Patents on the soles of your shoes...: WIPO

Showing posts with label WIPO. Show all posts

Sunday, August 21, 2022

Oh, Gronk’s shoes! Wolf & Shepherd shankboard

Gronk, aka Rob Gronkowski, four times Superbowl champion, is also Ambassador for a selection of shoes, purported to be the world’s most athletic dress shoes. Whether loafer, brogue or derby, Gronk’s selection, engineered by Wolf & Shepherd, combines the technical innovations of sports shoes, with the luxury of classical Italian leather design for men’s shoes. As Gronk puts it, wearing Wolf & Shepherd dress shoes feels like wearing sneakers: “Cushy, light, and super comfortable, who says you can’t have it all?” Indeed, the 2016 Atlanta, Georgia, Hotline Half-Marathon, was the first half-marathon won by a runner wearing dress shoes, specifically Wolf & Shepherd, honey cap-toe lace-up shoes (Tsuji, 2016).

The lightweight, flexibility and durability of Wolf & Shepherd shoes, aka Gronk’s shoes, are patented in an innovative shankboard technology. A shoe shank is a support structure, inserted between the insole and outsole of a shoe, that plays a structural part in the design of shoes, while lending anatomic support to the foot inside the shoe. The prior art of shoe shanks, for example, invokes metal shanks, and improvements, such as flexible metal shanks.

The Wolf & Shepherd shankboard technology is recited in the Patent Cooperation Treaty Patent, WO2021061093A1, titled Strong lightweight shankboard system for footwear. Wolf & Shepherd applied for the patent, which was granted to Zach Frey, and Justin Schneider, one of the Wolf & Shepherd (1) founders. The patent was granted on April 1, 2021.

The abstract of the athletic-inspired, Wolf & Shepherd dress shoe invention, is included below, together with the patent drawing Figure 7, depicting an exploded view of a Wolf and Shepherd shoe, comprising the invention shoe shank technology. In particular, the patent Figure 7 depicts the footwear 400, comprising a footbed 412, a shoe upper 410, a midsole 414, an outsole 416, and the invention shankboard 100. The invention shankboard 100 comprises a board 110, made of a flexible or moldable material, enabling a contoured design. The shankboard 100 also comprises a thin, lightweight sheet of material 120, made of carbon fiber, carbon glass, thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), bamboo, or other similar materials that provide support and structure, without adding weight. The lightweight sheet of material 120 further comprises a corrugated structure 200 for increased strength and rigidity. The lightweight sheet of material 120 is attached to the board 110 with adhesive, or other securing methods. The board 110 comprises a cutout 140 (not shown), designed to accommodate the corrugated strengthening structure 200 of the sheet of material 120.

The present disclosure relates to a strong lightweight footwear shankboard construction that uses thin, lightweight, and/or flexible sheets of material that may include one or more structures that strengthen the sheet of material so that when the sheet of material is attached to a composite board ( or the like) to form the shankboard, the shankboard provides the stability and/or durability that is necessary to support a foot and give shoes (or other footwear) structure.
[ Abstract WO2021061093A1]

The video below shows one of Gronk’s craziest dreams – with Wolf & Shepherd!

Note

The Company Wolf & Shepherd was founded by Justin and Hope Schneider (not Mr. Wolf and Mrs. Shepherd), a parent and entrepreneur team, both former Division 1 Track & Field athletes, and designers for Adidas athletic shoes.

References

Tsuji, A. (June 17, 2016). 23-year-old runs half marathon in world record time … in dress shoes.
https://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/06/run-half-marathon-guinness-world-record-dress-shoes

Wolf & Shepherd
https://wolfandshepherd.com/

Sunday, July 31, 2022

Oh, patents! TEQ® Lite (4)

The TEQ® Lite table is both a more affordable and lighter-weight version of the existing TEQBALL®(1) tables. Third member of the series, the TEQ® Lite combines the most important features of the original TEQBALL® One table, and of the foldable TEQBALL® Smart table. In other words, the TEQ® Lite table is for indoor or oudoor use, UV proof, foldable and movable. Most importantly, the lower price tag of the TEQ® Lite table is expected to make the game better known, as it becomes more easily accessible to an ever wider group of users.

The TEQ® Lite table industrial design is filed with the United Nations (UN), World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), under the registration number, DM207248. Below, two images of the TEQ® Lite table, included in the WIPO registration, and one image of the folded table, extracted from the TEQBALL® website. A video advertising the TEQ® Lite table is also included beneath.

