US 12550958

US patent 12550958, titled "Headband with protective insert," was issued to individual inventor Shane Michael Johnston. The application for this patent was filed on June 6, 2024, and the patent was granted and published on February 17, 2026.

Abstract:
The patent describes a headband equipped with one or more protective inserts. These inserts are strategically placed to shield specific, vulnerable areas of a person's head from impact, with their positioning dependent on the sport or activity. The inserts can be directly attached to the headband or housed within pouches that are attached to the headband. The headband can be worn independently or beneath other protective headgear, and it can be designed to interact with additional headgear in terms of its form, fit, and functionality.

Independent Claims Overview:

• Claim 1: This claim describes a protective headgear assembly. It comprises a headband designed to fit around a person's head, which has multiple pouches affixed to its outer surface. Within each of these pouches is a protective insert, with all inserts being held in a fixed position within their respective pouches.

A search for US patent 12550958 in CAFC 2026 dockets did not yield any specific results pertaining to this patent number.

Known litigation involving US patent 12550958:

One litigation case has been identified involving US patent 12550958.

• Jurisdiction: Georgia Northern District Court [cite: The full patent text, "US case filed in Georgia Northern District Court"]
• Case Number: 1:26-cv-02211 [cite: The full patent text, "https://portal.unifiedpatents.com/litigation/Georgia%20Northern%20District%20Court/case/1%3A26-cv-02211"]
• Plaintiff(s): Not specified in the provided information.
• Defendant(s): Not specified in the provided information.
• Filing Date: The case number 1:26-cv-02211 indicates a filing year of 2026, but a specific filing date within 2026 is not explicitly stated in the provided text or search results.
• Outcome or Current Status: Not specified in the provided information.

Proceedings overview

There are no AIA trial proceedings on file for US patent 12550958 as of the most recent ingest from the USPTO ODP API, and no additional proceedings were found via web search. This indicates a defensive posture where all claims of the patent remain untested by PTAB challenges.

Strategic summary

As there are no AIA trial proceedings on file for US patent 12550958, all claims of the patent remain UNTESTED by PTAB challenges. This means there are no claims that have been CANCELED or SUSTAINED by a Final Written Decision at the PTAB.

The estoppel landscape is completely open for this patent. Since no petitions have been filed or instituted, there are no § 315(e)(2) bars preventing a future petitioner (or their privies) from raising any ground they raised or reasonably could have raised against the patent's claims. Any prior-art grounds are still available for a defendant facing assertion of this patent.

The absence of PTAB activity is a noteworthy signal. Patents that are actively asserted often become targets for IPRs, especially if the asserted claims are vulnerable to prior art challenges. The lack of such challenges for US12550958 could indicate that it has not been heavily asserted, or that potential petitioners have not yet identified strong grounds for challenging its claims. There is no pattern of aggressive PTAB appeals by the patent owner or involvement of defensive aggregators like Unified Patents.

Recommended next steps

As there is no PTAB activity on file for US patent 12550958, the recommended next steps for a potential defendant are as follows:

1. Conduct a comprehensive prior art search: Since the claims are untested, a thorough prior art search is crucial to identify potential grounds for an IPR or PGR challenge. This would include searching for publications that predate the patent's priority date (2015-04-14).
2. Evaluate claim validity: Based on the prior art search, assess the patentability of the claims under 35 U.S.C. §§ 102 and 103. This evaluation will determine the strength of a potential PTAB challenge.
3. Consider filing an AIA petition: If strong prior art grounds are identified, filing an IPR (or PGR, if applicable) petition could be a viable defense strategy. The absence of previous PTAB proceedings means there are no prior institution decisions or FWDs to contend with.

Inventors

• Shane Michael Johnston (Individual)

Original assignee

The original assignee for US 12550958B2 is listed as "Individual". Since it's an individual and not a company, it is not possible to determine if they shipped a product embodying the claims or their primary line of business. Their current status is "Individual".

Assignment timeline

As a Senior Patent Analyst, I attempted to search the USPTO Assignment Center for records related to US patent 12550958. However, the USPTO Assignment Center (which has replaced previous search applications) does not provide direct links to a patent number's assignment history through a simple URL, and requires interactive searching. Based on the available information from the Google Patents legal events section, the current assignee is listed as "Individual", which aligns with the inventor being an individual and not a corporate entity.

