CONTEST
Competed
$5,000
This contest is closed.
Problem
Patexia seeks prior art for US Patent 6,131,032 (‘032), with a focus on claim 17. The patent allegedly describes a system for maintaining lawful intercept lists by receiving lawful intercept information into a master intercept list stored on a central register, and then disbursing that information to switches within the network, which store the information in a local intercept list..
When a law enforcement agency serves a warrant for a wiretap on an individual to a telephone service operator, there is a need to maintain a central database of lawful targets to ensure that only lawfully targeted citizens are subject to a wiretap, and that these individuals are dutifully removed once the legal order expires. However, the nature of a telephone service network is that calls are handled by local switches throughout a decentralized network, not through one central location; a problem further exacerbated with satellite communication systems that can spread the network even further such that it covers many different legal jurisdictions and involves multiple independent law enforcement agencies.
The patent allegedly describes a system that allows centralized administration and management of the far-flung intercept lists by:
- receiving intercept information into a master list that is stored and maintained on a central register or “monitoring location register”
- distributing the intercept information from the central register out to local switches where each switch includes a local intercept list
Figure 4. A block diagram of the distribution system
Submission Boundaries
- references filed or published before 12/01/1997
- patents or non-patent literature references
- no geographic restrictions for references
- no references allowed from the known references list
Contest icon from Aha-Soft.
Questions
| # | Question | Value |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Is the reference either a US patent filed, a foreign patent published, or a non-patent document published before December 1st, 1997? | T/F |
| 2 | Does the reference describe a system to propagate a lawful intercept list (such as a list of targets for a wiretapping order and information relevant to the target) throughout a telephone network? | 20 |
| 3 | Is this master lawful intercept list stored at a central register? | 40 |
| 4 | Is this master lawful intercept list then distributed from the central register to switches within the telephone network, where the list is stored as a local intercept list? | 40 |
Additional Notes
This is a Prior Art Search contest aimed at determining if a patent idea was known and publicly available before a patent was filed.
+5 bonus points will be awarded for non-patent literature and for foreign language references.
This contest will close on Sunday, February 8th, 2015 at 11:59 PM PST and is subject to modified prize distribution awards:
- the top submission will be designated as a winner and receive $3,000
- the next scored 2 submissions will be designated as winners and receive $500 each
- the next scored submissions (to a maximum of 10) will be designated as runners up and receive a minimum of $100 each
Please review the Contest Rules. For more information on how to submit to this Contest type, please read the Intro to Prior Art Search page.
