Invalidity dossier
US 8577546
Added 9/23/2026, 9:19:21 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 8,577,546 B2
Title: Method and device for monitoring the driving behavior of a railway vehicle
Assignee: Knorr-Bremse Systeme fuer Schienenfahrzeuge GmbH (original and current assignee listed)
Key dates: Priority date 2009-09-18; filing date 2010-09-14; publication of application US2012/0209471A1 on 2012-08-16; grant/publication of US8577546B2 on 2013-11-05; anticipated expiration 2030-09-14. Legal status listed as "Active" (an assumption, not a legal conclusion, per the source).
Inventors: Frank Günther, Jörg-Johannes Wach, Ulf Friesen, Stefan Sedlmair
Purpose: To detect damage and defects on a rail vehicle wheel set with less signal-processing effort and greater reliability than methods that evaluate time profiles of measurement signals "in an undifferentiated fashion," including signals acquired under different friction conditions. A fracture forming on the wheel set is specifically mentioned as an indication of interest.
Plain-language scope: At least one sensor captures a measurement variable characterizing wheel-set oscillation (e.g., fluctuation, speed, acceleration, or force). Instead of continuously Fourier-transforming the entire signal, the device identifies a "significant event" when the variable exceeds a predefined minimum value (e.g., vertical acceleration of at least 10 g), records the event time, and forms a frequency response only from that time over a defined period (e.g., 5–500 ms, or until a decay measure or further event). This response is compared to at least one stored reference frequency response — from model calculation, a specimen wheel set, prior operation, or averaging — and oscillation behavior is evaluated from the deviation. Conclusions concern changing natural frequency, amplitude, damping, and dynamic stiffness/resilience. The described approach may operate independently of the route.
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US8577546/en
What the excerpt does not establish: It does not provide the full claim text, complete description, or drawing details; the excerpt itself notes omitted text. It does not establish litigation, ownership transfers, validity, or prior art beyond the references mentioned.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:34:22 PM
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Litigation summary
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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
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Prior art
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Obviousness
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Extensions
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Derivative works
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