US 10397374

US 10,397,374 B2 — Patent Overview

Title: Apparatus, Method and System for a Tunneling Client Access Point

Patent number / application: US10397374B2; Application US15/712,714; published also as US20180013863A1.

Inventor: Scott McNulty

Assignee: Ioengine LLC (original and current assignee; assignment recorded 2018-02-27 and again 2021-10-26, per the supplied bibliographic data).

Dates: Priority date 2004-03-23 (noted in the source as an assumption, not a legal conclusion); filed 2017-09-22; granted/publication date 2019-08-27; "anticipated expiration" 2024-03-23; legal status listed as "Expired – Lifetime."

Purpose and plain-language scope (from the supplied text): The patent is directed to an apparatus, method and system providing a "tunneling client access point." The classification data places it in network-security and virtual private network areas — H04L63/0272 (virtual private networks), H04L63/02 (separating internal from external traffic, e.g., firewalls), H04L63/04 and H04L63/0428 (providing confidential data exchange among entities communicating through packet networks, including encryption of data content), and H04L67/42. In plain terms, the claimed subject matter appears to concern connecting a client device to a remote/private network through an access-point arrangement that tunnels traffic, with confidentiality protections.

The source's keyword index also lists terms such as "portable device," "communications network," "network node," "terminal," and "program code," and the description is associated with topics including communication, verification, data encryption standard (DES), calculation algorithms, and authorization — suggesting the disclosure involves authentication/encryption operations within a networked architecture that includes portable devices.

Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US10397374/en

What the supplied excerpt does not establish:

• The actual text of any claim, the abstract, or the detailed description (the excerpt supplies only titles, metadata, classifications, and keyword/extracted-term statistics). Therefore no specific claim scope or limitations can be stated, and no claim element is cited above.
• Whether claims are independent/dependent, or their number.
• The technical specifics of how the tunneling, authentication, or encryption is implemented.
• The identity or relevance of any prior art, and (per instruction) no research into litigation, ownership transfers, validity, or prior art was performed.
• The correctness of the priority date or legal-status entries, which the source itself labels as assumptions/not legal conclusions.