Patent Grant
9561426
The present invention relates to devices for handling cards, including cards known as “playing cards.” In particular, the invention relates to an electromechanical machine for organizing or arranging playing cards into a plurality of hands, wherein each hand is formed as a selected number of randomly arranged cards. The invention also relates to a mechanism for feeding cards into a shuffling apparatus and also to a method of delivering individual hands from the apparatus to individual players or individual player positions.
Wagering games based on the outcome of randomly generated or selected symbols are well known. Such games are widely played in gaming establishments such as casinos and the wagering games include card games wherein the symbols comprise familiar, common playing cards. Card games such as twenty-one or blackjack, poker and variations of poker and the like are excellent card games for use in casinos. Desirable attributes of casino card games are that the games are exciting, they can be learned and understood easily by players, and they move or are played rapidly to a wager-resolving outcome.
From the perspective of players, the time the dealer must spend in shuffling diminishes the excitement of the game. From the perspective of casinos, shuffling time reduces the number of hands placed, reduces the number of wagers placed and resolved in a given amount of time, thereby reducing revenue. Casinos would like to increase the amount of revenue generated by a game without changing games, particularly a popular game, without making obvious changes in the play of the game that affect the hold of the casino, and without increasing the minimum size of wagers. One approach to speeding play is directed specifically to the fact that playing time is decreased by shuffling and dealing events. This approach has led to the development of electromechanical or mechanical card-shuffling devices. Such devices increase the speed of shuffling and dealing, thereby increasing playing time. Such devices also add to the excitement of a game by reducing the time the dealer or house has to spend in preparing to play the game.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,513,969 to Samsel, Jr., and U.S. Pat. No. 4,515,367 to Howard disclose automatic card shufflers. The Samsel, Jr. patent discloses a card shuffler having a housing with two wells for receiving stacks of cards. A first extractor selects, removes and intermixes the bottommost card from each stack and delivers the intermixed cards to a storage compartment. A second extractor sequentially removes the bottommost card from the storage compartment and delivers it to a typical shoe from which the dealer may take it for presentation to the players. The Howard patent discloses a card mixer for randomly interleaving cards including a carriage-supported ejector for ejecting a group of cards (approximately two playing decks in number), which may then be removed manually from the shuffler or dropped automatically into a chute for delivery to a typical dealing shoe.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,586,712 to Lorber et al. discloses an automatic shuffling apparatus designed to intermix multiple decks of cards under the programmed control of a computer. The Lorber et al. apparatus is a carousel-type shuffler having a container, a storage device for storing shuffled playing cards, a removing device and an inserting device for intermixing the playing cards in the container, a dealing shoe and supplying means for supplying the shuffled playing cards from the storage device to the dealing shoe.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,000,453 to Stevens et al. discloses an apparatus for automatically shuffling cards. The Stevens et al. machine includes three contiguous magazines with an elevatable platform in the center magazine only. Unshuffled cards are placed in the center magazine and the spitting rollers at the top of the magazine spit the cards randomly to the left and right magazines in a simultaneous cutting and shuffling step. The cards are moved back into the center magazine by direct lateral movement of each shuffled stack, placing one stack on top of the other to stack all cards in a shuffled stack in the center magazine. The order of the cards in each stack does not change in moving from the right and left magazines into the center magazine.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,897,954 to Erickson et al. discloses the concept of delivering cards one at a time into one of a number vertically stacked card-shuffling compartments. The Erickson patent also discloses using a logic circuit to determine the sequence for determining the delivery location of a card, and that a card shuffler can be used to deal stacks of shuffled cards to a player. U.S. Pat. No. 5,240,140 to Huen discloses a card dispenser which dispenses or deals cards in four discrete directions onto a playing surface, and U.S. Pat. No. 793,489 to Williams, U.S. Pat. No. 2,001,918 to Nevius, U.S. Pat. No. 2,043,343 to Warner, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,312,473 to Friedman et al. disclose various card holders, some of which include recesses (e.g., Friedman et al.) to facilitate removal of cards. U.S. Pat. No. 2,950,005 to MacDonald and U.S. Pat. No. 3,690,670 to Cassady et al. disclose card-sorting devices that require specially marked cards, clearly undesirable for gaming and casino play.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,770,421 to Hoffman discloses a card-shuffling device including a card-loading station with a conveyor belt. The belt moves the lowermost card in a stack onto a distribution elevator whereby a stack of cards is accumulated on the distribution elevator. Adjacent to the elevator is a vertical stack of mixing pockets. A microprocessor preprogrammed with a finite number of distribution schedules sends a sequence of signals to the elevator corresponding to heights called out in the schedule. Each distribution schedule comprises a preselected distribution sequence that is fixed as opposed to random. Single cards are moved into the respective pocket at that height. The distribution schedule is either randomly selected or schedules are executed in sequence. When the microprocessor completes the execution of a single distribution cycle, the cards are removed a stack at a time and loaded into a second elevator. The second elevator delivers cards to an output reservoir. Thus, the Hoffman patent requires a two-step shuffle, i.e., a program is required to select the order in which stacks are loaded and moved onto the second elevator and delivers a shuffled deck or decks. The Hoffman patent does not disclose randomly selecting a location within the vertical stack for delivering each card. Nor does the Hoffman patent disclose a single-stage process that randomly delivers hands of shuffled cards with a degree of randomness satisfactory to casinos and players. Further, there is no disclosure in the Hoffman patent about how to deliver a preselected number of cards to a preselected number of hands ready for use by players or participants in a game. Another card-handling apparatus with an elevator is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,683,085 to Johnson et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,750,743 to Nicoletti discloses a playing card dispenser including an inclined surface and a card pusher for urging cards down the inclined surface.
Other known card-shuffling devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,778,644 to Stephenson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,497,488 to Plevyak et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,884 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,275,411 both to Breeding, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,695,189 to Breeding et al. The Breeding patents disclose machines for automatically shuffling a single deck of cards including a deck-receiving zone, a carriage section for separating a deck into two deck portions, a sloped mechanism positioned between adjacent corners of the deck portions, and an apparatus for snapping the cards over the sloped mechanism to interleave the cards.
The Breeding single-deck shufflers used in connection with LET IT RIDE® stud poker are programmed to first shuffle a deck of cards, and then sequentially deliver hands of a preselected number of cards for each player. LET IT RIDE® stud poker is the subject of U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,288,081 and 5,437,462 to Breeding, which are herein incorporated by reference. The Breeding single-deck shuffler delivers three cards from the shuffled deck in sequence to a receiving rack. The dealer removes the first hand from the rack. Then, the next hand is automatically delivered. The dealer inputs the number of players, and the shuffler deals out that many hands plus a dealer hand. The Breeding single-deck shufflers are capable of shuffling a single deck and delivering seven player hands plus a dealer hand in approximately 60 seconds. The Breeding shuffler is a complex electromechanical device that requires tuning and adjustment during installation. The shufflers also require periodic adjustment. The Breeding et al. device, as exemplified in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,068,258; 5,695,189; and 5,303,921 are directed to shuffling machines for shuffling multiple decks of cards with three magazines wherein unshuffled cards are cut then shuffled.
Although the devices disclosed in the preceding patents, particularly the Breeding machines, provide improvements in card-shuffling devices, none discloses or suggests a device and method for providing a plurality of hands of cards, wherein the hands are ready for play and wherein each comprises a randomly selected arrangement of cards, without first randomly shuffling the entire deck. A device and method which provides a plurality of ready-to-play hands of a selected number of randomly arranged cards at a greater speed than known devices without shuffling the entire deck or decks would speed and facilitate the casino play of card games.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,149,154 describes an apparatus for moving playing cards from a first group of cards into plural groups, each of the plural groups containing a random arrangement of cards, the apparatus comprising: a card receiver for receiving the first group of unshuffled cards; a single stack of card-receiving compartments generally adjacent to the card receiver, the stack generally adjacent to and movable with respect to the first group of cards; and a drive mechanism that moves the stack by means of translation relative to the first group of unshuffled cards; a card-moving mechanism between the card receiver and the stack; and a processing unit that controls the card-moving mechanism and the drive mechanism so that a selected quantity of cards is moved into a selected number of compartments.
The present invention provides an electromechanical card-handling apparatus and method for creating or generating a plurality of hands of cards from a group of unshuffled cards, wherein each hand contains a predetermined number of randomly selected or arranged cards. The apparatus and, thus, the card-handling method or process, is controlled by a programmable microprocessor and may be monitored by a plurality of sensors and limit switches.
While the card-handling apparatus and method of the present invention is well suited for use in the gaming environment, particularly in casinos, the apparatus and method may find use in homes, card clubs, or for handling or sorting sheet material generally.
In one embodiment, an apparatus moves playing cards from a first group of unshuffled cards into shuffled hands of cards, wherein at least one and usually all of the hands contains a random arrangement or random selection of a preselected number of cards. In one embodiment, the total number of cards in all of the hands is less than the total number of cards in the first group of unshuffled cards (e.g., one or more decks of playing cards). In another embodiment, all of the cards in the first group of unshuffled cards are distributed into hands.
The apparatus comprises a card receiver for receiving the first group of cards, a stack of card-receiving compartments (e.g., a generally vertical stack of horizontally disposed card-receiving compartments or carousel of rotating stacks) generally adjacent to the card receiver (the vertical stack generally is vertically movable and a carousel is generally rotatable), an elevator for raising and lowering the vertical stack or a drive to rotate the carousel, a card-moving mechanism between the card receiver and the card-receiving compartments for moving cards, one at a time, from the card receiver to a selected card-receiving compartment, and a microprocessor that controls the card-moving mechanism and the elevator or drive mechanism so that each card in the group of unshuffled cards is placed randomly into one of the card-receiving compartments. Sensors may monitor and may trigger at least certain operations of the apparatus, including activities of the microprocessor, card-moving mechanisms, security monitoring, and the elevator or carousel.
The controlling microprocessor, including software, randomly selects or identifies which slot or card-receiving compartment will receive each card in the group before card-handling operations begin. For example, a card designated as card 1 may be directed to a slot 5 (numbered here by numeric position within an array of slots), a card designated as card 2 may be directed to slot 7, a card designated as card 3 may be directed to slot 3, etc. Each slot or compartment may, therefore, be identified and treated to receive individual hands of defined numbers of randomly selected cards or the slots may be later directed to deliver individual cards into a separate hand-forming slot or tray. In the first example, a hand of cards is removed as a group from an individual slot. In the second example, each card defining a hand is removed from more than one compartment (where one or more cards are removed from a slot), and the individual cards are combined in a hand-receiving tray to form a randomized hand of cards.
Another feature of the present invention is that it provides a programmable card-handling machine with a display and appropriate inputs for adjusting the machine to any of a number of games wherein the inputs include one or more of a number of cards per hand or the name of the game selector, a number of hands delivered selector and a trouble-shooting input. Residual cards after all designated hands are dealt may be stored within the machine, delivered to an output tray that is part of the machine, or delivered for collection out of the machine, usually after all hands have been dealt and/or delivered. Additionally, there may be an elevator speed or carousel drive speed adjustment and position sensor to accommodate or monitor the position of the elevator or carousel as cards wear or become bowed or warped. These features also provide for interchangeability of the apparatus, meaning the same apparatus can be used for many different games and in different locations, thereby reducing the number of back-up machines or units required at a casino. The display may include a game mode or selected game display, and use a cycle rate and/or hand count monitor and display for determining or monitoring the usage of the machine.
Another feature of the present invention is that it provides an electromechanical playing card-handling apparatus for more rapidly generating multiple random hands of playing cards as compared to known devices. The preferred device may complete a cycle in approximately 30 seconds, which is double the speed (half the time) of the Breeding single-deck shuffler disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,884, which has itself achieved significant commercial success. Although some of the groups of playing cards (including player and dealer hands and discarded or unused cards) arranged by the apparatus in accordance with the method of the present invention may contain the same number of cards, the cards within any one group or hand are randomly selected and placed therein. Other features of the invention include a reduction of setup time, increased reliability, lower maintenance and repair costs, and a reduction or elimination of problems such as card counting, possible dealer manipulation and card tracking. These features increase the integrity of a game and enhance casino security.
Yet another feature of the card-handling apparatus of the present invention is that it converts at least a single deck of unshuffled cards into a plurality of hands ready for use in playing a game. The hands converted from the at least a single deck of cards are substantially completely randomly ordered, i.e., the cards comprising each hand are randomly placed into that hand. To accomplish this random distribution, a preferred embodiment of the apparatus includes a number of vertically stacked, horizontally disposed card-receiving compartments one above another or a carousel arrangement of adjacent radially disposed stacks into which cards are inserted, one at a time, until an entire group of cards is distributed. In this preferred embodiment, each card-receiving compartment is filled (that is, filled to the assigned number of cards for a hand, with the residue of cards being fed into the discard compartment or compartments, or discharged from the apparatus at a card discharge port, for example), regardless of the number of players participating in a particular game.
For example, when the card-handling apparatus is being used for a seven-player game, at least seven player compartments, a dealer compartment and at least one compartment for cards not used in forming the random hands to be used in the seven-player game are filled. After the last card from the unshuffled group is delivered into these various compartments, the hands are ready to be removed from the compartments and put into play, either manually, automatically, or with a combined automatic feed and hand removal. For example, the cards in the compartments may be so disposed as they are removable by hand by a dealer (a completely manual delivery from the compartment), hands are discharged into a readily accessible region (e.g., tray or support) for manual removal (a combination of mechanical/automatic delivery and manual delivery), or hands are discharged and delivered to a specific player/dealer/discharge position (completely automatic delivery).
The device can also be readily adapted for games that deal a hand or hands only to the dealer, such as David Sklansky's HOLD 'EM CHALLENGE™ poker game, described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,382,025.
One type of device of the present invention may include jammed card detection and recovery features, and may include recovery procedures operated and controlled by the microprocessor.
Generally, the operation of the card-handling apparatus of the present invention will form at least a fixed number of hands of cards corresponding to the maximum number of players at a table, optionally plus a dealer hand (if there is a dealer playing in the game), and usually a discard pile. For a typical casino table having seven player stations, the device of the present invention would preferably have at least or exactly nine compartments (if there are seven players and a dealer) or at least or exactly eight compartments (if there are seven players and no dealer playing in the game) that are actually utilized in the operation of the apparatus in dealing a game, wherein each of seven player compartments contains the same number of cards. Depending upon the nature of the game, the compartments for the dealer hand may have the same or different number of cards as the player compartments, and the discard compartment may contain the same or different number of cards as the player compartments and/or the dealer compartment, if there is a dealer compartment. However, it is most common for the discard compartment to contain a different number of cards than the player and/or dealer compartments and examples of the apparatus having this capability enables play of a variety of games with a varying number of players and/or a dealer. In another example of the invention, more than nine compartments are provided and more than one compartment can optionally be used to collect discards. Providing extra compartments also increases the possible uses of the machine. For example, a casino might want to use the shuffler for an eight-player over-sized table.
