Invalidity dossier
US 3543014
Buried panel-illuminating installation
Current assignee: FARWEST ELECTRONICS Inc
Added 9/23/2026, 2:31:29 PM
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 3,543,014 — "Buried Panel-Illuminating Installation"
Bibliographic data (from source): Patent number US3543014A; application number US726824A; inventor Ronald K. Bustad; original and current assignee Farwest Electronics Inc. (per the source, assignees listed "may be inaccurate"); filing date 1968-05-06; priority date 1968-05-06; publication/grant date 1970-11-24; anticipated expiration 1987-11-24; status "Expired – Lifetime." Classification B60Q3/14 (vehicle-interior lighting for dashboards, lighting through the illuminated surface).
Purpose: To internally illuminate a panel—for example an airplane instrument panel—without light units projecting beyond either panel surface. The source notes that panel illumination had customarily been done by shining light into a panel edge or by mounting light units in registry with panel apertures. The disclosed installation instead provides a cavity opening toward the panel's back, sized to receive a miniature light bulb, with sockets alongside it for supply-wire terminals and a closure holding the bulb leads in contact with those terminals.
Plain-language scope (from the excerpt): A transparent panel (acrylic resin, about ¼ to ½ inch thick) has a blind cavity and adjacent sockets opening toward its back face. A miniature light bulb sits in the cavity; its leads run to hollow metal terminals seated in the sockets. A closure plate, received in a recess so its outer surface is flush with the panel back, carries unthreaded projections that push into the terminal bores to clamp the leads for electrical contact; a groove in the plate fits over the leads. Supply wires sit in slots and are pressed against terminal lugs by the closure. The closure may be permanently bonded with adhesive or made removable. Light entering the panel edge is emitted where a panel surface is roughened or where edges form an aperture, so illumination can be confined to desired areas or instruments aligned with apertures.
Figures 4–7 variant: A larger blind bore receives a plug whose central aperture forms the bulb cavity; stepped notches in the plug cooperate with notches in the bore, and terminals with tubular thimbles and projecting ears are retained against withdrawal once the plug is inserted.
Not established by the excerpt: The full claim language, complete specification, drawing content, and any omitted text; the source is an excerpt only. No litigation, ownership-transfer, validity, or prior-art conclusions are drawn. The source is a Google Patents page whose legal-status and assignee listings are expressly assumptions, not legal conclusions.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:52:14 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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