US 12276396

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US Patent 12,276,396 B1 — Summary

Bibliographic Data (from USPTO/Google Patents record)

Abstract: "A light holding system having a light holder with wings that define an outer contoured surface. A channel extends inwardly of the outer contoured surface and has a bottom wall and lateral walls. The bottom wall has a ridge wall having a retention barb extending from a bottom surface. The wings are resiliently bendable between an uninstalled and an installed position. In the uninstalled position the tips of the wings are at a first distance from the retention barb and in the installed position the tips of the wings are at a second distance. The second distance is greater than the first distance. An end cap having an outer shell and a coped portion within the end may receive the light holder in the coped portion."

Technology in plain terms: A snap-in extruded aluminum/plastic LED strip holder for recreational-vehicle ceilings. A retaining strip is fastened to a roof joist between adjacent ceiling panels; the holder's backside barb snaps into the strip's grooved nubs, while its two resilient "wings" spring outward against the ceiling panels. Bending the wings into the installed position mechanically flexes the strip channel's lateral walls inward so they grip the LED strip (no adhesive needed) and simultaneously stores spring tension that holds the whole assembly tight against the ceiling. End caps cover the holder ends and house wire connections outside the joist footprint.

Independent Claims — Plain-Language Overview

Claim 1 (RV-ceiling environment; the holder alone): For an RV ceiling where a retaining strip with nubbed groove is fastened to a joist — an elongate light holder having (a) wings forming an outer contoured surface with tips, (b) a channel beneath that surface with overhanging walls near the opening, lateral walls, and a bottom wall, (c) a ridge wall extending from the channel's bottom surface on the opposite side, carrying a retention barb. The wings are resiliently bendable between an uninstalled state (tips a first distance from the channel opening) and an installed state (tips a nearer second distance from the opening); in the installed state the wings are biased away from the opening, back toward the uninstalled position. Essentially: the spring-loaded, barb-backed extrusion that snaps into the ceiling strip and spring-grips the LED strip.

Claim 6 (RV-with-panels environment; adds structural detail): Same core holder, but: the panels abut a joist with the retaining strip fastened between the panels; the overhanging walls extend toward each other and are narrower than the channel's internal width; the retention barb is spaced from the bottom surface and has a portion wider than the ridge wall. This claim adds the "narrow mouth, wide interior" channel geometry and the barb-wider-than-ridge snap geometry.

Claim 11 (general panels; broadest scope): Same holder as claim 6's core, but the environment is generalized to any adjacent panels (not limited to an RV ceiling), retaining the "barb spaced from the bottom surface, portion wider than the ridge wall" limitation, plus the resilient wings biased away from the opening when installed. This is the broadest, environment-agnostic version.

Dependent claims 2–5 (on claim 1), 7–10 (on claim 6), and 12–14 (on claim 11) add: inclined/catch surfaces on the retention barb (2, 7); inclined and catch surfaces on the overhanging walls (3, 8, 13); terminal edges closer to each other than the lateral walls (4, 9); and LED-strip capture with biased lateral walls in the installed position (5, 10, 14).

Litigation / CAFC 2026 Docket Search

• District court: The patent's Google Patents record flags a case in the Indiana Northern District Court — Sigma Switches Plus, Inc. v. ABC Marketing, Inc., No. 3:25-cv-00888. A complaint analysis confirms Claim 1 of the '396 patent is asserted against ABC Marketing's "Stellar Lighting" LineLite Track and End Cap products, incorporating the detailed element-by-element allegations made for the related '127 patent (Compl. ¶¶114–118). Related patents 12,181,127, 12,352,411, and 12,352,412 are also asserted in the same case. As of the January 30, 2026 docket entry, the case is in early pretrial phase (preliminary infringement/invalidity contentions and claim-construction exchanges scheduled through spring 2026).
• CAFC 2026 docket: I found no Federal Circuit appeal docket for patent 12,276,396 in the searches performed. My CAFC searches returned only unrelated Section 122 tariff appeals (e.g., State of Oregon v. Trump, Nos. 2026-1804/1805). Because the district court case is still in pretrial/claim-construction stages as of early 2026, no appeal would be expected yet.

Uncertainty note: The CAFC absence finding is based on general web searching rather than a direct query of the PACER/CAFC docket system, so I cannot rule out a recently filed or non-public appeal. The litigation details derive from third-party complaint analyses (Ex Parte/Docket Alarm), not the court docket itself.