Invalidity dossier
US 214237
Improvement in grain-driers
Added 9/20/2026, 5:17:03 AM
Active provider: DeepSeek · deepseek-flash
Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
Patent Overview — US 214,237
Title: Improvement in Grain-Driers
Patentees: John G. Buhler and William B. Pye, of Chicago, Illinois
Assignee (partial): Franklin S. Hanson of the same place — assignors of one-third of their right
Application filed: November 18, 1878
Patent granted / published: April 15, 1879
Legal status shown: Expired – Lifetime; anticipated expiration April 15, 1896
Purpose. The invention relates to driers "suitable for every species of grain." Its stated object is an apparatus in which grain is "rapidly, thoroughly, and equally dried by means of hot air in a pure state—that is to say, not contaminated by contact with the products of combustion."
Plain-language scope. A fan or blower forces air into a pipe (B) that first runs up and down inside the boiler-furnace chimney (C), gaining heat, then enters the rear of the furnace (D), where it is coiled into a convoluted "gate" in the path of the hot combustion products, and finally leads to the base of a stationary drying-bin. There it connects to a hollow central vertical shaft (E), enclosed at its top, from which numerous closely perforated pipes (F F) radiate horizontally in all directions. The bin has a close outer case (G) and an inner perforated case (H) holding the grain, with an annular space between; grain enters by hopper (I) and discharges through valved chute (K). Air and vapors escape through outlet pipes (L, L'). A valve (r) controls hot air; a cold-air branch (B′) with its own valve feeds the blower directly to the shaft base for a cooling step. A movable furnace deflector (M) can shield or expose pipe B. Valved test ports (t) or a platform-scale (N) beneath the bin indicate drying progress.
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US214237](/patent/US214237)/en
What the excerpt does not establish. The supplied text is partial ("consult the source for omitted text"). It does not set out the full claims as filed or allowed, the complete specification as issued, the examiner's citations, or any prosecution history. Classifications shown (e.g., A21B1/46, C10M2207/023) are modern reclassifications and are not evidence of the original claims. No legal analysis or validity conclusion is made here.
Generated 10/1/2026, 10:02:59 PM
Cases on file (0)
Specific litigation cases in our database that name US patent 214237. The free-form analysis below may also discuss cases beyond this list.
No cases on file mention this patent. Upload a CSV or add a case manually in Admin → Manage litigation cases.
Litigation summary
Past and pending lawsuits — plaintiffs, defendants, jurisdictions, outcomes, and notable rulings.
Proceedings on file (0)
All PTAB activity →AIA trial proceedings (IPR / PGR / CBM) filed at the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board against this patent. Sourced from the USPTO Open Data Portal and refreshed every six hours; each proceeding number deep-links to the PTAB E2E docket.
No PTAB proceedings on file. This patent has not been challenged via IPR, PGR, or CBM. The absence is itself a signal — well-asserted patents eventually attract IPRs. The LLM analysis below may surface filings the ODP feed hasn’t indexed yet.
PTAB challenges
AIA trial proceedings at the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board — IPR, PGR, and CBM. Petitioners, judge panels, claim-level invalidation outcomes from Final Written Decisions, and Federal Circuit appeals. The single most important defensive datapoint after litigation history.
Assignment history
Inventors, original assignee, and the chain of ownership recorded with the USPTO — including the correspondent attorney who recorded each assignment, since shell-LLC chains often share one repeat-player attorney even when the entity names look unrelated. Surfaces NPE / patent-troll patterns: shell-entity transfers, known asserters in the chain, repeat correspondent fingerprints, pre-litigation assignments, and bankruptcy fire-sales.
Prior art
Earlier patents, publications, and products that may anticipate or render the claims unpatentable.
Obviousness
Combinations of prior art that suggest the claimed invention would have been obvious under 35 U.S.C. § 103.
Extensions
Patent term adjustments, term extensions, continuations, divisionals, family members, and expiration dates.
Derivative works
Defensive disclosure: derivative variations of each claim designed to render future incremental improvements obvious or non-novel.