Invalidity dossier
US 4704686
Method of manufacturing of individually formed prothesis or implant
Current assignee: Individual
Added 9/24/2026, 12:18:37 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 — US4704686A
Title: Method of manufacturing of individually formed prothesis or implant
Patent number: US4704686A
Application number: US06/865,551
Inventor: Gunther Aldinger
Original/Current Assignee: Individual
Prior art date: 1982-04-10
Filing date: 1986-05-20
Publication/grant date: 1987-11-03
Anticipated expiration: 2004-11-03
Legal status: Expired – Fee Related
Purpose (from the supplied text): The patent concerns manufacturing a prosthesis or implant formed individually for a patient. The prior-art keywords listed — bone, pin, cavity, determining, contour — indicate the disclosed approach centers on determining bone contour and using pins and a cavity in fabricating the implant, with anchoring, bone density, thigh bone (femur), and hip joint among the recurring concepts in the description.
Plain-language scope: Based only on the supplied excerpt, the invention is a method for making a custom-fit prosthesis or implant rather than a standardized, off-the-shelf one. The classification assigned is A61F2/30942 — "Designing or manufacturing processes for designing or making customized prostheses, e.g. using templates, CT or NMR scans, finite-element analysis or CAD-CAM techniques" — which places the subject matter in computer-assisted, patient-specific implant fabrication. Related classifications cover femoral heads/endoprostheses and femoral shafts (A61F2/36, A61F2/3662) and joints for the hip (A61F2/32), consistent with hip-implant applications. The excerpt references computing, measuring, testing, machining, casting, forging, milling, and turning as manufacturing steps, plus materials such as metal, plastic, ceramic, bone cement, and titanium alloy.
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US4704686](/patent/US4704686)/en
What the excerpt does not establish: It does not reproduce the claims, abstract, or full description, so the precise claimed scope, claim dependencies, and limitations cannot be stated. It does not establish the priority basis or whether the 1982-04-10 date is a foreign priority rather than a US filing. It does not identify the "Individual" assignee by name or address. It does not confirm any prior-art reference, litigation, ownership transfer, or validity determination. Google's own notes caution that assignee listings, priority dates, and legal status are assumptions and not legal conclusions.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:31:59 PM
Cases on file (0)
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Litigation summary
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Proceedings on file (0)
All PTAB activity →AIA trial proceedings (IPR / PGR / CBM) filed at the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board against this patent. Sourced from the USPTO Open Data Portal and refreshed every six hours; each proceeding number deep-links to the PTAB E2E docket.
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.