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Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Patent Watch
Inventors focus on ice, snow and other wintry innovations
MHT's Galen Moore: Cambridge Innovation Center celebrates 10th anniversary
MHT's Galen Moore: Honoring innovation in New England
Ig Nobel Prizes 2009 award winners
Snow, ice, slush — it is officially winter. Let’s take a look, then, at a few patents issued and pending patent applications published in 2009 involving inventions useful in the winter months.
• Cool Front Inc. in Charlotte, Vt., manufactures high-tech “Hammerhead Sleds.” Patent No. 7,559,558 (July 14) by Cool Front specifies a sled with a steering linkage flexible horizontally but rigid in the vertical direction for better handling of the sled on uneven or rough terrain. The list of inventors include Vermont residents Stephen Luhr (Ferrisburg), Richard Luhr (Ferrisburg), and Francis Mahoney (Barre).
• Patent No. 7,547,023 (June 16) is for a hybrid snowboard/bike-like sled that collapses so you can take it up the chairlift of a ski area. Chi Yau of Dover, N.H., is the sole inventor.
• Tucker Marion of Holliston is listed as an inventor in published patent application No. 2009/0178225 (July 16) for a high-tech ice scraper with three grips, a blade, front teeth, bottom teeth, and a snow plow-like deflector. Oorah! Marion is also seeking a patent via published patent application No. 2009/0184527 (July 23) for a new snow shovel with a T-handle, a semicircular handle and a vertical grip to reduce muscle and cardiovascular strain when you shovel the front walk.
• My mailbox has been hit with pumpkins, snow plows, car mirrors and who knows what else (but I can’t complain, given certain “transgressions” associated with my own teenage years). Anyway, patent No. 7,559,457 (July 14) naming Michael Webber of Sherman, Conn., as an inventor is for a mailbox designed to withstand the impact from snow, slush and ice thrown from a plow blade when streets are being cleaned in the winter time as well as impacts from vandalism.
• Some ice rinks are too small to accommodate a Zamboni. Also, Zambonis, although fun to drive, are very expensive. In response, Alain Demers of Suncook, N.H., engineered a portable ice-resurfacing device that scrapes the ice and lays down a thin film of water all in one pass. Demers’ patent, No. 7,587,843, issued on Sept. 15.
• Brad James of Dover, N.H., is listed as an inventor in patent No. 7,562,398 (July 21) for a new hockey glove designed to increase the freedom of movement of the player’s hand along the hockey stick. Bauer Nike Hockey Inc. located in St. Jerome, Quebec, is the assignee.
• Pucks tipped or deflected off the blade of a hockey stick are difficult for a goalie to stop. David McNary of Woburn won patent No. 7,578,757 on Aug. 25 for a goalie-training device in the form of a fence-like structure placed in front of the goalie. All shots at the device result in a puck being tipped so a goalie can practice stopping tipped pucks.
• Making snow involves more than just spraying water in freezing temperatures. A jet of air is directed at a spray of water to form a plume of atomized or nucleated water, which forms snow seed crystals in freezing conditions. Published patent application No. 2009/0283607 (Nov. 19) discloses this prior method and an improvement in which, in colder sub-freezing temperatures, more snow can be manufactured with a reduction in the amount of the required air under pressure (which is an expensive component of a snow-making system). Charles Santry of Chestnut Hill is the sole inventor.
• More than 20,000 people per year in the U.S. injure their anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, while skiing. In response, Carl Ettlinger of Underhill Center, Vt., and David Dodge of Williston, Vt., engineered a new ski binding including load cells and a microprocessor configured to release the boot from the ski before ACL damage can occur. Vermont Safety Developments located in Underhill Center is the assignee.
Kirk Teska is an adjunct law professor at Suffolk University Law School, and is the managing partner of Iandiorio Teska & Coleman, an intellectual property law firm in Waltham. He is a regular contributor to Mass High Tech.
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