Most preferably, the device is programmed to deliver a fixed number of hands, or deliver hands until the dealer (whether playing in the game or operating as a house dealer) presses an input button. The dealer input tells the microprocessor that the last hand has been delivered (to the players or to the players and dealer), and then the remaining cards in the compartments (excess player compartments and/or discard compartment and/or excess card compartment) will be unloaded into an output or discard compartment or card collection compartment outside the shuffler (e.g., where players' hands are placed after termination or completion of play with their hands in an individual game). The discard, excess or unused card hand (i.e., the cards placed in the discard compartment or slot) may contain more cards than player or dealer hand compartments and, thus, the discard compartment may be larger than the other compartments. In a preferred embodiment, the discard compartment is located in the middle of the generally vertically arranged stack of compartments. In another example of the invention, the discard compartment or compartments are of the same size as the card-receiving compartments. The specific compartment(s) used to receive discards or cards can also change from shuffle to shuffle.
Another feature of the invention is that the apparatus of the present invention may provide for the initial top feeding or top loading of an unshuffled group of cards, thereby facilitating use by the dealer. The hand-receiving portion of the machine may also facilitate use by the dealer, by having cards displayed or provided so that a dealer is able to conveniently remove a randomized hand from the upper portion of the machine or from a tray, support or platform extending from the machine to expose the cards to a vertical or nearly vertical access (within 0 degrees to 30 degrees or 50 degrees of horizontal, for example) by the dealer's hand.
An additional feature of the card-handling apparatus of the present invention is that it facilitates and significantly speeds the play of casino wagering games, particularly those games calling for a certain, fixed number of cards per hand (e.g., CARIBBEAN STUD® poker, LET IT RIDE® poker, pai gow poker, TRES CARD™ poker, THREE CARD POKER®, HOLD 'EM CHALLENGE™ poker, stud poker games, wild card poker games, match card games, and the like), making the games more exciting and less tedious for players, and more profitable for casinos. The device of the present invention is believed to deliver random hands at an increased speed compared to other shufflers, such as approximately twice the speed of known devices.
In use, the apparatus of the present invention is operated to process playing cards from an initial, unshuffled or used group of cards into a plurality of hands, each hand containing the same number of randomly arranged cards. If the rules of the game require delivery of hands of unequal numbers of cards, the device of the present invention could be programmed to distribute the cards according to any preferred card count. It should be understood that the term “unshuffled” is a relative term. A deck is unshuffled a) when it is being recycled after play and b) after previous mechanical or manual shuffling before a previous play of a game, as well as c) when a new deck is inserted into the machine with or without ever having been previously shuffled, either manually or mechanically. The first step of this process is affected by the dealer placing the initial group of cards into a card receiver of the apparatus. The apparatus is started and, under the control of the integral microprocessor, assigns each card in the initial group to a compartment (randomly selecting compartments separately for each card), based on the selected number of hands, and a selected number of cards per hand. Each hand is contained in a separate compartment of the apparatus, and each is delivered (upon the dealer's demand or automatically) by the apparatus from that compartment to a hand receiver, hand support or hand platform, either manually or automatically, for the dealer to distribute it to a player. The number of hands created by the apparatus within each cycle is preferably selected to correspond to the maximum number of hands required to participate in a game (accounting for player hands, dealer hands, or house hands), and the number or quantity of cards per hand is programmable according to the game being played.
The machine can also be programmed to form a number of hands corresponding to the number of players at the table. The dealer could be required to input the number of players at the table. The dealer would be required to input the number of players at the table, at least as often as the number of players change. The keypad input sends a signal to the microprocessor and then the microprocessor in turn controls the components to produce only the desired number of hands. Alternatively, bet sensors are used to sense the number of players present. The game controller communicates the number of bets placed to the shuffler, and a corresponding number of hands are formed.
Each time a new group of unshuffled cards, hand shuffled cards, used cards or a new deck(s) of cards is loaded into the card receiver and the apparatus is activated, the operation of the apparatus involving that group of cards, i.e., the forming of that group of cards into hands of random cards, comprises a new cycle. Each cycle is unique and is effected by the microprocessor, which microprocessor is programmed with software to include random number generating capability. The software assigns a card number to each card and then randomly selects or correlates a compartment to each card number. Under the control of the microprocessor, the elevator or carousel aligns the selected compartment with the card feed mechanism in order to receive the next card. The software then directs each numbered card to the selected slots by operating the elevator or carousel drive to position that slot to receive a card.
The present invention also describes an alternative and optional unique method and component of the system for aligning the feed of cards into respective compartments and for forming decks of randomly arranged cards. The separators between compartments may have an edge facing the direction from which cards are fed, that edge having two acute angled surfaces (away from parallelism with the plane of the separator) so that cards may be deflected in either direction (above/below, left/right, top/bottom) with respect to the plane of the separator. When there are already one or more cards within a compartment, such deflection by the edge of the separator may insert cards above or below the card(s) in the compartment. The component that directs, moves, and/or inserts cards into the compartments may be controllably oriented to direct a leading edge of each card toward the randomly selected edge of a separator so that the card is inserted in the randomly selected compartment and in the proper orientation (above/below, left/right, top/bottom) with respect to a separator, the compartments, and card(s) in the compartments.
The apparatus of the present invention is compact, easy to set up and program and, once programmed, can be maintained effectively and efficiently by minimally trained personnel who cannot affect the randomness of the card delivery. This means that the machines are more reliable in the field. Service costs are reduced, as are assembly costs and setup costs. The preferred device also has fewer parts, which should provide greater reliability than known devices.
Another optional feature of the present invention is to have all compartments of equal size and fed into a final deck-forming compartment so that the handling of the cards effects a shuffling of the deck, without creating actual hands for play by players and/or the dealer. The equipment is substantially similar, with the compartments that were previously designated as hands or discards, having the cards contained therein subsequently stacked to form a shuffled deck(s). Another feature of the present invention is a mechanism that feeds cards into the compartments with a high rate of accuracy and that minimizes or eliminates wear on the cards, extending the useful life of the cards. The mechanism comprises a feed roller that remains in contact with the moving card (and possibly the subsequently exposed, underlying card) as cards are moved toward the second card-moving system (e.g., a pair of speed-up rollers), but advantageously disengages from the contact roller drive mechanism when a leading edge of the moving card contacts or is grasped and moved forward by the second card-moving system. Other features and advantages of the present invention will become more fully apparent and understood with reference to the following specification and to the appended drawings and claims.
This detailed description is intended to be read and understood in conjunction with appended Appendices A, B and C, which are incorporated herein by reference. Appendix A provides an identification key correlating the description and abbreviation of certain non-limiting examples of motors, switches and photo eyes or sensors with reference character identifications of the same components in the figures, and gives the manufacturers, addresses and model designations of certain components (motors, limit switches and sensors). Appendix B outlines steps in a homing sequence, part of one embodiment of the sequence of operations as outlined in Appendix C. With regard to mechanisms for fastening, mounting, attaching or connecting the components of the present invention to form the apparatus as a whole, unless specifically described as otherwise, such mechanisms are intended to encompass conventional fasteners such as machine screws, rivets, nuts and bolts, toggles, pins and the like. Other fastening or attachment mechanisms appropriate for connecting components include adhesives, welding and soldering, the latter particularly with regard to the electrical system of the apparatus.
All components of the electrical system and wiring harness of the present invention may be conventional, commercially available components unless otherwise indicated, including electrical components and circuitry, wires, fuses, soldered connections, chips, boards, microprocessors, computers, and control system components. The software may be developed simply by hired programming without undue experimentation, the software merely directing physical performance without unique software functionality.
Generally, unless specifically otherwise disclosed or taught, the materials for making the various components of the present invention are selected from appropriate materials such as metal, metallic alloys, ceramics, plastics, fiberglass, composites, and the like.
In the following description, the Appendices and the claims, any references to the terms right and left, top and bottom, upper and lower and horizontal and vertical are to be read and understood with their conventional meanings and with reference to viewing the apparatus from whatever convenient perspective is available to the viewer, but generally from the front as shown in perspective in
One method according to the present invention relates to a card delivery assembly or subcomponent that comprises a preliminary card-moving element that temporarily disengages or stops its delivery action or card control action upon sensing or as a result of a card coming into contact with a second card-moving or card-delivery element, component or subcomponent, or in response to an increase in linear speed of the card. That is, a first card-moving component moves individual cards from a first location (e.g., the card-receiving stack) toward a second card-moving element or subcomponent (e.g., a set of speed-up rollers) and the second card-moving element places the cards in a compartment after the card delivery assembly is brought into alignment with a selected component. When the second card-moving element, component or subcomponent intercepts an individual card or begins to grasp, guide or move an individual card, the first card-moving element, component or subcomponent must disengage its card-moving action to prevent that card-moving action from either jamming the apparatus, excessively directing or controlling an individual card, or moving too many cards (e.g., more than one card) at the same time.
A general method of the invention provides for randomly mixing cards comprising:
Cards in random, distinct subsets may be removed from at least one of the distinct storage areas.
The cards removed from at least one of the distinct storage areas may define a subset of cards that is delivered to a player as a hand. One set of the cards removed from at least one of the distinct storage areas may also define a subset of cards that is delivered to a dealer as a hand. Distinct subsets of cards may be removed from at least one distinct storage area and be delivered into a receiving area. Each distinct subset of cards may be removed from the storage area and delivered to a position on a gaming table that is distinct from a position where another removed subset is delivered. All removed subsets may be delivered to the storage area without removal of previous subsets being removed from the receiving area. At least one received subset may become a hand of cards for use in a game of cards. The subsets may be delivered one at a time to a subset delivery position or station (e.g., delivery tray, delivery support, delivery container or delivery platform). The hands are delivered from the subset compartments, either by moving cards from the subset compartment one at a time, multiple cards at a time, or complete subsets at a single time. Moving single cards at a time can be accomplished with pick-off rollers, for example. The movement of a complete subset of cards can be accomplished by pushing the group out of the compartment with a pushing mechanism, as described below in the section entitled “Second Card-Moving Mechanism.”
Referring to the figures, particularly
Referring now to
Card Receiver
The card-loading region 26 includes a card-receiving well 60. The well 60 is defined by upright, generally parallel card-guiding sidewalls 62 (although one or both walls may be sloped inwardly to guide the cards into position within the well) and a rear wall 64. The card-loading region includes a floor surface 66 which, in one example of the present invention, is preferably pitched or angled downwardly toward the front of the apparatus 20. Preferably, the floor surface 66 is pitched from the horizontal at an angle ranging from approximately 5 to 20 degrees, with a pitch of about 7 degrees being preferred. A removable, generally rectangular weight or block 68 is generally freely movably received in the well 60 for free forward and rearward movement along the floor surface 66. Under the influence of gravity, the block 68 will tend to move toward the forward end of the well 60. The block 68 has an angled, card-contacting front face 70 for contacting the face (i.e., the bottom of the bottommost card) of the last card in a group of cards placed into the well 60, and urges cards (i.e., the top card of a group of cards) forward into contact with the card-transporting mechanism 30. The card-contacting face 70 of the block 68 is at an angle complementary to the floor surface 66 of the well 60, for example, an angle of between approximately 10 and 80 degrees, and this angle and the weight of the block 68 keep the cards urged forwardly against the card-transporting mechanism 30. In one embodiment, the card-contacting face 70 is rough and has a high coefficient of friction. The selected angle of the floor 66 and the weight of the block 68 allow for the free-floating rearward movement of the cards and the block 68 to compensate for the forces generated as the transport mechanism 30 contacts the front card to move it. In another embodiment, a spring is provided to maintain tension against block 68. As shown in
Card-Receiving Compartments
A first preferred assembly or stack of card-receiving compartments 28 is depicted in
Preferably, a vertical rack assembly 28 or the carousel or partial carousel assembly (not shown) has nine compartments 106. Seven of the nine compartments 106 are for forming player hands, one compartment 106 forms dealer hands and the last compartment 106 is for accepting unused or discard cards. It should be understood that the device of the present invention is not limited to a rack assembly 28 with seven compartments 106. For example, although it is possible to achieve a random distribution of cards delivered to eight compartments with a fifty-two card deck or group of cards, if the number of cards per initial unshuffled group is greater than 52, more compartments than nine may be provided to achieve sufficient randomness in eight formed hands. Also, additional compartments may be provided to form hands for a gaming table having more than seven player positions. For example, some card rooms and casinos offer stud poker games for up to twelve people at a single table. The apparatus 20 may then have thirteen or more compartments, as traditional poker does not permit the house to play, with one or more compartments dedicated to collect unused cards. In one example of the invention, thirteen compartments are provided, and all compartments not used to form hands receive discard cards. For example, in a game in which seven players compete with a dealer, eight compartments are used to form hands and the five remaining compartments accept discards.
In each example of the present invention, at least one stack of unused cards is formed, which may not be sufficiently randomized for use in a card game. These unused cards should be combined if necessary, with the cards used in game play and returned to the card receiver for distribution in the next cycle.
The rack assembly 28 is operably mounted to the apparatus 20 by a left-side rack plate 107 and a linear guide 108. The rack assembly 28 is attached to the linear guide 108 by means of a guide plate 110. The timing belt 82 is driven by the motor 80 and engages a pulley 112 for driving the rack assembly 28 up and down. A Hall-effect switch assembly 114 is provided to sense the location of the rack assembly 28. The rack assembly 28 may include a card present sensor 116 mounted to an underside of plate 78 (see
Referring back to
Referring now to
Card-Moving Mechanism
Referring now to
The internal operation and inter-component operation of the pick-up roller can provide important performance characteristics to the operation of the apparatus. As previously mentioned, one method according to the present invention relates to a card delivery subcomponent that comprises a preliminary card-moving element that temporarily disengages or stops its delivery action or card control action upon sensing, upon acceleration of the card by a second card-moving mechanism or as a result of card contact with a second card-moving or card-delivery component or subcomponent. That is, a first card-moving component moves individual cards from a first location (e.g., the card-receiving stack) toward a second location (e.g., toward a hand-receiving compartment) and a second card-moving component receives or intercepts the individual cards. When the second card-moving component intercepts an individual card or begins to guide or move an individual card, the first card-moving component must disengage its card-moving action to prevent that card-moving action from either jamming the apparatus, causing drag and excessive wear on the card, excessively directing or controlling an individual card, or moving too many cards (e.g., more than one card) at the same time. These methods are effected by the operation of the pick-up roller 150 and its operating relationship with other card-motivating or -receiving components (such as rollers 162 and 164).
For example, a dynamic clutch, slip clutch mechanism or release gearing may be provided within the pick-up roller 150. Alternatively a sensor, gearing control, clutch control or pick-up roller motor drive control may be provided to control the rotational speed, rotational drive or torque, or frictional engagement of the pick-up roller 150. These systems operate to reduce or essentially eliminate any adverse or significant drag forces that would be maintained on an individual card (C) in contact with pick-up roller 150 at the time when other card-motivating components or subcomponents begin to engage the individual card (e.g., rollers 162 and 164). There are a number of significant and potential problems that can be engendered by multiple motivation forces on a single card and continuous motivating forces from the pick-up roller 150. If the pick-up roller stopped rotating without disengaging from the drive mechanism, the speed-up rollers 162 and 164 would need to apply a sufficient force on the card to overcome a drag caused by the stationary pick-up roller 150. The drag forces cause the cards to wear prematurely. If the pick-up roller 150 were to continuously provide torque or moving forces against surfaces of individual cards, the speed of rotation of that pick-up roller must be substantially identical to the speed of moving forces provided by any subsequent card-moving components or subcomponents. If that were not the case, stress would be placed on the card or the surface of the card to deteriorate the card, abrade the card, compress the card, damage printing or surface finishes on the cards (even to a point of providing security problems with accidental card marking), and jam the apparatus. By a timely disengaging of forces provided by the pick-up roller against a card or card surface, this type of damage is reduced or eliminated.
