Invalidity dossier
US 5478668
Rechargeable lithium battery construction
Current assignee: Valence Technology Inc
Added 9/20/2026, 5:19:02 AM
Active provider: DeepSeek · deepseek-flash
Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
Patent Overview — US5478668A
Title: Rechargeable lithium battery construction
Patent number: US5478668A
Application number: US08/241,255
Inventors: Antoni S. Gozdz, Caroline N. Schmutz, Jean-Marie Tarascon, Paul C. Warren
Original assignee: Bell Communications Research, Inc.
Current assignee (as listed): Valence Technology Inc
Priority date: 1993-11-30 (claimed from US08/160,018)
Filing date: 1994-05-11
Publication/grant date: 1995-12-26
Legal status (as listed): Expired – Lifetime; anticipated expiration 2013-11-30
Purpose and plain-language scope (based only on the supplied excerpt): The patent concerns the construction of a rechargeable lithium battery. The excerpt's abstract-level indexing terms point to a lithium-ion battery using an electrolyte and an electrolyte solution, a matrix material, a mixture, a fluid, a foil, and a barrier function, with a "penetration" effect noted. The description keywords indicate cells, membranes, layers, a copolymer, plasticizer, and lamination, and the claims reference an electrolyte, an electrolyte solution, a mixture, a matrix material, a fluid, and a "complement" effect. The chemical and material terms indexed in the description include lithium, lithium-ion species, LiClO4, LiPF6, LiBF4, ethylene carbonate, propylene carbonate, dimethyl carbonate, diethyl carbonate, dibutyl/diethyl/dimethyl phthalate, polyvinylidene fluoride, hexafluoropropylene, polyolefin, aluminum, copper, nickel, graphite, carbon black, and fumed silica. Read narrowly, these signals suggest a laminated, polymer/matrix-based rechargeable lithium (lithium-ion) cell construction with foil current collectors. However, the excerpt does not reproduce any actual claim language, so the precise scope of the claims cannot be stated.
What the excerpt does not establish: It does not provide the granted claims, the written description, or the abstract in full; therefore the exact claimed subject matter, claim scope, and embodiments are not established here. It also does not establish validity, enforceability, litigation history, or current ownership as a legal conclusion. Dates and assignee listings are presented as assumptions per the source, not legal conclusions.
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US5478668](/patent/US5478668)/en
Generated 10/1/2026, 10:02:52 PM
Cases on file (0)
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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.