Invalidity dossier
US 9654356
Devices and methods supporting content delivery with adaptation services
Current assignee: Sandpiper Cdn LLC
Added 8/25/2026, 6:51:06 PM
Active provider: DeepSeek · deepseek-v4-flash
Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
Patent Overview: US9654356B2
Title: Devices and methods supporting content delivery with adaptation services
Patent number: US9654356B2
Application number: US13/715,109 (filed 2012-12-14)
Priority date: 2012-12-13
Publication date (grant): 2017-05-16
Earlier publication: US20140173043A1 (2014-06-19)
Original assignee: Level 3 Communications LLC
Current assignee (per listing): Sandpiper CDN LLC
Inventors: Lewis Robert Varney; Laurence R. Lipstone; William Crowder; Andrew Swart; Christopher Newton
Anticipated expiration (listed): 2032-12-14
Status (listed): Active
Purpose and plain-language scope: The patent concerns devices and methods that support content delivery using "adaptation services." The classification places it in network service management and maintenance/administration of data switching networks (H04L41/00; H04L41/50). The prior-art keywords listed — services, service, information, control, reducer — suggest a framework in which content delivery is managed through service-oriented components, including a "reducer," with information and control flows coordinating those services. The title indicates that at least one of these services performs adaptation of content in the course of delivery.
Family/related filings noted: PCT/US2013/074824 (WO2014093717A1); EP13861539.8A (EP2932401B1); HK16103772.0A (HK1215817B); CA2894873A (CA2894873C). The record notes "Family has litigation," with a Darts-ip family link (family=50932235).
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US9654356](/patent/US9654356)/en (fetched 2026-10-01).
What the excerpt does not establish: The supplied text contains no claims, no detailed description, and no abstract or drawings text, so the specific claimed subject matter, the meaning of "adaptation services" or "reducer," and any technical implementation details cannot be confirmed from this source alone. Bibliographic fields (assignee, status, expiration, priority) are expressly described in the source as assumptions, not legal conclusions. The excerpt does not establish the nature, parties, or outcome of any litigation; the circumstances of the 2024-07-09 assignment to Sandpiper CDN, LLC; patent validity; or the content or relevance of any prior art. Those matters are outside this overview and were not researched.
Generated 10/1/2026, 10:04:05 PM
Cases on file (0)
Specific litigation cases in our database that name US patent 9654356. 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.