US 4387297

I'll search for authoritative information on US 4387297, including USPTO records and any 2026 CAFC activity.

Let me try to retrieve the actual claim text (independent claims) to avoid fabricating.

US 4,387,297 — Identification

Abstract (as printed): "An entirely field-portable laser scanning system for reading bar code symbols includes a light-weight and small-sized laser scanning head. The laser source, power supply component, optics, scanning elements, sensor circuit, and signal processing circuitry are specially designed for minimal size and weight and volume such that they can all be mounted in the head. The head can be bracket-mounted or hand-held. The housing for the head can be provided with a handle grip, or can be gun-shaped. High-speed oscillating scanning motors and/or penta-bimorph scanners are used as scanning elements. A trigger initiates repetitive scanning of each object bearing a symbol, and an indicator indicates when the scanning of that particular object has been terminated. A body harness supports the remaining scanner system circuitry. A non-bulky, freely-movable cable interconnects the head to the body harness. Methods of scanning the symbol and of operating the system are also disclosed."

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Plain-language overview of the independent claims

Claim 1 — Hand-held laser scanning head (the core "miniaturization" claim). As reproduced in the Federal Circuit's appendix to Symbol Technologies, Inc. v. Opticon, Inc. (Fed. Cir. 1991), claim 1 recites a light-weight, easy-to-manipulate laser scanning head normally supported only by the user throughout reading, comprising:

• (a) a housing with wall portions bounding an outlet port and an interior space measuring less than about 100 cubic inches;
• (b) a light source mounted in the interior space for generating a laser beam;
• (c) miniature optics in the interior space directing the beam through the outlet port toward a symbol located exteriorly of the housing "by a distance sufficient to permit the user to conveniently register the laser light beam on the symbol by sighting the symbol along a direct line of sight which does not pass through the housing" (i.e., point-and-shoot aiming);
• (d) miniature scanning means in the light path inside the housing for cyclically sweeping the beam across the symbol;
• (e) miniature sensor means in the housing detecting reflected light intensity and generating an electrical signal;
• (f) miniature signal processing means in the housing generating data descriptive of the symbol;
• (g) all of the above plus the housing weighing less than about two pounds; and
• (h)/(i) handle means for supporting the head in non-contacting relationship with the symbol, and a manually actuatable trigger for initiating reading.

Plain language: "Put the laser, power, optics, scanner, detector, and signal-processing electronics all inside a small (<100 in³), light (<~2 lb) gun-grip housing that you aim by sight, and fire with a trigger." This is the classic all-in-the-head portable bar-code scanner claim — the architectural foundation of the hand-held laser scanner industry.

Claim 43 — Entirely field-portable laser scanning system. Same component stack (a)–(f) as claim 1, but framed as a system: a hand-grippable head housing with interior volume less than about 100 in³, laser source, miniature optics, miniature scanning means, miniature sensor means, and miniature signal processing means, plus (g) all of it together with the housing weighing less than about two and one-half pounds, "to thereby constitute a laser scanning head which is convenient to manually hold and use." As quoted in the Justia text, it further recites power supply means including a DC power supply component in the interior space energizable by a low-voltage DC signal, and a non-bulky cable with a thin conductor for the low-voltage DC signal and a non-RF-shielded conductor for the digitized signal, the cable being flexible enough to permit "multiple freedoms of movement from one symbol to the next."

Plain language: Same invention, claimed at the system level, and explicitly capturing the commercial trick that made the scanner wearable — push the power supply into the head, push only digitized (unshielded, thin-wire) data down a light, limp cable.

Claim 45 — Light-weight, easy-to-manipulate laser scanning head. Per the Justia text, it opens "In a laser scanning system for reading bar code symbols, a light-weight easy-to-manipulate laser scanning head normally supportable only by a user throughout the reading of the symbols, comprising: (a) a housing having wall portions bounding an outlet port and bounding an interior space whose volume measures less than a value which is on the order of 100 cubic inches; …" — i.e., a further, differently-worded independent claim to substantially the same head subject matter.

Plain language: A third independent bite at the same apple, emphasizing user-supportability and the sub-100-in³ housing.

Notable dependents (from the printed claim set)

• Claims 2–4: power-supply component mounted in the housing; the heaviest component (the DC power supply, ~6 oz) placed in the handle portion for low center of gravity / balance.
• Claim 32 / 34 / 35: shutter means implemented by driving the scanning mirror to a "shutter position"; shutter voltage of larger amplitude than the periodic drive voltage; trigger mounted on the gun-shaped handle near the barrel junction.
• Claims 36–38: trigger-initiated repetitive scanning of the symbol, and timer means that stops beam generation after a predetermined period.
• Claims 39–42: first (X) and second (Y) miniature scan means; oscillating high-speed motors with shafts turned in alternate directions over arcs less than 360°; linear drive → raster pattern, sinusoidal drive → Lissajous omni-directional pattern.

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Litigation / docket check (including CAFC 2026)

• 2026 CAFC dockets: I found no 2026 Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit docket, appeal, or opinion involving U.S. Patent 4,387,297. This is consistent with the patent being long expired (Google Patents lists an anticipated expiration of 2012-09-12 and "Expired – Lifetime" status), which would leave no live infringement claim to appeal in 2026. I cannot claim an exhaustive negative from the searches run — I did not query PACER/CAFC's docket system directly, so treat this as "no activity surfaced," not a certified absence.
• Known enforcement history on this patent: it was asserted in Symbol Technologies, Inc. v. Opticon, Inc., appealed to the Federal Circuit (decided Sept. 6, 1991), where the court's appendix reproduced the '297 claim text quoted above. The '297 patent also appears in [Microsoft Corp.](/litigations/by-plaintiff/Microsoft%20Corp.) v. Motorola Inc. (W.D. Wash., 2:10-cv-01823) as an exhibit/reference, not as an asserted patent.
• Citation record: the patent is heavily cited as prior art — e.g., in the EP search report for EP 0 428 670 (Mars Inc., variable-speed bar code scanning), where the examiner described it as disclosing a portable laser scanning system using a high-speed scanning motor and/or penta-bimorph, with the motor's light-reflecting means driven by a triangular, sinusoidal, or sawtooth drive signal.

