Invalidity dossier

US 7463596

Time based wireless access provisioning

Current assignee: Unwired Broadband Inc

Added 9/8/2026, 12:00:15 PM

IndustryWireless Technologies
At a glanceNo PTAB challengesNo litigation on fileWireless Technologies

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Patent summary

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

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US Patent 7,463,596 B2 — Summary

Bibliographic data

Field Value
Patent number US 7,463,596 B2 (US7463596B2) — do not confuse with similar numbers; this is the B2 grant of application 11/673,513
Title Time based wireless access provisioning
Inventors James A. Roskind (Redwood City, CA); John D. Robinson (South Riding, VA)
Assignee (original) America Online, Inc. / AOL LLC (Dulles, VA)
Assignee (current, per Google Patents) Unwired Broadband Inc. — via the recorded chain: AOL LLC → Tarquin Consulting Co., LLC → Callahan Cellular L.L.C. → Intellectual Ventures Assets 130 LLC → CommWorks Solutions, LLC → (corrective assignment/license) Unwired Broadband, Inc.
Filing date February 9, 2007 (application 11/673,513)
Priority date January 13, 2003 (Google Patents); some third-party databases list January 12, 2003
Issue date December 9, 2008
Examiner Melvin Marcelo
Status Expired – Lifetime (anticipated expiration January 13, 2023; maintenance fees paid through the 12th year)
Continuity Continuation of 10/961,959 (issued as 7,177,285), itself a continuation of 10/341,847 (issued as 6,891,807); child continuation 12/323,399 (issued as 7,911,979)

Abstract (verbatim from the record)

"A method and apparatus is provided for the time-based provisioning of wireless devices. A network access point monitors operation of wireless devices within a service region. When provisioning logic is activated at the network access point, the access point determines if the tracked parameter (such as power on or the onset of signal transmission) of the wireless device occurs within a designated time interval from the time of the provisioning activation. If the tracked device qualifies, the network access point proceeds with provisioning the device. In one system embodiment, the network access point tracks the power on time of wireless devices. When a wireless device to be authorized is powered on, the provisioning logic at the network access point notes the power on time. The user then activates the provisioning access at the network access point, and the network access point provisions the wireless device if it is recently powered on."

Independent claims (plain-language)

The patent has 30 claims, with two independent claims (all others depend on one of these):

Claim 1 (process): A method of associating devices that (a) tracks an operating parameter of a first device, where the tracked parameter is either the device's power-on event or the onset of the device's signal transmission, and (b) automatically associates that first device with at least one other device if the tracked operating parameter occurred within a defined time interval. In short: if a device powers on (or starts transmitting) during the qualifying window, it gets automatically paired/authorized with the network-side device.

Claim 16 (system): The system counterpart to claim 1, expressed in means-plus-function form: means for tracking the operating parameter of a first device (power-on or onset of signal transmission), and means for automatically associating the first device with another device if the tracked parameter occurs within a time interval.

Notes and uncertainties

  • CAFC 2026 docket search: My web searches returned no results confirming any U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) appeal on a 2026 docket involving patent 7463596. I could not verify CAFC activity from the searches performed, so I cannot confirm or deny a pending 2026 appeal — treat that as unconfirmed.
  • District court litigation (confirmed from the Google Patents record): The patent has been involved in numerous district-court cases (Texas Eastern, Texas Western, California Central, Virginia Eastern, Delaware, New York Southern, Alabama Northern, per Unified Patents/Darts-ip litigation data), mostly brought by/against entities in the Unwired/CommWorks chain. None of the listed district-court entries were identified in my searches as CAFC appeals.
  • Dates: Minor discrepancies exist between sources: Unified Patents lists priority/grant/expiration one day earlier (Jan. 12, 2003; Dec. 8, 2008; Jan. 12, 2023) than Google Patents and the USPTO-style record (Jan. 13, 2003; Dec. 9, 2008; Jan. 13, 2023). The Google Patents/USPTO record provided as the authoritative text is used above.
  • Assignee caveat: The "Current Assignee: Unwired Broadband Inc." shown by Google is a legal-status assumption; the USPTO assignment record shows a chain ending in an assignment to Unwired Broadband, Inc. (recorded 2022), with CommWorks Solutions, LLC as the immediate assignor. I did not independently verify post-2022 assignment records beyond the Google Patents legal-events table.

Generated 9/8/2026, 12:01:43 PM

Cases on file (0)

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Litigation summary

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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.

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PTAB challenges

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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

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Obviousness

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Extensions

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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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