Invalidity dossier
US 7063203
Variable speed handrail for passenger moving walkway systems
Current assignee: TK Escalator Norte SA
Added 9/24/2026, 12:50:21 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 — US 7,063,203 B2
Title: Variable speed handrail for passenger moving walkway systems
Assignee: ThyssenKrupp Norte, S.A. (original assignee); current assignee listed as TK Escalator Norte SA. Inventors: Miguel Angel Gonzalez Alemany, Juan Domingo Gonzalez Pantiga, Manuel Alonso Cuello.
Key dates: Priority 2004-03-30; filed 2005-03-28 (application US 11/091,171); granted/publication date 2006-06-20; legal status "Expired – Lifetime," with anticipated expiration 2025-03-28. These dates and statuses are as listed by the source, which notes legal status is an assumption, not a legal conclusion.
Purpose: To provide a handrail for variable-speed moving walkways or escalators that is simple in construction and covers the support surface so it is safe and effective for users. The handrail comprises a flexible profile circulating with a forward and return section, a drag mechanism, and a plurality of handgrips coupled on the profile.
Plain-language scope: The flexible profile moves at constant speed; the handgrips are independent of it and travel at speeds substantially matching the nearest walkway plates—constant where plates are constant, variable where plates are variable. Handgrips use first connection means (e.g., an anchor tooth meshing with the profile/drive, movable between active and withdrawn positions) for constant-speed sections, and second connection means (e.g., a side arm meshing a variable-pitch worm) for variable-speed sections. A guide runs inside the flexible profile, keeping clearance so handgrips slide, and carries a cam shifting the anchor tooth. In the variable-speed area, a handgrip decelerates to entry speed, then accelerates to maximum before re-meshing for constant-speed travel. The profile may be a chain, toothed belt, friction-driven belt, or electromagnetic-induction-driven belt with internal metal members.
What the excerpt does not establish: It omits much of the detailed description and all claims, so exact claim scope is not shown. It does not establish enforceability, validity, litigation, ownership transfers, or prior-art conclusions.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:31:45 PM
Cases on file (0)
Specific litigation cases in our database that name US patent 7063203. 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.