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Uncertainty flags (please read)

1. Claim-version ambiguity. A reexamination certificate (US4387297B1) issued September 12, 1995. The claim text I quote for claim 1 comes from the Federal Circuit's 1991 appendix in Symbol v. Opticon; the text for claims 32–46 comes from the Justia reproduction, which may reflect the pre- or post-reexamination claim set. The numbering and exact wording of the independent claims may differ between the original 1983 printed patent and the B1 certificate. I have not independently verified the B1 certificate text.
2. Possible transcription artifacts in sources. The Justia text renders claim 43(a) as "held-held" (evidently "hand-held") and the Google Patents OCR shows "relective," "sympols," "galvonometer," "absorbtion," "then for," and "Ser. No. 911,171, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,251,798." I have preserved these literally rather than correcting them, per the instruction not to auto-correct identifiers.
3. Independent-claim inventory. Based on available sources I have confirmed three independent claims (1, 43, 45). I cannot rule out additional independent claims in the 46-claim set without the full printed claim column.
4. Assignee statement. "Current Assignee" is listed by Google Patents as Symbol Technologies LLC, with the caveat that Google expressly disclaims having performed an assignment/legal analysis; the original assignee of record is Symbol Technologies, Inc.
5. "US4387297B1" is a reexamination certificate publication of the same patent, not a separate patent — do not treat it as a distinct family member.
6. The full specification text supplied to me was truncated mid-sentence in the detailed description (during the shock-absorption discussion of the housing), so my specification-derived statements rely on the portions available.

I'll research litigation involving US patent 4387297. Let me search multiple sources.

Good initial results. Let me dig deeper into specific cases and search additional sources.

Let me search for additional cases and verify details on the Metrologic, PSC, and ITC matters.

I've reached my search limit, so here is my compilation based on the sources retrieved. Per your instruction, I'm reporting literally on US Patent 4,387,297 (the "'297 patent," titled "Portable laser scanning system and scanning methods," issued June 7, 1983, assignee Symbol Technologies). I did not conflate it with the related-but-distinct patents that frequently appear in the same suits (e.g., '186, '470, '798).

Known litigation involving US 4,387,297

1. Symbol Technologies, Inc. v. Spectra-Physics, Inc.

• Plaintiff: Symbol Technologies, Inc.
• Defendant: Spectra-Physics, Inc. (California)
• Jurisdiction: U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
• Case No.: C-84-20051
• Filing date: January 27, 1984
• Outcome/status: Resolved by Consent Judgment on January 6, 1986 (settled before liability trial). (Source: Symbol Techs. v. Metrologic, D.N.J., recalling this case.)

2. Symbol Technologies, Inc. v. Opticon, Inc. and Opto Electronics Co., Ltd.

• Plaintiff: Symbol Technologies, Inc.
• Defendants: Opticon, Inc. (U.S. subsidiary) and Opto Electronics Co., Ltd. (Japan)
• Jurisdiction: U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
• Case No.: 86-8736
• Filing date: November 14, 1986
• Accused products: MSH-840, MSH-850, MSH-860 laser scanners
• Outcome/status: After a non-jury trial, the district court held the '297 and '186 patents valid, enforceable, and infringed, and entered a liability judgment for Symbol (1990 WL 58887; 17 USPQ2d 1737 (S.D.N.Y. 1990)). Affirmed by the Federal Circuit, Symbol Technologies, Inc. v. Opticon, Inc., 935 F.2d 1569 (Fed. Cir. 1991). Specific '297 claims found infringed include claims 1–3, 8, 9, 11, 15, 17, 20, 21, 23, and 36–38 (per device). The court also rejected Opticon's inequitable-conduct and double-patenting defenses.

3. Symbol Technologies, Inc. v. Metrologic Instruments, Inc. and Knowles

• Plaintiff: Symbol Technologies, Inc.
• Defendants: Metrologic Instruments, Inc. and Knowles (individual)
• Jurisdiction: U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey
• Case No.: Civil Action No. 88-0461 (consolidated with 88-4686)
• Filing date: January 26, 1988
• Accused products: Metrologic "Series '90" hand-held laser scanners
• Outcome/status: The published D.N.J. opinion (Judge Brotman, Civ. A. Nos. 88-0461, 88-4686, 1991) addressed Symbol's motion for partial summary judgment on validity (issue preclusion from Opticon) and defendants' estoppel defense. I could not verify the final disposition (settlement vs. judgment) within my search budget — treat that as unconfirmed.

4. Symbol Technologies, Inc. v. PSC Inc.

• Plaintiff: Symbol Technologies, Inc.
• Defendant: PSC Inc.
• Jurisdiction: (Symbol's home district, likely E.D.N.Y.) — case number not verified
• Filing date: April 1, 1996 (complaint date, per the decision text)
• Subject: Royalties under the March 6, 1991 Symbol–PSC license; PSC's defense that Symbol's collection of royalties on the '297 and '186 patents from both PSC and Telxon (Sept. 30, 1992 license) constituted patent misuse. The court decided cross-motions for partial summary judgment on damages/misuse.
• Outcome/status: Partial; final disposition not verified.

5. In re Certain Laser Bar Code Scanners and Scan Engines, Components Thereof and Products Containing Same

• Forum: U.S. International Trade Commission (Section 337)
• Investigation No.: 337-TA-551
• Complainant: Symbol Technologies, Inc.
• Respondents: Metro (Suzhou) Technologies Co., Ltd. and Metrologic Instruments, Inc. (and related)
• Initial Determination on violation issued January 29, 2007 (ALJ Charles E. Bullock); Complainant's counsel: Jones Day / Hogan & Hartson.
• Caveat: I found the investigation but could not confirm from the retrieved text that the '297 patent was among the asserted patents in 337-TA-551. Flagging as unverified.

Appearance but likely NOT an infringement assertion

• [Microsoft Corp.](/litigations/by-plaintiff/Microsoft%20Corp.) v. Motorola, Inc., No. 2:10-cv-01823-JLR (W.D. Wash.) — the '297 patent appears only as an exhibit ("4,387,297 issued to Swartz et al," Docket #285-1). This appears to be a portfolio/licensing exhibit in a contract/RAND dispute, not an infringement count. I would not list it as '297 infringement litigation without further confirmation.

Explicitly NOT '297 cases (avoiding confusion)

• Symbol v. Proxim, Civ. No. 01-801-SLR (D. Del.) — asserted the Tymes patents (5,029,183; 5,103,461; 5,479,441; 5,668,803), not '297.
• Symbol v. Lemelson (D. Nev., 99-CV-0397 / CV-N-99-0533) — asserted Lemelson patents, not '297.

Important caveats

• I reached my search-step limit before I could verify several details (the exact Metrologic disposition, the PSC case number/jurisdiction, and the ITC '297 counts). Those items should be confirmed against Docket Navigator/PACER or the specific slip opinions.
• The '297 patent was reexamined twice (reexam certificate published as US4387297B1 on Sept. 12, 1995), which extended its term; records show "anticipated expiration 2012-09-12." That means post-2000 assertions were legally possible, and there may be later suits I did not surface.
• No litigation involving the '297 patent was found on the Unified Patents litigation portal in the retrieved results; the cases above come primarily from Federal Circuit/District Court opinions (CourtListener, Justia, Casetext), the ITC publication on 337-TA-551, and the Microsoft v. Motorola docket.

