Invalidity dossier
US 7791285
High efficiency AC LED driver circuit
Current assignee: LED-IP MANAGEMENT, LLC
Added 9/23/2026, 4:28:42 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 7,791,285 B2
Title: High efficiency AC LED driver circuit
Patent number: US 7,791,285 B2
Inventor: Yifeng Wu
Original assignee: Cree, Inc.; current assignee listed as Ideal Industries Inc (with later assignments shown in the source to Ideal Industries, LLC and a security interest to FGI Worldwide LLC)
Application number: US 11/786,907
Priority/filing date: 2007-04-13
Publication date (grant): 2010-09-07
Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US7791285/en
Purpose
The patent relates to LEDs and to electronic circuitry for powering LEDs from alternating current (AC) sources. It notes that unlike incandescent bulbs, LEDs conduct only when forward biased, and that an LED's power supply should therefore act as a current source to keep power constant.
Plain-language scope
The described AC drive circuit includes a current-limiting capacitor connected to the first terminal of an AC source, and two circuit portions connected in parallel between the current-limiting capacitor and the second AC source terminal. The first circuit portion has a first rectifying diode in series with a first power capacitor; the second has a second rectifying diode in series with a second power capacitor.
The rectifying diodes have opposite polarity, so on each positive half cycle current passes through the first rectifying diode to charge the first power capacitor and power the LED; on each negative half cycle current passes through the second rectifying diode to charge the second power capacitor and power the LED. During positive half cycles the second power capacitor discharges to supply the LED, and during negative half cycles the first power capacitor discharges to supply it.
Variants place one or more LEDs in parallel with each power capacitor, and/or connect pluralities of LEDs in series between the two circuit portions, with the summed turn-on voltages selected to be no more than the voltage supplied.
What the excerpt does not establish
The supplied text is an excerpt; it does not include the full claims, the complete specification, detailed figures, or the listed prior-art references. It also does not establish litigation, validity, or ownership conclusions.
Generated 10/1/2026, 9:50:47 PM
Cases on file (0)
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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.