Invalidity dossier
US 5987547
Added 9/23/2026, 7:06:20 PM
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Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
Patent Overview — US 5,987,547
Title: Network computer with interchangeable hard drive and data transceiver
Patent number: US 5,987,547 A
Application number: US08/825,545
Inventors: Carl M. Panasik; Periagaram K. Rajasekaran
Assignee: Texas Instruments Incorporated (original assignee; assignment recorded for the named inventors)
Filing date / Priority date: 1997-03-31
Publication (grant) date: 1999-11-16
Status (as listed): Expired – Lifetime; anticipated expiration 2017-03-31
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US5987547/en
Purpose and plain-language scope. The patent describes a portable computer ("network/portable computer 18") that omits a permanent hard drive and instead has a modular bay that accepts either a mass storage device (e.g., hard disk, magneto-electronic drive, writable CD-ROM, DVD, ZIP drive) or a wireless data transceiver. When the transceiver is installed and the machine is within network coverage, the computer uses the network as its mass storage device, receiving applications and files from the network; when no network connection is available, the hard drive can be installed so the computer operates as a stand-alone unit. The transceiver typically uses 900 or 2400 MHz spread-spectrum modulation, though infra-red and other bands are mentioned; a wired connection via internal interface or docking station is also contemplated. Reported advantages include lighter weight, lower power drain (extending battery life, with caching/virtual memory in semiconductor memory), and simplified administration. Per the flow diagram, devices are switched only while the computer is off; on restart the system detects which device occupies the bay and either loads the operating system from the hard drive or accesses the network. "Hot swappable" installation is mentioned as a possible alternative requiring a more complex document-saving scheme. The description cites U.S. Ser. App. No. 08/656,799 (Boesch et al., filed May 31, 1996) regarding modular bays, incorporated by reference, and notes IBM-compatible and APPLE MACINTOSH architectures.
What the excerpt does not establish. It supplies no claims text, so the exact claimed scope is not verifiable here; it does not establish prior-art content beyond the cited application, validity, litigation history, ownership changes, or the specifics of the switching routines (the excerpt is truncated mid-sentence).
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:42:20 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.