Invalidity dossier
US 6635987
High power white LED lamp structure using unique phosphor application for LED lighting products
Current assignee: Current Lighting Solutions LLC
Added 9/23/2026, 2:16:33 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 6635987 B1
Title: High power white LED lamp structure using unique phosphor application for LED lighting products
Patent number / application: US 6635987 B1; Application US09/670,240
Inventors: Robert J. Wojnarowski; Thomas J. Pozda
Original assignee: General Electric Co. Current assignee listed as Current Lighting Solutions LLC (per the supplied source's assignee field).
Key dates: Priority/filing date 2000-09-26; publication (grant) date 2003-10-21; adjusted expiration 2021-05-29; status listed as "Expired – Lifetime."
Purpose (plain language): The patent addresses making white light from LED lamps. Instead of putting phosphor directly on the GaN LED die (which the text says is hard to mass produce and yields varying color and light output because phosphor thickness at die edges and top varies), the invention pre-applies a phosphor layer to a plastic or glass cap, bulb, or lensing structure that is integral to the LED lamp. Emitted light from the LED die excites the phosphor on that lensing structure. The stated advantages include: replacing phosphor-on-die; output comparable to conventional filament bulbs (including halogen); placing the temperature-sensitive phosphor in a more controlled, lower-temperature area of the lamp; mass producibility; longer lamp/battery life and greater breakage resistance; low-cost assembly for high-volume products, particularly hand-held flashlights; a retrofit/upgrade option for flashlight devices; and good light flux area.
Scope (from the supplied text): Claim-level scope is not reproduced in the excerpt. The description covers at least one LED die and at least one lensing structure with a phosphor layer on at least one side, positioned so die-emitted light excites the phosphor. Embodiments include a multi-LED (five-die) angled array and flip-chip/BGA structures (FIGS. 1–9); application is also stated to extend to wire-bonded LEDs, other light-emitting semiconductors, laser diodes, and wide band gap LEDs. The multi-LED lamp is cross-referenced to application Ser. No. 09/607,700.
What the excerpt does not establish: It does not provide the claims' text, the full specification, or figures. It does not establish the accuracy of assignee, legal status, or expiration data (the source itself labels these as assumptions/not legal conclusions), and it does not establish any litigation, ownership history beyond the listed reassignments, validity, or prior-art analysis.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:52:25 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
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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.