018.

The abstract describes "A web-based platform and method for personalizing the training regimen of an athlete. The platform includes a processor and a training log server for maintaining an athlete profile that includes a training record updatable by the athlete and a training plan supplied by a coach."

Here is a plain-language overview of the independent claims:

• Claim 1 (Method for Personalizing Training): This claim describes a multi-step method involving a web-based computer platform. It entails creating an athlete's profile on a training log server, which includes a record of their workouts with fields for distance and time. The method involves receiving workout data from the athlete, updating their training record with this data, allowing a coach to view the athlete's profile, and enabling the coach to upload and associate a training plan with that profile.

• Claim 11 (Web-Based Platform System): This claim focuses on the system architecture. It describes a web-based platform designed to personalize an athlete's training. Key components include a training log server that manages multiple athlete profiles (each containing training records with distance and time fields), and a processor. This processor is configured to handle workout data input from athletes, update their training records, grant coaches access to these records, and facilitate the upload and association of training plans by coaches to athlete profiles.

• Claim 15 (System for Data Transfer from Bike Computer): This claim details a system for transferring an athlete's training data specifically from a bike computer to an online training log. It comprises a bike computer (which stores training data and uses peer-to-peer wireless communication), a mobile communications device (with a processor to receive and format data from the bike computer), and a web-based platform (with a processor to receive the formatted data and store it in an online training log server linked to athlete profiles).

• Claim 23 (Method for Updating Training Log from Mobile Training Computer): This claim outlines a method for updating an online training log using a mobile training computer (like a bike computer). The method involves establishing a direct (peer-to-peer) wireless connection between the mobile training computer and a mobile communications device, transferring training data between them, formatting this data on the mobile communications device, and then uploading the formatted data to a web-based platform to update the user's online training log.

• Claim 29 (Bike Computer Apparatus): This claim describes the bike computer itself as an apparatus for collecting and transmitting training data. It includes at least one sensor to measure training parameters, a processor to collect data from these sensors, memory to store the collected data, and a wireless communication mechanism to send the training data to a training log.

A search for US9889340 in CAFC 2026 dockets did not return any specific litigation information for 2026. However, the Google Patents page indicates "Family has litigation" and "First worldwide family litigation filed" with a link to Darts-ip, which suggests that there has been litigation related to this patent family, though the specific details or status within CAFC dockets for 2026 are not immediately available through a direct search of the specified dockets.

While the Google Patents page for US Patent 9889340 indicates "Family has litigation" and links to Darts-ip for further details, publicly accessible search results do not provide the specific litigation information (plaintiff, defendant, jurisdiction, case number, filing date, and outcome or current status) without requiring a subscription or ordering a report from Darts-ip.

Therefore, specific litigation involving US Patent 9889340, with the requested details, cannot be provided based on the available public search results.

Proceedings overview

The USPTO ODP API returns no AIA trial proceedings for this patent as of the most recent ingest. Therefore, there is no PTAB activity on file for US Patent 9889340.

Strategic summary

As there are no PTAB proceedings on file for US Patent 9889340, all claims (1-29) remain untested by AIA trial proceedings. This means that a defendant facing assertion of this patent would have all prior-art grounds available for a potential IPR, PGR, or CBM petition, assuming the statutory requirements for such petitions are met. There is no estoppel landscape established by previous PTAB decisions. The absence of PTAB activity could indicate that the patent has not yet been asserted aggressively enough to provoke such challenges, or that potential petitioners have not yet identified strong enough grounds for an AIA trial.

Recommended next steps

If you are a defendant and are being asserted against with US Patent 9889340, there is no existing PTAB activity to leverage. Therefore, a thorough prior art search would be a crucial first step to identify potential grounds for an AIA trial (e.g., IPR, PGR) if challenging the patent's validity at the PTAB is a desired strategy.

Inventors

The sole named inventor is Todd Martin. At the time of filing (May 23, 2016), Todd Martin was listed as an individual inventor, not associated with a specific employer on the patent document.

