Invalidity dossier

US 6703944

Technique for effectively maintaining a safe distance between a vehicle and an object

Current assignee: American Calcar, Inc.

Added 8/27/2026, 12:47:19 AM

At a glanceNo PTAB challenges1 lawsuit on fileasserted by American Calcar, Inc.

Active provider: DeepSeek · deepseek-v4-flash

Patent summary

Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.

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Patent Overview: US 6703944 B1

Title: Technique for effectively maintaining a safe distance between a vehicle and an object

Patent number: US 6703944 B1
Application number: US09/688,288
Inventor: Michael L. Obradovich
Original assignee: American Calcar Inc. (current assignee listed as Auto Director Tech Inc)
Priority date: 1997-08-01
Filing date: 2000-10-13
Publication/grant date: 2004-03-09
Legal status: Expired – Lifetime (adjusted expiration 2017-12-21)

Purpose and plain-language scope (per the supplied text):
The patent concerns a technique for effectively maintaining a safe distance between a vehicle and an object. The excerpt's prior-art keywords—vehicle, user, processor, subsystem, display—indicate the subject matter involves a processor-based vehicle subsystem interacting with a user via a display. Classifications cover automatic parking/manoeuvring (B60W30/06), vehicle instrumentation and input arrangements (B60K35/00, B60K35/10), signal transmission between vehicle parts or subsystems (B60R16/023, B60R16/0231), power supply to vehicle subsystems using multiplexing (B60R16/0315), anti-theft switching with personal settings of other vehicle devices (B60R25/2081, B60R25/241), driver warning/informing (B60W50/14), and road-network navigation (G01C21/26). The filing also indicates continuation/priority relationships to US10/664,477, US11/214,683 (US7162370B2), and US11/650,733 (US7512495B2).

Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US6703944/en

What the excerpt does not establish:
The supplied text contains no claims, abstract, detailed description, or drawings. Therefore it does not establish the actual claimed scope, specific components, sensor types, distance-control algorithms, or how "safe distance" is determined or maintained. Prior-art keyword listings and classifications are metadata, not substantive disclosure. The listed assignees and reassignment entries are recorded as-is; no conclusions about ownership status are drawn. Litigation, validity, enforceability, and prior-art comparisons are outside this overview and were not researched.

Note: The excerpt explicitly states that legal status, priority dates, and assignee listings are assumptions, not legal conclusions.

Generated 10/1/2026, 10:03:44 PM

Cases on file (1)

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Specific litigation cases in our database that name US patent 6703944. The free-form analysis below may also discuss cases beyond this list.

Litigation summary

Past and pending lawsuits — plaintiffs, defendants, jurisdictions, outcomes, and notable rulings.

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Proceedings on file (0)

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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.

Current assignee: American Calcar, Inc.

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.

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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.

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Prior art

Earlier patents, publications, and products that may anticipate or render the claims unpatentable.

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Obviousness

Combinations of prior art that suggest the claimed invention would have been obvious under 35 U.S.C. § 103.

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Extensions

Patent term adjustments, term extensions, continuations, divisionals, family members, and expiration dates.

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Derivative works

Defensive disclosure: derivative variations of each claim designed to render future incremental improvements obvious or non-novel.

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This patent in court (1)

1 tracked lawsuit name US 6703944.