Invalidity dossier
US 6061798
Firewall system for protecting network elements connected to a public network
Current assignee: Network Engr Software Inc
Added 9/21/2026, 9:24:55 AM
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Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
Patent Overview — US6061798A
Title: Firewall system for protecting network elements connected to a public network
Patent number: US6061798A
Application number: US09/174,723
Inventors: Christopher D. Coley; Ralph E. Wesinger, Jr.
Original/current assignee: Network Engr Software Inc (listed as "Network Engineering Software, Inc." in the reassignment entries)
Priority date: 1996-02-06
Filing date: 1998-10-19
Publication/grant date: 2000-05-09
Legal status (per source): Expired – Lifetime; anticipated expiration 2016-02-06
Purpose (from the supplied text): The invention "relates to a system for protecting network elements connected to a public network from access over the public network, and more specifically, to a firewall system for protecting network elements connected to the Internet." It addresses the problem that Internet protocols such as TCP and IP provide little security, a factor the text says "has hindered the growth of commercial services on the Internet." The text describes a scenario where a publicly accessible application, such as a Web server or homepage, sits on a system that "also may contain other computing resources such as data bases, and/or internal network systems that are not intended for public access," and warns that intruders may use such a Web server, or other systems bundled on the same computing platform, "as access paths" to reach systems beyond it.
Plain-language scope (from the supplied text): A firewall system for shielding network elements reachable over a public network like the Internet from unauthorized access. The description notes Internet protocols break a data stream into packets with a data portion and address information, that IP routes packets and TCP manages flow and correctness, and that HTTP is the TCP/IP-compatible protocol used to access Web documents. The classification listing associates the patent with firewall architectures, filtering policies and rule management, proxies, entity authentication (tickets, passwords), denial-of-service countermeasures, and out-of-band channels.
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US6061798](/patent/US6061798)/en
What the excerpt does not establish: It contains no claims, no detailed description of the firewall's components or operation, and no drawing text. It therefore does not establish the specific claimed scope, the number or wording of claims, or the particular prior-art references relied upon. The listed classifications, dates, assignee, and legal status are as reported by the source.
Generated 10/1/2026, 10:02:28 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
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.