Invalidity dossier
US 5657641
Panel mounted cooling system
Current assignee: Kooltronic Inc
Added 9/23/2026, 3:31:27 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 — US5657641A
Title: Panel mounted cooling system
Patent number: US5657641A
Application number: US08/527,878
Inventors: James J. Cunningham; Boris Muzikant; Solomon Reznik
Original assignee / current assignee (as listed): Kooltronic, Inc.
Priority/filing date: 1995-09-13
Publication/grant date: 1997-08-19
Legal status (as listed): Expired – Fee Related; anticipated expiration 2015-09-13
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US5657641](/patent/US5657641)/en
Purpose
The patent describes a self-contained, weather-resistant, closed-loop cooling system that may be mounted on the exterior of an electrical cabinet to cool electronic equipment inside. Conventional closed-loop systems require cutting openings in the cabinet and are at least partially open to the outside, which can diminish protection of the cabinet interior. The invention addresses this by supplying and exhausting ambient air at the bottom of the cooling system.
Plain-language scope
The cooling system enclosure mounts on the cabinet's exterior and has a bottom portion and a front portion. Its interior is divided into an internal circulation region and an external circulation region, fluidly sealed from one another. The bottom portion has an inlet opening and an exhaust opening connecting the external circulation region to ambient air. Ambient-air blowers or fans in that region draw cooling air in through the bottom inlet and exhaust it through the bottom exhaust opening. The internal region cools and dehumidifies warm cabinet air. A bracket—a plate generally conforming to the enclosure's shape, with an opening used as a cutting template—positions and mounts the enclosure, with dependent flanges on each vertical side supporting it. The system may be a refrigerant-type air conditioner or a refrigerant-free heat exchanger. The excerpt also lists figures, including a prior-art schematic and embodiments with mounting template and bracket.
What the excerpt does not establish
It does not provide the full claims, complete description, or all drawing content; claim language and exact scope are therefore not fully established. It does not establish litigation, ownership transfers, validity, or prior-art comparisons, and no such matters were researched. Listed legal status and assignee are assumptions per the source, not legal conclusions.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:51:30 PM
Cases on file (0)
Specific litigation cases in our database that name US patent 5657641. 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.
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.