Additional problems from a configuration that attempts to provide continuous application of a driving force by the pick-up roller against cards is the inability of a pick-up roller to distinguish between one card and an underlying card or groups of cards. If driving forces are maintained by the pick-up roller against card surfaces, once card C, as shown in
The practice of the present invention of disengaging the moving force of the pick-up roller when other individual card-moving elements are engaging individual cards can be a very important function in the performance and operation of the hand-delivering apparatus of this invention. This disengaging function may operate in a number of ways as described herein, with the main objective being the reduction or elimination of forward-moving forces or drag forces on the individual card once a second individual card-moving element, component or subcomponent has begun to engage the individual card or will immediately engage the individual card. For example, the pick-up roller may be automatically disengaged after a specific number of revolutions or distance of revolutions of the roller (sensed by the controller or computer, and identifying the assumption that such degree of movement has impliedly engaged a second card-moving system), a sensor that detects a specific position of the individual card indicating that the individual card has or is imminently about to engage a second card-moving component, a timing system that allows the pick-up roller to operate for only a defined amount of time that is assumed to move the individual card into contact with the second card-moving component, a tension-detecting system on the pick-up roller that indicates either a pressure/tension increase (e.g., from a slowed movement of the individual card because of contact with a second card-moving component) or a tension decrease (e.g., from an increased forward force or movement of the individual card as it is engaged by a more rapidly turning set of rollers 162 and 164), or any other sensed information (such as acceleration of the card) that would indicate that the individual card, especially while still engaged by the pick-up roller, has been addressed or treated or engaged or directed or moved by a second card-moving component or subcomponent.
The disengagement may be effected in a number of different ways. It is reasonably assumed that all pick-up rollers have a drive mechanism that rotates the pick-up roller, such as an axle-engaging drive or a roller-engaging drive. These drives may be belts, contact rollers, gears, friction contact drives, magnetic drives, pneumatic drives, piston drives or the like. In one example of the invention, a dynamic clutch mechanism may be used that allows the drive mechanism to disengage from the roller or allows the roller to freely rotate at the same speed as the engaging drive element, the pick-up roller 150 will rotate freely or with reduced tension against the forward movement of the individual card, and the card can be freely moved by the second card-moving component. The use of a dynamic clutch advantageously keeps the card in motion compressed against the stack of cards being distributed, providing more control and virtually eliminating the misfeeding of cards into the second card-moving components. This “positive control” enables the cards to be fed at faster speeds and with more accuracy than with other known card feed mechanisms. Clutch systems may be used to remove the engaging action of the drive mechanism against the pick-up roller 150. Gears may disengage, pneumatic or magnetic pressure/forces may be diminished, friction may be reduced or removed, or any other disengagement procedure may be used. A preferred mechanism is the use of a speed release clutch, also known in the art as a speed drop clutch, a drag clutch, a free-rolling clutch or a draft clutch. This type of clutch is used particularly in gear-driven roller systems where, upon the occurrence of increased tension (or increased resistance) against the material being driven by a roller, a clutch automatically disengages the roller drive mechanism, allowing the roller to freely revolve so that the external roller surface actually increases its speed of rotation as the article (in this case, the playing card) is sped up by the action of the second card-moving component. At the same time, the pick-up roller 150 remains in contact with the card, causing a more reliable and positive feeding action into the second card-moving components. The clutch may also be designed to release if there is increased resistance, so that the pick-up roller turns more slowly if the second card-moving element moves the individual card more slowly than does the pick-up roller.
In one example of the invention, cards are moved in response to the microprocessor calling for the next card. The rate at which each card is fed is not necessarily or usually constant. Activation of the pick-up roller 150 is, therefore, intermittent. Although it is typical to rotate the axle 152 upon which pick-up roller 150 is mounted at one angular speed, the timing of the feeding of each individual card to each compartment may vary. Since a random number generator determines the location of insertion of each card into individual compartments, the time between initiation of each rotation of the pick-up roller and the insertion of each card into a compartment may vary. It is possible to impose a uniform time interval of initiation (e.g., equal to the maximum time interval possible between inserting a card into the uppermost compartment and then the lowermost compartment) of the movement of the rotation of the pick-up roller but the shuffling time would increase. Similarly, when the compartments are in a carousel-type arrangement, the operation of pick-up roller 150 is also intermittent—that is, not operating at a constant timed interval.
Referring now to
In a preferred embodiment, the pick-up roller 150 is not continuously driven, but rather indexes in response to instructions from the microprocessor and includes a one-way clutch mechanism. After initially picking up a card and advancing it into the pinch roller system 160, the motor 154 operably coupled to the pick-up roller 150 stops driving the roller, and the roller 150 free-wheels as the card is accelerated through the pinch roller system 160. The speed-up pinch roller system 160 is preferably continuous in operation once a hand-forming cycle starts and, when a card is sensed by the adjacent card out sensor 176, the pick-up roller 150 stops and free-wheels while the card is accelerated through the pinch roller system 160. When the trailing edge of the card is sensed by the card out sensor 176, the rack assembly 28 moves to the next position for the next card and the pick-up roller 150 is re-activated.
Additional components and details of the card-transporting mechanism 30 are depicted in
Referring to
Processing/Control Unit
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the motor system 370 comprises motors that are used for operating components of the card-handling apparatus 20. Motors operate the pick-up roller, the pinch and speed-up rollers, the pusher and the elevator. The gate and stop may be operated by a motor, as well. In such an embodiment, the motor controller 364 would normally comprise one or two controllers and driver devices for each of the motors used. However, other configurations are possible.
The outputs 368 include, for example, alarm, start, and reset indicators and inputs and may also include signals that can be used to drive a display device (e.g., an LED display, not shown). Such a display device can be used to implement a timer, a card counter, or a cycle counter. Generally, an appropriate display device can be configured and used to display any information worthy of display. The inputs 366 are information from the limit switches and sensors described above. The controller 360 receives the inputs 366 over the bus 362.
Although the controller 360 can be any digital controller or microprocessor-based system, in a preferred embodiment, the controller 360 comprises a processing unit 380 and a peripheral device 382 as shown in
The series of instructions are stored in the controller 360 as shown in
As shown in
Second Card-Moving Mechanism
Referring to
Second Card/Hand Receiver
When actuated, the second card-moving mechanism 190 empties a compartment 106, 120 by pushing the group of cards therein into a card-receiving platform 36. The card-receiving platform 36 is shown in
Referring to
Each time a group of unshuffled cards are handled by this embodiment of the present invention, the order in which the cards are delivered to the compartments 240 is different due to the use of a random number generator to determine which compartment receives each card in the group. Making hands of cards in this particular fashion serves to randomize the cards to an extent sufficient to eliminate the need to shuffle the entire deck prior to forming hands.
A feature of the embodiment of the present invention depicted in
In another embodiment, the microprocessor 250 is programmed so that the card rake 260A moves the cards to a point accessible to the dealer and then, upon optional activation of a dealer control input, pushes the cards out of the compartment 240 onto the receiver 262.
In a preferred embodiment of the device depicted in
With continued reference to
Operation/Use
With reference to
According to the present invention, the group of cards to be formed into hands is one or more decks of standard playing cards. Depending upon the game, the group of cards can contain one or more wild cards, can be a standard deck with one or more cards removed, can comprise a special deck such as a canasta or SPANISH 21® deck, for example, can include more than one deck, or can be a partial deck not previously recognized by those skilled in the art as a special deck. The present invention contemplates utilizing any group of cards suitable for playing a card game. For example, one use of the device of the present invention is to form hands for a card game that requires the use of a standard deck of cards with all cards having a face value of 2-5 removed.
The card-handling device of the present invention is well-suited for card games that deliver a fixed number of cards to each player. For example, the LET IT RIDE® stud poker game requires that the dealer deliver three cards to each player, and three cards to the dealer. For this application, the microprocessor is set so that only three-card hands are formed.
When the power is turned on, the apparatus 20 begins a homing sequence (see
Before or when all the cards have been delivered to the compartments, upon demand or automatically, the pusher 190 unloads one randomly selected hand at a time from a compartment 106 into the second card-receiving platform 36. The pusher 190 may be triggered by the dealer or by the hand present sensor 212 associated with the second receiver 36. When the last hand is picked up and delivered to players and/or dealer, the larger discard compartment 120 automatically unloads. It should be appreciated that each cycle or operational sequence of the apparatus 20 goes through an entire group or deck of cards placed in the well 60 each time, even if only two players, i.e., two hands, are used.
An alternative method of assisting in the guidance of an individual card 9 against an acute angle surface 21A, 21B is the system shown that is enabled by bars 2 and 4. The bars 2 and 4 operate so that as they move relative to each other, the separators 23 may swivel around pins 6 and 8 causing the separators 23 to shift, changing the effective angle of the deflecting acute angle surfaces 21A, 21B with respect to individual cards 9. This is not as preferred as the mechanism by which the rack 3 and/or the card delivery system 15 move relatively vertically to each other.
The capability of addressing or positioning cards into compartments at either the top or bottom of the compartment (and consequently at the top or bottom of other cards within the compartment) enables an effective doubling of potential positions where each card may be inserted into compartments. This offers the designer of the device options on providing available alternative insert positions without adding additional card-receiving compartments or additional height to the stack. More options available for placement of cards in the compartments further provides randomness to the system without increasing the overall size of the device or increasing the number of compartments.
In this embodiment of the invention, the original rack has been replaced with rack 3 consisting of ten equally sized compartments. Cards are delivered in a random fashion to each rack. If the random number generator selects a compartment that is full, another rack is randomly selected.
In this embodiment, each stack of cards is randomly removed and stacked in platform 36, forming a randomly arranged deck of cards. Although ten compartments is a preferred number of compartments for shuffling a fifty-two card deck, other numbers of compartments can be used to accomplish random or near random shuffling. If more than one deck is shuffled at a time, more compartments could be added, if needed.
Although a description of preferred embodiments has been presented, various changes, including those mentioned above, could be made without deviating from the spirit of the present invention. It is desired, therefore, that reference be made to the appended claims rather than to the foregoing description to indicate the scope of the invention.
Switches and Sensors (Inputs)
Motors, Solenoid and Switches (Outputs)
Homing/Power-Up
Start Position
Recovery Routine
Problem: Card Jam-COS blocked too long.
Recovery:
1. Stop rack movement.
2. Reverse both pick-off and speed-up motors until “COS” is unblocked.
Stop Motors.
3. If “COS” is unblocked, move rack home and back to the rack where the cards should be inserted.
4. Try again with a lower insertion point (higher rack) and slower insertion speed. If the card goes in, continue insertion. If a card jams, repeat with the preset positions, auto adjust to the new position. If jams become too frequent, display “check cards,” replace cards. If it does not, repeat 1 and 2.
5. If “COS” is unblocked, move rack up to the top position and display “Card Jam” and turn alarm light on/off.
6. If “COS” is not unblocked after 2 or 4, display “card jam” and turn . . . (do not move rack to up position).
Problem: Unloader jams on the way out. Recovery: Move unloader back home.
Reposition rack with a small offset up or down and try again, lower speed if necessary.
If unloader jams, keep repeating at the preset location, set a new value based on the offset that works (auto adjust).
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/562,482, filed Dec. 5, 2014, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,266,012, issued Feb. 26, 2016, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/964,729, filed Aug. 12, 2013, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,998,211, issued Apr. 7, 2015, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/485,670, filed May 31, 2012, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,505,916, issued Aug. 13, 2013, which, in turn, is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/387,037, filed Apr. 27, 2009, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,191,894, issued Jun. 5, 2012, which, in turn, is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/365,935, filed Mar. 1, 2006, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,523,936, issued Apr. 28, 2009, which, in turn, is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/725,833, filed Dec. 2, 2003, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,413,191, issued Aug. 19, 2008, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/912,879, filed Jul. 25, 2001, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,655,684, issued Dec. 2, 2003, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/688,597, filed Oct. 16, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,588,750, issued Jul. 8, 2003, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/060,627, filed on Apr. 15, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,149,154, issued Nov. 21, 2000, the disclosure of each of which is hereby incorporated herein in its entirety by this reference.
