Invalidity dossier
US 8204341
Method and apparatus for capturing, geolocating and measuring oblique images
Current assignee: Pictometry International Corp
Added 9/23/2026, 11:29:10 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 8,204,341 B2
Title: Method and apparatus for capturing, geolocating and measuring oblique images
Assignee/Applicant of record: Pictometry International Corp. (original assignee as listed). Named inventors: Stephen L. Schultz, Frank D. Giuffrida, Robert L. Gray, Charles Mondello.
Key dates (as listed, and characterized in the source as assumptions, not legal conclusions):
- Priority date: 2002-11-08
- Filing date: 2010-11-19 (application US 12/950,653)
- Publication of US 2011/0091076 A1: 2011-04-21
- Grant/publication of US 8,204,341 B2: 2012-06-19
- Status listed: Expired – Fee Related; anticipated expiration 2023-11-05
Purpose and plain-language scope (from the supplied text): The patent concerns photogrammetry — measuring objects and distances between them in photographs, especially aerial photographs — and specifically addresses capturing oblique images and measuring within them. The excerpt explains the backdrop: in an orthogonal image only the nadir pixel is truly orthogonal to the camera; other pixels become increasingly oblique, and ground sample distance increases with distance from nadir, distorting features. Ortho-rectification removes obliqueness by warping pixels onto an orthometric grid so all pixels share one ground sample distance and are oriented north, enabling X, Y location and distance calculation — but it introduces its own distortions (straight roads appear curved, buildings tilt), contains substantially no height information, and is hard for untrained observers to interpret. Oblique images, by contrast, are captured with the camera aimed generally to the side of and downward from the platform and show the sides of terrestrial features such as houses, buildings and mountains as well as their tops.
Classifications noted in the source: G01C 11/00 and 11/02 (photogrammetry; picture-taking arrangements, e.g. controlling overlapping pictures), G03B 15/006 (apparatus mounted on flying objects), G03B 37/02, G06T 17/05 (geographic models), G06T 3/4038 (image mosaicing), G06T 7/60, and G06T 2207/10032 (satellite or aerial image).
What the excerpt does not establish: The provided text is partial (the source indicates omitted text) and includes only "Definitions" fragments and classification/metadata listings — no claims, no detailed description, no drawings content, and no prior-art references are reproduced. Therefore the specific claimed scope, claim limitations, embodiments, and cited prior art cannot be stated from this excerpt.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:32:42 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
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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.