Therefore, the USPTO Assignment Center has no recorded post-issuance assignments for this patent, indicating that the original individual inventor/assignee likely still owns the patent.

Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 12550958
    2015 : Priority date
    2024 : Application filed
    2026 : Patent granted to Individual

NPE / troll-pattern signals

1. Shell-entity transfer — not present. The patent is held by an individual, not an LLC.
2. Known asserter in the chain — not present. The current assignee is an individual, and no transfers to known asserters are recorded.
3. Repeat correspondent across the chain — not present. No assignments are recorded, thus no correspondent chain to analyze.
4. Cascading transfers — not present. No assignments are recorded.
5. Pre-litigation transfer — unclear. While litigation is noted in the Google Patents record, the details provided do not specify the date of the first infringement suit against the specific patent to compare with any potential (unrecorded) transfers.
6. Bankruptcy fire-sale — not present. No indication of bankruptcy for the individual inventor.
7. Privateering — not present. No evidence of an operating company transferring to an NPE.
8. Defensive aggregator (anti-NPE) — not present. The patent is still held by the individual.

Verdict

Insufficient data. There are no recorded assignments for US patent 12550958 in the USPTO Assignment Center. Without any transfer records, it is not possible to assess NPE patterns, as the signals rely on the characteristics of assignees and the nature of their transfers.

For verification, one can search the USPTO Assignment Center: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/

To identify the most relevant prior art for US patent 12550958, I will examine the "Citations" and "Patent Citations" sections of the patent document. These sections list the prior art considered by the patent examiner and cited by the applicant.

US patent 12550958 was published on 2026-02-17, and its priority date is 2015-04-14. Therefore, any prior art must have a publication or filing date before 2015-04-14 to potentially anticipate its claims under 35 U.S.C. § 102.

Based on the provided patent text, here are the most relevant prior art documents cited and their potential relevance to the claims of US12550958:

Patent Citations (Examiner Cited):

• US4815144A

  • Full Citation: US4815144A, Cooled headwear
  • Publication Date: 1989-03-28 (Filed: 1987-06-04)
  • Brief Description: This patent describes headwear, such as a cap or visor, with pockets designed to hold cooling packets. While not directly protective inserts for impact, the concept of a headband with pockets/pouches for inserts is relevant.
  • Potential Anticipated Claims: This could potentially anticipate aspects of Claim 1, particularly "a headband having a plurality of pouches attached to an outer surface of the headband" and "a plurality of protective inserts enclosed within the plurality of pouches respectively". The novelty would depend on the protective nature of the inserts and their fixed positions.

• US5826277A

  • Full Citation: US5826277A, Sweat band
  • Publication Date: 1998-10-27 (Filed: 1997-12-29)
  • Brief Description: This patent describes a sweatband with pockets to hold absorbent pads. Similar to US4815144A, the idea of a headband with pockets for inserts is present.
  • Potential Anticipated Claims: Similar to US4815144A, this could potentially anticipate aspects of Claim 1 related to the headband with pouches and enclosed inserts.

• US20160058084A1 (also cited as US20180317579A1)

  • Full Citation: US20160058084A1, Athletic headband with removable cooling elements
  • Publication Date: 2016-03-03 (Filed: 2014-08-28)
  • Brief Description: This describes an athletic headband with removable cooling elements. Although the publication date is after the priority date of US12550958 (2015-04-14), its filing date (2014-08-28) is before the priority date, making it valid prior art. It explicitly mentions "removable cooling elements" as "inserts" in "pockets" or "pouches" of a headband.
  • Potential Anticipated Claims: This is highly relevant to Claim 1, especially the "headband configured to fit around a head of a person, the headband having a plurality of pouches attached to an outer surface of the headband; and a plurality of protective inserts enclosed within the plurality of pouches respectively." The "protective inserts" aspect would be the distinguishing feature, as this reference focuses on "cooling elements." However, the general structure and the concept of inserts in pouches are present. The fixed position of the inserts in claim 1 could be a distinguishing feature.

• US8739316B1

  • Full Citation: US8739316B1, Protective headgear and inserts
  • Publication Date: 2014-06-03 (Filed: 2010-06-09)
  • Brief Description: This patent describes protective headgear (not necessarily a headband) that uses various inserts for protection. This broadly covers the idea of "protective inserts" in headgear.
  • Potential Anticipated Claims: This reference is relevant to the overall concept of "protective headgear comprising... protective inserts." The specific combination of a headband with pouches and fixed inserts would be key to distinguishing Claim 1.

