Invalidity dossier
US 3760179
Indirectly lighted panels for walls and ceilings
Current assignee: Individual
Added 9/23/2026, 2:32:07 PM
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 3,760,179
Title: "Indirectly Lighted Panels for Walls and Ceilings"
Assignee: None named. The source lists the original and current assignee as "Individual," with inventor Conley R. Addington, Jr., 9626 Banes St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19115.
Dates: Filed July 24, 1972 (priority date same); granted and published September 18, 1973. Anticipated expiration September 18, 1990; status "Expired – Lifetime."
Purpose: To provide indirect lighting for walls and ceilings that uniformly transmits artificial light, minimizing glare and hiding the edge junctions between adjacent panels. The abstract describes "a plurality of transparent plastic panels of uniform thickness … positioned in adjacent edge spaced relation to a wall or ceiling surface," each having a "compacted plurality of fiberglass pile or nap of uniform length secured substantially normal to the outer surface" for transmitting light from lamps located behind the panels. The specification also comprehends "relatively indiscernable slots or openings, permitting air conditioning and ventilation, as well as sound transmission from loud speakers."
Plain-language scope: Rigid transparent acrylic panels (e.g., Plexiglas or Lucite) carry fiberglass thread cut to uniform length, bonded by one end—using clear epoxy adhesive—normal to the outer surface as a pile or nap. Light from a lamp behind the panel travels lengthwise through each fiber and exits its exposed end, giving soft, non-glaring illumination. Elements may receive a thin colored coating so white light exits the ends while side views show color. Manufacture is described as electrostatic: cut fibers are distributed on a charged plate, causing them to stand normal and closely parallel, then transferred to an adhesive-coated panel. Claims recite such a panel of uniform thickness and colored elements with an adherent colored coating.
Not established by this excerpt: The excerpt omits full claim text, the complete description, and all drawing content; it identifies no assignee entity, no prior-art references, and no litigation, licensing, or ownership-transfer information. Classifications cited are F21V3/00, F21V3/04, and Y10T428/23907, 23986, 23993.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:52:13 PM
Cases on file (0)
Specific litigation cases in our database that name US patent 3760179. 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.