If you'd like, I can run a follow-up pass (within remaining budget) targeted specifically at PACER/Docket Navigator-style dockets for the PSC case number, the Metrologic final judgment, and whether 337-TA-551 included the '297 patent.

I'll start by verifying the structured data against public sources.

Let me run a few targeted checks for any AIA-trial activity and the reexamination history.

Let me do two final verification checks — PTAB docket and the patent's term status.

Proceedings overview

Zero (0) AIA trial proceedings — no IPR, PGR, or CBM — have ever been filed against US 4,387,297. The structured USPTO ODP block is correct: there is no institution denial, no settlement, no Final Written Decision, and no PTAB appeal to hang a defense on. The trial-side bottom line for a defendant is blunt and unusual: the patent is not "hardened" by PTAB wins — it is simply expired. US 4,387,297 is recorded on Google Patents as "Expired – Lifetime" with an anticipated expiration of 2012-09-12, i.e. it lapsed roughly four days before the first AIA trial petition could even be filed (AIA trial practice opened 2012-09-16). The absence of PTAB activity here is not a signal that the claims are bulletproof; it is a signal that the patent ran out of runway before the IPR era began. No live validity challenge at the PTAB is possible against a patent whose statutory term has run.

Separately, the patent was challenged — but in the pre-AIA fora: an ex parte reexamination completed 1983-12-16, and two district court validity fights in the 1980s–90s, one of which produced a Federal Circuit affirmance of validity. Those are catalogued below because they are the only real claim-level adjudications that exist, but they are not AIA trials and give rise to no § 315(e) estoppel.

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For each proceeding

There are no AIA proceedings to report. Per the operating rules, I am not inventing proceeding numbers to fill the template. What follows is the complete non-AIA contested history, clearly flagged as outside the AIA-trial regime.

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Ex parte reexamination of the '297 patent — completed 1983-12-16

• Type: Ex parte reexamination (35 U.S.C. §§ 301–307) — NOT an AIA trial
• Filed: date not established by available sources; completed 1983-12-16
• Status: Concluded; the '297 patent survived (Symbol's subsequent infringement suits were litigated on the post-reexamination claims)
• Judge panel: N/A — conducted by the examiner corps, not the PTAB
• Petition grounds: not public in the sources I could reach
• Outcome: Reexamination completed 1983-12-16 per the District of New Jersey's recitation of the procedural history in Symbol Technologies, Inc. v. Metrologic Instruments, Inc., Civ. A. Nos. 88-0461, 88-4686 (D.N.J.) (Brotman, J.). No claims were surrendered in a way that defeated Symbol's later assertions — the Federal Circuit in 1991 treated claim 1 as live and valid.
• Settlement / termination: N/A
• Appeal: N/A
• Defensive value: Low but non-zero. A reexamination certificate that post-dates the original grant means the prosecution history is longer than the printed patent suggests; check the reexam file wrapper for any claim amendments or examiner statements that could supply prosecution-history estoppel. ⚠️ Flag / uncertainty: Google Patents also lists a publication event "US4387297B1" dated 1995-09-12, and the "anticipated expiration" of 2012-09-12 is exactly 17 years after that date. That coincidence suggests a second post-grant proceeding (or a term adjustment) in 1995 that I could not confirm from the sources retrieved. Treat the 1995-09-12 event as unverified and pull the file wrapper before relying on either the reexam certificate or the term calculation.

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Symbol Technologies, Inc. v. Opticon, Inc. / Opto Electronics — S.D.N.Y. 86-8736, aff'd 935 F.2d 1569 (Fed. Cir. 1991)

• Type: District court infringement action with invalidity/unenforceability counterclaim, plus Federal Circuit appeal — NOT an AIA trial
• Filed: 1986-11-14
• Status: Liability judgment for Symbol; affirmed
• Judge panel: Federal Circuit — the opinion is reported at 935 F.2d 1569 (Fed. Cir. 1991), decided 1991-09-06. (I did not retrieve the individual panel composition; do not assume it.)
• Grounds asserted: Opticon counterclaimed for a declaratory judgment that the '297 and '186 patents were invalid and unenforceable. On appeal Opticon pressed (i) insufficiency of Symbol's prima facie infringement evidence, (ii) double patenting between '297 and '186, and (iii) inequitable conduct during prosecution — specifically that Symbol withheld information about the "Verifier 315" and "Laserscan" devices.
• Institution decision: N/A
• Final Written Decision: N/A. The district court held the '297 and '186 patents not proved invalid and not proved unenforceable, and found infringement. The Federal Circuit AFFIRMED in full: "We find no abuse of discretion in the District Court's conclusion that the '297 and '186 patents were not proved unenforceable for inequitable conduct during prosecution." On double patenting: "we thus conclude that Opticon has failed to demonstrate that the District Court erred in finding that no claim in the '186 patent was proved invalid for double patenting."
• Key claim-construction takeaway: The Federal Circuit confirmed that the "'297 patent covers the basic invention: To read a bar code, a gun-shaped device is aimed at the bar code and a trigger is squeezed," and that "the examiner considered this 'aim and shoot' feature to be a novel distinguishing characteristic of the claimed invention over the prior art." All asserted '297 claims depend from claim 1, which recites the "sighting the symbol along a direct line of sight which does not pass through the housing" limitation — that is the limitation any future invalidity attack would have to break.
• Settlement / termination: No — litigated to judgment and appeal.
• Appeal: Federal Circuit No. 91-1258-series docket (reported as 935 F.2d 1569); issues on appeal were infringement evidence sufficiency, double patenting, and inequitable conduct; disposition: AFFIRMED. Sources: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/935/1569/[282648](/patent/282648)/ and http://www.worldlii.org/us/cases/federal/USCAFED/1991/503.html
• Defensive value: This cuts against a defendant. The '297 claim 1 "aim and shoot" / unobstructed line-of-sight limitation is the one feature a court has already held distinguishing over the prior art. A § 103 attack that does not squarely address that limitation is unlikely to fare better than Opticon's did.

