Invalidity dossier
US 2965070
Selective bird feeder
Current assignee: Individual
Added 9/23/2026, 2:43:07 PM
Active provider: DeepSeek · deepseek-flash
Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
US 2,965,070 — Selective Bird Feeder: Overview
Title: Selective Bird Feeder
Inventor: George Myrick, Baltimore 12, Md.
Application: Ser. No. 714,598, filed Feb. 11, 1958
Granted/Published: Dec. 20, 1960
Assignee: None stated; original assignee listed as "Individual." No ownership transfers are established by the supplied text.
Anticipated expiration: Dec. 20, 1977; status listed as "Expired – Lifetime."
Classification: A01K39/01 and A01K39/0113 (feeding devices for birds; devices preventing other animals from eating).
Purpose: The feeder "will make the food available for birds under a predetermined weight and prevent those of greater weight from feeding." A stated field problem is that a platform-like perch allowing numerous birds to congregate makes it impossible to set a counterweight that excludes undesirable birds.
Plain-language scope (from the claims): A selective bird feeder has a food-holding platform within a walled enclosure with a cover; a feeding opening sized for a single bird extends upwardly from the platform. A single counterweighted, substantially round perch rod is pivotally connected to the feeder, extends before the opening, and is long enough for only one bird. The counterweight holds the rod in feeding relation for a bird of predetermined weight; a heavier bird overbalances it, tilting the rod downwardly away from the opening. Dependent and independent claims add: a weather-proof hinge between cover and enclosure; a vertically movable door with control connections to the rod (closing on downward rod movement, opening on upward); and a slidable door connected to the rod to move in unison and slide over the opening. The description adds a yoke (20) whose cross-members (22) block the bird from grasping the floor at the opening, adjustable counterweights, and a two-thirds-back pivot. Stated food-supply comparison: about two weeks normally versus about two days when starlings feed.
Not established by the excerpt: The full description text is truncated; figures are not viewable; only 7 claims are noted, and the exact full wording of several claims is incomplete. Filing, priority, and legal-status dates are presented by the source as assumptions or non-legal conclusions. No litigation, validity, or prior-art analysis is supplied.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:52:02 PM
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Litigation summary
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PTAB challenges
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Assignment history
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Prior art
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Obviousness
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Extensions
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Derivative works
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