Invalidity dossier
US 7720966
Arrangements and method for hierarchical resource management in a layered network architecture
Current assignee: NetSocket Inc
Added 9/23/2026, 7:28:18 PM
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Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
Patent Overview: US 7,720,966 B2
Title: "Arrangements and method for hierarchical resource management in a layered network architecture"
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US7720966/en (excerpt)
Identifiers and dates: Publication number US7720966B2; application US10/535,208; filing date 2003-11-14; priority date 2002-12-02; publication date 2010-05-18. Legal status is listed as expired – lifetime, with adjusted expiration 2024-09-07. The source states legal status is an assumption, not a legal conclusion.
Assignee: Current assignee listed as NetSocket Inc; original assignee NetSocket Inc. The excerpt also lists reassignments involving Operax AB, NYA Operax AB, Comerica Bank, and Alliacense Limited LLC, reflecting recorded assignments rather than analyzed ownership.
Inventors: Ulf Bodin, Joachim Johansson, Joakim Norrgard, Fredrik Pettersson, Olov Schelen, Jim Sundqvist, Emil Svanberg.
Purpose: The invention relates to resource management in a data network having a layered network architecture. The excerpt discusses IP as a unifying network layer in increasingly heterogeneous environments (application, link-layer, user-community, and business heterogeneity), and describes the Network Resource Manager (NRM) — also called bandwidth broker, bandwidth manager, network resource controller, or network agent — as the entity performing dynamic service management that tracks available resources, stores a history of admitted reservations, and performs admission control based on total, reserved, and requested resources. The background surveys inter-domain QoS signaling (SIBBS, BGRP), Cadenus resource mediation, NSIS, SBM, and criticizes proposed solutions as providing either single-level IP resource management or strict link-level resource management rather than uniform resource management spanning applications, overlay networks, and link-layer technologies.
Plain-language scope: Resource management is organized hierarchically across layered networks, providing a uniform way for operators to manage services at IP level and within link-layer networks, with admission control decisions made by resource managers against tracked reservations.
What the excerpt does not establish: It contains no claim language, specification details, drawings, or prosecution history, so the actual claimed scope, embodiments, and limitations cannot be determined here. It also does not establish validity, enforceability, infringement, or the correctness of recorded assignments.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:42:03 PM
Cases on file (0)
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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
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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.