Invalidity dossier
US 7224271
Signal assembly
Current assignee: Individual
Added 9/24/2026, 1:36:53 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 7,224,271 B2
Title: Signal assembly
Inventor: Shiunn-terny Wang
Assignee: Individual (original assignee also listed as Individual)
Priority date: 2004-06-24
Filing date: 2005-04-21
Publication date: 2007-05-29 (earlier application publication US2005/0285757A1, 2005-12-29)
Application number: US 11/110,677
Legal status as listed: Expired – Fee Related (adjusted expiration 2025-09-22)
Classifications: F21L4/00, F21L4/02, B60Q7/00, F21V21/06, F21W2111/00
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US7224271/en
Purpose: The patent describes a portable signal assembly usable either as a stationary warning sign or, because the light stick is separable from its supporting legs, as a hand-held light. It responds to the stated shortcoming of a conventional signal assembly that is "mainly focused on a stationary warning purpose and is too big to be held by the users when needed."
Plain-language scope: A light device (a tubular member with two end light bulbs and a connection neck) threads onto a light stick. The stick is a transparent or semi-transparent tube holding a battery pack, a light bulb, and a control circuit board, with a switch to operate the light device and/or the internal bulb. Three connection hooks on the stick's outer periphery engage three notches in a first flange of a first ring and hook onto that flange when the stick is rotated; reversing the rotation separates the stick. A second ring receives leg plates via protrusions in its openings, retained by a second flange. A second connection assembly (third and fourth rings, the third having engaging bosses fitted in a groove on the stick) is slidably mounted on the stick, with three stretch rods pivotably connecting the leg plates to it. The leg plates pivot outward for a stable stance, and a transverse plate fixed between two adjacent leg plates forms a triangular warning sign.
What this excerpt does not establish: It provides no claims text, no prosecution history, no prior-art citations or analysis, and no evidence of validity, infringement, litigation, or ownership transfer. It omits the abstract's ending ("…an o…") and any figures' details beyond captions. The legal status and expiration entries are expressly stated as assumptions, not legal conclusions.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:31:15 PM
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Litigation summary
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Proceedings on file (0)
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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
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Extensions
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Derivative works
Defensive disclosure: derivative variations of each claim designed to render future incremental improvements obvious or non-novel.