US 4,792,881 · Granted 1988-12-20
The Hidden Power Panel That Made Office Desks Smart
Imagine a desk with a secret compartment built right into the top that hides all your power cords and ethernet cables. Instead of a messy tangle of wires dangling underneath, everything tucks neatly inside a door that's flush with the desktop, keeping your workspace clean and organized.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers a work surface—like a desk or table—that has a built-in power and communication module hidden beneath a flush door on the top. What's protected here is the specific way the compartment is integrated into the work surface structure itself, how cables are routed into the module, how excess cable lengths are stored inside, and the overall design that keeps power and data connections hidden and organized within the furniture piece rather than exposed beneath it.
Why it matters
This patent came at the moment when offices were transitioning from paper-based work to computer-heavy environments. Instead of drilling holes in desks or running cables along the floor, Haworth's design embedded the entire cable management system into the furniture itself. This solved a real problem: how do you keep an increasingly wired workplace looking clean and professional? The patent protected a furniture innovation that became standard in modern office design.
Real-world use
When you sit at a contemporary office desk and notice a small door or panel on the surface where you can plug in your laptop, phone charger, or network cable without seeing the cord run underneath—that's based on this concept.
Original USPTO abstract
A work surface structure having a power/communication module integral therewith. This module is hidden beneath a door which is flush with and forms a part of the top of the work surface structure. This module permits numerous power and communication (i.e. data) cables to be fed into the module for connection to apppropriate connectors, and excess lengths of cable can be stored within a compartment of the module. Additional cable storage compartments are hidden below the top of the work surface for storing therein excess lengths of power/communication cables which extend from external locations to the module.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 4,792,881
- Filing date
- 1987-03-27
- Grant date
- 1988-12-20
- Assignee
- Haworth, Inc.
- Inventor(s)
- WILSON; HAROLD R., BELKA; ALLEN B.
- CPC class
- A47B21/06
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