Invalidity dossier
US 6545722
Methods and systems for providing television related services via a networked personal computer
Current assignee: Individual
Added 9/17/2026, 2:13:45 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 6,545,722 B1
Title: Methods and systems for providing television related services via a networked personal computer
Patent number: US6545722B1
Application number: US09/005,269
Inventor(s): Christopher J. Schultheiss; Michael A. McCafferty; Todd D. Cutler; Sreekrishna V. Sunkavalli
Original assignee: Individual (per the source listing; assignees listed as possibly inaccurate)
Priority/filing date: 1998-01-09
Publication (grant) date: 2003-04-08
Legal status: Expired – Lifetime; anticipated expiration 2018-01-09
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US6545722/en
Purpose. The invention addresses the duplication of hardware and software in set top boxes such as WebTV, which replicate components (e.g., a modem) already found in many personal computers, and the distortion that occurs when Internet information formatted for computer aspect ratios is displayed on a television. It provides systems and methods that use a PC to access desired information while television is being watched, with the information stored locally or on a network such as the Internet.
Plain-language scope (from the excerpt). A set top box includes a remote control receiver for wireless user commands; a radio frequency transceiver that transmits computer commands to a personal computer and receives data retrieved by the PC in response; a video processing system that formats the received data for television display; and a television interface that displays it. User commands are wirelessly received and relayed to the PC, which accesses the Internet, retrieves data, and wirelessly relays it back for formatting on the connected TV. This wireless link avoids a physical PC-to-TV connection, allowing the PC and TV to be in separate rooms or on different floors. Uses include retrieving information relevant to a currently viewed program, or program-independent activities such as chat rooms.
What the excerpt does not establish. It does not provide the full claims, complete specification, or drawing descriptions; does not establish actual claim scope beyond the summarized description; and does not support any conclusion on validity, enforceability, ownership transfers, litigation, or prior art beyond the single cited reference (U.S. Pat. No. 4,751,578 to Reiter et al.).
Generated 10/1/2026, 10:03:08 PM
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Litigation summary
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Proceedings on file (0)
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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
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.