Invalidity dossier
US 4872097
Miniature low-voltage lighting fixture
Current assignee: Individual
Added 9/23/2026, 4:22:45 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 4,872,097
Title: Miniature low-voltage lighting fixture
Patent number: US 4,872,097 A (application US07/279,961)
Inventor: Jack V. Miller
Assignee: None listed — original assignee and current assignee are both "Individual."
Key dates (as listed): Priority/filing date 1988-12-05; publication (grant) date 1989-10-03; anticipated expiration 2008-12-05. Legal status: Expired – Fee Related.
Purpose: The patent addresses lighting fixtures for residential and commercial use, particularly those using miniature reflector lamps for precise beam control. The stated primary purpose is to provide a simple, inexpensive one-piece structure for a reflector-lamp fixture in which the bulb may be easily removed and replaced—without separable housing sections or excessive radial clearance for bulb access. The text notes earlier approaches in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,646,214 and 4,682,276 and a co-pending design application Ser. No. 198,095.
Plain-language scope (per the supplied description): An integral lampholder holds and connects a reflector lamp (bulb, reflector, bayonet base); its proximal end connects to external power and its distal end supports the lamp base. A generally radial flange at the distal end supports a contiguous cylindrical bulb reflector housing coaxial with the lampholder and extending beyond the bulb reflector. Optional integral planar fins run parallel to the central axis. A preferred recessed-mount version uses torsion springs on screws in threaded transverse holes with spring legs biased downward; the fixture is pushed into a close-fitting circular ceiling hole with the flange held against the panel's bottom surface. The bulb reflector has rotational engagement notches, and an elongated-handle tool with planar vanes engages those notches for installation/removal from floor level. Figures 1–9 depict these features.
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US4872097/en (fetched 2026-09-23).
What the excerpt does not establish: It provides no complete claim set (only the start of the abstract appears), no examiner citations or prior-art list beyond the two patents and the co-pending application mentioned, no prosecution history, and no independent confirmation of dates or legal status (Google's labels are expressly assumptions). Ownership, validity, and litigation are outside this overview.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:50:57 PM
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Litigation summary
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Proceedings on file (0)
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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
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Obviousness
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Extensions
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Derivative works
Defensive disclosure: derivative variations of each claim designed to render future incremental improvements obvious or non-novel.