Invalidity dossier
US 6104451
Thin display housing with multiple chambers and fans
Current assignee: Maxell Ltd
Added 9/23/2026, 4:12:42 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 6,104,451
Title: Thin display housing with multiple chambers and fans
Patent number: US 6,104,451 (application US09/267,595)
Assignee/owner of record as listed: Original assignee Hitachi, Ltd.; current assignee listed as Maxell Ltd. (The patent text notes that listed assignees may be inaccurate and that no legal analysis was performed.)
Key dates:
- Prior art date / priority date: 1998-03-16 (stated as an assumption, not a legal conclusion)
- Filing date: 1999-03-15
- Publication/grant date: 2000-08-15
- Anticipated expiration: 2019-03-15; legal status: Expired – Lifetime
Inventors: Katsumasa Matsuoka, Yoshiaki Amano, Tatsuo Murai, Taisuke Kashima, Hisayuki Ishii, Tatsumi Mori, Naohiro Takasugi
Purpose and plain-language scope (based on the supplied excerpt):
The patent concerns a thin display unit that receives picture signals from an external unit and displays an image, such as a liquid-crystal display with a backlight or a plasma display. The background explains that thin displays are lighter and thinner than CRT displays and are increasingly used in notebook computers, portable terminals, and eventually desktop computers and terminal processors. A typical desktop thin display has a body containing a liquid-crystal display and a stand allowing the body to tilt.
The excerpt describes a conventional structure in which a thin iron plate serves as the support member of the body, with the liquid-crystal unit screwed to the front of the support structure. It identifies problems with this approach in large-screen thin displays: breakage from twisting because the unit is very thin, and increased weight from larger display size. The title indicates the disclosed solution involves a thin housing with multiple chambers and fans, consistent with the classifications listed for cooling means, airflow channels, and LCD support structures. The excerpt does not, however, describe the actual chamber/fan arrangement.
What the excerpt does not establish: The excerpt is incomplete. It does not provide the claims, detailed description of the multiple chambers or fans, specific dimensions, materials, or embodiments, nor any prior-art references. It also does not establish ownership, validity, or litigation status, and no such analysis was performed.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:51:03 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
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.