Invalidity dossier
US 7152240
Method for communication security and apparatus therefor
Current assignee: Cufer Asset Ltd LLC
Added 9/20/2026, 5:21:16 AM
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Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
Patent Overview — US 7,152,240 B1
Title: Method for communication security and apparatus therefor
Patent number: US 7,152,240 B1
Application number: US09/624,923
Priority/filing date: 2000-07-25
Publication (grant) date: 2006-12-19
Inventor(s): Stuart D. Green; Scott G. Brown; Jonathan M. Crain; Jeffrey Van Myers; Carl A. Perry; Marcus L. Yax
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee (per source listing): Cufer Asset Ltd LLC
Status (per source): Expired – Lifetime; adjusted expiration 2023-02-21
Purpose: The invention "relates generally to securing communications between computer systems, and, in particular, to security methods and apparatus for maintaining the security of a local client computer system from a remote server computer system."
Plain-language scope (per the excerpted text): The patent describes a communication-security approach that places a trusted, autonomous portal between an untrustworthy network ("BlackNet") and a trusted network ("RedNet"). The portal normally maintains strict communication silence and opens communication ports only when full security is assured; it forwards to the RedNet transactions originated by the BlackNet. Transactions originating in the RedNet addressed to the BlackNet are examined against protection rules in a local protection rule base; matches are blocked and non-matches are forwarded. The excerpt notes protection rules may fall into two classes — exclusion or guard. A related arrangement includes a firewall server (connected to the untrustworthy network) holding a database of protection rules, plus multiple firewall portals that selectively transfer the rule database from the server over the untrustworthy network, receive transactions, apply each rule, and prevent transfer when a rule identifies a selected transaction.
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US7152240/en
What this excerpt does not establish: It does not provide full claim language or the complete description; it does not verify assignee correctness, the priority-date assumption, or legal status (the source itself states these are assumptions, not legal conclusions); it does not establish the two rule classes' definitions or operation in full; and it does not address litigation, ownership transfers, validity, or prior art.
Generated 10/1/2026, 10:02:44 PM
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Litigation summary
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Proceedings on file (0)
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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.