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Symbol Technologies, Inc. v. Metrologic Instruments, Inc. — D.N.J. Civ. A. Nos. 88-0461, 88-4686

• Type: District court infringement action; issue-preclusion fight over the Opticon validity judgment — NOT an AIA trial
• Filed: 1988 (case numbers 88-0461 and 88-4686)
• Status: Concluded
• Judge panel: Brotman, J.
• Grounds / posture: Symbol moved for partial summary judgment that Metrologic and its principal (Knowles) were issue-precluded from relitigating the validity of the '297 and '186 patents, because Metrologic's principal had "played an active role in the litigation of the Opticon matter" — testifying two days on direct and seven days on cross-examination — and the Opticon court had upheld validity.
• Final Written Decision: N/A
• Settlement / termination: N/A to this report's scope
• Appeal: Not identified in the sources retrieved
• Defensive value: Reinforces that the '297 patent's validity has already been litigated and upheld against a well-funded, well-documented prior-art challenge almost four decades ago. Source: https://www.casemine.com/judgement/us/5914bf83add7b049347ae8dd and https://storage.courtlistener.com/harvard_pdf/[1656649](/patent/1656649).pdf

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Symbol Technologies, Inc. v. Spectra Physics — N.D. Cal. C-84-20051

• Type: District court infringement action — NOT an AIA trial
• Filed: 1984-01-27
• Status: Resolved by consent judgment 1986-01-06
• Settlement / termination: Consent judgment; terms not public in the sources retrieved
• Defensive value: Minimal today. Historically it matters only because it shows Symbol was enforcing this patent from the moment it issued and that the earliest challenge was settled, not adjudicated.

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Strategic summary

Claim status on US 4,387,297. No claim of this patent has ever been canceled by the PTAB, because no AIA trial was ever instituted. Equally — and this is the point a defendant must internalize — no claim has been sustained by the PTAB either, so there is no PTAB-sanctioned claim construction, no FWD to cite, and no institution record to attack. The only adjudicated claim is claim 1, and only in the district court/Federal Circuit sense: the 1991 Opticon appeal treated claim 1's "aim and shoot" unobstructed-line-of-sight limitation as the novel distinguishing feature over the prior art, with all asserted '297 claims depending on it. Claim 1 is therefore UNTESTED at the PTAB and UPHELD in Article III. Conversely, the patent is now expired — Google Patents reports "Expired – Lifetime," anticipated expiration 2012-09-12 — so the practical question for a defendant is not "can I invalidate it" but "is the asserted cause of action time-barred, and does the demand letter rest on a patent with no remaining term?" Damages exposure for any post-2012 conduct should be zero.

Estoppel landscape. Section 315(e)(2) estoppel is not in play and never was. There is no petitioner, no institution decision, and no FWD on this patent, so no party is barred from raising any ground. In principle, a defendant confronting this patent would have the entire prior-art universe available, unconstrained by § 325(e) or § 315(e). That is cold comfort, because there is nothing left to challenge — the patent's term has run. Practically, the only "estoppel" analogue worth checking is issue preclusion flowing from Opticon and the D.N.J. Metrologic proceedings against parties in privity — a plaintiff asserting this patent against a successor to Metrologic/Opticon-adjacent entities may face preclusion arguments, but that is a defense-side tool, not a limitation on a defendant.

Pattern signals. No pattern is observable because there is no PTAB docket. Specifically: (1) No petitioner has filed multiple IPRs on this patent — no petitioner has filed any. (2) No PTAB appeal has ever been pursued by the patent owner, because the patent owner never had a PTAB case to appeal. (3) No defensive aggregator (Unified Patents or similar) appears anywhere in the chain — consistent with the fact that Unified Patents was not founded until 2012, and this patent's term ended weeks after the AIA trial regime began. (4) The chain of title shows pre-AIA security interests and mergers (National Westminster Bank USA security interest 1988-11-14; release 1990-07-13; Symbol merger 1990-12-07), with Symbol Technologies LLC as current assignee — i.e., the patent sat inside a large operating company's portfolio, never in an NPE's hands, which further explains the absence of PTAB activity.

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Recommended next steps

If you are a defendant receiving a demand on this patent:

1. Lead with expiry, not invalidity. The patent is recorded as "Expired – Lifetime" with anticipated expiration 2012-09-12 (https://patents.google.com/patent/US4387297/en). Any demand letter asserting ongoing infringement is presumptively baseless. Demand a copy of the fee/term record and confirm there was no later terminal disclaimer or term adjustment reviving it — and note the unresolved discrepancy flagged above between the 1983-12-16 reexam completion and the 1995-09-12 "US4387297B1" publication event.
2. Pull the "US4387297B1" record. If the 1995-09-12 event is a second reexamination certificate, the claims in force during the enforcement heyday may differ from the printed patent, and the certificate may contain examiner reasoning usable as prior-art/prosecution-history material. Verify at USPTO PatentCenter and PTAB E2E before you brief anything.
3. No FWD exists to quote. Do not let opposing counsel represent that the patent "has survived PTAB review." It has not been reviewed at the PTAB at all; it survived district court review in Opticon, which the Federal Circuit affirmed at 935 F.2d 1569 (Fed. Cir. 1991-09-06) — https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/935/1569/282648/. If they cite validity, cite that case back at them and then point out the term has expired.
4. If the patent somehow has residual term I have not verified, the honest answer is that a defendant would be starting from scratch: there is no IPR record, no institution decision, and no FWD to leverage, and the claim 1 "unobstructed direct line of sight" limitation already defeated a serious prior-art challenge in 1991. A new § 103 theory would need art that squarely addresses that aim-and-shoot limitation.
5. Milestones: none. There are no active proceedings, so there is no institution deadline, no oral hearing, and no statutory one-year FWD date to track.

Bottom line: no PTAB activity on file — and the reason is that the patent expired days before the AIA trial era began. This is a term problem for the patent owner, not a validity problem for you.

I'll research the assignment chain and cross-reference the ownership history before writing up.

Ownership & Assignment Analysis — US 4387297 A

"Portable laser scanning system and scanning methods"
App. 06/125,768 · Filed 1980-02-29 · Granted 1983-06-07 · App. no. US06/125,768
Assignee of record at issue: Symbol Technologies, Inc.

Source limitation, stated up front. The USPTO Assignment Center (assignmentcenter.uspto.gov) is a JavaScript application that does not expose machine-readable records to a text fetch, and I was unable to retrieve raw reel/frame numbers or the correspondent of record for this patent in this session. The assignment entries below are reconstructed from the Google Patents legal-events table, which mirrors the USPTO assignment record (it uses the same "Assigned to / Assignors: / conveyance type" schema and the same "SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS" boilerplate). Everything I could not verify is marked "not retrieved." I have not invented any reel/frame or attorney name.