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 130281 | Coughlin | Aug 1872 | A |
| 205030 | Ash | Jun 1878 | A |
| 609730 | Booth | Aug 1898 | A |
| 673154 | Bellows | Apr 1901 | A |
| 793489 | Williams | Jun 1905 | A |
| 892389 | Bellows | Jul 1908 | A |
| 1014219 | Hall | Jan 1912 | A |
| 1043109 | Hurm | Nov 1912 | A |
| 1157898 | Perret | Oct 1915 | A |
| 1556856 | Lipps | Oct 1925 | A |
| 1757553 | Tauschek | May 1930 | A |
| 1850114 | McCaddin | Mar 1932 | A |
| 1885276 | McKay | Nov 1932 | A |
| 1889729 | Hammond | Nov 1932 | A |
| 1955926 | Matthaey | Apr 1934 | A |
| 1992085 | McKay | Feb 1935 | A |
| 1998690 | Hartridge et al. | Apr 1935 | A |
| 2001220 | Smith | May 1935 | A |
| 2001918 | Nevius | May 1935 | A |
| 2016030 | Rose | Oct 1935 | A |
| 2043343 | Warner | Jun 1936 | A |
| 2060096 | McCoy | Nov 1936 | A |
| 2065824 | Plass | Dec 1936 | A |
| 2159958 | Sachs | May 1939 | A |
| 2185474 | Nott | Jan 1940 | A |
| 2254484 | Hutchins | Sep 1941 | A |
| D132360 | Gardner | May 1942 | S |
| 2328153 | Laing | Aug 1943 | A |
| 2328879 | Isaacson | Sep 1943 | A |
| D139530 | Schindler | Nov 1944 | S |
| 2364413 | Wittel | Dec 1944 | A |
| 2525305 | Eugene | Oct 1950 | A |
| 2543522 | Cohen | Feb 1951 | A |
| 2588582 | Sivertson | Mar 1952 | A |
| 2661215 | Stevens | Dec 1953 | A |
| 2676020 | Ogden | Apr 1954 | A |
| 2692777 | Miller | Oct 1954 | A |
| 2701720 | Ogden | Feb 1955 | A |
| 2705638 | Newcomb | Apr 1955 | A |
| 2711319 | Morgan et al. | Jun 1955 | A |
| 2714510 | Oppenlander et al. | Aug 1955 | A |
| 2717782 | Droll | Sep 1955 | A |
| 2727747 | Semisch, Jr. | Dec 1955 | A |
| 2731271 | Brown | Jan 1956 | A |
| 2747877 | Howard | May 1956 | A |
| 2755090 | Aldrich | Jul 1956 | A |
| 2757005 | Nothaft | Jul 1956 | A |
| 2760779 | Ogden et al. | Aug 1956 | A |
| 2770459 | Wilson et al. | Nov 1956 | A |
| 2778643 | Williams | Jan 1957 | A |
| 2778644 | Stephenson | Jan 1957 | A |
| 2782040 | Matter | Feb 1957 | A |
| 2790641 | Adams | Apr 1957 | A |
| 2793863 | Liebelt | May 1957 | A |
| 2815214 | Hall | Dec 1957 | A |
| 2821399 | Heinoo | Jan 1958 | A |
| 2914215 | Neidig | Nov 1959 | A |
| 2937739 | Levy | May 1960 | A |
| 2950005 | MacDonald | Aug 1960 | A |
| RE24986 | Stephenson | Jan 1961 | E |
| 3067885 | Kohler | Dec 1962 | A |
| 3107096 | Osborn | Oct 1963 | A |
| 3124674 | Edwards et al. | Mar 1964 | A |
| 3131935 | Gronneberg | May 1964 | A |
| 3147978 | Sjostrand | Sep 1964 | A |
| 3222071 | Lang | Dec 1965 | A |
| 3235741 | Plaisance | Feb 1966 | A |
| 3288308 | Gingher | Nov 1966 | A |
| 3305237 | Granius | Feb 1967 | A |
| 3312473 | Friedman et al. | Apr 1967 | A |
| 3452509 | Hauer | Jul 1969 | A |
| 3530968 | Palmer | Sep 1970 | A |
| 3588116 | Miura | Jun 1971 | A |
| 3589730 | Slay | Jun 1971 | A |
| 3595388 | Castaldi | Jul 1971 | A |
| 3597076 | Hubbard | Aug 1971 | A |
| 3618933 | Roggenstein | Nov 1971 | A |
| 3627331 | Erickson | Dec 1971 | A |
| 3666270 | Mazur | May 1972 | A |
| 3680853 | Houghton | Aug 1972 | A |
| 3690670 | Cassady et al. | Sep 1972 | A |
| 3704938 | Fanselow | Dec 1972 | A |
| 3716238 | Porter | Feb 1973 | A |
| 3751041 | Seifert | Aug 1973 | A |
| 3761079 | Azure | Sep 1973 | A |
| 3810627 | Levy | May 1974 | A |
| 3861261 | Maxey | Jan 1975 | A |
| 3897954 | Erickson et al. | Aug 1975 | A |
| 3899178 | Watanabe et al. | Aug 1975 | A |
| 3909002 | Levy | Sep 1975 | A |
| 3929339 | Mattioli et al. | Dec 1975 | A |
| 3944077 | Green | Mar 1976 | A |
| 3944230 | Fineman | Mar 1976 | A |
| 3949219 | Crouse | Apr 1976 | A |
| 3968364 | Miller | Jul 1976 | A |
| 4023705 | Reiner et al. | May 1977 | A |
| 4033590 | Pic | Jul 1977 | A |
| 4072930 | Lucero et al. | Feb 1978 | A |
| 4088265 | Garczynski et al. | May 1978 | A |
| 4151410 | McMillan et al. | Apr 1979 | A |
| 4159581 | Lichtenberg | Jul 1979 | A |
| 4162649 | Thornton | Jul 1979 | A |
| 4166615 | Noguchi et al. | Sep 1979 | A |
| 4232861 | Maul | Nov 1980 | A |
| 4280690 | Hill | Jul 1981 | A |
| 4283709 | Lucero et al. | Aug 1981 | A |
| 4310160 | Willette | Jan 1982 | A |
| 4339134 | Macheel | Jul 1982 | A |
| 4339798 | Hedges et al. | Jul 1982 | A |
| 4361393 | Noto | Nov 1982 | A |
| 4368972 | Naramore | Jan 1983 | A |
| 4369972 | Parker | Jan 1983 | A |
| 4374309 | Walton | Feb 1983 | A |
| 4377285 | Kadlic | Mar 1983 | A |
| 4385827 | Naramore | May 1983 | A |
| 4388994 | Suda et al. | Jun 1983 | A |
| 4397469 | Carter | Aug 1983 | A |
| 4421312 | Delgado et al. | Dec 1983 | A |
| 4421501 | Scheffer | Dec 1983 | A |
| D274069 | Fromm | May 1984 | S |
| 4467424 | Hedges et al. | Aug 1984 | A |
| 4494197 | Troy et al. | Jan 1985 | A |
| 4497488 | Plevyak et al. | Feb 1985 | A |
| 4512580 | Matviak | Apr 1985 | A |
| 4513969 | Samsel | Apr 1985 | A |
| 4515367 | Howard | May 1985 | A |
| 4531187 | Uhland et al. | Jul 1985 | A |
| 4534562 | Cuff et al. | Aug 1985 | A |
| 4549738 | Greitzer | Oct 1985 | A |
| 4566782 | Britt et al. | Jan 1986 | A |
| 4575367 | Karmel | Mar 1986 | A |
| 4586712 | Lorber et al. | May 1986 | A |
| 4659082 | Greenberg | Apr 1987 | A |
| 4662637 | Pfeiffer et al. | May 1987 | A |
| 4662816 | Fabrig | May 1987 | A |
| 4667959 | Pfeiffer et al. | May 1987 | A |
| 4741524 | Bromage | May 1988 | A |
| 4750743 | Nicoletti | Jun 1988 | A |
| 4755941 | Bacchi | Jul 1988 | A |
| 4759448 | Kawabata | Jul 1988 | A |
| 4770412 | Wolfe | Sep 1988 | A |
| 4770421 | Hoffman | Sep 1988 | A |
| 4807884 | Breeding | Feb 1989 | A |
| 4822050 | Normand et al. | Apr 1989 | A |
| 4832342 | Plevyak | May 1989 | A |
| 4858000 | Lu | Aug 1989 | A |
| 4861041 | Jones et al. | Aug 1989 | A |
| 4876000 | Mikhail | Oct 1989 | A |
| 4900009 | Kitahara et al. | Feb 1990 | A |
| 4904830 | Rizzuto | Feb 1990 | A |
| 4921109 | Hasuo et al. | May 1990 | A |
| 4926327 | Sidley | May 1990 | A |
| 4948134 | Suttle et al. | Aug 1990 | A |
| 4951950 | Normand et al. | Aug 1990 | A |
| 4969648 | Hollinger et al. | Nov 1990 | A |
| 4993587 | Abe | Feb 1991 | A |
| 4995615 | Cheng et al. | Feb 1991 | A |
| 5000453 | Stevens et al. | Mar 1991 | A |
| 5039102 | Miller et al. | Aug 1991 | A |
| 5067713 | Soules et al. | Nov 1991 | A |
| 5078405 | Jones et al. | Jan 1992 | A |
| 5081487 | Hoyer et al. | Jan 1992 | A |
| 5096197 | Embury | Mar 1992 | A |
| 5102293 | Schneider | Apr 1992 | A |
| 5118114 | Tucci et al. | Jun 1992 | A |
| 5121192 | Kazui | Jun 1992 | A |
| 5121921 | Friedman | Jun 1992 | A |
| 5146346 | Knoll | Sep 1992 | A |
| 5154429 | LeVasseur et al. | Oct 1992 | A |
| 5179517 | Sarbin et al. | Jan 1993 | A |
| 5197094 | Tillery et al. | Mar 1993 | A |
| 5199710 | Lamle | Apr 1993 | A |
| 5209476 | Eiba et al. | May 1993 | A |
| 5224712 | Laughlin et al. | Jul 1993 | A |
| 5240140 | Huen | Aug 1993 | A |
| 5248142 | Breeding et al. | Sep 1993 | A |
| 5257179 | DeMar et al. | Oct 1993 | A |
| 5259907 | Soules et al. | Nov 1993 | A |
| 5261667 | Breeding | Nov 1993 | A |
| 5267248 | Reyner | Nov 1993 | A |
| 5275411 | Breeding | Jan 1994 | A |
| 5276312 | McCarthy | Jan 1994 | A |
| 5283422 | Storch et al. | Feb 1994 | A |
| 5288081 | Breeding et al. | Feb 1994 | A |
| 5299089 | Lwee et al. | Mar 1994 | A |
| 5303921 | Breeding | Apr 1994 | A |
| 5344146 | Lee | Sep 1994 | A |
| 5356145 | Verschoor | Oct 1994 | A |
| 5362053 | Miller et al. | Nov 1994 | A |
| 5374061 | Albrecht et al. | Dec 1994 | A |
| 5377973 | Jones et al. | Jan 1995 | A |
| 5382024 | Blaha | Jan 1995 | A |
| 5382025 | Sklansky et al. | Jan 1995 | A |
| 5390910 | Mandel et al. | Feb 1995 | A |
| 5397128 | Hesse et al. | Mar 1995 | A |
| 5397133 | Penzias et al. | Mar 1995 | A |
| 5416308 | Hood et al. | May 1995 | A |
| 5431399 | Kelley et al. | Jul 1995 | A |
| 5431407 | Hofberg et al. | Jul 1995 | A |
| 5437462 | Breeding et al. | Aug 1995 | A |
| 5445377 | Steinbach | Aug 1995 | A |
| 5470079 | LeStrange et al. | Nov 1995 | A |
| D365853 | Zadro | Jan 1996 | S |
| 5489101 | Moody et al. | Feb 1996 | A |
| 5515477 | Sutherland | May 1996 | A |
| 5524888 | Heidel | Jun 1996 | A |
| 5531448 | Moody et al. | Jul 1996 | A |
| 5544892 | Breeding et al. | Aug 1996 | A |
| 5575475 | Steinbach | Nov 1996 | A |
| 5584483 | Sines et al. | Dec 1996 | A |
| 5586766 | Forte et al. | Dec 1996 | A |
| 5586936 | Bennett et al. | Dec 1996 | A |
| 5605334 | McCrea et al. | Feb 1997 | A |
| 5613912 | Slater et al. | Mar 1997 | A |
| 5632483 | Garczynski et al. | May 1997 | A |
| 5636843 | Roberts et al. | Jun 1997 | A |
| 5651548 | French et al. | Jul 1997 | A |
| 5655961 | Acres et al. | Aug 1997 | A |
| 5669816 | Garczynski et al. | Sep 1997 | A |
| 5676231 | Legras et al. | Oct 1997 | A |
| 5676372 | Sines et al. | Oct 1997 | A |
| 5681039 | Miller et al. | Oct 1997 | A |
| 5683085 | Johnson et al. | Nov 1997 | A |
| 5685543 | Garner et al. | Nov 1997 | A |
| 5690324 | Otomo et al. | Nov 1997 | A |
| 5692748 | Frisco et al. | Dec 1997 | A |
| 5695189 | Breeding et al. | Dec 1997 | A |
| 5701565 | Morgan | Dec 1997 | A |
| 5707286 | Carlson | Jan 1998 | A |
| 5707287 | McCrea et al. | Jan 1998 | A |
| 5711525 | Breeding et al. | Jan 1998 | A |
| 5718427 | Cranford et al. | Feb 1998 | A |
| 5719288 | Sens et al. | Feb 1998 | A |
| 5720484 | Hsu et al. | Feb 1998 | A |
| 5722893 | Hill et al. | Mar 1998 | A |
| 5735525 | McCrea et al. | Apr 1998 | A |
| 5735724 | Udagawa | Apr 1998 | A |
| 5735742 | French et al. | Apr 1998 | A |
| 5743798 | Adams et al. | Apr 1998 | A |
| 5768382 | Schneier et al. | Jun 1998 | A |
| 5770533 | Franchi et al. | Jun 1998 | A |
| 5770553 | Kroner et al. | Jun 1998 | A |
| 5772505 | Garczynski et al. | Jun 1998 | A |
| 5779546 | Meissner et al. | Jul 1998 | A |
| 5781647 | Fishbine et al. | Jul 1998 | A |
| 5785321 | Van Putten et al. | Jul 1998 | A |
| 5788574 | Ornstein et al. | Aug 1998 | A |
| 5791988 | Nomi et al. | Aug 1998 | A |
| 5802560 | Joseph et al. | Sep 1998 | A |
| 5803808 | Strisower | Sep 1998 | A |
| 5810355 | Trilli | Sep 1998 | A |
| 5813326 | Salomon et al. | Sep 1998 | A |
| 5813912 | Shultz et al. | Sep 1998 | A |
| 5814796 | Benson et al. | Sep 1998 | A |
| 5836775 | Hiyama et al. | Nov 1998 | A |
| 5839730 | Pike | Nov 1998 | A |
| 5845906 | Wirth et al. | Dec 1998 | A |
| 5851011 | Lott et al. | Dec 1998 | A |
| 5867586 | Liang | Feb 1999 | A |
| 5879233 | Stupero | Mar 1999 | A |
| 5883804 | Christensen | Mar 1999 | A |
| 5890717 | Rosewarne et al. | Apr 1999 | A |
| 5892210 | Levasseur | Apr 1999 | A |
| 5911626 | McCrea et al. | Jun 1999 | A |
| 5919090 | Mothwurf | Jul 1999 | A |
| 5936222 | Korsunsky et al. | Aug 1999 | A |
| 5941769 | Order | Aug 1999 | A |
| 5944310 | Johnson et al. | Aug 1999 | A |
| D414527 | Tedham | Sep 1999 | S |
| 5957776 | Hoehne et al. | Sep 1999 | A |
| 5974150 | Kaish et al. | Oct 1999 | A |
| 5985305 | Peery et al. | Nov 1999 | A |
| 5989122 | Roblejo et al. | Nov 1999 | A |
| 5991308 | Fuhrmann et al. | Nov 1999 | A |
| 6015311 | Benjamin et al. | Jan 2000 | A |
| 6019368 | Sines et al. | Feb 2000 | A |
| 6019374 | Breeding et al. | Feb 2000 | A |
| 6039650 | Hill et al. | Mar 2000 | A |
