Invalidity dossier
US 5890291
Enclosed blade fixture for cutting hoses
Current assignee: Crum Manufacturing Inc
Added 9/23/2026, 7:30:06 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 — US 5,890,291 A
Title: Enclosed blade fixture for cutting hoses
Patent number: US5890291A
Application number: US08/850,475
Inventor: James E. Crum
Original/current assignee: Crum Manufacturing Inc (a 2003 assignment to CRUM MANUFACTURING, INC. from inventor James E. Crum is recorded)
Filing date / priority date: 1997-05-05
Publication (grant) date: 1999-04-06
Legal status as listed: Expired – Lifetime; anticipated expiration 2017-05-05 (status presented as an assumption, not a legal conclusion)
Purpose: The patent addresses problems in hose-cutting devices: workpieces twisting or shifting during cutting (causing uneven or ragged cuts), blade flexing and breakage, blades enclosed so completely that access requires disassembly, spring-loaded blade replacement that risks actuating the blade, and scrap removal that requires reaching into the cutting mechanism or relying on gravity.
Plain-language scope (from the supplied text): A cutting device for reinforced or non-reinforced rubber hose with a housing that fully encloses the blade when retracted. The housing has two longitudinal halves forming a chamber that slidably houses a blade engaging member (mounting block); the blade fastens to one end. A gap at the first end lets the blade slide out for replacement, and generally T-shaped slots on the outer surfaces run longitudinally for the length of the chamber, with perpendicular end portions exposing the blade fasteners—permitting manual operation, blade removal and attachment, or blade extension/retraction without separating the halves. One half has a semi-circular profile and the other a half-semi-circular profile to retain the workpiece. A threaded hole at the second end accepts a nose-mount air cylinder for pneumatic operation, and a hole at the first end accepts an air line fitting so air pressure forcibly removes severed workpieces.
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US5890291/en
What the excerpt does not establish: It is abbreviated and omits text after "Slots 16A, 16…," so the full claims, abstract, complete description, drawing details, prior-art citations (e.g., Green, Domonoske), and any examiner reasoning are not shown here. No litigation, validity, or ownership conclusions are drawn.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:42:01 PM
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Litigation summary
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Proceedings on file (0)
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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
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Extensions
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Derivative works
Defensive disclosure: derivative variations of each claim designed to render future incremental improvements obvious or non-novel.