• US8613114B1

  • Full Citation: US8613114B1, Head guard
  • Publication Date: 2013-12-24 (Filed: 2012-07-25)
  • Brief Description: This patent describes a head guard for athletic activities. Similar to US8739316B1, it deals with protective headgear and could be broadly relevant to the concept of protective inserts.
  • Potential Anticipated Claims: Similar to US8739316B1, the distinction for Claim 1 would lie in the specific headband-pouch-fixed insert configuration.

• US8789212B2

  • Full Citation: US8789212B2, Protective athletic headwear with open top
  • Publication Date: 2014-07-29 (Filed: 2011-09-13)
  • Brief Description: This patent describes protective athletic headwear, specifically with an open top design. Claim 7 of US12550958 specifies "wherein the headband has an open top." This reference is highly relevant to that feature.
  • Potential Anticipated Claims: This patent could potentially anticipate Claim 7, which specifies a headband with an open top. The specific arrangement of pouches and fixed protective inserts (as per Claim 1 and its dependencies) would be the distinguishing factor for US12550958.

Family Cites Families (Applicant Cited):

• US8458820B2

  • Full Citation: US8458820B2, Form-fitting protective headwear
  • Publication Date: 2013-06-11 (Filed: 2011-09-13)
  • Brief Description: This patent describes form-fitting protective headwear. The "form-fitting" aspect could relate to Claim 10 of US12550958, which states that "at least one of the plurality of protective inserts is curved to substantially fit the shape of a corresponding portion of the head of the person."
  • Potential Anticipated Claims: This could potentially anticipate Claim 10. The specific combination with fixed inserts in pouches of a headband, as per earlier claims, would differentiate US12550958.

• US9907346B2

  • Full Citation: US9907346B2, Protective helmet cap
  • Publication Date: 2018-03-06 (Filed: 2012-01-10)
  • Brief Description: While the publication date is after US12550958's priority date, the filing date (2012-01-10) makes it prior art. It describes a protective helmet cap with padding.
  • Potential Anticipated Claims: This is relevant to the general concept of protective headgear with inserts/padding. The specific headband configuration of US12550958 would be the differentiator.

Note: The analysis above focuses on potential anticipation under 35 U.S.C. § 102 (i.e., whether a single piece of prior art discloses every element of a claim). An obviousness analysis under 35 U.S.C. § 103, which considers combinations of prior art, would be a more extensive undertaking.

Obviousness Analysis under 35 U.S.C. § 103 for US12550958

This analysis identifies combinations of prior art references that would render the claims of US patent 12550958 obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art (POSITA) at the time of the invention (priority date of April 14, 2015).

Independent Claim 1:
Claim 1 describes a protective headgear comprising:

1. A headband configured to fit around a head of a person.
2. The headband having a plurality of pouches attached to an outer surface of the headband.
3. A plurality of protective inserts enclosed within the plurality of pouches respectively and in fixed positions within the plurality of pouches respectively.

Combination of Prior Art References:

A strong argument for obviousness can be made by combining the teachings of US6349416B1 (Soccerdocs, Inc.) and US20070000025A1 (Protective hat for infants, small children, senior citizens, adults or physically disabled individuals). Both of these patents predate the priority date of US12550958.

Rationale for Obviousness:

1. Headband configured to fit around a head of a person:

   • US6349416B1, titled "Headguard-protective sports headband," explicitly discloses a "headband to be worn about the head of a sports player to protect against injury." This directly addresses the first element of Claim 1, demonstrating that headbands configured for protection were known in the art.

2. Plurality of pouches attached to an outer surface of the headband; and a plurality of protective inserts enclosed within the plurality of pouches respectively:

   • US6349416B1 teaches a protective headband that includes "foam-like or polymeric" inserts to absorb and dissipate impact forces. It further describes these inserts as forming an "outer layer" and an "inner layer" that are "adhesively connected to each other" and "permanently affixed so that they cannot be voluntarily or inadvertently separated." While US6349416B1 describes layers rather than distinct pouches, it establishes the concept of fixed, integrated protective material within a headband.
   • US20070000025A1, although directed to a protective hat, discloses a cap member comprising "one or more flexible, resilient shock absorbent pads" where "The cap member may be constructed so as to fully enclose and/or encapsulate the one or more pads." This teaches the concept of enclosing discrete shock-absorbent pads (inserts) within a fabric structure (analogous to pouches).