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Inventors

Pattern note — no "departing inventors" signal. All three named inventors were employees/founders of the applicant at filing, and the application was filed as an assignee-filed application (Symbol was the applicant from day one; there is no inventor-to-company assignment link to trace). This is the opposite of the tell you flagged: there is no evidence of inventors bailing out within 12 months of filing, and no portfolio fire-sale follows. One caveat: I could not determine from retrieved sources the exact dates on which any inventor ceased to be associated with Symbol (Harrison's later departure date is not retrieved), so I am not asserting a departure timeline — only that no departure-driven transfer appears in the record chain.

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Original assignee

Symbol Technologies, Inc. — assignee as issued (1983-06-07). The patent's own specification describes the assignee's business precisely: a light-weight, hand-held, gun-shaped laser barcode scanner head with the laser tube, high-voltage supply, optics, oscillating scan motors/mirrors, photodiodes and digitizing signal-processing IC all inside a <100 in³, <2.5 lb housing, cable-connected to a belt-pack decode/storage/battery pack.

• Did they ship a product embodying the claims? Yes, with high confidence as to the category. Symbol commercialized handheld laser scanners (LS 7000 / LS 8100-series era products; the justia listings for Symbol design patents D305884/D305885 cite US 4,387,297 alongside Symbol LS 7000 II and LS 8100 II product literature bearing 1987 copyright notices). This patent is one of the most-cited barcode scanning patents on record (~390 forward citations, per a 2013 bibliometric study of the character-recognition patent group) — consistent with it being a foundational product patent, not a paper patent.
• Primary line of business: design/manufacture of laser barcode scanners, rugged mobile computers, WLAN infrastructure and RFID equipment. Revenue ~US$1.7B (FY2005); >900 US patents.
• Current status of the original assignee entity: Not operating independently. Symbol Technologies, Inc. (NY) reincorporated into Delaware via merger effective 1987-11-20 (recorded 1990-12-07, per the legal-events table). Motorola, Inc. acquired Symbol for US$3.9B in cash, announced 2006-09-19, closing late 2006 / early 2007, as a wholly-owned subsidiary. Motorola's January 2011 split placed the enterprise business (and the Symbol subsidiary) under Motorola Solutions, Inc.; Motorola Solutions' Enterprise business — including Symbol Technologies — was sold to Zebra Technologies Corp. in October 2014. Google Patents' "Current Assignee" field returns Symbol Technologies LLC, which is the later name/conversion of that subsidiary rather than a separately recorded patent assignment. Symbol's 2004 SEC penalty (US$37M, fraudulent accounting; eleven executives charged) is a governance red flag but not a bankruptcy.

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Assignment timeline

Three recorded events appear in the USPTO-derived legal-events table. Reel/frame and correspondent were not retrievable in this session.

• executed: not retrieved / recorded 1988-11-14 — Reel not retrieved/not retrieved

  • Conveyance: Security Interest (Google's conveyance tag; underlying instrument is a security agreement / collateral assignment — "SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS")
  • Assignor: Symbol Technologies, Inc.
  • Assignee: National Westminster Bank USA, a national banking association
  • Correspondent: not retrieved (this is the highest-value missing field; see signal 3 below — I am explicitly not naming an attorney here)
  • Context: secured financing / patent-collateral pledge — the patent portfolio was pledged as collateral for a bank credit facility. This is the only lien-type event in the chain.

• executed: not retrieved / recorded 1990-07-13 — Reel not retrieved/not retrieved

  • Conveyance: Release by Secured Party
  • Assignor: National Westminster Bank USA
  • Assignee: Symbol Technologies, Inc., a corporation of Delaware
  • Correspondent: not retrieved
  • Context: lien discharge — the 1988 security interest was terminated on satisfaction.

• executed: effective 1987-11-20 (NY) / recorded 1990-12-07 — Reel not retrieved/not retrieved

  • Conveyance: Merger
  • Assignor: Symbol Technologies, Inc. (the New York corporation)
  • Assignee: Symbol Technologies, Inc., a corporation of Delaware
  • Correspondent: not retrieved
  • Context: internal reorg / change of corporate domicile only — NY → DE reincorporation. Not a change of beneficial ownership; the same business continued. The ~3-year lag between the 1987-11-20 effective date and the 1990-12-07 recording is common for merger clean-up filings.

No assignment to Motorola, Motorola Solutions, or Zebra appears in the record. That is expected: those were stock/asset acquisitions of corporate control, so title to the patent moved with the subsidiary entity and no patent-level assignment recordation was required or made. This is a genuine negative finding, not a data gap.

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Timeline diagram

timeline
    title Ownership of US 4387297
    1980 : Filed by Symbol Technologies Inc
    1983 : Patent issued
    1988 : Security interest to NatWest Bank
    1990 : NatWest release recorded
         : NY to Delaware merger recorded
    2000 : Statutory term ends
    2006 : Symbol acquired by Motorola
    2011 : Motorola split
         : Symbol moves to Motorola Solutions
    2014 : Enterprise arm sold to Zebra

(Term note for the diagram: filed 1980-02-29 and issued 1983-06-07 gives a statutory term of 17 years from issuance = 2000-06-07, or 20 years from filing = 2000-02-29 — the longer is 2000-06-07. Google Patents instead lists "Anticipated expiration 2012-09-12," a date exactly 17 years after the 1995-09-12 "US4387297B1" publication entry. I cannot reconcile Google's date with the statutory term and flag it unresolved rather than asserting either. The 1995-09-12 B1 entry is itself unexplained in the retrieved material and may reflect a post-issuance certificate or a Google data artifact.)

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NPE / troll-pattern signals

Weak/contextual observations (explicitly not NPE findings):

• The 1988-11-14 security interest to National Westminster Bank USA shows the patent was used as loan collateral — a securitization data point, and the reason a bank name appears in an otherwise clean operating-company chain. Its release (1990-07-13) closed the encumbrance before the patent's commercially important years.
• Highly-cited patent, no post-1990 patent-level assignment = the asset stayed inside the operating family for its whole enforceable life. The absence of assignment records for Motorola/Motorola Solutions/Zebra is the correct corporate-stock-transaction result, not an ownership gap.
• The precise split of consideration in the Motorola and Zebra transactions (which patents were allocated to which surviving entity) is not determinable from publicly retrieved sources.

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Verdict

Operating-company assertion.

The record shows a clean operating-company chain: the patent was filed and held by Symbol Technologies, Inc., passed only through a bank security interest recorded 1988-11-14 and released 1990-07-13 and a same-entity NY→Delaware merger recorded 1990-12-07, and thereafter followed corporate control (Motorola 2006/2007 → Motorola Solutions 2011 → Zebra 2014) with no patent-level assignment to any licensing vehicle. Every one of the eight NPE signals is not present (signal 3 is merely unretrievable), and the only identified assertions of Symbol's scanner patents were by Symbol against direct competitors, Metrologic and Intermec. The patent's term has since lapsed, so no assertion risk attaches today; the residual title sits with Symbol Technologies LLC, a Zebra Technologies subsidiary.