| 6050569 | Taylor | Apr 2000 | A |
| 6053695 | Longoria et al. | Apr 2000 | A |
| 6061449 | Candelore et al. | May 2000 | A |
| 6068258 | Breeding et al. | May 2000 | A |
| 6069564 | Hatano et al. | May 2000 | A |
| 6071190 | Weiss et al. | Jun 2000 | A |
| 6093103 | McCrea et al. | Jul 2000 | A |
| 6113101 | Wirth et al. | Sep 2000 | A |
| 6117012 | McCrea et al. | Sep 2000 | A |
| D432588 | Tedham | Oct 2000 | S |
| 6126166 | Lorson et al. | Oct 2000 | A |
| 6127447 | Mitry et al. | Oct 2000 | A |
| 6131817 | Miller | Oct 2000 | A |
| 6139014 | Breeding et al. | Oct 2000 | A |
| 6149154 | Grauzer et al. | Nov 2000 | A |
| 6154131 | Jones et al. | Nov 2000 | A |
| 6165069 | Sines et al. | Dec 2000 | A |
| 6165072 | Davis et al. | Dec 2000 | A |
| 6183362 | Boushy | Feb 2001 | B1 |
| 6186895 | Oliver | Feb 2001 | B1 |
| 6196416 | Seagle | Mar 2001 | B1 |
| 6200218 | Lindsay | Mar 2001 | B1 |
| 6210274 | Carlson | Apr 2001 | B1 |
| 6213310 | Wennersten et al. | Apr 2001 | B1 |
| 6217447 | Lofink et al. | Apr 2001 | B1 |
| 6234900 | Cumbers | May 2001 | B1 |
| 6236223 | Brady et al. | May 2001 | B1 |
| 6250632 | Albrecht | Jun 2001 | B1 |
| 6254002 | Litman | Jul 2001 | B1 |
| 6254096 | Grauzer et al. | Jul 2001 | B1 |
| 6254484 | McCrea, Jr. | Jul 2001 | B1 |
| 6257981 | Acres et al. | Jul 2001 | B1 |
| 6267248 | Johnson et al. | Jul 2001 | B1 |
| 6267648 | Katayama et al. | Jul 2001 | B1 |
| 6267671 | Hogan | Jul 2001 | B1 |
| 6270404 | Sines et al. | Aug 2001 | B2 |
| 6272223 | Carlson | Aug 2001 | B1 |
| 6293546 | Hessing et al. | Sep 2001 | B1 |
| 6293864 | Romero | Sep 2001 | B1 |
| 6299167 | Sines et al. | Oct 2001 | B1 |
| 6299534 | Breeding et al. | Oct 2001 | B1 |
| 6299536 | Hill | Oct 2001 | B1 |
| 6308886 | Benson et al. | Oct 2001 | B1 |
| 6313871 | Schubert | Nov 2001 | B1 |
| 6325373 | Breeding et al. | Dec 2001 | B1 |
| 6334614 | Breeding | Jan 2002 | B1 |
| 6341778 | Lee | Jan 2002 | B1 |
| 6342830 | Want et al. | Jan 2002 | B1 |
| 6346044 | McCrea, Jr. | Feb 2002 | B1 |
| 6361044 | Block et al. | Mar 2002 | B1 |
| 6386973 | Yoseloff | May 2002 | B1 |
| 6402142 | Warren et al. | Jun 2002 | B1 |
| 6403908 | Stardust et al. | Jun 2002 | B2 |
| 6443839 | Stockdale et al. | Sep 2002 | B2 |
| 6446864 | Kim et al. | Sep 2002 | B1 |
| 6454266 | Breeding et al. | Sep 2002 | B1 |
| 6460848 | Soltys et al. | Oct 2002 | B1 |
| 6464584 | Oliver | Oct 2002 | B2 |
| 6490277 | Tzotzkov | Dec 2002 | B1 |
| 6508709 | Karmarkar | Jan 2003 | B1 |
| 6514140 | Storch | Feb 2003 | B1 |
| 6517435 | Soltys et al. | Feb 2003 | B2 |
| 6517436 | Soltys et al. | Feb 2003 | B2 |
| 6520857 | Soltys et al. | Feb 2003 | B2 |
| 6527271 | Soltys et al. | Mar 2003 | B2 |
| 6530836 | Soltys et al. | Mar 2003 | B2 |
| 6530837 | Soltys et al. | Mar 2003 | B2 |
| 6532297 | Lindquist | Mar 2003 | B1 |
| 6533276 | Soltys et al. | Mar 2003 | B2 |
| 6533662 | Soltys et al. | Mar 2003 | B2 |
| 6561897 | Bourbour et al. | May 2003 | B1 |
| 6568678 | Breeding et al. | May 2003 | B2 |
| 6579180 | Soltys et al. | Jun 2003 | B2 |
| 6579181 | Soltys et al. | Jun 2003 | B2 |
| 6581747 | Charlier et al. | Jun 2003 | B1 |
| 6582301 | Hill | Jun 2003 | B2 |
| 6582302 | Romero | Jun 2003 | B2 |
| 6585586 | Romero | Jul 2003 | B1 |
| 6585588 | Hartl | Jul 2003 | B2 |
| 6585856 | Zwick et al. | Jul 2003 | B2 |
| 6588750 | Grauzer et al. | Jul 2003 | B1 |
| 6588751 | Grauzer et al. | Jul 2003 | B1 |
| 6595857 | Soltys et al. | Jul 2003 | B2 |
| 6609710 | Order | Aug 2003 | B1 |
| 6612928 | Bradford et al. | Sep 2003 | B1 |
| 6616535 | Nishizaki et al. | Sep 2003 | B1 |
| 6619662 | Miller | Sep 2003 | B2 |
| 6622185 | Johnson | Sep 2003 | B1 |
| 6626757 | Oliveras | Sep 2003 | B2 |
| 6629019 | Legge et al. | Sep 2003 | B2 |
| 6629591 | Griswold et al. | Oct 2003 | B1 |
| 6629889 | Mothwurf | Oct 2003 | B2 |
| 6629894 | Purton | Oct 2003 | B1 |
| 6637622 | Robinson | Oct 2003 | B1 |
| 6638161 | Soltys et al. | Oct 2003 | B2 |
| 6645068 | Kelly et al. | Nov 2003 | B1 |
| 6645077 | Rowe | Nov 2003 | B2 |
| 6651981 | Grauzer et al. | Nov 2003 | B2 |
| 6651982 | Grauzer et al. | Nov 2003 | B2 |
| 6651985 | Sines et al. | Nov 2003 | B2 |
| 6652379 | Soltys et al. | Nov 2003 | B2 |
| 6655684 | Grauzer et al. | Dec 2003 | B2 |
| 6655690 | Oskwarek | Dec 2003 | B1 |
| 6658135 | Morito et al. | Dec 2003 | B1 |
| 6659460 | Blaha et al. | Dec 2003 | B2 |
| 6659461 | Yoseloff et al. | Dec 2003 | B2 |
| 6659875 | Purton | Dec 2003 | B2 |
| 6663490 | Soltys et al. | Dec 2003 | B2 |
| 6666768 | Akers | Dec 2003 | B1 |
| 6671358 | Seidman et al. | Dec 2003 | B1 |
| 6676127 | Johnson et al. | Jan 2004 | B2 |
| 6676517 | Beavers | Jan 2004 | B2 |
| 6680843 | Farrow et al. | Jan 2004 | B2 |
| 6685564 | Oliver | Feb 2004 | B2 |
| 6685567 | Cockerille et al. | Feb 2004 | B2 |
| 6685568 | Soltys et al. | Feb 2004 | B2 |
| 6688597 | Jones | Feb 2004 | B2 |
| 6688979 | Soltys et al. | Feb 2004 | B2 |
| 6690673 | Jarvis | Feb 2004 | B1 |
| 6698756 | Baker et al. | Mar 2004 | B1 |
| 6698759 | Webb et al. | Mar 2004 | B2 |
| 6702289 | Feola | Mar 2004 | B1 |
| 6702290 | Buono-Correa et al. | Mar 2004 | B2 |
| 6709333 | Bradford et al. | Mar 2004 | B1 |
| 6712696 | Soltys et al. | Mar 2004 | B2 |
| 6719288 | Hessing et al. | Apr 2004 | B2 |
| 6719634 | Mishina et al. | Apr 2004 | B2 |
| 6722974 | Sines et al. | Apr 2004 | B2 |
| 6726205 | Purton | Apr 2004 | B1 |
| 6732067 | Powderly | May 2004 | B1 |
| 6733012 | Bui et al. | May 2004 | B2 |
| 6733388 | Mothwurf | May 2004 | B2 |
| 6746333 | Onda et al. | Jun 2004 | B1 |
| 6747560 | Stevens, III | Jun 2004 | B2 |
| 6749510 | Giobbi | Jun 2004 | B2 |
| 6758751 | Soltys et al. | Jul 2004 | B2 |
| 6758757 | Luciano, Jr. et al. | Jul 2004 | B2 |
| 6769693 | Huard et al. | Aug 2004 | B2 |
| 6774782 | Runyon et al. | Aug 2004 | B2 |
| 6789801 | Snow | Sep 2004 | B2 |
| 6802510 | Haber | Oct 2004 | B1 |
| 6804763 | Stockdale et al. | Oct 2004 | B1 |
| 6808173 | Snow | Oct 2004 | B2 |
| 6827282 | Silverbrook | Dec 2004 | B2 |
| 6834251 | Fletcher | Dec 2004 | B1 |
| 6840517 | Snow | Jan 2005 | B2 |
| 6842263 | Saeki | Jan 2005 | B1 |
| 6843725 | Nelson | Jan 2005 | B2 |
| 6848616 | Tsirline et al. | Feb 2005 | B2 |
| 6848844 | McCue, Jr. et al. | Feb 2005 | B2 |
| 6848994 | Knust et al. | Feb 2005 | B1 |
| 6857961 | Soltys et al. | Feb 2005 | B2 |
| 6874784 | Promutico | Apr 2005 | B1 |
| 6874786 | Bruno | Apr 2005 | B2 |
| 6877657 | Ranard et al. | Apr 2005 | B2 |
| 6877748 | Patroni | Apr 2005 | B1 |
| 6886829 | Hessing et al. | May 2005 | B2 |
| 6889979 | Blaha et al. | May 2005 | B2 |
| 6893347 | Zilliacus et al. | May 2005 | B1 |
| 6899628 | Leen et al. | May 2005 | B2 |
| 6902167 | Webb | Jun 2005 | B2 |
| 6905121 | Timpano | Jun 2005 | B1 |
| 6923446 | Snow | Aug 2005 | B2 |
| 6938900 | Snow | Sep 2005 | B2 |
| 6941180 | Fischer et al. | Sep 2005 | B1 |
| 6950948 | Neff | Sep 2005 | B2 |
| 6955599 | Bourbour et al. | Oct 2005 | B2 |
| 6957746 | Martin et al. | Oct 2005 | B2 |
| 6959925 | Baker et al. | Nov 2005 | B1 |
| 6959935 | Buhl et al. | Nov 2005 | B2 |
| 6960134 | Hartl et al. | Nov 2005 | B2 |
| 6964612 | Soltys et al. | Nov 2005 | B2 |
| 6986514 | Snow | Jan 2006 | B2 |
| 6988516 | Debaes et al. | Jan 2006 | B2 |
| 7011309 | Soltys et al. | Mar 2006 | B2 |
| 7020307 | Hinton et al. | Mar 2006 | B2 |
| 7028598 | Teshima | Apr 2006 | B2 |
| 7029009 | Grauzer et al. | Apr 2006 | B2 |
| 7036818 | Grauzer et al. | May 2006 | B2 |
| 7046458 | Nakayama | May 2006 | B2 |
| 7046764 | Kump | May 2006 | B1 |
| 7048629 | Sines et al. | May 2006 | B2 |
| 7059602 | Grauzer et al. | Jun 2006 | B2 |
| 7066464 | Blad et al. | Jun 2006 | B2 |
| 7068822 | Scott | Jun 2006 | B2 |
| 7073791 | Grauzer et al. | Jul 2006 | B2 |
| D526121 | Nip | Aug 2006 | S |
| 7084769 | Bauer et al. | Aug 2006 | B2 |
| 7089420 | Durst et al. | Aug 2006 | B1 |
| 7106201 | Tuttle | Sep 2006 | B2 |
| 7113094 | Garber et al. | Sep 2006 | B2 |
| 7114718 | Grauzer et al. | Oct 2006 | B2 |
| 7124947 | Storch | Oct 2006 | B2 |
| 7128652 | Lavoie et al. | Oct 2006 | B1 |
| 7137627 | Grauzer et al. | Nov 2006 | B2 |
| 7139108 | Andersen et al. | Nov 2006 | B2 |
| 7140614 | Snow | Nov 2006 | B2 |
| 7162035 | Durst et al. | Jan 2007 | B1 |
| 7165769 | Crenshaw et al. | Jan 2007 | B2 |
| 7165770 | Snow | Jan 2007 | B2 |
| 7175522 | Hartl | Feb 2007 | B2 |
| 7186181 | Rowe | Mar 2007 | B2 |
| 7201656 | Darder | Apr 2007 | B2 |
| 7202888 | Tecu et al. | Apr 2007 | B2 |
| 7203841 | Jackson et al. | Apr 2007 | B2 |
| 7213812 | Schubert et al. | May 2007 | B2 |
| 7222852 | Soltys et al. | May 2007 | B2 |
| 7222855 | Sorge | May 2007 | B2 |
| 7231812 | Lagare | Jun 2007 | B1 |
| 7234698 | Grauzer et al. | Jun 2007 | B2 |
| 7237969 | Bartman | Jul 2007 | B2 |
| 7243148 | Keir et al. | Jul 2007 | B2 |
| 7243698 | Siegel | Jul 2007 | B2 |
| 7246799 | Snow | Jul 2007 | B2 |
| 7255344 | Grauzer et al. | Aug 2007 | B2 |
| 7255351 | Yoseloff et al. | Aug 2007 | B2 |
| 7255642 | Sines et al. | Aug 2007 | B2 |
| 7257630 | Cole et al. | Aug 2007 | B2 |
| 7261294 | Grauzer et al. | Aug 2007 | B2 |
| 7264241 | Schubert et al. | Sep 2007 | B2 |
| 7264243 | Yoseloff et al. | Sep 2007 | B2 |
| 7277570 | Armstrong | Oct 2007 | B2 |
| 7278923 | Grauzer et al. | Oct 2007 | B2 |
| 7294056 | Lowell et al. | Nov 2007 | B2 |
| 7297062 | Gatto et al. | Nov 2007 | B2 |
| 7300056 | Gioia et al. | Nov 2007 | B2 |
| 7303473 | Rowe | Dec 2007 | B2 |
| 7309065 | Yoseloff et al. | Dec 2007 | B2 |
| 7316609 | Dunn et al. | Jan 2008 | B2 |
| 7316615 | Soltys et al. | Jan 2008 | B2 |
| 7322576 | Grauzer et al. | Jan 2008 | B2 |
| 7331579 | Snow | Feb 2008 | B2 |
| 7334794 | Snow | Feb 2008 | B2 |
| 7338044 | Grauzer et al. | Mar 2008 | B2 |
| 7338362 | Gallagher | Mar 2008 | B1 |
| 7341510 | Bourbour et al. | Mar 2008 | B2 |
| 7357321 | Yoshida et al. | Apr 2008 | B2 |
| 7360094 | Neff | Apr 2008 | B2 |
| 7367561 | Blaha et al. | May 2008 | B2 |
| 7367563 | Yoseloff et al. | May 2008 | B2 |
| 7367884 | Breeding et al. | May 2008 | B2 |
| 7374170 | Grauzer et al. | May 2008 | B2 |
| 7384044 | Grauzer et al. | Jun 2008 | B2 |
| 7387300 | Snow | Jun 2008 | B2 |
| 7389990 | Mourad | Jun 2008 | B2 |
| 7390256 | Soltys et al. | Jun 2008 | B2 |
| 7399226 | Mishra | Jul 2008 | B2 |
| 7407438 | Schubert et al. | Aug 2008 | B2 |
| 7413191 | Grauzer et al. | Aug 2008 | B2 |
| 7434805 | Grauzer et al. | Oct 2008 | B2 |
| 7436957 | Fischer et al. | Oct 2008 | B1 |
| 7448626 | Fleckenstein | Nov 2008 | B2 |
| 7458582 | Snow et al. | Dec 2008 | B2 |
| 7461843 | Baker et al. | Dec 2008 | B1 |
| 7464932 | Darling | Dec 2008 | B2 |
| 7464934 | Schwartz | Dec 2008 | B2 |
| 7472906 | Shai | Jan 2009 | B2 |
| 7500672 | Ho | Mar 2009 | B2 |
| 7506874 | Hall | Mar 2009 | B2 |
| 7510186 | Fleckenstein | Mar 2009 | B2 |
| 7510190 | Snow et al. | Mar 2009 | B2 |
| 7510194 | Soltys et al. | Mar 2009 | B2 |
| 7510478 | Benbrahim et al. | Mar 2009 | B2 |
| 7513437 | Douglas | Apr 2009 | B2 |
| 7515718 | Nguyen et al. | Apr 2009 | B2 |
| 7523935 | Grauzer et al. | Apr 2009 | B2 |
