Posts Tagged: "Museum of Obscure Patents"

Near Miss Patents: Looking back at almost milestone innovations

People tend to focus on these nice, round numbers when looking at significant points in history. Here, however, we want to have a little fun with numbers and stick up for the little guy in this conversation, the “coulda been a contenders” or your near-misses, however you choose to view them. So today, we thought we’d take a look back at some of the mile markers that we’ve passed on the road of innovation and feature some technologies largely lost to the annals of time, simply because their issue number was off by one.

Beware Infringing the Beer Dispensing Patent!

I find this patent so exasperating because the patented method essentially breaks down to nothing more than chilling a container to at least -5° C and then filling that container with beer that is above 0° C. I wonder how many bars and restaurants are infringing this patent? Perhaps you should warn you favorite watering hole to make sure that any glasses chilled are not chilled to -5° C.

Suicide Prevention Clothing, U.S. Patent 8,375,466

Did you know that there is clothing available to assist jails, mental hospitals and others with the prevention of suicide? Special protective wear has been issued to inmates and patients with suicidal tendencies for years. As a matter of fact, you can go online and see a variety of items that are available for facilities that might need them — much of which is made out of a very uncomfortable, yet strong nylon shell that is held together with nylon thread. However, that type of material can be quite rough on the skin and quite irritating to the wearer in the long run.

10 Fun Love Patents for Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is again upon us, a day for lovers to express their undying affection for one another by giving gifts of chocolates, flowers, and love coupons. It’s also a day for inventors to strap on their thinking caps and come up with new ways to bring a little more love into the world. For your inspiration, here are 10 fun patents and applications for the lover in all of us. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Valentine’s Day Gifts, with a Patent Twist

According to Men’s Health, the #3 gift idea for women on Valentine’s Day is lingerie. So we set out to find some patent related lingerie and find some we did! One of the more interesting things we located relates to lingerie attached to a human arousal indicator. So not only does it quality for lingerie, but it also give the guy a little heads up about whether the wearer is sexually aroused — that is in case the fact that your significant other stripping down to lingerie wasn’t enough of a clue.