Invalidity dossier
US 5418354
Self service cart system
Current assignee: Individual
Added 9/24/2026, 1:54:05 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 — US 5,418,354 A ("Self Service Cart System")
Bibliographic data (from source): US Patent 5,418,354 A; application US08/109,421; inventors Leonard W. Halling and Dale B. Halling; original assignee listed as Individual; priority/filing date 1993-08-20; granted/publication date 1995-05-23; anticipated expiration 2013-08-20; legal status "Expired – Fee Related." Classifications include G07F7/02, G06K17/0022, G06K7/10881, and G07G1/0054/1/0081. Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US5418354/en
Purpose: The invention addresses problems in shopping carts and checkout, aiming to protect merchants by ensuring only properly paid-for products leave the store, and to assure customers they pay only for items they take. It is described as a shopping cart with a built-in bar code scanner and security scanner.
Plain-language scope (per the excerpt): A self-service cart has a bar code scanner and a security scanner, an interior space with a door, a magnetic card reader, and a keypad. A customer swipes a personal card and enters a password to activate the cart. A controller unlatches the door only when a product's bar code is successfully scanned for price/description and the security scanner has converted the product's tag from an unsecured to a secured state. Security tags may be magnetic (converted to nonmagnetic) or electromagnetic-emitting (converted to non-emitting); the secured/unsecured correspondence is as stated. A security sensor raises an alarm if an unsecured product leaves. Options include a store inventory-control computer communicating with the controller, wheels, a motor with actuator for self-propulsion, an LCD display showing totals, product lists, locations, advertising, and scan status, an I/O port (e.g., RS232 or Centronix), and a proximity sensor that cuts power and locks wheels beyond a predetermined distance from the store. Figures 1–8 depict a prior-art cart, the cart, a product, schematics, block diagram, and controller flow charts.
Not established by the excerpt: the full claims, complete specification, omitted FIG. 5–8 details, any litigation, ownership transfers, validity, or prior art beyond the identified prior-art cart.
Note: quoted/paraphrased content is limited to the supplied Google Patents excerpt.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:31:01 PM
Cases on file (0)
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Litigation summary
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Proceedings on file (0)
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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
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Obviousness
Combinations of prior art that suggest the claimed invention would have been obvious under 35 U.S.C. § 103.
Extensions
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Derivative works
Defensive disclosure: derivative variations of each claim designed to render future incremental improvements obvious or non-novel.