Invalidity dossier
US 8979159
Added 9/23/2026, 11:45:06 PM
Active provider: DeepSeek · deepseek-flash
Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
US8979159B2 — Configurable Hardware Unit for Car Systems
Overview. US8979159B2 is titled "Configurable hardware unit for car systems." The named inventor is Christopher P. Ricci. The original assignee was Flextronics AP LLC; the current assignee listed is AutoConnect Holdings LLC. The application (US13/679,842) was filed 2012-11-16, published as US20130154298A1 on 2013-06-20, and granted 2015-03-17. The listed priority date is 2011-11-16, and the anticipated expiration is 2032-11-16. Legal status is listed as Active.
Purpose and plain-language scope. The patent concerns a configurable hardware unit intended for vehicle (car) systems. The excerpt does not reproduce the claims, abstract, or full description, so the precise claimed scope cannot be determined from the supplied text alone. The prior-art keywords listed — vehicle, user, display, module, gesture — indicate that the disclosure's subject matter relates to a vehicle-based unit involving a display, a module, user interaction, and gesture input. Beyond that, the excerpt does not establish the specific structure, components, or functional boundaries claimed.
Context in the family. The record lists numerous external-priority claims (including to US13/420,236 and US13/420,240, both dated 2012-03-14) and numerous same-day filings from 2012-11-16 that also claim priority to or from related applications (for example US13/679,400, US13/678,710, US13/679,369). Assignment to Flextronics AP, LLC was recorded 2013-03-21, naming Ricci as assignor. A later assignment to AutoConnect Holdings LLC was recorded 2015-08-28, and further reassignments involving IP Optimum Limited and AutoConnect Holdings LLC appear dated 2024-07-07; the excerpt notes these assignee listings may be inaccurate and that no legal analysis was performed.
Limitations of the excerpt. It does not establish the claims' text or count, the abstract, the detailed description, or figures. It also does not establish the actual nature or scope of the "configurable hardware unit" beyond the title and keywords.
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US8979159](/patent/US8979159)/en
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:32:30 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)
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.