US 9003920

I'll search for authoritative information on this patent number, including any 2026 litigation activity.

Let me verify claim structure and check for any litigation activity.

Let me try to capture the full granted claim set and double-check for any 2026 court activity.

US Patent 9,003,920 — Analyst Summary

Sourcing note: The authoritative patent text (Google Patents, fetched 2026-09-21) was supplied for this analysis; I supplemented it with web searches. I did not have direct authenticated access to USPTO PatentCenter/PAIR or to CAFC docket databases in this session, so litigation findings below are search-based and carry stated uncertainty.

1. Bibliographic data

2. Abstract (as granted)

A pedal arm has an arm main body with a first end portion, a second end portion, a pedal pad portion, and a shaft portion. The arm main body includes a first wall portion and a second wall portion facing in a first direction, and a third wall portion and a fourth wall portion facing in a second direction. One of the first/second wall portions includes an abutting portion where the first and second ends of the plate member contact each other. The third/fourth wall portions include a first curved portion and a second curved portion, with first and second depressed wall portions formed in inward convex shapes respectively, at least parts of which contact each other.

3. Independent claims — plain language

Claim 1 — the pedal arm (product)
A pedal arm with (a) a tubular arm main body made by bending a plate, (b) a pedal pad portion on it, and (c) a shaft portion on it. The body has two pairs of facing walls in two different directions. One wall of the first pair carries a seam/abutting portion where the two free ends of the plate meet, and that seam runs along the length of the arm from the upper end to the lower end to close the tube. The other pair of walls has matching first and second curved portions running lengthwise with the same curvature. Inside those curves are depressed (indented) wall portions that bulge inward and touch each other. As granted, claim 1 also requires that each depressed wall portion has a flat portion with the curve formed in its middle, and that the depressed wall portions carry bead portions in the middle of those flat portions, which contact each other.

Claim 10 — the manufacturing apparatus
Apparatus for making that pedal arm, characterized by mold structures: one mold set forms the first/second walls so the abutting seam is created; a second mold set forms the third/fourth walls with a pair of curved portions of equal curvature running along the arm length, with at least parts of the curved portions contacting each other.

Claim 11 — the manufacturing method
A method with steps of: forming the tubular arm main body by bending the plate; providing the pedal pad portion; providing the shaft portion. In the forming step, the first/second walls (with the abutting seam) are formed first, and thereafter the third/fourth walls with the equal-curvature pair of curved portions are formed, with parts of the curved portions contacting each other.

(Claims 2–9 are dependent: claim 2 = full bottom-wall contact; claim 3 = additional opposed curved portions (third/fourth) with contacting depressed walls; claims 4–7 = collar variants — single convex portion; paired flanges; second convex portion; radial pressing portion.)

Prosecution note (moderate confidence): the granted claim 1 is materially narrower than published claim 1. The granted text adds the "extends along an extending direction … across an upper end portion and a lower end portion" limitation and folds in the flat-portion and bead limitations from the second and third aspects. Analysts comparing the A1 publication to the B2 grant should treat the A1 claim language as NOT representative of the enforceable claim scope.

4. Disclosure overview

• Problem: prior art (JP 2001-287629) describes making a brake pedal body from a flattened frusto-conical tube but gives no specific high-accuracy production configuration; and welding a collar to a tubular pedal body hurts strength/accuracy.
• Solution: roll a plate into a tube with a lengthwise abutting seam, then press lengthwise curved regions into the side walls whose depressed/beaded bottoms contact each other — the contacting depressed walls act as positioning/anti-separation features during the curve-forming press operation, and as stiffening ribs in the finished part.
• Six embodiments: (1) beaded contact (curved beads b1/b2); (2) fully contacting depressed bottom walls; (3) dual opposed curve pairs (upper/lower); (4)–(6) collar fixed without welding via a radially expanded convex portion, with variants using paired flanges, a second convex portion, or a tapered pressing portion/taper.

5. Litigation / CAFC 2026 docket check

• I found no litigation, ITC, or Federal Circuit activity involving US 9,003,920. Searches of general web and CAFC-oriented queries returned no case, docket number, or complaint naming this patent. I could not query the CAFC docket system or PACER directly in this session, so I cannot rule out a very recent filing — but nothing surfaced. Treat "no known litigation" as a search-based finding, not a certification.

⚠️ Important numeric false positives (do not auto-correct into this patent)

These appeared in results and are unrelated to US 9,003,920:

1. "US 9003920 W 19900717" in the EP 0435998 / EP 0907082 family listing (a Tropix dioxetane chemiluminescence patent family). This is a US application-serial-style entry (cf. the adjacent "US 38212589 A 19890720"), not US Patent 9,003,920.
2. JP 2009003920 A (published 2009-01-08) — a Japanese publication whose number merely ends in "003920."
3. A numeric list in the Bush 41 Library FOIA document containing "9003920" — a bare identifier, not a patent reference.

6. Uncertainty statement

High confidence on: title, application number, filing/priority/issue dates, inventors, assignee chain, abstract, independent-claim substance, and legal status — all supported by the supplied authoritative patent text. Moderate confidence on the verbatim granted claim 1 wording, which was reconstructed from a secondary aggregator (Justia) rather than the USPTO full-text record. Low/absent confidence on any litigation activity (none found).