Invalidity dossier
US 5974619
Brushes
Current assignee: Coronet Werke GmbH
Added 9/23/2026, 4:01:29 PM
Active provider: DeepSeek · deepseek-flash
Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
US 5,974,619 — "Brushes": Overview
Title: Brushes
Patent number: US 5,974,619 A
Inventor: Georg Weihrauch
Assignee: Coronet Werke GmbH (original and current assignee; assignment recorded 1997-08-18)
Application number: US 08/894,380
Priority date: 1995-03-03
Filing date: 1996-02-29
Publication (grant) date: 1999-11-02
Anticipated expiration: 2016-02-29
Status as listed: Expired – Fee Related
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US5974619/en
Purpose. The invention addresses brushware exposed to moisture (toothbrushes, paintbrushes, etc.) whose bundled bristles dry incompletely: narrow capillaries between bristles retain moisture, encouraging bacteria and microbe growth and trapping dirt and application-media residue, while absorbed moisture degrades bristle stiffness and recovery. Recesses in the bristle carrier that hold bundles compound the problem.
Plain-language scope. The abstract states the entire bristle facing is formed from individual, closely standing, non-contacting bristles rather than bundles. Individual bristles are fastened directly to a planar bristle carrier (welding, injection moulding, or bonding), avoiding recesses, and dry quickly. Bristle use characteristics are set by diameter, length, material (polyamide, polyester), and arrangement density—always with spacing. The description covers: fastening-side spherical/lenticular thickened or ridged ends anchored in the carrier (injecting, casting, dipping); embedding length less than four times bristle diameter, practically about 1.5 times; spacing of 0.5–4.0 (particularly 1.5–2.0) times bristle diameter, preferably smaller than the diameter; varying lengths, groups with differing spacing or stiffness, denser head/marginal areas; channels between bristles retaining liquid or pasty media; varied tip shapes (rounded, conical, thickened) and contoured, abrasive, or flocked surfaces.
Not established by the excerpt. No claim text is included, so claim scope and legal coverage cannot be stated. No prosecution history, validity, enforceability, or litigation information appears. No prior art beyond the description's general background discussion is identified, and no ownership transfers beyond the recorded assignment are shown.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:51:13 PM
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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
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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
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