| 7523936 | Grauzer et al. | Apr 2009 | B2 |
| 7523937 | Fleckenstein | Apr 2009 | B2 |
| 7525510 | Beland et al. | Apr 2009 | B2 |
| 7537216 | Soltys et al. | May 2009 | B2 |
| 7540497 | Tseng | Jun 2009 | B2 |
| 7540498 | Crenshaw et al. | Jun 2009 | B2 |
| 7549643 | Quach | Jun 2009 | B2 |
| 7554753 | Wakamiya | Jun 2009 | B2 |
| 7556197 | Yoshida et al. | Jul 2009 | B2 |
| 7556266 | Blaha et al. | Jul 2009 | B2 |
| 7575237 | Snow | Aug 2009 | B2 |
| 7578506 | Lambert | Aug 2009 | B2 |
| 7584962 | Breeding et al. | Sep 2009 | B2 |
| 7584963 | Krenn et al. | Sep 2009 | B2 |
| 7584966 | Snow | Sep 2009 | B2 |
| 7591728 | Gioia et al. | Sep 2009 | B2 |
| 7593544 | Downs, III et al. | Sep 2009 | B2 |
| 7594660 | Baker et al. | Sep 2009 | B2 |
| 7597623 | Grauzer et al. | Oct 2009 | B2 |
| 7644923 | Dickinson et al. | Jan 2010 | B1 |
| 7661676 | Smith et al. | Feb 2010 | B2 |
| 7666090 | Hettinger | Feb 2010 | B2 |
| 7669852 | Baker et al. | Mar 2010 | B2 |
| 7669853 | Jones | Mar 2010 | B2 |
| 7677565 | Grauzer et al. | Mar 2010 | B2 |
| 7677566 | Krenn et al. | Mar 2010 | B2 |
| 7686681 | Soltys et al. | Mar 2010 | B2 |
| 7699694 | Hill | Apr 2010 | B2 |
| 7735657 | Johnson | Jun 2010 | B2 |
| 7740244 | Ho | Jun 2010 | B2 |
| 7744452 | Cimring et al. | Jun 2010 | B2 |
| 7753373 | Grauzer et al. | Jul 2010 | B2 |
| 7753374 | Ho | Jul 2010 | B2 |
| 7753798 | Soltys et al. | Jul 2010 | B2 |
| 7762554 | Ho | Jul 2010 | B2 |
| 7764836 | Downs, III et al. | Jul 2010 | B2 |
| 7766332 | Grauzer et al. | Aug 2010 | B2 |
| 7766333 | Stardust et al. | Aug 2010 | B1 |
| 7769232 | Downs, III | Aug 2010 | B2 |
| 7769853 | Nezamzadeh | Aug 2010 | B2 |
| 7773749 | Durst et al. | Aug 2010 | B1 |
| 7780529 | Rowe et al. | Aug 2010 | B2 |
| 7784790 | Grauzer et al. | Aug 2010 | B2 |
| 7804982 | Howard et al. | Sep 2010 | B2 |
| 7846020 | Walker et al. | Dec 2010 | B2 |
| 7867080 | Nicely et al. | Jan 2011 | B2 |
| 7890365 | Hettinger | Feb 2011 | B2 |
| 7900923 | Toyama et al. | Mar 2011 | B2 |
| 7901285 | Tran et al. | Mar 2011 | B2 |
| 7908169 | Hettinger | Mar 2011 | B2 |
| 7909689 | Lardie | Mar 2011 | B2 |
| 7931533 | LeMay et al. | Apr 2011 | B2 |
| 7933448 | Downs, III | Apr 2011 | B2 |
| 7946586 | Krenn et al. | May 2011 | B2 |
| 7967294 | Blaha et al. | Jun 2011 | B2 |
| 7976023 | Hessing et al. | Jul 2011 | B1 |
| 7988152 | Sines | Aug 2011 | B2 |
| 7988554 | LeMay et al. | Aug 2011 | B2 |
| 7995196 | Fraser | Aug 2011 | B1 |
| 8002638 | Grauzer et al. | Aug 2011 | B2 |
| 8011661 | Stasson | Sep 2011 | B2 |
| 8016663 | Soltys et al. | Sep 2011 | B2 |
| 8021231 | Walker et al. | Sep 2011 | B2 |
| 8025294 | Grauzer et al. | Sep 2011 | B2 |
| 8038521 | Grauzer et al. | Oct 2011 | B2 |
| RE42944 | Blaha et al. | Nov 2011 | E |
| 8057302 | Wells et al. | Nov 2011 | B2 |
| 8062134 | Kelly et al. | Nov 2011 | B2 |
| 8070574 | Grauzer et al. | Dec 2011 | B2 |
| 8092307 | Kelly | Jan 2012 | B2 |
| 8092309 | Bickley | Jan 2012 | B2 |
| 8141875 | Grauzer et al. | Mar 2012 | B2 |
| 8150158 | Downs, III | Apr 2012 | B2 |
| 8171567 | Fraser et al. | May 2012 | B1 |
| 8210536 | Blaha et al. | Jul 2012 | B2 |
| 8221244 | French | Jul 2012 | B2 |
| 8251293 | Nagata et al. | Aug 2012 | B2 |
| 8267404 | Grauzer et al. | Sep 2012 | B2 |
| 8270603 | Durst et al. | Sep 2012 | B1 |
| 8287347 | Snow et al. | Oct 2012 | B2 |
| 8287386 | Miller et al. | Oct 2012 | B2 |
| 8319666 | Weinmann et al. | Nov 2012 | B2 |
| 8337296 | Grauzer et al. | Dec 2012 | B2 |
| 8342525 | Scheper et al. | Jan 2013 | B2 |
| 8342526 | Sampson et al. | Jan 2013 | B1 |
| 8342529 | Snow | Jan 2013 | B2 |
| 8353513 | Swanson | Jan 2013 | B2 |
| 8381918 | Johnson | Feb 2013 | B2 |
| 8419521 | Grauzer et al. | Apr 2013 | B2 |
| 8444147 | Grauzer et al. | May 2013 | B2 |
| 8469360 | Sines | Jun 2013 | B2 |
| 8480088 | Toyama et al. | Jul 2013 | B2 |
| 8485527 | Sampson et al. | Jul 2013 | B2 |
| 8490973 | Yoseloff et al. | Jul 2013 | B2 |
| 8498444 | Sharma | Jul 2013 | B2 |
| 8505916 | Grauzer et al. | Aug 2013 | B2 |
| 8511684 | Grauzer et al. | Aug 2013 | B2 |
| 8556263 | Grauzer et al. | Oct 2013 | B2 |
| 8579289 | Rynda et al. | Nov 2013 | B2 |
| 8616552 | Czyzewski et al. | Dec 2013 | B2 |
| 8628086 | Krenn et al. | Jan 2014 | B2 |
| 8651485 | Stasson | Feb 2014 | B2 |
| 8662500 | Swanson | Mar 2014 | B2 |
| 8695978 | Ho | Apr 2014 | B1 |
| 8702100 | Snow et al. | Apr 2014 | B2 |
| 8702101 | Scheper et al. | Apr 2014 | B2 |
| 8720891 | Hessing et al. | May 2014 | B2 |
| 8758111 | Lutnick | Jun 2014 | B2 |
| 8777710 | Grauzer et al. | Jul 2014 | B2 |
| 8820745 | Grauzer et al. | Sep 2014 | B2 |
| 8844930 | Sampson et al. | Sep 2014 | B2 |
| 8899587 | Grauzer et al. | Dec 2014 | B2 |
| 8919775 | Wadds et al. | Dec 2014 | B2 |
| 9266012 | Grauzer | Feb 2016 | B2 |
| 20010036231 | Easwar et al. | Nov 2001 | A1 |
| 20010036866 | Stockdale et al. | Nov 2001 | A1 |
| 20020017481 | Johnson et al. | Feb 2002 | A1 |
| 20020030425 | Tiramani et al. | Mar 2002 | A1 |
| 20020045478 | Soltys et al. | Apr 2002 | A1 |
| 20020045481 | Soltys et al. | Apr 2002 | A1 |
| 20020063389 | Breeding et al. | May 2002 | A1 |
| 20020068635 | Hill | Jun 2002 | A1 |
| 20020070499 | Breeding et al. | Jun 2002 | A1 |
| 20020094869 | Harkham | Jul 2002 | A1 |
| 20020107067 | McGlone et al. | Aug 2002 | A1 |
| 20020107072 | Giobbi | Aug 2002 | A1 |
| 20020113368 | Hessing et al. | Aug 2002 | A1 |
| 20020135692 | Fujinawa | Sep 2002 | A1 |
| 20020142820 | Bartlett | Oct 2002 | A1 |
| 20020155869 | Soltys et al. | Oct 2002 | A1 |
| 20020163125 | Grauzer et al. | Nov 2002 | A1 |
| 20020187821 | Soltys et al. | Dec 2002 | A1 |
| 20020187830 | Stockdale et al. | Dec 2002 | A1 |
| 20030003997 | Vuong et al. | Jan 2003 | A1 |
| 20030007143 | McArthur et al. | Jan 2003 | A1 |
| 20030042673 | Grauzer et al. | Mar 2003 | A1 |
| 20030047870 | Blaha et al. | Mar 2003 | A1 |
| 20030048476 | Yamakawa | Mar 2003 | A1 |
| 20030052449 | Grauzer et al. | Mar 2003 | A1 |
| 20030052450 | Grauzer et al. | Mar 2003 | A1 |
| 20030064798 | Grauzer et al. | Apr 2003 | A1 |
| 20030067112 | Grauzer et al. | Apr 2003 | A1 |
| 20030071413 | Blaha et al. | Apr 2003 | A1 |
| 20030073498 | Grauzer et al. | Apr 2003 | A1 |
| 20030075865 | Grauzer et al. | Apr 2003 | A1 |
| 20030075866 | Blaha et al. | Apr 2003 | A1 |
| 20030087694 | Storch | May 2003 | A1 |
| 20030090059 | Grauzer et al. | May 2003 | A1 |
| 20030094756 | Grauzer et al. | May 2003 | A1 |
| 20030151194 | Hessing et al. | Aug 2003 | A1 |
| 20030195025 | Hill | Oct 2003 | A1 |
| 20040015423 | Walker et al. | Jan 2004 | A1 |
| 20040036214 | Baker et al. | Feb 2004 | A1 |
| 20040067789 | Grauzer et al. | Apr 2004 | A1 |
| 20040100026 | Haggard | May 2004 | A1 |
| 20040108654 | Grauzer et al. | Jun 2004 | A1 |
| 20040116179 | Nicely et al. | Jun 2004 | A1 |
| 20040169332 | Grauzer et al. | Sep 2004 | A1 |
| 20040180722 | Giobbi | Sep 2004 | A1 |
| 20040224777 | Smith et al. | Nov 2004 | A1 |
| 20040245720 | Grauzer et al. | Dec 2004 | A1 |
| 20040259618 | Soltys et al. | Dec 2004 | A1 |
| 20050012671 | Bisig | Jan 2005 | A1 |
| 20050023752 | Grauzer et al. | Feb 2005 | A1 |
| 20050026680 | Gururajan | Feb 2005 | A1 |
| 20050035548 | Yoseloff et al. | Feb 2005 | A1 |
| 20050037843 | Wells et al. | Feb 2005 | A1 |
| 20050040594 | Krenn et al. | Feb 2005 | A1 |
| 20050051955 | Schubert et al. | Mar 2005 | A1 |
| 20050051956 | Grauzer et al. | Mar 2005 | A1 |
| 20050062227 | Grauzer et al. | Mar 2005 | A1 |
| 20050062228 | Grauzer et al. | Mar 2005 | A1 |
| 20050062229 | Grauzer et al. | Mar 2005 | A1 |
| 20050082750 | Grauzer et al. | Apr 2005 | A1 |
| 20050093231 | Grauzer et al. | May 2005 | A1 |
| 20050104289 | Grauzer et al. | May 2005 | A1 |
| 20050104290 | Grauzer et al. | May 2005 | A1 |
| 20050110210 | Soltys et al. | May 2005 | A1 |
| 20050113166 | Grauzer et al. | May 2005 | A1 |
| 20050113171 | Hodgson | May 2005 | A1 |
| 20050119048 | Soltys et al. | Jun 2005 | A1 |
| 20050137005 | Soltys et al. | Jun 2005 | A1 |
| 20050140090 | Breeding et al. | Jun 2005 | A1 |
| 20050146093 | Grauzer et al. | Jul 2005 | A1 |
| 20050148391 | Tain | Jul 2005 | A1 |
| 20050192092 | Breckner et al. | Sep 2005 | A1 |
| 20050206077 | Grauzer et al. | Sep 2005 | A1 |
| 20050242500 | Downs | Nov 2005 | A1 |
| 20050272501 | Tran et al. | Dec 2005 | A1 |
| 20050288083 | Downs | Dec 2005 | A1 |
| 20050288086 | Schubert et al. | Dec 2005 | A1 |
| 20060027970 | Kyrychenko | Feb 2006 | A1 |
| 20060033269 | Grauzer et al. | Feb 2006 | A1 |
| 20060033270 | Grauzer et al. | Feb 2006 | A1 |
| 20060046853 | Black | Mar 2006 | A1 |
| 20060063577 | Downs et al. | Mar 2006 | A1 |
| 20060066048 | Krenn et al. | Mar 2006 | A1 |
| 20060181022 | Grauzer et al. | Aug 2006 | A1 |
| 20060183540 | Grauzer et al. | Aug 2006 | A1 |
| 20060189381 | Daniel et al. | Aug 2006 | A1 |
| 20060199649 | Soltys et al. | Sep 2006 | A1 |
| 20060205508 | Green | Sep 2006 | A1 |
| 20060220312 | Baker et al. | Oct 2006 | A1 |
| 20060220313 | Baker et al. | Oct 2006 | A1 |
| 20060252521 | Gururajan et al. | Nov 2006 | A1 |
| 20060252554 | Gururajan et al. | Nov 2006 | A1 |
| 20060279040 | Downs et al. | Dec 2006 | A1 |
| 20060281534 | Grauzer et al. | Dec 2006 | A1 |
| 20070001395 | Gioia et al. | Jan 2007 | A1 |
| 20070006708 | Laakso | Jan 2007 | A1 |
| 20070015583 | Tran | Jan 2007 | A1 |
| 20070018389 | Downs | Jan 2007 | A1 |
| 20070045959 | Soltys | Mar 2007 | A1 |
| 20070049368 | Kuhn et al. | Mar 2007 | A1 |
| 20070057469 | Grauzer et al. | Mar 2007 | A1 |
| 20070066387 | Matsuno et al. | Mar 2007 | A1 |
| 20070069462 | Downs et al. | Mar 2007 | A1 |
| 20070072677 | Lavoie et al. | Mar 2007 | A1 |
| 20070102879 | Stasson | May 2007 | A1 |
| 20070111773 | Gururajan et al. | May 2007 | A1 |
| 20070184905 | Gatto et al. | Aug 2007 | A1 |
| 20070197294 | Gong | Aug 2007 | A1 |
| 20070197298 | Rowe | Aug 2007 | A1 |
| 20070202941 | Miltenberger et al. | Aug 2007 | A1 |
| 20070222147 | Blaha et al. | Sep 2007 | A1 |
| 20070225055 | Weisman | Sep 2007 | A1 |
| 20070233567 | Daly | Oct 2007 | A1 |
| 20070238506 | Ruckle | Oct 2007 | A1 |
| 20070259709 | Kelly et al. | Nov 2007 | A1 |
| 20070267812 | Grauzer et al. | Nov 2007 | A1 |
| 20070272600 | Johnson | Nov 2007 | A1 |
| 20070278739 | Swanson | Dec 2007 | A1 |
| 20070290438 | Grauzer et al. | Dec 2007 | A1 |
| 20080006997 | Scheper et al. | Jan 2008 | A1 |
| 20080006998 | Grauzer et al. | Jan 2008 | A1 |
| 20080022415 | Kuo et al. | Jan 2008 | A1 |
| 20080032763 | Giobbi | Feb 2008 | A1 |
| 20080039192 | Laut | Feb 2008 | A1 |
| 20080039208 | Abrink et al. | Feb 2008 | A1 |
| 20080096656 | LeMay et al. | Apr 2008 | A1 |
| 20080111300 | Czyzewski et al. | May 2008 | A1 |
| 20080113700 | Czyzewski et al. | May 2008 | A1 |
| 20080113783 | Czyzewski et al. | May 2008 | A1 |
| 20080136108 | Polay | Jun 2008 | A1 |
| 20080143048 | Shigeta | Jun 2008 | A1 |
| 20080176627 | Lardie | Jul 2008 | A1 |
| 20080217218 | Johnson | Sep 2008 | A1 |
| 20080234046 | Kinsley | Sep 2008 | A1 |
| 20080234047 | Nguyen | Sep 2008 | A1 |
