US 5,038,539 · Granted 1991-08-13
Herman Miller's Modular Office Wall That Lets You Rearrange Everything
Imagine a office dividing wall made of interlocking rectangular frames, where you can snap in and swap out decorative tile panels like LEGO blocks. The frames hide all the wiring for computers and power, and you can customize the height and look of your workspace whenever you want—without rebuilding the whole thing.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers a rigid framework made of rectangular frames joined together at the edges to form work areas, combined with removable modular tiles that hang on those frames and cover them. What's protected here is the specific way the tiles attach and detach independently while the frames stay in place, plus the integration of wire management elements (power and data cables) that run along the baseline and mid-sections of the frames. Someone copying this would need to design around the removable, interchangeable tile system mounted to a rigid frame structure.
Why it matters
This patent represents a fundamental shift in how offices handle workspace customization. Rather than building permanent walls or buying completely new partition systems, a company can reconfigure layouts by swapping tiles and adjusting frame heights. For Herman Miller, a major office furniture manufacturer, this meant locking in a flexible architectural system that other competitors would struggle to replicate without infringing the modular attachment mechanism. The flexibility to hide wiring while allowing endless aesthetic and functional customization made it valuable to corporations managing large, changing workforces.
Real-world use
When you walk into a modern office and see partition walls with different colored panels, varying heights, and built-in shelves or whiteboards, you're likely looking at a descendant of this system—or infringing on it.
Original USPTO abstract
A work space management system for dividing a space into separate work areas comprising a wall system having a rigid framework formed of rigid rectangular frames rigidly joined together at the edges thereof to form at least one work area, wire management elements secured to the frames for communication and power wiring and a plurality of selectively relocatable modular tiles removably hanging on the frames. Some of the wire management elements are secured to the bottom or baseline of the frames and some of the wire management elements are removably secured to a waistline or midportion of at least some of the frames. The frames can extend to a waist height, a seated height, to a standing or full floor to ceiling height in a modular stepped fashion. Decorative and functional modular tiles are sized to fit on the frames to substantially cover the frames, and are independently and removably mounted thereto. The tiles are of equal height and of variable modular width to cover the frames. Further, the tiles are easily mounted to and removed from the frames so that the tiles are relocatable and interchangeable with one another within the same frame and among the different frames for ease of customizing work stations within the system. The work space management system provides an architectural wall partition system with flexibility for interchangeable tile panels for different decorative effects and various functional features. The tiles can be painted, fabric, or vinyl covered, or can comprise acoustical tiles, window tiles, work-in-process rail tiles, lighting tiles, tackable tiles, marker tiles, data display tiles, display tiles, shelf tiles, open pass-through tiles, wire management tiles, mail tiles, storage tiles, heater tiles, and cooling and air circulation tiles.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 5,038,539
- Filing date
- 1989-08-21
- Grant date
- 1991-08-13
- Assignee
- Herman Miller, Inc.
- Inventor(s)
- KELLEY; JAMES O., STUMPF; WILLIAM E.
- CPC class
- A47B21/06
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