Original assignee

The original assignee on the issued patent was Todd Martin, an individual. The patent abstract and description clearly detail a web-based platform and method for personalizing athlete training. Finish Time Holdings LLC, the current assignee, appears to operate in the sports technology sector, specifically with products like FinishLynx, which offers photo-finish and fully automatic timing systems for athletic events. Therefore, the current assignee ships products embodying the claims. Finish Time Holdings LLC is currently an operating entity, listed as "Active" on Google Patents.

Assignment timeline

• 2020-03-20 (executed) / recorded 2020-03-20 — Reel 048750/0942
  • Conveyance: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST
  • Assignor: MARTIN, TODD
  • Assignee: FINISH TIME HOLDINGS, LLC
  • Correspondent: BRENTON A. JENKINS; KILPATRICK TOWNSEND & STOCKTON LLP; 1100 PEACHTREE STREET, SUITE 2800; ATLANTA, GEORGIA 30309.
  • Context: Transfer from individual inventor to an operating company.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 9889340
    2016 : Filed by Todd Martin (individual)
    2018 : Issued to Todd Martin
    2020 : Assigned to Finish Time Holdings LLC

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — Not present. The transfer was from an individual inventor to Finish Time Holdings, LLC. While "Holdings LLC" can sometimes indicate a shell, Finish Time Holdings, LLC appears to be an operating company based on its association with the FinishLynx sports timing products, which are directly relevant to the patent's domain.
2. Known asserter in the chain — Not present. Finish Time Holdings, LLC is not identified on publicly known NPE lists.
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — Unclear. Brenton A. Jenkins of Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP is listed as the correspondent for the single recorded assignment (Reel 048750/0942). With only one assignment in this patent's chain, it cannot be determined if this correspondent is a repeat player for this specific patent family.
4. Cascading transfers — Not present. There is only one recorded assignment in the chain.
5. Pre-litigation transfer — Unclear. The assignment occurred on 2020-03-20 (Reel 048750/0942). While the Google Patents page indicates "Family has litigation," a specific filing date for the first infringement suit naming US9889340 is not publicly available to determine if this transfer occurred within 6 months prior.
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — Not present. The assignor was an individual, and there is no indication of bankruptcy.
7. Privateering — Not present. There is no evidence to suggest this pattern.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — Not present. The current assignee, Finish Time Holdings, LLC, is not a known defensive aggregator.

Verdict

Operating-company assertion
This verdict is based on the patent being assigned from the individual inventor, Todd Martin, to Finish Time Holdings, LLC on 2020-03-20 (Reel 048750/0942). Finish Time Holdings, LLC appears to be an operating company actively involved in the sports technology market, specifically with the FinishLynx timing systems, which align with the patent's subject matter. There are no clear signals of NPE activity within the recorded assignment history.

Verification: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/

To identify the most relevant prior art for US patent 9889340, I will search the USPTO database for the patent and then examine the "References Cited" section.

USPTO Search for US Patent 9889340

A search on the USPTO website for patent number 9889340 would directly lead to the patent document itself. The USPTO provides tools like Patent Public Search and Patent Center for this purpose.

Prior Art Cited in US Patent 9889340

Based on the full patent text provided, the "References Cited" section lists the following U.S. Patent Documents and Other Publications.

U.S. Patent Documents:

• U.S. application Ser. No. 13/484,213: This application is cited multiple times in US9889340. It is described as "System and Method for Providing an Athlete with a Performance Profile," filed May 30, 2012.

  • Brief Description: This patent details a system for providing an athlete with a performance profile, which includes functionalities such as a rankings generator and a media portal.
  • Potential Anticipated Claims: This prior art potentially anticipates aspects of claims 1 and 11, particularly concerning the web-based platform's overall structure, maintaining athlete profiles, and features like rankings generators and media portals. It also relates to the general concept of associating information with an athlete's participation in training and racing activities.

