Invalidity dossier
US 5749646
Special effect lamps
Current assignee: Individual
Added 9/23/2026, 3:22:55 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: US5749646A — "Special Effect Lamps"
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/[US5749646](/patent/US5749646)/en (fetched 2026-09-23)
Bibliographic data (from supplied text):
- Title: Special effect lamps
- Patent number: US5749646A
- Application number: US08/339,922
- Inventor: Gerald A. Brittell
- Assignee: Individual (both original and current; the source notes listed assignees "may be inaccurate")
- Priority date: 1992-01-17 (stated as an assumption)
- Filing date: 1994-12-15
- Publication/grant date: 1998-05-12
- Status: Expired – Fee Related; anticipated expiration 2015-05-12
Purpose and plain-language scope (based only on the supplied text):
The patent concerns lamps that produce "special effects." The source's keyword and classification data indicate the disclosure involves a light bulb/lamp in which a colorant is used and color can be changed, producing varying lighting effects (classification F21S10/02, "changing colors"). Keywords include light, lamp, light bulb, colored, and bulb. Other indexed concepts suggest membranes, mating/fastening structures (F21V17/10, F21V17/12), and insertion, plus color mixing, illumination, decoration, and possible therapeutic use (per the abstract-indexed terms). Circuits for operating incandescent sources "in which the lamp is fed by pulses" (H05B39/09) are also classified, suggesting a pulsed drive aspect.
In plain terms, the excerpt indicates a lamp/bulb system in which a colorant or colored element interacts with the light source to create decorative or changing colored effects, with various mechanical fastening/insertion features and pulsed operation.
What the excerpt does not establish: The supplied text does not include the actual claims, abstract, or description prose, so the precise scope of the invention, its limitations, and its stated objects cannot be verified. It does not establish validity, enforceability, current ownership, or the content of any prior art. Dates are expressly flagged in the source as assumptions. No litigation, transfer, or prior-art research was performed, per scope.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:51:38 PM
Cases on file (0)
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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.