Verify at: https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/ (search patent number 4387297) and the mirror at https://assignment.uspto.gov/patent/index.html — both surface the same underlying records. Legal-events corroboration: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US4387297A](/patent/US4387297A)/en.

What I could not retrieve and would need before raising confidence to a firm negative: (a) the reel/frame numbers for the 1988-11-14, 1990-07-13 and 1990-12-07 records; (b) the correspondent of record on each of those three records — the single most diagnostic field, and the one I am least willing to guess at; and (c) the Darts-ip case list behind the family's litigation flag, to test the pre-litigation-transfer window properly.

I'll research US patent 4387297 and its cited prior art references.

Let me get the specific citation list from the patent's front page.

Let me find the specific front-page references cited in US4387297.

Important limitation up front

I hit the search-step limit before I could retrieve the authoritative front-page "References Cited" (56) list for US4387297 as printed on the granted patent. I will not fabricate that list. Below is what I could actually verify, clearly separated from what I could not, plus how the request's framing needs to be corrected.

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1. Patent identification (verified)

Family members (from the Google Patents "family" block): GB2070832B, CA1154872A, FR2477302B1, JPS56140467A, DE3107922C2, DE3153253C2, IT1138713B, plus later filings US4496831A and US4593186A (both divisional/continuations of Ser. No. 125,768) and CA1173103A.

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2. A necessary correction to the request

Your instruction says to "look at each patent citation for 4387297." On a US patent front page, "citations" runs in two opposite directions, and only one of them is prior art:

• "References Cited" / "Patent Citations" (backward citations): prior art the examiner/applicant cited against 4387297. These are the only ones usable for an § 102 anticipation analysis against 4387297.
• "Cited By" / "Referenced By" (forward citations): later patents that cite 4387297. These postdate 4387297 and therefore cannot anticipate it under § 102. They are relevant only for subsidiary matters (e.g., demonstrating the patent's significance, or for § 112/OBVIOUSNESS questions in those later patents).

I was able to retrieve extensive forward‑citation data but not the authoritative backward‑citation (prior‑art) list, so a defensible per‑reference § 102 mapping is not possible from what I retrieved.

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3. What I did verify about 4387297's cited art

a) Prior art cited inside the 4387297 specification (verified from the patent text itself):

• US4251798A — "Portable laser scanning arrangement for and method of evaluating and validating bar code symbols," filed 1978‑05‑31, granted 1981‑02‑17, Symbol Technologies. The 4387297 specification repeatedly cross-references this as co‑pending application Ser. No. 911,171, filed May 31, 1978, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,251,798, for details of the scanning elements and signal‑processing means. (Google Patents EP0783157 page.) Because the 4387297 priority date is 1980‑02‑29, and US4251798 has a 1978 priority and is commonly owned, this is the most likely candidate for the closest prior art — but note it is a sibling/ancestor in the same corporate family, so its use as § 102 art against 4387297 is legally constrained (terminal disclaimer / same‑inventor considerations).

b) References that appear in citation lists associated with US4387297 (retrieved via Google Patents' related‑citations tables — treat as candidates, not confirmed front‑page items):

• US3636317A — Charecogn Systems, Inc. — "Machine readable code track" — 1972‑01‑18
• US3774014A — Pitney Bowes Alpex, Inc. — "Printed code scanning system" — 1973‑11‑20
• US4041322A — Schiller Industries, Inc. — "Apparatus for generating polyphase scan patterns" — 1977‑08‑09
• US4025761A — Schiller Industries, Inc. — "Optical system for code symbol scanners" — 1977‑05‑24
• US3818467A — Solid State Technology — "Damage detection" — 1974‑06‑18
• US3631274A — Barge, Inc. — "Program sequence initiator" — 1971‑12‑28

⚠️ These identifiers surfaced in a citation table on the Google Patents page for US4992717 (Symbol, "Stepper motor drive circuit"), not on a confirmed 4387297 front-page panel. I cannot certify them as 4387297's own cited references without the primary front page. Do not treat this list as confirmed until checked against the printed 4387297 front page.

c) Foreign search reports citing 4387297 (confirmatory only — 4387297 is the cited document, i.e., it is prior art to these, the reverse direction):

• EP0194115A3 (Symbol, "Portable laser diode scanning head") lists "XD US 4387297 A 19830607 – Swartz Jerome, et al" — an "X" category, i.e., a document of particular relevance showing lack of novelty/inventive step for that later application.
• EP0256296A3, EP0428670B1, EP0770970A2, and DE69431280T2 likewise cite US 4387297 A.

These confirm 4387297's status as seminal prior art, but they say nothing about what 4387297 itself anticipated.

d) Forward citations ("Cited By") — NOT prior art (list is illustrative, not exhaustive): US4409470, US4460120, US4578571, US4766297, US4838632, US4933538, US4992717, US5144120, US5216533, US5126545, US5189356, US5266787, US5280163, US5479000, US5796091, US6122621, etc. Every one of these postdates 1983‑06‑07 and therefore cannot anticipate 4387297 under § 102.

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4. Requested per‑reference analysis (§ 102 mapping)

I am not providing the requested citation‑by‑citation § 102 mapping, because:

1. I could not retrieve the verified front‑page "References Cited" list for US4387297, so any mapping would rest on unverified candidates (§3b above); and
2. The only candidate I can verify — US4251798 (Ser. No. 911,171) — shares the same assignee and closely related inventors, so a bare § 102 assertion against it would be legally unsupportable without a full same‑inventor/priority analysis.

Providing a fabricated § 102 table would violate the instruction to say explicitly when I do not know something with high confidence.

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5. How to close the gap (recommended next retrieval)

To obtain the authoritative data needed to complete your analysis:

1. USPTO Patent Center / Patent Public Search (https://ppubs.uspto.gov) → retrieve US4387297 and read the printed front page, field (56) References Cited, including the "U.S. Patent Documents" and "Foreign Patent Documents" sub‑lists.
2. USPTO PatentCenter (https://patentcenter.uspto.gov) → Application 06/125,768 → Image File Wrapper → Form PTO‑1449 (Information Disclosure Statement) and the examiner's PTO‑892 (Notice of References Cited) — these show exactly which references the applicant and examiner considered.
3. USPTO Assignment database → confirm the 1988 security‑interest and 1990 merger/release chain (National Westminster Bank USA ↔ Symbol Technologies).
4. For the family's search reports (with X/Y/A categories that actually map relevance), pull the EPO Global Dossier / ESPACENET records for GB2070832B, FR2477302B1, DE3107922C2, and JPS56140467A, which contain the examiners' categorization of cited art.

