Patents in suit

US 9,228,534 Variable contour nacelle assembly for a gas turbine engine

3 defendants · 3 suits · updated October 6, 2026

Also cited as U.S. Patent No. 9,228,534 · US9228534B2 · US 9,228,534 B2 · 9228534 · the '534 patent

Crestone IP Management, LLC has filed 3 patent-infringement suits on US 9,228,534, "Variable contour nacelle assembly for a gas turbine engine" since July 16, 2026, 2 of them in the E.D. Tex., against 3 distinct defendants including Apple Inc., HP Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.. The patent is held by RTX Corp and was granted January 5, 2016 on a priority date of July 2, 2007. Its abstract opens: "A gas turbine engine includes a compressor section, a combustor section, a turbine section and a nacelle assembly which at least partially surrounds the compressor section, the combustor section and the turbine section." The examiner cited 4 references during prosecution.

Assignee
RTX Corp
Priority date
July 2, 2007
Granted
January 5, 2016
Expires
July 2, 2027
Status
Active
Claims
16 (1 independent)
Inventors
Ashok K. Jain, Michael Winter
Full text
Google Patents

The suits

3 cases · E.D. Tex. (2) · W.D. Tex. (1)

Filed Defendant Plaintiff Court Docket
2026-07-16 Apple Inc. Crestone IP Management, LLC W.D. Tex. 1:26-cv-01976
2026-07-16 HP Inc. Crestone IP Management, LLC E.D. Tex. 2:26-cv-00586
2026-07-16 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Crestone IP Management, LLC E.D. Tex. 2:26-cv-00584

Docket links open the public record on CourtListener. Filing dates are the complaint's.

Independent claims

What is actually asserted, verbatim.

Claim 1

1. A gas turbine engine, comprising: a compressor section, a combustor section, and a turbine section; a nacelle assembly at least partially surrounding at least one of said compressor section, said combustor section and said turbine section, wherein said nacelle assembly includes an inlet lip section and a cowl section that each include an adjustable contour, each of said inlet lip section and said cowl section including a first surface that faces radially inward and a second surface that faces radially outward, each of said first surfaces and said second surfaces being moveable to influence said adjustable contours; and a controller that identifies an abnormal aircraft operating condition, wherein said controller selectively moves said inlet lip section and said cowl section of said nacelle assembly in response to detecting said abnormal aircraft operating condition.

Art before the examiner

75 references of record, 4 cited by the examiner.

Everything listed here was before the Office and is what a challenge must go beyond. Art the examiner never saw is where an invalidity search starts.

