Invalidity dossier
US 9131078
Apparatuses, methods, and systems for a portable, image-processing transmitter
Current assignee: Lagavulin Ltd
Added 9/24/2026, 1:22:54 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 — US 9,131,078 B2
Title: Apparatuses, Methods, and Systems for a Portable, Image-Processing Transmitter
Patent number / publication: US9131078B2 (application publication US20090070675A1)
Application number: US12/172,138
Inventor: Richard Tzar Kai Li
Assignee: Lagavulin Ltd (originally Lagavulin Limited; assignment recorded 2008-10-22 from inventor Li)
Key dates: Priority date 2007-07-27; filing date 2008-07-11; publication of application 2009-03-12; grant/publication date 2015-09-08; adjusted expiration 2031-09-04; legal status listed as "Expired – Fee Related."
Purpose / plain-language scope: Based on the supplied excerpt, the patent concerns a portable, image-processing transmitter used with digital media. The prior-art keywords supplied—digital media, format, media file, transmission, user—indicate the subject matter centers on handling a media file in some format and transmitting it, involving a user. Classification entries point to: transferring data for processing; graphical-user-interface interaction techniques (including selection of displayed objects or text elements and control of specific functions); still-picture apparatus combined with another apparatus, e.g., a mobile telephone apparatus, including viewing/previewing, processing/editing, and transmitting/receiving image data via a computer or network (e.g., internet, e-mail, I-fax); digital photofinishing/printing ordering; and electronic shopping for digital content with digital rights management (DRM) control. Together these classifications suggest a portable device that processes and transmits images, with associated GUI selection, networked transmission, and content-purchase/DRM aspects.
What the excerpt does not establish: The supplied text is a bibliographic/classification record only—it contains no abstract, no specification, no drawings description, and no claims. Therefore it does not establish the actual claimed scope, any specific embodiment, components, formats, or transmission protocols; it does not establish the number or wording of claims; and it does not establish inventorship details beyond the single named inventor or the accuracy of the assignee listing. No litigation, ownership-transfer, validity, or prior-art conclusions are drawn here.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:31:29 PM
Cases on file (0)
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Litigation summary
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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.