Invalidity dossier
US 5479206
Imaging system, electronic camera, computer system for controlling said electronic camera, and methods of controlling same
Current assignee: Fujifilm Corp
Added 9/17/2026, 2:01:55 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 — US5479206A
Title: Imaging system, electronic camera, computer system for controlling said electronic camera, and methods of controlling same
Patent number: US5479206A (application US08/012,463)
Assignee/owner on record: Original assignee Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.; later reassignments to Fujifilm Holdings Corporation (2007) and Fujifilm Corporation (2007); Google's listed current assignee is Fujifilm Corp.
Dates: Priority date 1992-02-04 (four Japanese priority applications); filing date 1993-02-02; granted/publication date 1995-12-26; anticipated expiration 2013-02-02. Legal status: Expired – Lifetime. (Google notes priority and legal status are assumptions, not legal conclusions.)
Inventors: Hitoshi Ueno, Kouji Matsuura, Fumihiro Funazaki, Kazuya Oda, Masahiro Konishi, Yoshiki Kawaoka.
Purpose (plain language): The patent concerns an imaging system in which an electronic camera and a computer system work together—the computer system controls the electronic camera. Recurring terms in the source (image, electronic camera, computer system, image data, command, memory, processing, response, transfer, communication) indicate the disclosure addresses sending commands and image data between the camera and computer via some communication/transfer mechanism, using memory storage.
Classification: H04N1/00 and subclasses H04N1/00127, 1/00204, 1/00236, 1/00241 — connection or combination of a still-picture apparatus with another apparatus (e.g., a digital computer system) using an image reading device as a local input to a computer.
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US5479206](/patent/US5479206)/en
What the excerpt does not establish: It provides no claims text, abstract, or description, so the specific claimed scope, embodiments, dependent-claim structure, and the exact nature of the camera-computer command protocol cannot be determined from this excerpt alone. It also does not show the Japanese priority documents' contents, drawing details, or any prosecution history beyond the listed reassignments and status.
Generated 10/1/2026, 10:03:08 PM
Cases on file (0)
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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.