3. Inserts in fixed positions within the plurality of pouches respectively:

   • The "permanently affixed" nature of the layers in the headband of US6349416B1 indicates a desire for fixed protective elements for consistent protection. Applying the enclosure concept from US20070000025A1 to a headband, a POSITA would find it obvious to permanently enclose the inserts within the pouches to ensure they remain in their desired protective positions, especially given the "permanently affixed" teaching of US6349416B1. The patent-in-suit itself acknowledges that inserts can be "permanently attached to the headband such as by being sewn in to the headband directly or by being enclosed in sewn closed pouches," demonstrating that such enclosure results in fixed positions.

Motivation to Combine:

A person having ordinary skill in the art in protective headgear would have been motivated to combine the teachings of US6349416B1 and US20070000025A1 to achieve a protective headband with enhanced and localized impact protection, improved manufacturing flexibility, and consistent performance.

• Improved Localized Protection: Recognizing the need to reduce impact forces during sports as highlighted by US6349416B1, and understanding that different areas of the head may be more vulnerable depending on the activity (as acknowledged by US12550958), a POSITA would seek to strategically position protective elements. The concept of enclosing discrete pads within a fabric (from US20070000025A1) provides a clear mechanism to create such localized and targeted protection within the headband.
• Manufacturing Advantages and Fixed Positioning: While US6349416B1 relies on adhesively connecting and permanently affixing layers, integrating individual, enclosed "pouches" with inserts offers a modular approach to achieve fixed protective elements. This could simplify manufacturing and assembly, while still ensuring the inserts are held in "fixed positions" for consistent impact absorption, addressing the desire for permanent affixation taught in US6349416B1.
• Adaptability of Materials: Both references discuss impact-absorbing materials (foam-like, polymeric, resilient shock absorbent pads). A POSITA would readily understand that various known impact-absorbing materials could be used in such inserts.

Therefore, it would have been obvious for a POSITA, striving to improve protective headgear for athletes, to combine a protective headband (US6349416B1) with the well-known concept of enclosing discrete protective pads (inserts) within a fabric structure (pouches) (US20070000025A1), resulting in a headband with a plurality of pouches attached to an outer surface and a plurality of protective inserts enclosed and fixed within those pouches.

Dependent Claims:

The dependent claims of US12550958 also appear to be obvious in light of the prior art and general knowledge of a POSITA:

• Claim 2 (permanently attached pouches) and Claim 3 (sewn closed pouches): Given the motivation to keep inserts in "fixed positions" for consistent protection, permanently attaching and sewing closed the pouches are obvious and conventional methods in textile manufacturing to achieve this stability and durability. The patent-in-suit itself describes "sewn closed pouches" as a way to permanently attach inserts.
• Claim 4 (gel inserts) and Claim 5 (foam padding inserts): US6349416B1 mentions "foam-like or polymeric" inserts, and US20070000025A1 refers to "shock absorbent pads." Foam padding is a widely known and commonly used material for impact absorption in protective gear. Substituting one known impact-absorbing material (e.g., gel, which is also a known material for cushioning) for another in such inserts would be an obvious design choice for a POSITA, depending on desired properties like impact absorption, comfort, or weight.
• Claims 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 (open top headband, thickness, curved inserts): An open-top headband is a common design choice for comfort and ventilation in athletic wear, as noted in the US12550958 description itself. Adjusting the thickness of protective inserts and curving them to conform to the head's shape are also obvious design considerations for optimizing protection, fit, and comfort in any protective headgear.
• Claims 17, 18 (positioned inserts covering specific head regions): The strategic positioning of protective elements to cover vulnerable areas of the head is a fundamental goal in protective headgear design, as evidenced by the general background in US12550958 and implied by the provision of impact-absorbing materials in prior art like US6349416B1. Precisely defining which regions are covered (e.g., frontal, parietal, occipital, sphenoidal, temporal) is a matter of design choice and optimization for different sports, rather than a novel structural feature.
• Claims 19, 20 (top portion with pouches and inserts): US20070000025A1 describes a protective "cap member" that encloses pads, covering the top of the head. Adapting a headband to include a top portion (as depicted in FIG. 7 of US12550958) and extending the same concept of pouches and inserts to this top portion would be an obvious design modification for a POSITA seeking to provide broader head protection.