___________

Note

(1) TEQBALL® is a game at the intersection of soccer and ping-pong, somewhat consonant with futnet (tennis soccer in the US). The game is played with a recommended size-5 soccer ball and a curved table, in a single or doubles game, indoors or outdoors, in a small space compared to a soccer field or tennis court.

References

International Federation of TEQBALL® (FITEQ - Fédération Internationale de TEQBALL®)

https://www.fiteq.org/

TEQBALL®

https://www.teqball.com/

Monday, June 14, 2021

Oh, patents! Oh, Simone!

Simone is a best friend that fits in your backpack. She is an ultra-portable and high-performance scooter, marketed as the “world’s most compact scooter”. Weighing just 3.5 kgs (7.7 lbs), and measuring 13 x 8.2 x 3.3 inches, Simone is ready to use, or to stow, in no more than 15 seconds (see videos below). The Simone invention was scheduled for exhibit and award, this year, at the renowned Concours Lépine, an international fair and contest for patented inventions, held in Paris every year, since 1901, had the Spring 2021 event not been postponed twice, due to pandemic restrictions on social gatherings.

The Simone invention is patented in a family that includes the UN World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) patent WO2020008132A1, titled Foldable kick scooter, and the French patent FR3083204A1, titled in French Trottinette pliable à encombrement réduit (in English Foldable scooter with reduced size). The patents recite a “last mile” means of urban transportation, supplementing public transportation which might not take the user door-to-door. Alternatively, the invention is designed as a stand-alone means of urban transportation for short distances.

Easier to use, lighter, and less cumbersome than a bicycle, Simone offers the additional advantages of ultra-portability with an automatic folding/unfolding platform, in comparison to the existing state of the art in foldable scooters. An existing state of the art, where foldable scooters typically only fold against the full-length of their steering post.

The abstract of this invention, recited in English, in the WIPO patent, is included below, together with the patent Figures 1 and 9, respectively depicting an embodiment of the scooter fully deployed (Fig. 1) and completely folded (Fig. 9). Corresponding images of the elegant blue and grey marketed scooter are also included.

Specifically, the patent Figure 1 depicts the foldable scooter (100), in a state ready for use C1, comprising the steering post 10 with a handlebar 11, two wheels (1a at the rear and 1b in the front), a platform 20, connected to the steering post 10, via a connector 30. The platform 20 further comprises a foldable upper plate 21, with two telescopic parts 22a and 22b, able to slide and fit, in and out, of each other. When the telescoping parts 22a and 22b are extended, the upper plate 21 is unfolded, and the platform 20 is able to support a user standing. When the telescoping parts 22a and 22b are nested, the upper plate 21 is folded, and the foldable scooter becomes ready for stowing in a bag or elsewhere.

The upper plate 21 also comprises two plates 23 and 24 with distal ends (23a, 24a) and proximal ends (23b, 24b), connected to a pivot system, perpendicular to the directional axis A1 of the scooter 100, enabling the distal ends (23a, 24a) of the plates (23, 24) to pivot together when the telescoping parts (22a, 22b) of the upper plate 21 slide from a deployed position P1 to a nested position P2. The scooter 100 further comprises guidance means 50, enabling to guide the sliding of the two telescopic parts (22a, 22b). The guidance means comprise at least one elongated slot 52 and a guiding finger 51, traveling within the slot 52, when the telescopic plates move from a deployed position to P1 to a nested position P2. Finally, the steering post 10 of the deployed scooter comprises at least one male and one female tube (18a, 18b,18c), able to slide one inside the other to reduce the overall height of the steering post 10 when the scooter 100 is folded, in the stowing state C2 .

The Figure 9 depicts the scooter 100, folded in the stowing state C2, with the steering post tubes (18a, 18b, 18c) nested, the upper plate 21 completely folded, the platform 20 in the folded position P2, the locking/unlocking mechanism 40 actuated by the rear wheel 1a.

The present invention relates to a compact foldable kick scooter (100) comprising at least two wheels (1a, 1b) including one rear wheel (1a) and one front wheel (1b), a steering post (10) provided with handlebars (11) and connected to a platform (20) via the intermediary of a connecting member (30), in which said platform (20) comprises a foldable upper plate (21) and at least one first (22a) and one second (22b) telescopic portions that serve as a chassis (22) and are able to slide with respect to one another to make it possible to pass from a deployed position (P1), in which the upper plate (21) is unfolded and serves to receive the feet of a person, to a stowing position (P2), in which the upper plate (21) is folded and the first (22a) and second (22b) portions are nested at least partially one inside the other for compactness, and vice versa.[Abstract WO2020008132A1]

The two YouTube videos below show the ease and speed with which the Simone scooter is respectively, deployed and folded—in less than 15 seconds.

