Invalidity dossier
US 7147173
Added 9/21/2026, 10:31:06 AM
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Patent summary
Title, assignee, inventors, filing/issue dates, abstract, and a plain-language overview of the claims.
Patent Overview — US 7,147,173 B2
Title: "Nitrous fuel nozzle and method of use"
Patent number: US 7,147,173 B2 (application US 10/735,636; earlier publication US 2004/0173695 A1)
Assignee: Competition Cams Inc (original assignee); a later assignment to Competition Cams, Inc. recorded 2006-10-20, and a security-interest recordation to PNC Bank, National Association dated 2020-01-30. Inventor: Matthew R. Patrick.
Key dates: Priority date 2002-12-17 (provisional application Ser. No. 60/433,804, filed Dec. 17, 2002); filing date 2003-12-16; granted/publication date 2006-12-12. Status listed as "Expired – Lifetime," with adjusted expiration 2024-08-20.
Purpose: The patent addresses what it calls an unmet need for nozzles improving mixing and delivery of separate streams of components, such as fuel and nitrous oxide, for internal combustion engines.
Plain-language scope (per the abstract, summary, and definitions): A nozzle mixes and delivers two or more components. One component (e.g., pressurized nitrous oxide) exits as a plume. The other component (e.g., gasoline or diesel) is injected via a transfer tube into the outer edge of that plume as it exits the nozzle tip. The plume both (a) creates a low-pressure/vacuum draw of the second component from the output extension, which varies with plume velocity and thus with delivery pressure of the first component—giving "self-regulation," and (b) shears and atomizes the first component for finer mixing. The combined flow is deliverable, e.g., via a hose, to the engine, the nozzle being connected in series between the component sources and the engine. The excerpt notes classification F23D 11/10–11/108 and dependent concepts like the oxygen-enhancer tube being threadably received in the enhancer passage, but shows no full claim set.
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US7147173/en
What the excerpt does not establish: The full text of the claims (only fragments), the detailed description and drawings, the number or content of figures, specific dimensions, materials, or operating pressures, and any prior-art references or their teachings. The excerpt is expressly incomplete ("consult the source for omitted text"), so no completeness of disclosure or claim coverage can be inferred from it.
Generated 10/1/2026, 10:01:34 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.