Invalidity dossier
US 7660234
Fault-tolerant medium access control (MAC) address assignment in network elements
Current assignee: Enhanced Data Streaming LLC
Added 9/23/2026, 9:03:17 PM
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: US7660234B2
Title: Fault-tolerant medium access control (MAC) address assignment in network elements
Assignee/Applicant of record (per supplied text): Original assignee Orckit Corrigent Ltd (assignment recorded to Corrigent Systems Ltd.); current assignee listed as Enhanced Data Streaming LLC.
Key dates (per supplied text): Priority/filing date 2006-09-22; application no. US11/534,556; publication US20080075082A1 on 2008-03-27; patent granted/publication 2010-02-09; adjusted expiration listed 2028-03-07; legal status "Active." Inventors: Shmuel Ilan and Leon Bruckman.
Purpose: The invention relates generally to communication networks, particularly to methods and systems for assigning MAC addresses in network elements. Embodiments provide flexible, fault-tolerant MAC address assignment so addresses can continue to be assigned despite common function module (CFM), backplane, and tributary module failures, and so protection switchovers retain currently-used MAC addresses and assignments. Storing MAC addresses in CFM inventories also reduces the likelihood of replacing a faulty backplane, since backplane replacement is more complicated and can cause long service disruption.
Plain-language scope: A network element has tributary modules (each with network interfaces communicating over network trunks) interconnected by a backplane. The backplane includes a memory holding first MAC address values; each CFM includes a memory holding second MAC address values. The CFM assigns MAC addresses to the network interfaces by selecting from the backplane memory values when it can access that memory, and from its own CFM memory values when it cannot. In embodiments, two CFMs are used—primary and secondary—with the primary updating the secondary with used and previously-performed assignments. A tributary module may back up another, with the CFM assigning the failed module's MAC addresses to the backup module. The excerpt also describes a corresponding method and a computer software product.
What the excerpt does not establish: It does not provide the full claims, complete specification, exact wording of all claim limitations, or the full prior-art discussion. It states only that legal status and dates are assumptions, not legal conclusions; litigation, ownership-transfer, validity, and prior-art matters are outside this overview and were not researched.
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US7660234](/patent/US7660234)/en
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:41:00 PM
Cases on file (1)
Group view →Specific litigation cases in our database that name US patent 7660234. The free-form analysis below may also discuss cases beyond this list.
- Enhanced Data Streaming LLC v. Cisco Systems, Inc.filed Oct 10, 20252:25-cv-01038-JRGU.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Divisionpending
Defendants: Cisco Systems, Inc.
Litigation summary
Past and pending lawsuits — plaintiffs, defendants, jurisdictions, outcomes, and notable rulings.
Proceedings on file (0)
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Current assignee: Enhanced Data Streaming LLC
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
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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.
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This patent in court (1)
1 tracked lawsuit name US 7660234.