Invalidity dossier

US 5157418

Ink jet recording head with through-hole wiring connector

Current assignee: Canon Inc

Added 9/23/2026, 9:33:22 PM

At a glanceNo PTAB challengesNo litigation on file

Active provider: DeepSeek · deepseek-flash

Patent summary

Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.

✓ Generated

Patent Overview — US 5,157,418

Title: Ink jet recording head with through-hole wiring connector

Patent number: US 5,157,418 A
Application number: US 07/668,686
Inventor: Hideo Tamura
Assignee: Canon Inc. (listed; Google notes assignee listings may be inaccurate)
Priority date: 1988-06-03 (noted as an assumption, not a legal conclusion)
Filing date: 1991-03-07
Publication/grant date: 1992-10-20
Legal status: Expired – Lifetime; anticipated expiration 2009-10-20

Purpose: The invention addresses problems in conventional liquid emission (ink jet) recording heads, where a common electrode member was adhered to the substrate and connected to the common electrode wiring by wire bonding. The number of wire bonds corresponded to the number of discharge openings, making the process complex, precision-demanding, and prone to wire disconnection, and requiring a cumbersome common electrode member matched to the recording head width. An object is a recording head produced by a very simple, low-cost process that still offers high precision and reliability in electrical connections.

Plain-language scope: A substrate for a liquid emission recording head comprises a support member; multiple electrothermal converting elements, each having a heat-generating resistor layer, a common electrode wiring layer, and an individual electrode wiring layer both connected to the resistor layer, plus a protective layer; an insulating layer on the common electrode wiring layer; and a common electrode connected in common to the plural common electrode wiring layers across that insulating layer by through-holes provided in it. Liquid paths are formed on the substrate over the heat-generating areas between the common and individual electrode wiring layers, with discharge openings communicating with the paths; thermal energy generated in the heat-generating areas emits the liquid. A recording apparatus includes the head and switch means of a power source for driving it.

Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US5157418/en

What the excerpt does not establish: The excerpt is partial and omits text after FIG. 4. It does not provide the full claims, complete description, drawings, or prosecution history; does not establish enforceability, ownership transfers, or validity; and does not substantiate prior-art comparisons. Dates marked as assumptions are not verified legal conclusions.

Generated 10/1/2026, 9:34:13 PM

Cases on file (0)

Specific litigation cases in our database that name US patent 5157418. The free-form analysis below may also discuss cases beyond this list.

No cases on file mention this patent. Upload a CSV or add a case manually in Admin → Manage litigation cases.

Litigation summary

Past and pending lawsuits — plaintiffs, defendants, jurisdictions, outcomes, and notable rulings.

Log in to generate
Not generated yet. Log in to request this analysis.

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.

Log in to generate
Not generated yet. Log in to request this analysis.

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.

Log in to generate
Not generated yet. Log in to request this analysis.

Prior art

Earlier patents, publications, and products that may anticipate or render the claims unpatentable.

Log in to generate
Not generated yet. Log in to request this analysis.

Obviousness

Combinations of prior art that suggest the claimed invention would have been obvious under 35 U.S.C. § 103.

Log in to generate
Not generated yet. Log in to request this analysis.

Extensions

Patent term adjustments, term extensions, continuations, divisionals, family members, and expiration dates.

Log in to generate
Not generated yet. Log in to request this analysis.

Derivative works

Defensive disclosure: derivative variations of each claim designed to render future incremental improvements obvious or non-novel.

Log in to generate
Not generated yet. Log in to request this analysis.