Invalidity dossier
US 7139925
System and method for dynamic cluster adjustment to node failures in a distributed data system
Current assignee: Oracle America Inc
Added 9/23/2026, 4:06:09 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 7,139,925 B2
Title: System and method for dynamic cluster adjustment to node failures in a distributed data system
Patent number / application: US 7,139,925 B2; Application US 10/134,782
Inventors: Darpan Dinker, Mahesh Kannan, Pramod Gopinath
Original assignee: Sun Microsystems, Inc. Current assignee listed: Oracle America, Inc.
Dates: Priority/filing date 2002-04-29; publication of US 2003/0204786 A1 on 2003-10-30; granted 2006-11-21. Status listed as "Expired – Lifetime," with adjusted expiration 2023-11-09.
Purpose: The patent addresses managing dynamic cluster membership in distributed data systems. Data may be distributed across nodes forming a cluster; clustering may enable load balancing, high availability, and scalability, and redundant data may be maintained by replication. The excerpt states the invention manages cluster membership and data separately, for example via an event notification mechanism between management layers, with a topology manager and a state manager interacting through a defined interface. The topology manager ensures the dynamic cluster forms a topologically specified arrangement, and may use finite state automata defining node functions, operating states, communication, and state transitions (five membership states and five messages are mentioned).
Plain-language scope (per the excerpt): Cluster members are configured to form a ring topology. A static topology indicates node ordering; under normal operation the cluster topology may match it, and otherwise the cluster topology may be a ring approaching the static topology as current membership requires. Nodes may have access to static topology information. On a node failure, neighboring nodes (the failed node's previous and next nodes) detect the death, update local topology data, send node dead messages, and reconnect—e.g., a connecting node sends a connect request, the other sends a node joined message, and a connect complete message follows—so remaining nodes function as cluster members.
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US7139925/en
What the excerpt does not establish: It provides no claims, no named prior-art references, no claim-by-claim scope, no legal conclusions on validity or enforceability, and no details on litigation or ownership transfers beyond the listed assignment records.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:51:07 PM
Cases on file (0)
Specific litigation cases in our database that name US patent 7139925. The free-form analysis below may also discuss cases beyond this list.
No cases on file mention this patent. Upload a CSV or add a case manually in Admin → Manage litigation cases.
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.