Invalidity dossier
US 2953264
Industrial truck
Current assignee: Yale and Towne Manufacturing Co
Added 8/27/2026, 8:14:25 AM
Active provider: DeepSeek · deepseek-v4-flash
Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
I'll search for this specific patent number in both the USPTO database and CAFC dockets.
The first search surfaced several documents with the same number in other jurisdictions (EP, DE, JP), but I need to verify the specific US patent. Let me refine my searches.
The CAFC docket search returned no results, and the searches so far confirm the US patent exists but I should verify via USPTO sources directly. Let me search more specifically.
I've reached the search limit, so I'll compile the summary from the verified sources I found. Here are my findings:
Search Results Summary
USPTO/patent database searches: I could not directly retrieve a patft.uspto.gov or Patent Public Search page for this patent in the live results. However, the patent record is authoritatively confirmed by Google Patents (patents.google.com/patent/US2953264A/en) — the full text of which was provided with your query — and corroborated by secondary sources: freepatentsonline.com lists "2953264 | Industrial truck | 1960-09-20" as a cited US patent reference in US3061118, and Justia's US12098063 (Vermeer) lists "2953264 | September 1960 | Bronislaus" as prior art.
CAFC 2026 dockets: No results found. Searches of site:cafc.uscourts.gov 2953264 and general "CAFC 2026" queries returned nothing. This is unsurprising: the patent shows an anticipated expiration of September 20, 1977 and is marked Expired – Lifetime, so it is not a plausible subject of a 2026 Federal Circuit appeal. I found no litigation involving this patent number.
⚠️ Confusion warning: The numeral 2953264 also appears in unrelated foreign documents — EP 2953264 A2 (pulse-width modulator for aviation), DE 2953264 (convertible bag), JP 2953264 (crane drive), and a USDOT motor-carrier number. I have not conflated these with the US patent; the analysis below is exclusively for US2953264A.
US Patent 2,953,264 — Summary
| Field | Data |
|---|---|
| Title | Industrial truck |
| Inventor | Bronislaus I. (J.) Ulinski, Flossmoor, Illinois |
| Assignee | Yale and Towne Manufacturing Company, Stamford, Connecticut (a Connecticut corporation) |
| Application / Serial No. | US700369A (filed December 3, 1957) |
| Issue date | September 20, 1960 |
| Status | Expired – Lifetime (anticipated expiration Sept. 20, 1977) |
| Claims | 2 claims (both independent) |
| Classification | U.S. Cl. 214-130; CPC B66F9/065 (non-masted fork-lift trucks) |
| Cited references | US1,209,962 (Heath 1916); US1,497,489 (Cochran 1924); US2,348,899 (Guighard et al. 1944); US2,587,769 (Rowe 1952); US2,598,685 (Greenlief 1952); US2,704,615 (Stokes et al. 1955) |
| Related application | US3074572A ("Lever lift"), filed Feb. 25, 1960, claiming priority to US10954A |
Abstract: The Google Patents record does not display a formal abstract field for this patent, so I cannot quote one verbatim. Based on the specification (page 1, lines 1–20), the invention is an industrial truck of the "leverage system" class (no uprights) in which a main frame has forward and rear wheels, and a power source is mounted between the forward and rear wheels with a part of it below a line between the wheel axes of rotation. The leverage system is mounted above the power source through mounting means extending vertically downward at each side of the power source, using a pair of spaced vertical steel plates that support the levers and provide a side access opening for maintenance/removal of the power source.
Plain-language overview of the claims
Claim 1 (independent): A truck with (a) two spaced side plates forming the opposed vertical sides of the frame; (b) a traction unit mounted between the plates at the lower forward end, carrying the traction wheels; (c) a battery compartment between the lower parts of the side plates, just rearward of the traction unit; (d) means supporting the battery with its bottom below the axis of rotation of the traction wheels; (e) a load-lifting lever system running from the rear of the truck, above the battery compartment, forward to points in front of the traction wheels; (f) the lever system including a downwardly extending arm and actuating ram that mount the system at points below the top of the battery compartment on forward and rearward parts of the frame; and (g) an opening in one side plate located between the downwardly extending arm and ram, giving full access to the compartment while both the battery and the lever system contribute to counterbalancing the load.
Claim 2 (independent): Similar to claim 1 (same preamble elements a–d), but phrased more broadly about the lifting structure: (e) a load-lifting system with levers extending from the rear of the truck, positioned between the side plates above the battery compartment, to points forward of the traction wheels; (f) the lifting system having downwardly extending portions pivoted at points below the top of the battery compartment on forward and rearward parts of the side plates to support the system; and (g) an opening through one side plate between those downwardly extending portions, allowing full access while the battery and lifting system counterbalance the load.
Key distinction between claims 1 and 2: Claim 1 is narrower, requiring the specific combination of an "arm" plus an "actuating ram" as the downwardly extending mounting portions mounted on the "truck frame." Claim 2 broadens this to any downwardly extending, pivoted "portions" of the lifting system mounted on the "side plates."
Uncertainty Notes
- No direct USPTO database page (PatFT/Patent Public Search) was returned in my live searches; the record is confirmed via Google Patents and secondary patent-database sources, which are consistent with the full text you supplied.
- No CAFC docket entries found for 2026 (or any year) involving this patent; I searched specifically and found none. Given the 1977 expiration, I have low-to-zero confidence that any 2026 CAFC proceeding exists, but I cannot definitively rule out a search-index gap.
- The Google Patents record lacks a separately published abstract, so the abstract above is my synthesis from the specification, not a verbatim quote.
Generated 8/27/2026, 8:14:57 AM
Cases on file (0)
Specific litigation cases in our database that name US patent 2953264. 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.
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