Invalidity dossier
US 6563918
Telecommunications system architecture for connecting a call
Current assignee: Sprint Communications Co LP
Added 9/23/2026, 7:31:16 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 6,563,918 B1
Title: Telecommunications system architecture for connecting a call
Patent number: US 6,563,918 B1
Application number: US 09/026,906
Assignee: Sprint Communications Co LP (originally assigned to Sprint Communications Company, L.P.)
Priority/filing date: 1998-02-20
Publication (grant) date: 2003-05-13
Status as listed: Expired – Lifetime
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US6563918/en
Purpose
The patent addresses call switching and transport in broadband systems that provide asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) connections. It notes that broadband systems are being developed to give telecommunications providers more efficient use of network bandwidth and to integrate voice, data, and video at lower cost, and that call connection must be completed for both local exchange and interexchange companies. Calls are processed with services before, during, and after connection, including N00, calling card, and accounting system services. The stated field is telecommunications call switching and transport in a system providing ATM connections.
Plain-language scope (from the supplied excerpt only)
The described system connects a call using: (1) a call processor that receives call information elements and processes them together with call-associated data to select a connection, and that transports a control message identifying the selected connection; (2) a signaling interface that receives call signaling, processes it to isolate the call information elements, and transfers those elements to the call processor; (3) a call process control system that manages the call-associated data and exchanges it with the call processor; and (4) an interworking unit that receives the control message and user communications and interworks the user communications to the selected connection per the control message. The excerpt repeats the call-processor and signaling-interface elements in describing a further embodiment.
What the excerpt does not establish
The supplied text is marked as excerpted; it does not include the claims, detailed description, drawings, or prior-art references. It therefore does not establish the specific claimed scope, claim count or dependencies, embodiments, or the listed prior-art keywords. The excerpt also indicates the classification H04Q3/0016, H04Q3/0029, and H04Q3/0045, but does not explain them. It should not be read as a legal conclusion on scope or coverage.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:41:58 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.