Invalidity dossier
US 6233618
Access control of networked data
Current assignee: Content Advisor Inc
Added 9/21/2026, 1:08:50 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: US 6233618 B1 — "Access Control of Networked Data"
Title: Access control of networked data
Patent number: US 6233618 B1
Application number: US09/052,236
Inventor: Steven Shannon
Original/current assignee (as listed): Content Advisor Inc
Filing date / priority date: 1998-03-31
Publication (grant) date: 2001-05-15
Legal status (as listed): Ceased; anticipated expiration 2018-03-31
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US6233618/en
Purpose: The patent addresses drawbacks in prior networked-data access control. Server-side schemes leave access decisions to the server administrator; authentication-server schemes (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,708,780) require client and server customization plus a separate authentication server, adding network traffic and slowing access. Keyword-based content filtering fails when objectionable material lacks embedded keywords or consists of images, or when a legitimate page (e.g., a government research page containing the word "breast") is wrongly blocked.
Plain-language scope: The invention is typically a software program on a network device (proxy server, bridge, router, or firewall) interconnected between a first network (e.g., a corporate intranet or ISP LAN) and a second network (e.g., the Internet). The device receives client requests for data on remote servers and analyzes each request's information — source/client address and the URL or address of the requested page, file, or service. It cross-references this against access control data in at least one access control database (locally stored or supplied remotely, e.g., by subscription updates), then forwards or withholds the request. Access control is therefore based not primarily on content, nor at the server or client, but on who makes requests, at what times, and by subject-matter category. Protocols mentioned include HTTP, FTP, Gopher, Telnet, WAIS, and NNTP. Categories are preferably built and maintained by human editors who review URLs and evaluate referenced content, with automatic database updating over the network.
What the excerpt does not establish: The excerpt is explicitly partial and omits text. No claims are reproduced here, so claim scope cannot be confirmed. It does not establish the full specification, the number or wording of claims, or the complete list of cited prior art.
Generated 10/1/2026, 10:00:48 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
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Derivative works
Defensive disclosure: derivative variations of each claim designed to render future incremental improvements obvious or non-novel.