Invalidity dossier
US 5974463
Scaleable network system for remote access of a local network
Current assignee: HTC Corp
Added 9/21/2026, 9:37:50 AM
Active provider: DeepSeek · deepseek-flash
Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
Patent Overview — US5974463A
Title: "Scaleable network system for remote access of a local network"
Patent number / application: US5974463A; application US08/871,323.
Inventor(s): Padmanand Warrier and Roger Richter.
Assignee (as listed): Original assignee Compaq Computer Corp.; current assignee listed as HTC Corp.
Key dates (as listed): Priority/filing date 1997-06-09; publication/grant date 1999-10-26; anticipated expiration 2017-06-09. Status: Expired – Lifetime.
Purpose. The patent relates to "a scaleable network system for enabling remote access of a local network." Remote access lets users (home-office, customer, or portable-computer users) reach applications such as electronic mail, file transfer, and on-line services by connecting across a wide area network (WAN) to a local access configuration coupled to the LAN.
Plain-language scope. The excerpt frames a problem with earlier remote-access configurations: a single vendor supplied a central proprietary hardware device ("box") attached to the central LAN, with a fixed set of ports of fixed type—analog (e.g., V.34 modems, serial ports for external modems) or digital (ISDN BRI/PRI, T1, fractional T1, E1). Two described form factors are the "pizza box" (proprietary software; 4, 8, or 16 fixed-type ports) and the "shirt box" (a fixed number of PCMCIA/PC Card slots accepting analog or digital cards). Both allegedly suffered the "major disadvantage" of being limited by a fixed number of ports or port types; to add ports, a user had to purchase another independent box coupled to the server. The invention is characterized as a "scaleable" system addressing that limitation. Classification listings include H04L12/28, H04L12/2856, H04L12/287 (remote access server), and H04L69/18 (multiprotocol handlers).
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US5974463](/patent/US5974463)/en
What the excerpt does not establish. The supplied text is partial and omits the claims, detailed description, and drawings' content; it therefore does not establish the specific claimed elements, claim count or scope, the precise scalability mechanism, or embodiments. It also does not establish ownership-transfer legal effect, validity, or prior-art status.
Generated 10/1/2026, 10:01:59 PM
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Litigation summary
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Proceedings on file (0)
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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
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Obviousness
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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.