| 20080248875 | Beatty | Oct 2008 | A1 |
| 20080284096 | Toyama et al. | Nov 2008 | A1 |
| 20080303210 | Grauzer et al. | Dec 2008 | A1 |
| 20080315517 | Toyama | Dec 2008 | A1 |
| 20090026700 | Shigeta | Jan 2009 | A2 |
| 20090048026 | French | Feb 2009 | A1 |
| 20090054161 | Schubert et al. | Feb 2009 | A1 |
| 20090072477 | Tseng | Mar 2009 | A1 |
| 20090091078 | Grauzer et al. | Apr 2009 | A1 |
| 20090100409 | Toneguzzo | Apr 2009 | A1 |
| 20090104963 | Burman et al. | Apr 2009 | A1 |
| 20090121429 | Walsh | May 2009 | A1 |
| 20090140492 | Yoseloff et al. | Jun 2009 | A1 |
| 20090166970 | Rosh | Jul 2009 | A1 |
| 20090176547 | Katz | Jul 2009 | A1 |
| 20090179378 | Amaitis et al. | Jul 2009 | A1 |
| 20090186676 | Amaitis et al. | Jul 2009 | A1 |
| 20090189346 | Krenn et al. | Jul 2009 | A1 |
| 20090191933 | French | Jul 2009 | A1 |
| 20090194988 | Wright et al. | Aug 2009 | A1 |
| 20090197662 | Wright et al. | Aug 2009 | A1 |
| 20090224476 | Grauzer et al. | Sep 2009 | A1 |
| 20090227318 | Wright et al. | Sep 2009 | A1 |
| 20090227360 | Gioia et al. | Sep 2009 | A1 |
| 20090250873 | Jones | Oct 2009 | A1 |
| 20090253478 | Walker et al. | Oct 2009 | A1 |
| 20090253503 | Krise et al. | Oct 2009 | A1 |
| 20090267296 | Ho | Oct 2009 | A1 |
| 20090267297 | Blaha et al. | Oct 2009 | A1 |
| 20090283969 | Tseng | Nov 2009 | A1 |
| 20090298577 | Gagner et al. | Dec 2009 | A1 |
| 20090302535 | Ho | Dec 2009 | A1 |
| 20090302537 | Ho | Dec 2009 | A1 |
| 20090312093 | Walker et al. | Dec 2009 | A1 |
| 20090314188 | Toyama et al. | Dec 2009 | A1 |
| 20100013152 | Grauzer et al. | Jan 2010 | A1 |
| 20100038849 | Scheper et al. | Feb 2010 | A1 |
| 20100048304 | Boesen | Feb 2010 | A1 |
| 20100069155 | Schwartz et al. | Mar 2010 | A1 |
| 20100178987 | Pacey | Jul 2010 | A1 |
| 20100197410 | Leen et al. | Aug 2010 | A1 |
| 20100234110 | Clarkson | Sep 2010 | A1 |
| 20100240440 | Szrek et al. | Sep 2010 | A1 |
| 20100244376 | Johnson | Sep 2010 | A1 |
| 20100244382 | Snow | Sep 2010 | A1 |
| 20100252992 | Sines | Oct 2010 | A1 |
| 20100255899 | Paulsen | Oct 2010 | A1 |
| 20100276880 | Grauzer et al. | Nov 2010 | A1 |
| 20100311493 | Miller et al. | Dec 2010 | A1 |
| 20100311494 | Miller et al. | Dec 2010 | A1 |
| 20100314830 | Grauzer et al. | Dec 2010 | A1 |
| 20100320685 | Grauzer et al. | Dec 2010 | A1 |
| 20110006480 | Grauzer et al. | Jan 2011 | A1 |
| 20110012303 | Kourgiantakis et al. | Jan 2011 | A1 |
| 20110024981 | Tseng | Feb 2011 | A1 |
| 20110052049 | Rajaraman et al. | Mar 2011 | A1 |
| 20110062662 | Ohta et al. | Mar 2011 | A1 |
| 20110078096 | Bounds | Mar 2011 | A1 |
| 20110105208 | Bickley | May 2011 | A1 |
| 20110109042 | Rynda et al. | May 2011 | A1 |
| 20110130185 | Walker | Jun 2011 | A1 |
| 20110130190 | Hamman et al. | Jun 2011 | A1 |
| 20110159952 | Kerr | Jun 2011 | A1 |
| 20110159953 | Kerr | Jun 2011 | A1 |
| 20110165936 | Kerr | Jul 2011 | A1 |
| 20110172008 | Alderucci | Jul 2011 | A1 |
| 20110183748 | Wilson et al. | Jul 2011 | A1 |
| 20110230268 | Williams | Sep 2011 | A1 |
| 20110269529 | Baerlocher | Nov 2011 | A1 |
| 20110272881 | Sines | Nov 2011 | A1 |
| 20110285081 | Stasson | Nov 2011 | A1 |
| 20110287829 | Clarkson et al. | Nov 2011 | A1 |
| 20120015724 | Ocko et al. | Jan 2012 | A1 |
| 20120015725 | Ocko et al. | Jan 2012 | A1 |
| 20120015743 | Lam et al. | Jan 2012 | A1 |
| 20120015747 | Ocko et al. | Jan 2012 | A1 |
| 20120021835 | Keller et al. | Jan 2012 | A1 |
| 20120034977 | Kammler | Feb 2012 | A1 |
| 20120062745 | Han et al. | Mar 2012 | A1 |
| 20120074646 | Grauzer et al. | Mar 2012 | A1 |
| 20120091656 | Blaha et al. | Apr 2012 | A1 |
| 20120095982 | Lennington et al. | Apr 2012 | A1 |
| 20120161393 | Krenn et al. | Jun 2012 | A1 |
| 20120175841 | Grauzer et al. | Jul 2012 | A1 |
| 20120181747 | Grauzer et al. | Jul 2012 | A1 |
| 20120187625 | Downs, III et al. | Jul 2012 | A1 |
| 20120242782 | Huang | Sep 2012 | A1 |
| 20120286471 | Grauzer et al. | Nov 2012 | A1 |
| 20120306152 | Krishnamurty et al. | Dec 2012 | A1 |
| 20130020761 | Sines et al. | Jan 2013 | A1 |
| 20130085638 | Weinmann et al. | Apr 2013 | A1 |
| 20130099448 | Scheper et al. | Apr 2013 | A1 |
| 20130109455 | Grauzer et al. | May 2013 | A1 |
| 20130132306 | Kami et al. | May 2013 | A1 |
| 20130147116 | Stasson | Jun 2013 | A1 |
| 20130161905 | Grauzer et al. | Jun 2013 | A1 |
| 20130228972 | Grauzer et al. | Sep 2013 | A1 |
| 20130300059 | Sampson et al. | Nov 2013 | A1 |
| 20130337922 | Kuhn et al. | Dec 2013 | A1 |
| 20140027979 | Stasson et al. | Jan 2014 | A1 |
| 20140094239 | Grauzer et al. | Apr 2014 | A1 |
| 20140103606 | Grauzer et al. | Apr 2014 | A1 |
| 20140138907 | Rynda et al. | May 2014 | A1 |
| 20140145399 | Krenn et al. | May 2014 | A1 |
| 20140171170 | Krishnamurty et al. | Jun 2014 | A1 |
| 20140175724 | Huhtala et al. | Jun 2014 | A1 |
| 20140183818 | Czyzewski et al. | Jul 2014 | A1 |
| 20150021242 | Johnson | Jan 2015 | A1 |
| 20150069699 | Blazevic | Mar 2015 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 2383667 | Jan 1969 | AU |
| 5025479 | Mar 1980 | AU |
| 697805 | Oct 1998 | AU |
| 757636 | Feb 2003 | AU |
| 2266555 | Apr 1998 | CA |
| 2284017 | Sep 1998 | CA |
| 2612138 | Dec 2006 | CA |
| 2051521 | Jan 1990 | CN |
| 2848303 | Dec 2006 | CN |
| 2855481 | Jan 2007 | CN |
| 200954370 | Oct 2007 | CN |
| 200987893 | Dec 2007 | CN |
| 101099896 | Jan 2008 | CN |
| 101127131 | Feb 2008 | CN |
| 201085907 | Jul 2008 | CN |
| 201139926 | Oct 2008 | CN |
| 202983149 | Jun 2013 | CN |
| 24952 | Feb 2013 | CZ |
| 2757341 | Jun 1978 | DE |
| 3807127 | Sep 1989 | DE |
| 777514 | Feb 2000 | EP |
| 1194888 | Apr 2002 | EP |
| 1502631 | Feb 2005 | EP |
| 1713026 | Oct 2006 | EP |
| 2228106 | Sep 2010 | EP |
| 1575261 | Aug 2012 | EP |
| 2375918 | Jul 1978 | FR |
| 337147 | Oct 1930 | GB |
| 414014 | Jul 1934 | GB |
| 672616 | May 1952 | GB |
| 10063933 | Mar 1998 | JP |
| 11045321 | Feb 1999 | JP |
| 2000251031 | Sep 2000 | JP |
| 2001327647 | Nov 2001 | JP |
| 2002165916 | Jun 2002 | JP |
| 2003250950 | Sep 2003 | JP |
| 2005198668 | Jul 2005 | JP |
| 2008246061 | Oct 2008 | JP |
| M359356 | Jun 2009 | TW |
| 8700764 | Feb 1987 | WO |
| 9221413 | Dec 1992 | WO |
| 9528210 | Oct 1995 | WO |
| 9607153 | Mar 1996 | WO |
| 9710577 | Mar 1997 | WO |
| 9814249 | Apr 1998 | WO |
| 9840136 | Sep 1998 | WO |
| 9943404 | Sep 1999 | WO |
| 9952610 | Oct 1999 | WO |
| 9952611 | Oct 1999 | WO |
| 0051076 | Aug 2000 | WO |
| 0156670 | Aug 2001 | WO |
| 0205914 | Jan 2002 | WO |
| 2004067889 | Aug 2004 | WO |
| 2004112923 | Dec 2004 | WO |
| 2006031472 | Mar 2006 | WO |
| 2006039308 | Apr 2006 | WO |
| 2008005286 | Jan 2008 | WO |
| 2008006023 | Jan 2008 | WO |
| 2008091809 | Jul 2008 | WO |
| 2009137541 | Nov 2009 | WO |
| 2010001032 | Jan 2010 | WO |
| 2010052573 | May 2010 | WO |
| 2010055328 | May 2010 | WO |
| 2010117446 | Oct 2010 | WO |
| 2013019677 | Feb 2013 | WO |
| Entry |
|---|
| http://www.ildado.com/casino—glossary.html, Feb. 1, 2001, p. 1-8. |
| Litwiller, Dave, CCD vs. CMOS: Facts and Fiction reprinted from Jan. 2001 Issue of Photonics Spectra, Laurin Publishing Co. Inc. (4 pages). |
| Malaysian Patent Application Substantive Examination Adverse Report—Malaysian Patent Application Serial No. PI 20062710, May 9, 2009, 4 pages. |
| PCT International Preliminary Examination Report for International Patent Application No. PCT/US02/31105 dated Jul. 28, 2004, 9 pages. |
| PCT International Search Report and Written Opinion for International Patent Application No. PCT/US2006/22911, mailed Jun. 1, 2007, 6 pages. |
| PCT International Search Report and Written Opinion for International Application No. PCT/US2007/023168, dated Sep. 12, 2008, 8 pages. |
| PCT International Search Report and Written Opinion for International Application No. PCT/US2007/022858, dated Mar. 7, 2008, 7 pages. |
| PCT International Search Report and Written Opinion for PCT/US07/15036, dated Sep. 23, 2008, 6 pages. |
| PCT International Search Report and Written Opinion for PCT/US07/15035, dated Sep. 29, 2008, 6 pages. |
| PCT International Search Report and Written Opinion of the International Searching Authority for PCT/GB2011/051978, dated Jan. 17, 2012, 11 pages. |
| PCT International Search Report and Written Opinion of the International Searching Authority for PCT/IB2013/001756, dated Jan. 10, 2014, 7 pages. |
| PCT International Search Report and Written Opinion of the International Searching Authority for PCT/US11/59797, datedMar. 27, 2012, 14 pages. |
| PCT International Search Report and Written Opinion of the International Searching Authority for PCT/US13/59665, dated Apr. 25, 2014, 21 pages. |
| PCT International Search Report and Written Opinion of the International Searching Authority for PCT/US2008/007069, dated Sep. 8, 2008, 10 pages. |
| PCT International Search Report and Written Opinion of the International Searching Authority for PCT/US2010/001032, dated Jun. 16, 2010, 11 pages. |
| PCT International Search Report and Written Opinion, PCT Application No. PCT/US2013/062391, Dec. 17, 2013, 13 pages. |
| PCT International Search Report and Written Opinion, PCT/US12/48706, Oct. 16, 2012, 12 pages. |
| PCT International Search Report for International Application No. PCT/US2003/015393, mailed Oct. 6, 2003, 2 pages. |
| PCT International Search Report for PCT/US2005/034737 dated Apr. 7, 2006, 1 page. (WO06/039308). |
| PCT International Search Report for PCT/US20071022894, dated Jun. 11, 2008, 3 pages. |
| PCT International Search Report and Written Opinion of the International Searching Authority for PCT/US05/31400, dated Sep. 25, 2007, 12 pages. |
| PCT International Search Report and Written Opinion, PCT Application No. PCT/US2015/022158, Jun. 17, 2015, 13 pages. |
| PCT International Search Report and Written Opinion, PCT Application No. PCT/US2015/040196, Jan. 15, 2016, 20 pages. |
| Philippines Patent Application Formality Examination Report—Philippines Patent Application No. 1-2006-000302, Jun. 13, 2006. |
| Press Release for Alliance Gaming Corp., Jul. 26, 2004—Alliance Gaming Announces Control with Galaxy Macau for New MindPlay Baccarat Table Technology, 2 pages, http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews. |
| Scarne's Encyclopedia of Games by John Scarne, 1973, “Super Contract Bridge”, p. 153. |
| Service Manual/User Manual for Single Deck Shufflers: BG1, BG2 and BG3 by Shuffle Master © 1997, 151 page. |
| SHFL Entertainment, Inc. Docket No. 60, Opening Claim Construction Brief, filed in Nevada District Court Case No. 2:12-cv-01782 with exhibits, Aug. 8, 2013, p. 1-125. |
| Shuffle Master Gaming, Service Manual, ACETM Single Deck Card Shuffler, (1998), 63 pages. |
| Shuffle Master Gaming, Service Manual, Let It Ride Bonus® With Universal Keypad, 112 pages, © 2000 Shuffle Master, Inc. |
| Shuffle Master's Reply Memorandum in Support of Shuffle Master's Motion for Preliminary Injunction for Shuffle Master, Inc. vs. VendingData Corporation, in the U.S. District Court, District of Nevada, No. CV-S-04-1373-JCM-LRL, Nov. 29, 2004. |
