Invalidity dossier
US 8842854
Systems and methods for remotely controlling local audio devices in a virtual wireless multitrack recording system
Current assignee: Zaxcom Inc
Added 9/23/2026, 8:11:06 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 — US8842854B1
Title: Systems and methods for remotely controlling local audio devices in a virtual wireless multitrack recording system
Assignee: Zaxcom Inc. (current assignee listed as Zaxcom Inc.; original assignee Zaxcom Inc.)
Inventors: Glenn Norman Sanders; Howard Glenn Stark
Key dates: Priority date 2005-07-14; filing date 2010-07-16; publication/grant date 2014-09-23. Status listed as active, with an adjusted expiration of 2028-03-11. Application number US12/838,164.
Purpose: The patent addresses recording and processing audio received from one or more wireless devices, such as body packs worn by performers, in either asynchronous or synchronous mode. In existing systems, gain or amplification adjustments were made locally at the audio recorder via knobs or slides. The described system allows components to be synchronized so each can accurately timestamp recorded audio, enabling multiple individually recorded tracks to be combined into multitrack files and allowing automatic correction of audio lost to wireless dropout or interference.
Plain-language scope (from the supplied excerpt): The disclosure describes a method of remotely controlling a local audio device: generating a command data packet at a first component; wirelessly transmitting it to a wearable local audio device having a receiver, an audio input port, memory, a control unit that creates timestamped local audio data referencing a timecode, and a wireless transmitter for real-time transmission. It also describes adjusting audio gain both locally and remotely via one adjuster, by reading a user's desired gain input, determining whether the adjuster is in local trim mode or remote trim mode, and adjusting gain of locally or remotely generated audio accordingly. Figures cover components, packet formats, and gain/preamplifier circuitry.
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US8842854](/patent/US8842854)/en
What the excerpt does not establish: It does not provide the full text of the claims, complete figure descriptions, or the entirety of the specification. It contains no findings on litigation, ownership transfers beyond the listed assignment, validity, or prior-art analysis, and no such conclusions should be drawn from it.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:41:32 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
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
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Extensions
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Derivative works
Defensive disclosure: derivative variations of each claim designed to render future incremental improvements obvious or non-novel.