Invalidity dossier
US 9865135
Added 9/23/2026, 2:06:33 PM
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 9,865,135 B2
Title: Methods for selling pre-printed online lottery tickets
Patent number: US 9,865,135 B2
Application number: US 14/679,028
Inventor: Gino Giunti
Assignee: Blackhawk Network Inc (original and current assignee per the source)
Priority date: 2015-01-18
Filing date: 2015-04-06
Publication date: 2018-01-09 (application published as US20160210808A1 on 2016-07-21)
Status: Active, adjusted expiration listed as 2035-11-03
Purpose and Plain-Language Scope
The disclosure addresses selling draw-based ("online") lottery tickets through a retailer's point of sale (POS) without requiring additional lottery hardware. The source distinguishes two lottery types: instant-win lotteries, where the printed ticket contains all lottery information (often under scratch-off material), and draw-based lotteries, where the player wagers on a later event, such as numbers to be drawn. Draw tickets are conventionally printed at purchase on special ticket paper by a lottery-approved printer attached to a single lottery terminal. The disclosure states this model suits single-checkout environments (convenience stores, gas stations) but is inconvenient in multi-lane stores (grocery, discount, big box), where a customer must make a second stop at the lottery terminal; receipt paper is also described as low quality and prone to deterioration.
Described herein are methods for selling draw-based tickets through the retailer's POS without additional hardware to generate or print the tickets, reportedly allowing online lottery tickets to be placed in a shopping cart and paid for during normal checkout at any point of purchase, including multiple lanes, without specialized lottery terminals, ticket printers, or customized devices. The excerpt also states that pre-printed lottery tickets may be sold and activated through the retailer's POS. Figures 1–9 depict a pre-printed ticket and receipt, POS/lottery and transaction-processor components, and related processes.
What the excerpt does not establish: It does not set out the full text or number of claims, claim limitations, prosecution history, or the specific steps of any claimed method; it also omits detailed descriptions of Figures 1–9.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:52:32 PM
Cases on file (0)
Specific litigation cases in our database that name US patent 9865135. 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.