Invalidity dossier
US 5406945
Added 9/23/2026, 4:27:24 PM
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Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
Patent Overview — US 5,406,945 A
Title: Biomedical electrode having a secured one-piece conductive terminal
Patent number / application: US 5,406,945 A (application US08/066,716)
Original assignee: NDM Acquisition Corp; current assignee listed as Conmed Corp (per the supplied page).
Key dates (as listed): Filed 1993-05-24; priority date 1993-05-24; granted/published 1995-04-18; anticipated expiration 2013-05-24. Status: expired – lifetime.
Inventors: Timothy J. Riazzi, Michael L. Wolf, Michael J. Allaire.
Purpose: The patent addresses disposable biomedical electrodes used to connect human skin to electromedical apparatus such as electromyographs, electrocardiographs, and electrostimulators for pain relief. The stated aims are a one-piece conductive terminal secured without washers, retaining rings, or similar securement means, reducing material use and manufacturing cost, and an improved electrolytic gel offering greater patient comfort without loss of electrical performance.
Plain-language scope: The background explains that earlier electrodes commonly used a two-piece "stud and eyelet" terminal sandwiched around adhesive tape or a stiffening piece, which risked corrosion from dissimilar metals, high electrical resistance, and difficult, costly manufacturing. A one-piece terminal (flat circular portion plus perpendicular knob-like projection) is described as hard to anchor securely and prone to pull-out when disconnected from a mating snap. The excerpt addresses these problems by securing a one-piece terminal with a reinforcing strip/anchoring layer and a top layer having an opening through which the stud member protrudes, its lower side bearing a patient-contact adhesive. The gel layer is preferably a hydrogel formed from an aqueous mixture of polyhydric alcohol, aliphatic diisocyanate terminated prepolymer, polyethylene oxide based polyamine, and sodium chloride.
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US5406945/en
What the excerpt does not establish: It does not provide the full claims or written description (text is expressly excerpted), any prior-art analysis, litigation, validity, or ownership-transfer determinations; the accompanying classification data is not a legal conclusion.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:50:47 PM
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Litigation summary
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Proceedings on file (0)
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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
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.