Examiner-cited

  • US5014933A — Translating lip aircraft cowling structure adapted for noise reduction (The Boeing Company)
  • US6259976B1 — Fuzzy logic based emergency flight control with thrust vectoring (Jerome H. Lemelson)
  • US20050274103A1 — Gas turbine engine inlet with noise reduction features (United Technologies Corporation)
  • US20060155432A1 — Methods and systems for monitoring atmospheric conditions, predicting turbulent atmospheric conditions and optimizing flight paths of aircraft (United Technologies Corporation)
Applicant-cited and other (71)
  • US2948111A — Means to increase static pressure and enhance forward thrust of aircraft components
  • US3074232A — Devices forming the mouthpieces of air admission pipes for jet engines for aircraft
  • US3119581A — Securing means for inflatable inlet device
  • US3222863A — Aerodynamic inlet
  • GB1070458A — Separator for removing foreign matter from a gas stream
  • US3568694A — Jet engine installation for noise control
  • US3611724A — Choked inlet noise suppression device for a turbofan engine
  • US3664612A — Aircraft engine variable highlight inlet
  • US3716209A — Fluid dynamic lift generating or control force generating structures
  • GB1312619A — Air intakes for gas turbine engines
  • US3763874A — Air intake for a gas turbine engine
  • GB1336724A — Gas turbine engine air intakes
  • US3932058A — Control system for variable pitch fan propulsor
  • US4007891A — Jet engine air intake system
  • US4012013A — Variable camber inlet for supersonic aircraft
  • US4044973A — Nacelle assembly and mounting structures for a turbofan jet propulsion engine
  • US4068469A — Variable thrust nozzle for quiet turbofan engine and method of operating same
  • US4083181A — Gas turbine engine with recirculating bleed
  • US4132240A — Variable double lip quiet inlet
  • US4147029A — Long duct mixed flow gas turbine engine
  • US4199295A — Method and device for reducing the noise of turbo-machines
  • US4242864A — Integrated control system for a gas turbine engine
  • US4351502A — Continuous skin, variable camber airfoil edge actuating mechanism
  • US4540143A — Nacelle/wing assembly with wake control device
  • US4722357A — Gas turbine engine nacelle
  • US4827712A — Turbofan gas turbine engine
  • US4865268A — Jet engine nacelle
  • US4899958A — Air intake system of an aircraft
  • US4912921A — Low speed spool emergency power extraction system
  • US4993663A — Hybrid laminar flow nacelle
  • US5000399A — Variable contour annular air inlet for an aircraft engine nacelle
  • US5012639A — Buffer region for the nacelle of a gas turbine engine
  • US5058617A — Nacelle inlet for an aircraft gas turbine engine
  • US5127222A — Buffer region for the nacelle of a gas turbine engine
  • US5143329A — Gas turbine engine powered aircraft environmental control system and boundary layer bleed
  • US5145126A — Engine nacelle
  • US5177957A — Propfan turbine engine
  • US5261227A — Variable specific thrust turbofan engine
  • US5284012A — Nacelle cooling and ventilation system
  • US5297765A — Turbine engine nacelle laminar flow control arrangement
  • US5361828A — Scaled heat transfer surface with protruding ramp surface turbulators
  • US5447283A — Blown boundary layer control system for a jet aircraft
  • US5586431A — Aircraft nacelle ventilation and engine exhaust nozzle cooling
  • US5593112A — Nacelle air pump for vector nozzles for aircraft
  • US5626017A — Combustion chamber for gas turbine engine
  • US5665916A — Fuel line based acoustic flame-out detection system
  • US5743488A — Aerodynamic low drag structure
  • US5987880A — Supersonic engine, multi-port thrust reversing system
  • US6089505A — Mission adaptive inlet
  • US6109566A — Vibration-driven acoustic jet controlling boundary layer separation
  • US6129311A — Engine nacelle outer cowl panel with integral track fairings
  • US6179251B1 — Thin inlet lip design for low drag and reduced nacelle size
  • US6334753B1 — Streamlined bodies with counter-flow fluid injection
  • US6340135B1 — Translating independently mounted air inlet system for aircraft turbofan jet engine
  • US6360989B1 — Nacelle assembly for a gas turbine engine
  • US6379110B1 — Passively driven acoustic jet controlling boundary layers
  • US6390418B1 — Tangentially directed acoustic jet controlling boundary layer
  • US6651929B2 — Passive cooling system for auxiliary power unit installation
  • US6655632B1 — System and method for actively changing an effective flow-through area of an inlet region of an aircraft engine
  • US20040037162A1 — Vortex generator with controlled wake flow
  • US6708711B2 — Air inlet for commercial aircraft jet engine nacelle
  • US6764043B2 — Rotatable scarf inlet for an aircraft engine and method of using the same
  • US20040237534A1 — Engine nozzle
  • US6971229B2 — Confluent exhaust nozzle
  • US7048229B2 — Low sonic boom inlet for supersonic aircraft
  • US7090165B2 — Aeroengine nacelle
  • US7131612B2 — Nacelle inlet lip anti-icing with engine oil
  • US7165744B2 — Turbine engine arrangements
  • US7384016B2 — Adaptive compliant wing and rotor system
  • US7617670B2 — Flow control redistribution to mitigate high cycle fatigue
  • US7735601B1 — Engine noise

Classification

  • F02K3/06primary — Plants including a gas turbine driving a compressor or a ducted fan in which part of the working fluid by-passes the turbine and combustion chamber the plant including ducted fans, i.e. fans with high volume, low pressure outputs, for augmenting the jet thrust, e.g. of double-flow type with front fan
  • B64D33/02 — Arrangement in aircraft of power plant parts or auxiliaries not otherwise provided for of combustion air intakes
  • F02C7/042 — Air intakes for gas-turbine plants or jet-propulsion plants having variable geometry
  • F02C7/045 — Air intakes for gas-turbine plants or jet-propulsion plants having provisions for noise suppression
  • F05D2270/62 — Electrical actuators
  • F05D2270/64 — Hydraulic actuators
  • F05D2300/505 — Shape memory behaviour
  • Y02T50/60 — Efficient propulsion technologies, e.g. for aircraft
  • Y02T50/671
  • Y10T137/0645 — With condition responsive control means

Family

  • US9228534B2 — B2 (2016)
  • US20090008508A1 — A1 (2009)
  • 3 foreign family members: EP2011987A3, EP2011987B1, EP2011987A2

Abstract

A gas turbine engine includes a compressor section, a combustor section, a turbine section and a nacelle assembly which at least partially surrounds the compressor section, the combustor section and the turbine section. At least a portion of the nacelle assembly includes an adjustable contour. The portion of the nacelle assembly including the adjustable contour is selectively moveable between a first portion and a second position to influence the adjustable contour of the nacelle assembly. A controller identifies an abnormal aircraft operating condition and selectively moves the portion of the nacelle assembly including the adjustable contour between the first position and the second position in response to detecting the abnormal aircraft operating condition.

Also asserted by Crestone IP Management, LLC

  • US 10,771,012 — Hybrid RC/crystal oscillator (3 defendants)
  • US 7,599,231 — Adaptive regulator for idle state in a charge pump circuit of a memory device (3 defendants)
  • US 8,261,072 — Method and system for secure external TPM password generation and use (3 defendants)
  • US 9,288,534 — Systems and methods for operating media devices (3 defendants)

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This page is assembled from public records — federal court dockets and the patent's own file — and is updated as the case list changes. It states what the record shows and is not an opinion on the validity or infringement of any claim. Patent data via Google Patents; docket data via CourtListener.