Invalidity dossier
US 11998854
Low-friction recreational slide system
Current assignee: Slick Slide LLC
Added 10/3/2026, 4:02:11 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 — US11998854B1
Title: Low-friction recreational slide system
Assignee: Slick Slide LLC (original and current)
Inventor: Gary Schmit
Priority date: 2022-11-01; Filed: 2023-07-10; Granted/Published: 2024-06-04; Anticipated expiration: 2043-07-10 (per source; assumptions noted there)
Application no.: US18/349,347 (also cited: US18/442,609 priority link)
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US11998854](/patent/US11998854)/en
Purpose: The disclosure concerns recreational slides, specifically a slide system pairing a ride vehicle with a non-wet-lubricated ("dry") slide surface carrying a dry lubricant material, to lower friction and improve slide speed without flowing fluid lubricant.
Plain-language scope (from the supplied definitions/excerpt): A recreational slide system includes a slide body with a non-wet-lubricated slide surface extending between a top entrance and bottom exit, and a ride vehicle having a fabric layer forming a rider-contacting top surface and a mesh layer forming a slide-contacting bottom surface. Reported kinetic coefficient of friction between the mesh layer and the non-wet slide surface is about 0.03–0.2, particularly about 0.05–0.12. The slide surface may include a dry lubricant coating (about 1–5 microns thick) comprising a resin (e.g., silicon-based epoxy), a lubricant (e.g., polytetrafluoroethylene), a thermal conductor (e.g., copper), and a hardener (anhydride- or amine-based), with stated weight ranges: resin 20–30%, lubricant 30–50%, thermal conductor 1–5%, hardener 20–30%. The coating may cover a base wall sliding surface and at least a portion of sidewall sliding surfaces. The mesh layer may be woven monofilament synthetic fibers (e.g., polyamide/Nylon), with warp and weft thread diameters about 0.1–0.6 mm and an open area about 35–50%. The excerpt also describes a standalone non-wet-lubricated slide and a ride vehicle.
What the excerpt does not establish: It does not provide full claim text (claims are not reproduced), claim count, dependency, or claim scope. It does not establish enablement, validity, patentability over prior art, actual infringement, or litigation outcome. The source notes a pending, instituted PTAB case (PGR2024-00054); per instructions, no litigation details are researched or assessed here.
Generated 10/4/2026, 12:00:48 AM
Cases on file (0)
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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
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.