Invalidity dossier
US 5434394
Automated order and delivery system
Current assignee: Tandy Corp
Added 9/24/2026, 1:05:48 AM
Active provider: DeepSeek · deepseek-v4-flash
Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
Patent Overview — US 5,434,894
Title: Automated order and delivery system
Assignee: Tandy Corp (original and current assignee, per the source listing)
Inventors: John V. Roach; Richard Hollander
Key dates: Priority date 1992-09-10; application (US08/201,784) filed 1994-02-25; granted/published 1995-07-18; anticipated expiration 2012-09-10. Legal status: Expired – Fee Related.
Purpose: The invention "relates to apparatus and process for integrating the order and delivery of retail merchandise and particularly to an automated system for integrating point of sale and warehouse processing functions in the selection, order and delivery of merchandise," for use in a retail store where the point of sale and merchandise warehouse share a combined facility.
Plain-language scope: Store personnel use hand-held, pen-based sale transaction computers that communicate with a point of sale controller via radio frequency transmissions. These computers read a customer membership card and universal product code labels, display merchandise and delivery information and options at the point of decision on the sales floor, and build a sale transaction record stored in the point of sale system until checkout and payment. The point of sale system then sends information to the warehouse so selected merchandise can be picked and routed to the delivery location, reducing customer wait time. The described apparatus includes a main store processor with a customer/merchandise database, a point of sale system with controller and pen-based computers, a warehouse system generating item pick requests, and a checkout system that accesses the transaction record and accepts payment. Auxiliary systems cover membership and charge accounts, credit verification, labor scheduling from sales history, payroll, and communication with a remote headquarters computer.
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US5434394](/patent/US5434394)/en
What the excerpt does not establish: It does not provide the full text, all claims, the complete drawing set, or detailed component descriptions (the flow charts and screen displays are referenced but not reproduced). It does not establish litigation, ownership transfers, validity, or prior art beyond the "prior art keywords" listing.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:31:36 PM
Cases on file (0)
Specific litigation cases in our database that name US patent 5434394. 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.