References

Concours Lépine https://www.concours-lepine.com/

Simone Scooters https://trottinettes-simone.com/en/

UN World Intellectual Property Organization https://www.wipo.int/portal/en/index.html

Sunday, April 29, 2018

Oh, patents! Women inventors aggregated @ the EPO

On the occasion of WIPO International IP Day 2018, honoring women inventors, the European Patent Office put together a Youtube playlist and poster of Women selected as finalists and winners for the EPO Award since 2000.

Below, the link and the poster. of this unprecedented aggregation.

EPO Award Finalists & winners aggregated since 2000 - PlayList

References

Youtube PlayList - EPO Women Inventors

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgDlswd0__eLmIhqRFvbgjhLxWma3kSrF&disable_polymer=true

@WIPO

https://twitter.com/WIPO

World IP Day 2018
https://patentsonthesolesofyourshoes.blogspot.com/2018/04/world-ip-day-2018.html

EPO Award Finalist 2017- (1) - Sylviane Muller - Lupuzor™

https://patentsonthesolesofyourshoes.blogspot.com/2017/05/epo-finalists-1-sylviane-muller-lupuzor.html

EPO Award Winner 2016 - Dr. Helen Lee - Diagnostics for the real world

https://patentsonthesolesofyourshoes.blogspot.com/2016/05/epo-awards-2016-diagnostics-for-real.html

EPO Award Finalists 2014 Terese Alstin and Anna Haupt - Inflatable bike helmet

https://patentsonthesolesofyourshoes.blogspot.com/2014/06/2014-epo-patent-award-nominations.html

Thursday, April 26, 2018

World IP Day 2018

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

For many different reasons, women are significantly under-represented in IP even though they bring game-changing and life-enhancing solutions to all domains of science, technology, business, education, and the arts.

This year, in an effort to recognize women's unique contribution to the world of innovation, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), under the auspices of the United Nations, is celebrating World Intellectual Property Day, with the theme: Powering change: Women in innovation and creativity,

World IP Day is celebrated, since 2000, on April 26, commemorating the day that the WIPO Convention became effective, in 1970. As a reminder, WIPO is a self-funded United Nations agency, bringing together 191 member states, committed to the development of an IP system that benefits everyone.

References

WIPO

www.wipo.org

#WorldIPDay

https://twitter.com/hashtag/worldipday?lang=en

#WIPO

https://twitter.com/WIPO

Friday, September 9, 2016

Translation tool – Parallel sites (2)

To further assist you with your linguistic and documentary research for translation purposes, you might selectively use the parallel sites of the UN (United Nations) agencies.

Most of the institutional sites of the UN (United Nations) agencies and organizations are plurilingual parallel sites! This means that there are six official parallel universes at each of the sites, each corresponding to one of the 6 official languages of the UN, namely English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Chinese!

To access each of the different parallel universes, all you will need to do is to click on the language toggle option of your choice, “عربي 中文 English Français Русский Español”, usually (but not always) appearing in the upper right-hand corner of a page. And, within a page, the links will send you to translated documents or other translated hyperlinked content.

Again, accessing official, UN translator-crafted-translations does not get any easier than that!

Here is an example, bearing in mind that all of the UN agencies, whether it is, for example, the IMF - International Monetary Fund, the World Bank or the UNEP - UN Environmental Program, are each huge institutions, even if they are operating under the auspices of the UN.

WIPO

WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) is the United Nations Intellectual Property agency with 189 member states. Applications filed at the WIPO are granted WO patents upon successful examination and in compliance with the provisions of the PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty).

The site covers all areas of IP (Intellectual Property), that is, patents, copyrights, trademarks and designs, providing both access to the databases of records, and to the legislation and regulations that govern such various types of IP.

WIPO is a mega institutional website that also includes its own publications and learning resources, as well as well as tools for fostering communication and cooperation among major IP players (inventors, entrepreneurs, institutions both private and public).

A drop-down menu in the upper right corner of the site pages enables you to toggle in and out of the 6 UN language universes so that both content and functionalities of the site are available in 6 languages.

Just try it!