Invalidity dossier
US 6751677
Method and apparatus for allowing a secure and transparent communication between a user device and servers of a data access network system via a firewall and a gateway
Current assignee: Plectrum LLC
Added 9/21/2026, 10:42:17 AM
Active provider: DeepSeek · deepseek-v4-flash
Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
Patent Overview — US6751677B1
Title: Method and apparatus for allowing a secure and transparent communication between a user device and servers of a data access network system via a firewall and a gateway.
Patent number: US6751677B1 (application US09/379,755).
Inventors: Slawomir K. Ilnicki and James P. Rice.
Assignee: The supplied text lists the original assignee as Hewlett Packard Development Co LP, with a current assignee listed as Plectrum LLC.
Key dates (as stated in the source): Filed 1999-08-24; priority to US09/379,755 on 1999-08-24; granted and published 2004-06-15; anticipated expiration 2019-08-24; legal status "Expired - Lifetime."
Purpose: The invention pertains to communication networks, and more particularly to providing a secure and transparent network gateway that does not require complex configuration of an associated firewall.
Plain-language scope (from the excerpt): In an open-ended network such as the Internet, a firewall is typically placed between servers and remote clients to control external access. In the described prior art, communication uses an Object Request Broker (ORB) transparent protocol over TCP/IP; a user terminal issues an object invocation using an Interoperable Object Reference (IOR) containing the TCP/IP port number and IP address of the target object, and the firewall must have matching ports and addresses statically configured and open. Adding new target object servers therefore requires firewall reconfiguration by opening new ports and addresses, which for security reasons cannot be opened in advance, so the firewall lacks flexibility. A CORBA gateway (one example being Wonderwall, attributed to Iona Technologies PLC) can be implemented as part of the firewall; the firewall is configured with one port number and IP address designated to the gateway, and all user access requests are forwarded to the gateway, which maps the servers. The excerpt is cut off mid-sentence describing each target object server as having an "in..." attribute.
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US6751677](/patent/US6751677)/en (fetched 2026-09-21).
What the excerpt does not establish: It does not include the claims, the full detailed description, or the complete summary. It does not state the invention's claims or the specific mechanism by which the gateway achieves transparent communication; the quoted material is largely a statement of the prior-art problem and background. It does not include reference numerals beyond FIG. 1 and the partially described further figure.
Per instructions, I did not research litigation, ownership transfers, validity, or prior art; note that the source itself lists litigation entries and reassignments, which I have not analyzed.
Generated 10/1/2026, 10:01:14 PM
Cases on file (0)
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Litigation summary
Past and pending lawsuits — plaintiffs, defendants, jurisdictions, outcomes, and notable rulings.
Proceedings on file (0)
All PTAB activity →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.
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.