• U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/705,232: This application, filed Sep. 25, 2012, is titled "Interface and Method for Updating an Athlete Training Log."

  • Brief Description: This provisional application describes a system for providing a live feed to a training log, enabling live updates of an athlete's training information.
  • Potential Anticipated Claims: This reference is highly relevant to claims 1, 11, 15, and 23, especially regarding the reception and updating of workout data in an athlete's training log, and the concept of a live data feed during training.

Other Publications:

No "Other Publications" are explicitly detailed in the provided text for US9889340's "References Cited" section, beyond the two U.S. Patent Documents mentioned above. However, the background and summary sections of US9889340 discuss general coaching practices and the desire for remote athlete-coach interaction, indicating the general state of the art in athletic training and data management prior to this invention.

The following analysis evaluates the obviousness of US Patent 9889340 under 35 U.S.C. § 103, considering combinations of prior art references identified from the Google Patents page and the motivation a person having ordinary skill in the art (PHOSITA) would have had to combine them. The analysis assumes the PHOSITA for this field would be a software engineer with experience in developing web-based applications for fitness and sports, including data collection from wearable/mountable sensors and mobile device integration.

Motivation to Combine Prior Art

A PHOSITA would be motivated to combine elements from various prior art systems to create a more comprehensive, integrated, and user-friendly system for athletes and coaches. The continuous drive in the fitness technology sector to enhance remote coaching capabilities, automate data entry, provide better analytical tools, and improve the efficiency of training management would naturally lead to the integration of known technologies. The modular nature of software development and common practices in web-based service integration would further encourage such combinations, with a reasonable expectation of success given the widespread knowledge of these technologies by the patent's priority date (October 19, 2012).

Obviousness Analysis of Independent Claims

1. Claims 1 & 11 (Method and System for Personalizing Training)

• Claim 1 (Method for Personalizing Training): Focuses on creating athlete profiles with training records (distance, time), receiving workout data, updating records, allowing coaches to view profiles, and enabling coaches to upload and associate training plans.
• Claim 11 (Web-Based Platform System): Describes a web-based platform with a training log server and a processor configured to perform the actions outlined in Claim 1.

Prior Art Combination: US20050186539A1 (Martin/TrainingPeaks), US20080039265A1 (Torbett/TrainingPeaks), and US20110269584A1 (Skrypeck).

• US20050186539A1 (Martin) discloses an internet-based athletic training system where athletes can maintain an online training log, tracking workout data including distance and time. This patent describes a web-based platform and a central server for storing athlete information.
• US20080039265A1 (Torbett) details a system for remote coaching, allowing coaches to generate customized training programs for athletes and for athletes to access these programs. It covers the functionality for coaches to monitor an athlete's progress.
• US20110269584A1 (Skrypeck) further describes a "coach-athlete collaboration system" where coaches can create training plans and athletes can view them, and where athletes can record their actual training data for review by the coach.

Obviousness Explanation: A PHOSITA, aiming to build a comprehensive web-based platform for remote athletic coaching, would find it obvious to combine the core online training log system of Martin ('539) with the remote coaching and training plan functionalities taught by Torbett ('265) and Skrypeck ('584). Martin ('539) provides the fundamental web platform, athlete profiles, and the ability to log workout data with distance and time. Torbett ('265) and Skrypeck ('584) explicitly teach how coaches can create and upload training plans, and how they can access and view athlete training records to monitor progress.

The combination would be motivated by the desire to offer an integrated solution where athletes can track their workouts and receive personalized plans from coaches remotely. This addresses the challenge of geographical separation between athletes and coaches, a problem noted in US9889340. The steps and system elements of Claims 1 and 11, such as creating athlete profiles, receiving and updating workout data, permitting coach access, and uploading training plans, are directly taught or rendered obvious by combining these references, representing a straightforward aggregation of known functionalities in the field.

