Invalidity dossier
US 4017975
Saliva ejector and chin holder therefor
Current assignee: Individual
Added 9/23/2026, 5:41:56 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: US4017975A
Title: Saliva ejector and chin holder therefor
Patent number: US4017975A
Inventor: Wesley Grant Johnson
Assignee: Individual (original assignee also listed as Individual)
Application number: US05/669,244
Priority/filing date: 1976-03-22
Publication (grant) date: 1977-04-19
Legal status: Expired – Lifetime; anticipated expiration 1994-04-19
Classification: A61C17/08 (aspiration nozzles); A61C17/06 (saliva removers; accessories)
Purpose: The patent describes a dental saliva ejector that also serves as a tongue guard, and a separate chin holder for adjustably mounting the ejector on a vacuum tube. The ejector's body height lets it extend from the floor of the mouth to the teeth, blocking tongue contact with at least some teeth while saliva is withdrawn. A suction relief port at the upper portion helps keep apertures clear of oral soft tissue, addressing blockage and dislodgement problems noted in earlier devices. The chin holder engages beneath the chin to position and hold the ejector, and is intended to be attached, adjusted, or removed from the vacuum tube without disturbing the appliance, unlike chin holders insertable only from a tube end.
Plain-language scope: The claims describe a saliva ejector formed of a flattened body with upper and lower portions, a suction passage, and communicating apertures; the body height extends from mouth floor to teeth to act as a tongue guard. In one form the body is two mating plates with recesses and grooves defining the passage and a vacuum tube opening, latched together (pins/wells, ribs/recesses) and optionally hinged. The chin holder is a substantially C-shaped clamp body with spaced side legs joined by an intermediate leg, at least one leg resilient, and handles movable to open a side opening for attachment, adjustment, and removal relative to the tube.
Not established by the excerpt: The full claim set, complete description and drawings, the omitted remainder of the specification, any prosecution history, validity, ownership transfers, or litigation. The text also does not establish commercial use or whether any listed classification is complete.
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US4017975](/patent/US4017975)/en
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:43:23 PM
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Litigation summary
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Proceedings on file (0)
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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
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Obviousness
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Extensions
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Derivative works
Defensive disclosure: derivative variations of each claim designed to render future incremental improvements obvious or non-novel.