Invalidity dossier
US 9661046
Devices and methods supporting content delivery with adaptation services
Current assignee: Sandpiper Cdn LLC
Added 8/25/2026, 6:51:08 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: US9661046B2
Title: Devices and methods supporting content delivery with adaptation services
Patent number: US9661046B2
Application number: US13/715,270 (filed 2012-12-14)
Priority date: 2012-12-13
Publication date (grant): 2017-05-23
Earlier publication: US20140173088A1 (2014-06-19)
Inventors: Lewis Robert Varney; Laurence R. Lipstone; William Crowder; Andrew Swart; Christopher Newton
Original assignee: Level 3 Communications LLC
Current assignee (as listed): Sandpiper CDN LLC
Legal status (as listed): Active; adjusted expiration 2033-02-18
Classifications (excerpted): G06F15/00, G06F15/16, G06F15/163, G06F15/173 (digital computers; interprocessor communication)
Purpose and plain-language scope: The patent relates to devices and methods supporting content delivery using "adaptation services." Per the classification and prior-art keywords supplied (services, service, control, information, reducer), the claimed subject matter concerns networked computers coordinating delivery of content, with services that adapt or control how content is handled across interconnected processors. The excerpted text does not include the claims, abstract, or detailed description, so the precise scope cannot be stated beyond the title and classifications.
Family/litigation indicators noted in the source: Related filings include PCT/US2013/074824 (WO2014093717A1), EP13861539.8A (EP2932401B1), HK16103772.0A (HK1215817B), and CA2894873A (CA2894873C). The source displays a "First worldwide family litigation filed" indicator via Darts-ip.
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US9661046](/patent/US9661046)/en (fetched 2026-10-01)
What the excerpt does not establish: The supplied text contains no claim language, abstract, or description, so the actual claimed invention, its limitations, and embodiments are not shown. It also does not establish validity, enforceability, infringement, the accuracy of the listed assignees or legal status, the substance of any litigation, or the content of any prior art. Legal-status and assignee entries are expressly described in the source as assumptions, not legal conclusions.
Generated 10/1/2026, 10:03:58 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.