Invalidity dossier
US 5613261
Cleaner
Current assignee: Moneual Inc
Added 9/24/2026, 1:15:17 AM
Active provider: DeepSeek · deepseek-flash
Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
US5613261A — "Cleaner": Patent Overview
Title: Cleaner
Patent number: US5613261A
Application number: US08/420,652
Inventors: Yuichi Kawakami; Takayuki Hamaguchi; Nobukazu Kawagoe; Hideaki Nakanishi; Natsuko Waki
Original assignee: Minolta Co., Ltd.
Priority date: 1994-04-14
Filing date: 1995-04-12
Publication (grant) date: 1997-03-25
Status as listed: Expired – Lifetime
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US5613261](/patent/US5613261)/en
Purpose. The disclosed cleaner is a moving (free-running) floor cleaner that automatically cleans a floor. The stated problems with conventional moving-type cleaners are that they follow a predetermined route without sensing the degree of dirt, so that setting a fast speed under-cleans the most soiled areas, setting a slow speed extends total cleaning time, and all areas — soiled or not — are cleaned alike. A first object is to clean a predetermined range rapidly by thoroughly cleaning only severely dirty areas. A second object is to judge, after a cleaning operation, whether dirt was actually removed, so that an area may be "preponderantly clean[ed]" without damaging the floor.
Plain-language scope. The excerpt describes a cleaner having a sensor that detects the degree of dirt of the surface being cleaned, and a driving controller that controls the cleaner's movement in accordance with that degree of dirt. A further controller judges cleaning effect by comparing the degree of dirt before and after a cleaning operation. Disclosed structure includes: bilateral drive wheels (12L, 12R) independently driven by motors (13L, 13R); rotation sensors (14L, 14R) for measuring distance travelled; front and rear driven wheels (15F, 15B); cylindrical sponges (16a–16f) that scrub the floor and are retractable via a retraction unit (21); a cleaning fluid tank (17) feeding the sponges via pump (18); a floor reflectivity sensor (19) mounted on the bottom, ahead of the cleaning unit in the direction of advance, so dirt is sensed before cleaning; and a controller (20) with CPU and direct memory unit, functionally divided into a driving controller (32), cleaning controller (33), and mode setting unit (34).
What the excerpt does not establish. The supplied text is expressly an excerpt with omitted portions, so the full disclosure and the claims are not available here. The excerpt quotes no claim language, no claim count, and no prior-art references. It does not establish the listed "Current Assignee (Moneual Inc)" or other reassignments beyond the recorded entries shown, nor the accuracy of the legal-status or priority-date assumptions, which the source itself disclaims. Figures 1–10 are referenced but their content is only partially described. No litigation, ownership-transfer analysis, validity conclusion, or prior-art comparison is supported by this text.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:31:31 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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