Invalidity dossier
US 6019907
Forming refill for monolithic inkjet printhead
Current assignee: Hewlett Packard Development Co LP
Added 9/23/2026, 9:54:11 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 6,019,907
Title: Forming refill for monolithic inkjet printhead
Patent Number: US 6,019,907 A
Inventor: Naoto Kawamura
Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Company (current listed assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Co. LP)
Application Number: US 08/907,535
Priority/Filing Date: August 8, 1997
Publication/Grant Date: February 1, 2000
Status: Expired – Lifetime (anticipated expiration August 8, 2017)
Purpose (plain language): The patent concerns manufacturing a "monolithic" inkjet printhead — one built as an integrated structure on a die rather than assembled from separate parts. According to the supplied text's keyword and classification data, the invention addresses forming a "refill," i.e., an ink channel or trench that supplies ink, in the printhead die. The described techniques involve etching (including laser machining) and photolithography to create trenches, openings, and nozzles on a silicon substrate, with thin films, passivation, and firing elements (resistors) involved. Classifications place it under B41J2/16 (production of inkjet nozzles) and B41J2/14 (on-demand inkjet head structure), notably front-shooter bubble-jet printheads and manifold structures.
Scope note: The excerpt does not include the actual claims, abstract, or specification text. It therefore does not establish the precise claim limitations, the specific ordering of manufacturing steps, or the exact novelty over prior art — beyond the assigned art units and keyword frequencies. Listed related filings include TW 400283 B, DE 69802478 T2, EP 0895866 B1, JP 2994344 B2, and US 6,158,846 A (a later-filed continuation/related case).
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US6019907/en
Not established by this excerpt: the claims, abstract, specification language, drawing content, any litigation, validity, assignment accuracy, or inventorship details beyond what is listed. Legal status shown is Google Patents' assumption, not a legal conclusion.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:33:57 PM
Cases on file (0)
Specific litigation cases in our database that name US patent 6019907. 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.