U.S. Patent No. 8,035,757, issued on October 11, 2011 to Premier Mounts of Anaheim, CA, discloses an anti-slip system for mounting a flat panel video screen on a wall.
According to the ’757 patent, existing mounting system are prone to over-torquing of the mounting screws and shearing of the mounting holes in the flat panel video screen being mounted to the wall. In addition, there is no standardization of the mounting holes across the various models, so general mounting systems use slots in the mounting brackets, but these slots can allow slippage if not correctly tightened. Dedicated mounting systems designed for particular brands of screens are available, but these dedicated systems do not generally provide the desired level of flexibility in how to adjust or align the screen on the wall. The ’757 patent discloses a mounting system that “does not suffer from the drawbacks” of over-torquing or shearing, and can be used to adjustably mount and align various models of flat panel video screens.
According to its website, Premier Mounts was founded in 1977 “as an audiovisual manufacturer’s representative and within three years, began to fill a gap in the A/V marketplace by creating its own durable, high-quality mounts and carts.” The company “developed one of the first after-market plasma-display mounts …, and holds many patents for ground breaking features that have become the standard for mounting products.” The company has announced that the ’757 patent is directed to its Griplate™ mounting system. According to the USPTO database, Premier Mounts owns eight U.S. patents, three of which were issued in 2011.
Premier Mounts was able to use the “first to invent” aspect of U.S. patent law to get the USPTO to issue the ’757 patent. The USPTO had initially rejected Premier’s application (under 35 U.S.C. § 102(e)) based on a published U.S. patent application that was (i) filed before Premier’s application was filed, but was (ii) published after Premier’s application was filed. Premier was successful in explaining to the USPTO, using an affidavit by the inventor, that the company had actually invented its mounting system before the U.S. filing date of the cited publication. Thus, while Premier was not the “first to file” its patent application at the USPTO, it was the “first to invent,” so the cited publication could not be used in the rejection.
Modifications that are part of the “America Invents Act” recently enacted into law will be changing the U.S. patent laws from a “first to invent” regime to a “first inventor to file” regime. Under the new laws, scheduled to be effective March 16, 2013, Premier’s earlier invention date would not overcome the fact that the company was second to file its patent application. In other words, after the March 2013 effective date, the fact that the applicant was not the first to file its patent application can prevent the application from issuing as a U.S. patent. The ’757 patent is therefore a good example of the heightened importance of filing your patent application as early as possible.
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