Invalidity dossier
US 8274971
Switch fabric with memory management unit for improved flow control
Current assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Ltd
Added 9/21/2026, 9:27:12 AM
Active provider: DeepSeek · deepseek-flash
Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
Patent Overview: US8274971B2
Title: Switch fabric with memory management unit for improved flow control
Patent number: US8274971B2
Application number: US12/419,945
Inventors: James Battle; Daniel Tai
Original assignee: Broadcom Corp. Current assignee listed: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Ltd.
Key dates (per the supplied text):
- Priority date: 2000-06-19
- Filing date: 2009-04-07
- Publication date (grant): 2012-09-25
- Adjusted expiration: 2022-02-04 — status listed as "Expired - Fee Related"
Other version: US20090196303A1
Purpose and plain-language scope (grounded only in the supplied excerpt):
The title identifies a switch fabric that includes a memory management unit intended to improve flow control. The classifications place it in data switching networks, specifically store-and-forward and packet switching systems, and in packet switching elements. Class-based subject matter includes: flow control and congestion control; buffer-occupancy-based flow control at either end or at transit nodes; discarding or delaying data units; avoiding head-of-line blocking; per-QoS/rate/priority queues; round-robin fixed service order; multicast/broadcast operation; routing/path finding in a switch fabric using connection establishment or release, including centralized arbitration or scheduling; header conversion and routing tags; and time-to-live handling.
This indicates the disclosure concerns managing memory in a switch fabric so that packet flow and congestion are controlled — for example, via buffering decisions, queue scheduling, and connection-based fabric routing — but the excerpt does not give the actual claim language or the specific mechanism.
What the excerpt does not establish:
- The text of any claim, the independent claim scope, or claim limitations.
- The detailed written description, figures, or specific embodiments.
- Any prior-art references or their relevance.
- Whether the listed assignees, dates, or legal status are accurate — the source itself labels these as assumptions and not legal conclusions.
- Litigation, ownership-transfer effects, or validity.
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US8274971](/patent/US8274971)/en
Generated 10/1/2026, 10:02:21 PM
Cases on file (0)
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Litigation summary
Past and pending lawsuits — plaintiffs, defendants, jurisdictions, outcomes, and notable rulings.
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.