There are two reasons why patents can be invalidated: prior art and
obviousness.
In this case, I think that annular rings of >0.4 mm are sufficiently
commonplace that prior art can be easily proven. The changeover from
SnPb to Pb-free solders could be argued as obvious. Under these
conditions, I believe that any decent patent attorney could argue a suit
out of court and thus invalidate the patent. The notion, in the
abstract, of "The width of the land 2 is set to such a value that the
land exfoliation due to the solidification/shrinkage of the lead-free
solder 6 and the shrinkage of the circuit board in the thickness
direction can be prevented" is irrelevant as it does not form the
essential base of a claim.
It would be sufficient to show one single assembly, made with any of the
lead-free alloys mentioned, with a proveable manufacturing date prior to
19 October 2001, with lands >0.4 mm under the conditions described, for
the claims to be thrown out. Sale of such an assembly would be
considered as "publication".
IMHO
Brian
Scott Nimon wrote:
> DC members,
>
> I have encountered a patent which any through-hole land patterns with an
> annular ring of >0.4mm and used for lead-free soldering is in violation
> of. We have used 0.4mm as our standard annular ring for all
> through-hole devices with hole sizes greater than 1.6mm for years. A
> link to the patent is provided below. Are there any IPC documents I can
> use to invalidate this patent? Any suggestions or comments will be
> welcomed.
>
>
>
> http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL
> &p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6,617,529.WKU.&OS=PN/6,617,
> 529&RS=PN/6,617,529
>
>
>
> Scott Nimon
>
> Yazaki North America
>
> 6801 Haggerty Road
>
> Mail Stop: 2229E
>
> Canton, MI 48187
>
>
>
> Phone: 734-983-2630
>
> Fax: 734-983-2631
>
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
>
>
>
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