If you can supply the front‑page "References Cited" list (or grant me the ability to fetch the USPTO full‑page image), I will produce the complete table you asked for — full citation, publication/filing date, brief description, and the specific claim(s) of US4387297 each reference could plausibly anticipate under 35 U.S.C. § 102.

I'll start by trying to locate the actual "References Cited" / prior-art listing for this patent, since the text supplied in the prompt does not include one.

Let me try to pull the actual cited-reference list from patent databases.

Obviousness Analysis — U.S. Patent 4,387,297 (35 U.S.C. § 103)

0. What I can and cannot ground on (read this first)

Three transparency notes up front, because they bound the reliability of everything below:

1. The supplied page text does not contain the "References Cited" / "Patent Citations" front-page list. The material given to me reproduces the abstract, the "Definitions" (machine-extracted) summary, the classification tree, the full "Description of the Prior Art" and "Summary of the Invention," and the Detailed Description — but it stops mid-sentence ("The housing is molded in two parts, …"), so the claims are also not present, and no examiner-cited art list is present.
2. My attempts to retrieve that front-page list did not succeed. Searches returned citation lists of other, later patents that cite US 4,387,297 (e.g., US 5,714,419-era Symbol descendants, US 5,262,956, US 4,672,215) — that is the "Cited By" direction, not the "References Cited" direction, and it must not be confused with the § 103 prior art. I therefore will not invent reference numbers. Everything I rely on below is either (a) expressly named in the patent's own prior-art discussion or (b) identified in the specification as known art.
3. The claim-by-claim mapping is provisional because the claim text was not supplied. I instead map the combinations to the subject matter the specification itself says is claimed ("The novel features which are considered as characteristic of the invention are set forth in particular in the appended claims") — i.e., the weight/volume-limited integrated head, the oscillating scanning motor, the penta-bimorph, the shutter feature, the trigger/indicator feature, the dual-photodiode field of view, the harness/cable, and the timer shut-down. If you paste the claim set, I can convert this into a limitation-by-limitation § 103 chart.

Source for the patent text: https://patents.google.com/patent/US4387297/en

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1. The prior art as it actually appears on this page

The "Prior Art section" of US 4,387,297 is the narrative Description of the Prior Art plus the references named in the body. Reduced to a usable reference list:

Two doctrinal consequences of PA-7 and PA-8 worth flagging immediately:

• PA-7 is self-inflicted art. Because the specification incorporates it by reference for the signal processing and the bimorph scanner, the applicant cannot argue that those teachings are remote or non-analogous. It is also commonly owned with the application (Google Patents lists the original assignee as Symbol Technologies LLC for both), which matters: the § 103(c) common-ownership safe harbor did not exist when this application was filed (enacted 1984). If the inventive entities differ (US 4,251,798 names "Swartz et al."; US 4,387,297 names Swartz, Barkan and Harrison), the earlier application is also § 102(e) art as of May 31, 1978 — before this application's Feb. 29, 1980 filing date. Obviousness-type double patenting between the two commonly-owned disclosures is a live risk as well.
• PA-5 and PA-8 are applicant admissions. Galvo-with-springs scanners and solenoid shutters are admitted prior art on the face of the document and can be used against the claims without any further documentary evidence.

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2. Combinations that would render the claims obvious

Combination A — PA-7 (US 4,251,798) alone, or PA-7 + PA-4

Features implicated: the integrated head (laser + optics + scanner + photodetector + signal processing in one housing), hand-held use, shock resistance, single-line/raster/omni-directional scan patterns.

PA-7 already discloses a portable laser scanning head carrying the laser and optical assembly, a photodetector assembly generating an analog signal, and signal-processing/decoder structure, all on a shock-mounting plate. The only meaningful differences that the '297 summary identifies are (i) putting the decode-side/signal-processing and power elements into the head rather than a console, and (ii) the quantified <100 in³ / <2½ lb envelope.

• Motivation: (i) comes straight from the admitted problem in PA-4 — the "thick and somewhat unwieldy cable interconnects the portable head to a desk-top console which houses the decode circuitry." Moving the processing into the head and sending only digitized data over the cable is the direct, predictable solution to the problem the specification itself identifies ("it is no longer necessary to bring high voltage to the head by means of a thick power wire").
• Rationale under MPEP 2143: (C) a change in a recognized technique to a known method yielding predictable results, and (D) obvious design need / market pressure — the specification concedes the known heads were "too heavy for those assembly-line applications where a user is reading codes all day long."

Combination B — PA-4 + any miniaturization art + the claimed numeric envelope

Features implicated: "volume less than about 100 cubic inches," "weigh less than about two and one-half pounds."

Weight and volume are result-effective variables in an admitted design trade-off: the specification concedes they "are only exemplary, and [are] not intended to be self-limiting," that "weights on the order of one to two pounds are readily obtainable," and that with a laser diode "weights on the order of less than one pound are realized." A recitation of a result to be optimized is not inventive merely because the optimization succeeds. The results-effective-variable line of authority (In re Aller, 220 F.2d 454 (CCPA 1955), and its companion; In re Rose) treats optimization of a parameter whose effect is recognized in the art as within the skill of the art. See also In re Woodruff on ranges. This is a strong § 103 attack on any claim whose only novel feature is the numerical envelope — unless the applicant can show criticality (e.g., that the claimed thresholds produce an unexpected improvement, such as the claimed ability to mount the head on an existing assembly line "without requiring extensive modification," which is an ergonomic rather than a technical result).

Combination C — PA-5/PA-6 (galvo scanners, motor-driven polygons) + conventional stepper-motor control art

Features implicated: the reciprocally oscillating scanning motor ("arc lengths which are less than 360°," "typically about 5°," no springs).

The specification states the motor "structural aspects … are analogous to a simplified stepper motor, which is a device which is used to convert electrical pulses into discrete mechanical angular movements every time the polarity of a stator winding is changed." That sentence is effectively a concession that the motor structure is known.

• Motivation: expressly supplied by the specification — PA-5's springs "generally contribute to the large size of the galvanometer-type scanners," and elimination of springs removes the wear-out failure mode. Replacing a spring-restrained galvo with a magnetically-restrained oscillatory motor to eliminate spring wear and reduce size is a textbook § 103 modification (known problem → known solution; KSR Int'l Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 550 U.S. 398 (2007); MPEP 2144.04, design incentives).
• The claimed 5°/100 Hz values are additional result-effective-variable optimization, and the closed-loop FIG. 9/10 sensing arrangement (printed primary coil, triangular printed secondaries, shield on the shaft) is a straightforward application of known inductively-coupled position-sensing.

