Invalidity dossier
US 11966347
Method and system for making functional devices available to participants of meetings
Current assignee: Barco NV
Added 10/6/2026, 12:01:49 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 — US11966347B2
Title: Method and system for making functional devices available to participants of meetings
Patent number / application: US11966347B2; application US17/742,166; earlier publication US20220269634A1.
Inventors: Gauthier Renard; Johan Peter Frans Degraef.
Assignee: Barco NV (current and original assignee as listed).
Key dates: Priority date 2017-12-29; filing date 2022-05-11; publication of US20220269634A1 on 2022-08-25; granted and published as US11966347B2 on 2024-04-23. Anticipated expiration listed as 2037-12-29. Legal status listed as Active.
Purpose (from the supplied text): Embodiments relate to methods, devices, and systems for making functional devices available to participants of meetings, plus software for carrying out such methods. The background notes that ad hoc groups communicating is fundamental to collaboration, problem solving, negotiation, teaching, and education, and that meetings are going digital, with computer technology and broadband networks supporting meeting objectives before and during meetings (e.g., e-mail passing files beforehand).
Plain-language scope: The patent concerns enabling meeting participants to access or use "functional devices" during meetings. The classification data points to networked real-time communication and multi-party conferencing (H04L65/403, H04L12/1813), interconnection of peripherals via interface adapters/protocol converters (G06F13/38, G06F13/387), program control for peripheral devices (G06F13/10–13/122), serial-bus handshake/synchronization (G06F13/4282), securing transmissions between devices (G06F21/606), encrypting payloads (H04L63/0428), and wireless confidentiality/encryption (H04W12/03).
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US11966347](/patent/US11966347)/en
What the excerpt does not establish: It gives no claims text, no detailed description, no drawings content, and no named prior-art references (only generic prior-art keywords: video data, base unit, peripheral device, processed, peripheral). It does not establish the actual claim scope, embodiments, or embodiments' technical details. The legal status, assignee listing, and priority/expiration dates are expressly disclaimed as assumptions or non-legal conclusions in the source. Litigation and ownership-transfer matters are outside this summary and were not examined.
Generated 10/7/2026, 12:00:49 AM
Cases on file (0)
Specific litigation cases in our database that name US patent 11966347. 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.