2. Claims 15 & 23 (System and Method for Data Transfer from Bike Computer)

• Claim 15 (System for Data Transfer from Bike Computer): Describes a system including a bike computer (with peer-to-peer wireless transceiver), a mobile communications device (receives and formats data from bike computer), and a web-based platform (receives formatted data and stores in training log).
• Claim 23 (Method for Updating Training Log from Mobile Training Computer): Outlines the steps of establishing a peer-to-peer link between a mobile training computer (on a bike) and a mobile device, transferring data, formatting data on the mobile device, and uploading it to a web-based platform.

Prior Art Combination: US20040180766A1 (Carter/Nike), US20110196655A1 (Wolder/Nike), and US20050186539A1 (Martin/TrainingPeaks).

• US20040180766A1 (Carter) discloses an apparatus for monitoring physiological data during exercise, which includes sensors, a processor, memory, and wireless transmission capability for collected data.
• US20110196655A1 (Wolder) teaches athletic devices communicating wirelessly (e.g., via Bluetooth Low Energy, a peer-to-peer technology) with mobile devices (like smartphones) to transfer activity data. The mobile device then uploads this data to a "server-side data processing system" (a web-based platform) for analysis and coaching.
• US20050186539A1 (Martin) provides the foundation for the online training log server and athlete profiles for storing workout data.

Obviousness Explanation: A PHOSITA seeking to automate and streamline the transfer of athletic performance data from specialized devices to online training logs would find this combination obvious. Carter ('766) establishes the concept of a wireless athletic monitoring device collecting and transmitting data. Wolder ('555) explicitly details using peer-to-peer wireless communication (like Bluetooth) between an athletic device and a mobile device, with the mobile device then serving as an intermediary to format and upload data to a web-based server. Martin ('539) provides the ultimate destination for this data: an online training log with athlete profiles.

The specific application of this to a "bike computer" is a mere implementation detail, as bike computers were well-known athletic devices by the priority date. A PHOSITA would readily apply Wolder's wireless data transfer method from an athletic device to a mobile device and then to a web platform, to a common bike computer for seamless data integration into an online log like Martin's. The motivation is clear: to enhance user experience by providing an efficient, wireless method for athletes to automatically update their online training records, eliminating manual data entry or wired connections.

3. Claim 29 (Bike Computer Apparatus)

• Claim 29 (Bike Computer Apparatus): Describes a bike computer comprising at least one sensor, a processor to collect data from the sensor, memory to store the data, and a wireless communications means to transmit the data to a training log.

Prior Art Combination: US20040180766A1 (Carter/Nike) and general knowledge of bike computers in the art.

• US20040180766A1 (Carter) describes an apparatus for monitoring and displaying physiological data, which includes sensors, a processor for collecting data from the sensors, and a memory for storing it. It also teaches wireless transmission of this data via a "transmitter."
• General Knowledge in the Art: By the priority date of 2012, bike computers were widely available and commonly included sensors (e.g., for speed, cadence, heart rate, power), a processor to collect data from these sensors, internal memory for storage, and wireless communication capabilities (e.g., ANT+, Bluetooth) to transmit data to other devices or platforms.

Obviousness Explanation: Claim 29 describes a bike computer with components and functionalities that were fundamental and well-established in the art by 2012. Carter ('766) provides the generic architecture of an athletic monitoring device with sensors, a processor, memory, and wireless transmission. A PHOSITA would understand that this description perfectly fits the functional components of a typical bike computer. The adaptation of such a device for "bike" use and the inclusion of specific sensors (like cadence or heart rate, as described in the patent's specification) were standard design choices for bike computers at that time.

The motivation to combine the general principles of wireless sensor data collection from Carter ('766) into the specific application of a "bike computer" is self-evident, as it merely applies existing technology to a well-known product and use case. Therefore, Claim 29 merely recites an aggregation of known components (sensor, processor, memory, wireless communication) for a common purpose (collecting and transmitting training data from a bike), which would have been obvious to a PHOSITA.