Combination D — PA-7 (bimorph scan elements) + PA-9 (penta-prism optics)

Features implicated: the penta-bimorph — two spaced bimorphs, mirrors at 45° to each other, constant 90° between incoming and outgoing beams.

The specification itself concedes the equivalence: "This is analogous to the penta-prism effect, wherein the beam exiting from one face always defines a 90° angle with the beam entering from another face." PA-7 provides the bimorph oscillating scanning element and its drive/feedback circuitry; penta-prism optics were notoriously old and well known.

• Motivation: both stated benefits are predictable consequences of the known penta-prism property — insensitivity to vibration/shock and thermal self-compensation (both mirrors shift together). KSR's "predictable variation" rationale, and MPEP 2143(I)/(F): use of a known optical principle for its known property. The claimed double/double/double "amplification" is simple geometry (a 45°/45° mirror pair gives 2× per reflection, plus anti-phase addition), i.e., the expected result.
• The strongest rebuttal available to the patentee is a teaching-away / unexpected-results argument that Mylar-free… rather, that the bimorph's resonant oscillation plus the 45° pairing would not be expected to preserve beam alignment under shock; but the penta-prism property is precisely alignment preservation, so this is a hard argument.

Combination E — PA-8 (solenoid shutter / laser shut-off) + the scanning-mirror art (PA-5/PA-6/PA-7)

Features implicated: the "shutter position" of the scan mirror; preventing beam exit without deactuating the laser and without a solenoid.

• Motivation is stated verbatim in the specification: solenoid shutters "wear out over time, and which require a lot of drive power." Using the existing scanning mirror (already in the light path, already motor-driven) as the shutter eliminates a component — a classic "elimination of parts / combination of old elements" rationale under MPEP 2143(II)–(III) and KSR. The alternative claim variant (deflecting the beam beyond the exit window edges) is likewise the predictable result of over-driving a known oscillating mirror.
• Note the design-choice character of the two disclosed shutter variants (over-drive past the sweep limit vs. in-range deflection onto a black-body/inside the housing): alternative embodiments of the same solution, each with predictable results.

Combination F — PA-1/PA-2 (single-scan wand) + PA-7 (head with trigger and decode) + conventional timer/counter circuitry

Features implicated: the trigger-initiated burst of repeated scans (~200 scans); the decode-success indicator (LED 99 / beeper 98); the ~5-minute time-out laser shut-down; the ~3-second termination.

• Motivation: PA-1/PA-2 concede the core problem — "the user, at best, gets one scan per manual movement," requiring repeated manual attempts. Automatically generating many scans from one trigger actuation, and signalling success, is the direct solution; the objects section repeats this ("accurately scan a symbol with a high degree of reliability on the first attempt"). The "on/off" timer and status indicators are conventional electrical arts (MPEP 2143(A): combination of old, functionally unrelated but available elements; here they are functionally related).
• The "sense each object in its turn" feature is likewise an obvious programming/control requirement once repetitive scanning is adopted, and the decode-confirmation signalling is the natural way to distinguish "many scans for one object" from "one scan for many objects."

Combination G — photodetector art (as in PA-7) + known multi-detector/field-of-view widening

Features implicated: a pair of spaced photodiodes with overlapping zones of coverage to expand the field of view.

• Motivation: purely geometric and predictable — the specification gives the arithmetic itself (a four-inch field of view → diodes spaced about two inches apart). Duplication and spacing of a known detector to cover a known extent is the very model of an obvious design choice; the Federal Circuit's "known technique applied to a known structure" line and MPEP 2143(A) apply. There is little room for a nonobviousness argument here absent evidence that the overlapping/dual-detector arrangement produced an unexpected decoding improvement (a possible secondary-considerations hook — see § 4).

Combination H — PA-4 (portable head cabled to a console) + body-worn terminal / portable data-terminal art

Features implicated: belt-pack harness with decode computer 102, data storage 104, rechargeable battery 106; the non-shielded, flexible cable carrying only low-voltage power and digitized data.

• Motivation: the admitted problem is cable unwieldiness and stationarity. Relocating the console to the user's body, and digitizing in the head so that no shielded RF wires or high-voltage wire are needed, are the mechanically predictable consequences of digitizing at the head. The specification's own rationale ("Such digital signals do not require radio frequency shielding and hence, the individual wires are much thinner and more flexible") is an explicit statement of the predictable result — which cuts against patentability rather than for it.

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3. Summary table of attack strength

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4. Rebuttal avenues the patentee would likely pursue (and how they fare)

1. Unexpected results in the weight/volume envelope — e.g., that the sub-100 in³ head can be bolted to an existing assembly line without modification (FIG. 13). This is the most promising secondary-considerations theory, but it must be tied by evidence to the claimed numerical limits, not to the design as a whole.
2. Commercial success / industry praise for the Symbol hand-held scanner line that followed this filing. Under Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1 (1966), this requires a nexus to the claimed features; where the success flows from marketing, form factor and ecosystem (a large installed base of bar codes and terminals), the nexus is contestable.
3. Criticality of the ~2½ lb / 100 in³ thresholds — the specification's own hedging ("only exemplary … not self-limiting") materially weakens this.
4. Common-ownership / double-patenting overlay — note that the patentee may prefer to argue obviousness-type double patenting (a narrower, terminal-disclaimer-curable issue) over § 103 against PA-7; that is a litigation-strategy point, not a patentability cure for third parties.
5. Teaching away — the strongest candidate is PA-8's practice of shutting down the laser tube itself; but the reference's own rationale (tube life) does not teach away from instead shuttering the beam with the scan mirror, so the KSR "mere disclosure of a less preferable alternative" analysis applies.

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5. Confidence and gaps

• High confidence: the identification of PA-7 (US 4,251,798 / Ser. No. 911,171) as the closest art, its express incorporation for signal processing and bimorph scanning, the applicant's own admissions as to galvo springs, stepper-motor analogy, penta-prism analogy, and solenoid-shutter drawbacks, and the result-effective-variable vulnerability of the numeric envelope. These are all anchored in the supplied text.
• Cannot verify: (i) the front-page "References Cited" list for US 4,387,297 — it was not in the supplied material and my searches returned only citing patents; (ii) the exact claim language, since the supplied text ends before the claims; (iii) the exact inventive entity of US 4,251,798 (reported as "Swartz et al."), which determines whether the § 102(e)/(pre-1984) common-ownership analysis applies.
• If you supply the claim set (or the front-page reference list), I will re-issue this as a limitation-by-limitation § 103 chart with claim-element → reference-mapping → motivation, and with the KSR/MPEP 2143 rationale identified per limitation. I will not guess at claim language in the interim.