U.S. Patent No. 10,057,241 (‘241) issued on August 21, 2018, for “Toggle Between Accounts.” It was issued to inventors Anand Subramani and François Alexander Allain, both of San Francisco, California. The applicant/assignee is Dropbox, Inc., a public cloud storage company. The elements of the ‘241 patent claims appear aimed at its AdminX business division products and services, which it introduced in 2016. The ‘241 patent is actually a part of a family of toggling patents, which includes its parent, U.S. Patent No. 9,553,868 (‘868) and its grandparent, U.S. Patent No. 9,065,818 (‘818). The ‘241 patent is a continuation under 35 U.S.C. §120 of the ‘868 patent, which is itself a continuation of the ‘818 patent. As a continuation application, the ‘241 patent cannot add anything new vis-à-vis the ‘818 and ‘868 patents, and the claims recite further limitations for administrator oversight of user accounts, which appears in line with the AdminX business platform.
Figure 1 below illustrates the claimed invention as described in the ‘241 patent.
The International Patent Classification are G06F 21/00 (electric digital data processing, specifically security arrangements for protecting computers, components thereof, programs or data against unauthorized activity), and H04L 29/06 (transmission of digital information, e.g., telegraphic communication, specifically arrangements, apparatus, circuits or systems not covered by a single one or groups, further characterized by a protocol).
The ‘241 patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer under 35 U.S.C. §253 and 37 U.S.C. §1.321, which requires that the ‘241 patent to expire at the same time as the ‘818 patent, which is August 15, 2033.
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