Invalidity dossier
US 5341477
Broker for computer network server selection
Current assignee: Hewlett Packard Development Co LP
Added 9/23/2026, 8:15:24 PM
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Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
Patent Overview — US5341477A
Title: Broker for computer network server selection
Patent number: US5341477A (application US08/103,722)
Inventors: Richard P. Pitkin; John P. Morency
Original assignee: Digital Equipment Corporation. Current assignee listed as Hewlett Packard Development Co LP.
Key dates: Prior art date 1989-02-24; filing date 1993-08-06; publication/grant date 1994-08-23. Legal status listed as "Expired – Lifetime," with anticipated expiration 2011-08-23.
Purpose: The patent addresses resource allocation in computer network architectures. It notes that complex networks may offer multiple servers delivering the same action, but the prior art could not group servers providing the same action into a "network service." Prior brokers assigned an entire server to a client regardless of needed capacity, wasting resources, and had to continuously monitor all servers, increasing broker overhead and network traffic. The invention provides a broker mechanism that monitors the dynamic status of a set of servers and responds to client requests for service by suggesting which server can deliver it. It lets a client use a service by generic network service name without knowing individual servers, and seeks to guarantee the service exists for the duration of a connection.
Plain-language scope: A broker is coupled to the network for scheduling a server to a requesting client. It receives a client's request for access to a service and transmits to the client the name of a server capable of delivering that service. Service limitations are preferably established as policy by a system or network manager during network design and modelling; based on that policy the broker suggests the server best able to satisfy the request. The classifications include load-based server selection for replicated servers and quality-of-service/priority considerations.
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US5341477](/patent/US5341477)/en
What the excerpt does not establish: It does not provide the full claims, the complete specification, or the listed prior-art references, so the precise claim scope and cited prior art cannot be verified from this text. It also does not establish litigation, ownership transfer details, or validity.
Note: Omits claim citations because the excerpt's truncated text supplies no complete claim language.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:41:29 PM
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Litigation summary
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Proceedings on file (0)
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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
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Prior art
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Obviousness
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Extensions
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Derivative works
Defensive disclosure: derivative variations of each claim designed to render future incremental improvements obvious or non-novel.