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» Movable
stand to assist sitting and/or standing |
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Obscure Patent of the Week
From the IPWatchdog Week in Review - September 14, 2003
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US Patent No. 6,615,432 [ PDF ]
[ HTML ]
Issued September 9, 2003
Movable stand to assist a person to a sitting and/or standing position
This invention is very simple, easy to understand and may seem rather
trivial and perhaps even obvious. I suspect it is obvious to everyone
after having seen the above picture and having read the
specification. Nevertheless, obvious in hindsight is not the test for
obviousness. After being shown anything in life it becomes obvious. I
don't know enough about this area of art to know whether this is
truly obvious in the meaning of that term under the patent laws, but
I do know that this patent is a great example of the fact that in
order to get a patent you need not come up with a revolutionary
scientific discovery that transforms life as we know it through the
embodiment of a never before seen machine or process. Most patents
are not revolutionary. To be sure, most patents do not make their
owners any money. But a simple, usable invention that solves a known
problem can be more lucrative than many scientific breakthroughs. I
am not sure how one would know if there is infringement of this
process, and I am not sure if there is a market for licensing or
selling the movable stand, but I picked this one this week because it
caught my eye as a creative, yet simple way of addressing a
significant problem, namely injury to the lower spine of a caregiver.
I also picked it because many if not most of us will look at this
invention and say, "I could have invented that!" |
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» Patent
Abstract |
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A process for a caregiver using a movable stand to assist a reclined
person to move from a reclined position to a sitting and/or standing
position. The process includes the process of moving a movable stand
which has a floor contacting base which supports a vertical pole. The
stand is moved to a place adjacent the reclined person. The caregiver
places at least one foot on the floor contacting base and grasps an
upper portion of the generally vertical pole. The reclined person
grasps an intermediate portion of the pole and pulls on the pole to
assist the reclined person to sit or stand without placing a strain
on the back of the caregiver. |
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» Guts
of the Invention |
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Two paragraphs in the patent itself really sum up this invention. The
first is from the Background of the Invention, and reads:
The field of the invention is caregiving apparatus and the invention
relates more particularly to apparatus which assists a handicapped
person to get out of a bed, physician's bench, chair, couch, or from
any lying or seated position to a sitting and/or standing position.
For persons who are not severely handicapped, this is typically
accomplished simply by the caregiver extending a hand under the upper
back or shoulders of a reclined person to assist the person to a
seated position. Occasionally, this is also accomplished by the
patient pulling on the caregiver's arm and putting undue strain on
the caregiver's back or arm. After the patient is seated, the patient
is pulled in a forward direction and somewhat upwardly so that the
seated person can move to a standing position. While this is a simple
and common process, it actually can seriously injure the back of the
caregiver because of the upwardly and forwardly directed force
exerted on the upper body of the caregiver which is transferred to
the lower spine of the caregiver. As a result, a significant number
of caregivers are injured by this simple step and a better method is
needed to reduce the injuries caused thereby.
This second is from the Brief Summary of the Invention, which says:
The present invention is for a process for a caregiver using a
movable stand to assist a reclined or seated person to move from a
reclined or seated position to a sitting and/or standing position.
The movable stand has a floor supported base plate having a floor
contacting bottom and a foot contacting upper surface. The floor
supported base plate holds a generally vertically pole which extends
upwardly from the base plate. The process includes a step of moving
the movable stand to a position in front of the reclined person.
Next, the caregiver places at least one foot on the foot contacting
upper surface of the floor supported baseplate. The caregiver then
grasps an upper portion of the generally vertical pole. The reclined
or seated person grasps an intermediate portion of the pole and pulls
on the pole to assist the reclined person to a sitting or standing
position without placing a strain on the back of the caregiver. The
vertical pole is mounted near the front edge of the floor supported
base plate. |
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