Invalidity dossier
US 8936594
Methods and devices to treat nasal airways
Current assignee: Aerin Medical Inc
Added 9/23/2026, 11:32:48 PM
Active provider: DeepSeek · deepseek-v4-flash
Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
US8936594B2 — Concise Patent Overview
Title: Methods and devices to treat nasal airways
Patent number: US8936594B2
Application number: US13/495,844
Inventors: Scott J. Wolf; Andrew Frazier
Original/Current Assignee: Aerin Medical Inc
Priority date: 2011-06-14 (stated as an assumption, not a legal conclusion)
Filing date: 2012-06-13
Publication date: 2015-01-20 (grant)
Legal status (per source): Active, adjusted expiration 2033-04-10
Purpose / plain-language scope
The source text identifies this as a patent directed to "Methods and devices to treat nasal airways." Its listed prior-art keywords — nasal, tissue, energy, treatment, treatment element — and its classification under A61B18/00 (surgical instruments, devices or methods for transferring non-mechanical forms of energy to or from the body) indicate the disclosure concerns delivering energy to nasal tissue via a treatment element. That is the extent of the scope the supplied excerpt supports.
Family/continuity data shown in the source
The page lists numerous continuations/divisionals claiming priority from this filing, including US9237924B2, US8986301B2, US9072597B2, US9486278B2, US9179964B2, US9415194B2, US9452010B2, US9526571B2, US9801752B2, and US10028780B2, among others. The source also displays assignment, security-interest, and release records and a worldwide family litigation link.
Not established by this excerpt
- No claims, claim language, or claim limitations are included, so the actual patented scope cannot be stated.
- No abstract, specification, drawings, or detailed description text is included (the excerpt is page metadata and classification data only).
- The classification, prior-art keywords, and title are metadata; they do not define or limit claim scope.
- Priority date, legal status, and assignment entries are expressly labeled by the source as assumptions or non-legal conclusions.
- Per instructions, no litigation, ownership-transfer, validity, or prior-art analysis is offered here.
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US8936594](/patent/US8936594)/en
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:32:39 PM
Cases on file (0)
Specific litigation cases in our database that name US patent 8936594. The free-form analysis below may also discuss cases beyond this list.
No cases on file mention this patent. Upload a CSV or add a case manually in Admin → Manage litigation cases.
Litigation summary
Past and pending lawsuits — plaintiffs, defendants, jurisdictions, outcomes, and notable rulings.
Proceedings on file (0)
All PTAB activity →AIA trial proceedings (IPR / PGR / CBM) filed at the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board against this patent. Sourced from the USPTO Open Data Portal and refreshed every six hours; each proceeding number deep-links to the PTAB E2E docket.
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.