| Singapore Patent Application Examination Report—Singapore Patent Application No. SE 2008 01914 A, Jun. 18, 2008, 9 pages. |
| Statement of Relevance of Cited References, Submitted as Part of a Third-Party Submission Under 37 CFR 1.290 on Dec. 7, 2012 (12 pages). |
| tbm=pts&hl=en Google Search for card handling device with storage area, card removing system pivoting arm and processor . . . ; http://www.google.com/?tbm=pts&hl=en; Jul. 28, 2012, 2 pages. |
| Tracking the Tables, by Jack Bularsky, Casino Journal, May 2004, vol. 17, No. 5, pp. 44-47. |
| United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Decision Decided Dec. 27, 2005 for Preliminary Injuction for Shuffle Master, Inc. vs. VendingData Corporation, In the U.S. District Court, District of Nevada, No. CV-S-04-1373-JCM-LRL. |
| VendingData Corporation's Answer and Counterclaim Jury Trial Demanded for Shuffle Master, Inc. vs. VendingData Corporation, In the U.S. District Court, District of Nevada, No. CV-S-04-1373-JCM-LRL, Oct. 25, 2004. |
| VendingData Corporation's Opposition to Shuffle Master Inc.'s Motion for Preliminary Injection for Shuffle Master, Inc. vs. VendingData Corporation, In the U.S. District Court, District of Nevada, No. CV-S-04-1373-JCM-LRL, Nov. 12, 2004. |
| VendingData Corporation's Responses to Shuffle Master, Inc.'s First set of interrogatories for Shuffler Master, Inc. vs. VendingData Corporation, In the U.S. District Court, District of Nevada, No. CV-S-04-1373-JCM-LRL, Mar. 14, 2005. |
| “Ace, Single Deck Shuffler,” Shuffle Master, Inc., (2005), 2 pages. |
| “Automatic casino card shuffle,” Alibaba.com, (last visited Jul. 22, 2014), 2 pages. |
| “Error Back propagation,” http://willamette.edu˜gorr/classes/cs449/backprop.html (4 pages), Nov. 13, 2008. |
| “i-Deal,” Bally Technologies, Inc., (2014), 2 pages. |
| “shufflers—SHFL entertainment,” Gaming Concepts Group, (2012), 6 pages. |
| “TAG Archives: Shuffle Machine,” Gee Wiz Online, (Mar. 25, 2013), 4 pages. |
| 1/3″ B/W CCD Camera Module EB100 by EverFocus Electronics Corp., Jul. 31, 2001, 3 pgs. |
| Australian Examination Report for Australian Application No. 2008202752, dated Sep. 25, 2009, 2 pages. |
| Australian Examination Report for Australian Application No. 2010202856, dated Aug. 11, 2011, 2 pages. |
| Australian Provisional Patent Application for Australian Patent Application No. PM7441, filed Aug. 15, 1994, Applicants: Rodney G. Johnson et al., Title: Card Handling Apparatus, 13 pages. |
| Canadian Office Action for Canadian Application No. 2,461,726, dated Jul. 19, 2010, 3 pages. |
| Canadian Office Action for CA 2,580,309 dated Mar. 20, 2012 (6 pages). |
| Canadian Office Action for Canadian Application No. 2,461,726, dated Dec. 11, 2013, 3 pages. |
| Christos Stergiou and Dimitrios Siganos, “Neural Networks,” http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/˜nd/surprise—96/journal/vol4/cs11/report.html (13 pages), Dec. 15, 2011. |
| Complaint filed in the matter of SHFL entertainment, In. v. DigiDeal Corporation, U.S. District Court, District of Nevada, Civil Action No. CV 2:12-cv-01782-GMC-VCF, Oct. 10, 2012, 62 pages. |
| Documents submitted in case of Shuffle Master, Inc. v. Card Aurstia, et al., Case No. CV-N-0508-HDM-(VPC) Consolidated with Case No. CV-N-02-0244-ERC-(RAM)), May 6, 2003, scan of color pages, for clarity, Part 18 of 23 (color copies from Binder 1). |
| Documents submitted in case of Shuffle Master, Inc. v. Card Aurstia, et al., Case No. CV-N-0508-HDM-(VPC) Consolidated with Case No. CV-N-02-0244-ERC-(RAM)), May 6, 2003, scan of color pages, for clarity, Part 19 of 23 (color copies from Binder 3). |
| Documents submitted in case of Shuffle Master, Inc. v. Card Aurstia, et al., Case No. CV-N-0508-HDM-(VPC) Consolidated with Case No. CV-N-02-0244-ERC-(RAM)), May 6, 2003, scan of color pages, for clarity, Part 20 of 23 (color copies from Binder 4). |
| Documents submitted in case of Shuffle Master, Inc. v. Card Aurstia, et al., Case No. CV-N-0508-HDM-(VPC) Consolidated with Case No. CV-N-02-0244-ERC-(RAM)), May 6, 2003, scan of color pages, for clarity, Part 21 of 23 (color copies from Binder 6). |
| Documents submitted in case of Shuffle Master, Inc. v. Card Aurstia, et al., Case No. CV-N-0508-HDM-(VPC) Consolidated with Case No. CV-N-02-0244-ERC-(RAM)), May 6, 2003, scan of color pages, for clarity, Part 22 of 23 (color copies from Binder 8, part 1 of 2). |
| Documents submitted in case of Shuffle Master, Inc. v. Card Aurstia, et al., Case No. CV-N-0508-HDM-(VPC) Consolidated with Case No. CV-N-02-0244-ERC-(RAM)), May 6, 2003, scan of color pages, for clarity, Part 23 of 23 (color copies from Binder 8, part 2 of 2). |
| Documents submitted in the case of Shuffle Master, Inc. v. Card Austria, et al., Case No. CV-N-0508-HDM-(VPC) (Consolidated with Case No. CV-N-02-0244-ERC-(RAM)), May 6, 2003, Part 1 of 23 (Master Index and Binder 1, 1 of 2). |
| Documents submitted in the case of Shuffle Master, Inc. v. Card Austria, et al., Case No. CV-N-0508-HDM-(VPC) (Consolidated with Case No. CV-N-02-0244-ERC-(RAM)), May 6, 2003, Part 2 of 23 (Master Index and Binder 1, 2 of 2). |
| Documents submitted in the case of Shuffle Master, Inc. v. Card Austria, et al., Case No. CV-N-0508-HDM-(VPC) (Consolidated with Case No. CV-N-02-0244-ERC-(RAM)), May 6, 2003, Part 3 of 23 (Binder 2, 1 of 2). |
| Documents submitted in the case of Shuffle Master, Inc. v. Card Austria, et al., Case No. CV-N-0508-HDM-(VPC) (Consolidated with Case No. CV-N-02-0244-ERC-(RAM)), May 6, 2003, Part 4 of 23 (Binder 2, 2 of 2). |
| Documents submitted in the case of Shuffle Master, Inc. v. Card Austria, et al., Case No. CV-N-0508-HDM-(VPC) (Consolidated with Case No. CV-N-02-0244-ERC-(RAM)), May 6, 2003, Part 5 of 23 (Binder 3, 1 of 2). |
| Documents submitted in the case of Shuffle Master, Inc. v. Card Austria, et al., Case No. CV-N-0508-HDM-(VPC) (Consolidated with Case No. CV-N-02-0244-ERC-(RAM)), May 6, 2003, Part 6 of 23 (Binder 3, 2 of 2). |
| Documents submitted in the case of Shuffle Master, Inc. v. Card Austria, et al., Case No. CV-N-0508-HDM-(VPC) (Consolidated with Case No. CV-N-02-0244-ERC-(RAM)), May 6, 2003, Part 7 of 23 (Binder 4, 1 of 2). |
| Documents submitted in the case of Shuffle Master, Inc. v. Card Austria, et al., Case No. CV-N-0508-HDM-(VPC) (Consolidated with Case No. CV-N-02-0244-ERC-(RAM)), May 6, 2003, Part 8 of 23 (Binder 4, 2 of 2). |
| Documents submitted in the case of Shuffle Master, Inc. v. Card Austria, et al., Case No. CV-N-0508-HDM-(VPC) (Consolidated with Case No. CV-N-02-0244-ERC-(RAM)), May 6, 2003, Part 10 of 23 (Binder 6, 2 of 2). |
| Documents submitted in the case of Shuffle Master, Inc. v. Card Austria, et al., Case No. CV-N-0508-1-HDM-(VPC) (Consolidated with Case No. CV-N-02-0244-ERC-(RAM)), May 6, 2003, Part 9 of 23 (Binder 5 having no. contents; Binder 6, 1 of 2). |
| Documents submitted in the case of Shuffle Master, Inc. v. Card Austria, et al., Case No. CV-N-0508-HDM-(VPC) (Consolidated with Case No. CV-N-02-0244-ERC-(RAM)), May 6, 2003, Part 11 of 23 (Binder 7, 1 of 2). |
| Documents submitted in the case of Shuffle Master, Inc. v. Card Austria, et al., Case No. CV-N-0508-HDM-(VPC) (Consolidated with Case No. CV-N-02-0244-ERC-(RAM)), May 6, 2003, Part 12 of 23 (Binder 7, 2 of 2). |
| Documents submitted in the case of Shuffle Master, Inc. v. Card Austria, et al., Case No. CV-N-0508-HDM-(VPC) (Consolidated with Case No. CV-N-02-0244-ERC-(RAM)), May 6, 2003, Part 13 of 23 (Binder 8, 1 of 5). |
| Documents submitted in the case of Shuffle Master, Inc. v. Card Austria, et al., Case No. CV-N-0508-HDM-(VPC) (Consolidated with Case No. CV-N-02-0244-ERC-(RAM)), May 6, 2003, Part 14 of 23 (Binder 8, 2 of 5). |
| Documents submitted in the case of Shuffle Master, Inc. v. Card Austria, et al., Case No. CV-N-0508-HDM-(VPC) (Consolidated with Case No. CV-N-02-0244-ERC-(RAM)), May 6, 2003, Part 15 of 23 (Binder 8, 3 of 5). |
| Documents submitted in the case of Shuffle Master, Inc. v. Card Austria, et al., Case No. CV-N-0508-HDM-(VPC) (Consolidated with Case No. CV-N-02-0244-ERC-(RAM)), May 6, 2003, Part 16 of 23 (Binder 8, 4 of 5). |
| Documents submitted in the case of Shuffle Master, Inc. v. Card Austria, et al., Case No. CV-N-0508-HDM-(VPC) (Consolidated with Case No. CV-N-02-0244-ERC-(RAM)), May 6, 2003, Part 17 of 23 (Binder 8, 5 of 5). |
| DVD labeled Luciano Decl. Ex. K is (see Binder 2-1, p. 215/237, Luciano Decl., para.14): A video demonstration (11minutes) of a Luciano Packaging prototype shuffler. DVD sent to Examiner by US Postal Service with this PTO/SB/08 form. |
| DVD labeled Morrill Decl. Ex. A is (see Binder 4-1, p. 149/206, Morrill Decl., para. 2.): A video (16 minutes) that the attorney for CARD, Robert Morrill, made to describe the Roblejo prototype card shuffler. DVD sent to Examiner by US Postal Service with this PTO/SB/08 form. |
| DVD labeled Solberg Decl.Ex.C, which is not a video at all, is (see Binder 4-1, p. 34/206, Solberg Decl., para.8): Computer source code for operating a computer-controlled card shuffler (an early Roblejo prototype card shuffler) and descriptive comments of how the code works. DVD sent to Examiner by US Postal Service with this PTO/SB/08 form. |
| DVD labeled Exhibit 1. This is a DVD taken by Shuffle Master personnel of the live operation of a CARD One2Six™ Shuffler (Oct. 7, 2003). DVD sent to Examiner by US Postal Service with this PTO/SB/08 form. |
| European Examination Report for European Application No. 02 780 410, dated Jan. 25, 2010, 5 pages. |
| European Examination Report for European Application No. 02 780 410, dated Aug. 9, 2011, 4 pages. |
| European Patent Application Search Report—European Patent Application No. 06772987.1, Dec. 10, 2009, 5 pages. |
| European Search Report for European Application No. 12 152 303, dated Apr. 16, 2012, 3 pages. |
| Genevieve Orr, CS-449: Neural Networks Willamette University, http://www.willamette.edu/˜gorr/classes/cs449/intro.html (4 pages), Fall 1999. |
| https://web.archive.org/web/19991004000323/http://travelwizardtravel.com/majon.htm, Oct. 4, 1999, 2 pages. |
| http://www.google.com/search?tbm=pts&q=Card+handling+devicve+with+input+and+outpu . . . Jun. 8, 2012. |
| hittp://www.google.com/search?tbm=pts&q=shuffling+zone+onOopposite+site+of+input+. . . Jul. 18, 2012. |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20160166919 A1 | Jun 2016 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 14562482 | Dec 2014 | US |
| Child | 15050022 | US | |
| Parent | 13964729 | Aug 2013 | US |
| Child | 14562482 | US | |
| Parent | 13485670 | May 2012 | US |
| Child | 13964729 | US | |
| Parent | 12387037 | Apr 2009 | US |
| Child | 13485670 | US | |
| Parent | 11365935 | Mar 2006 | US |
| Child | 12387037 | US | |
| Parent | 10725833 | Dec 2003 | US |
| Child | 11365935 | US | |
| Parent | 09912879 | Jul 2001 | US |
| Child | 10725833 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 09688597 | Oct 2000 | US |
| Child | 09912879 | US | |
| Parent | 09060627 | Apr 1998 | US |
| Child | 09688597 | US |
