Patents on the soles of your shoes...: street furniture

Friday, September 29, 2017

Oh patents! Solidarity with the Dolle Minas

Copyright @ Françoise Herrmann

Enough is enough! Feminists in Amsterdam (Holland) are demanding potty parity. Just three public convenience facilities out of the remaining 35, in Amsterdam, are women-accessible.

Copyright Le Monde - 29-09-2017

Amsterdam is another European city in need of what the British call universally-accessible “superloos” produced by JC Decaux, a company accustomed to bringing equal access port-a-potties to cities worldwide. Beginning in Paris, the highly patented JC Decaux, street furniture superloos, termed “Sanisette” in French, replaced 480 urinals, installed in Paris, in 1830.

For example, US2005055767 titled Public convenience equipped with a floor cleaning device, discloses an automated floor-washing component for the JC Decaux sanisette. The abstract is included below with a patent image showing a perspective view of the public – universally accessible – public convenience.

There is provided a convenience (1) comprising a frame (2), a floor (6) and a floor cleaning device (9), said floor cleaning device (9) comprising a water feeding conduit (10, 11) and a water dispensing nozzle (13), connected to said conduit (10, 11) and opening close to the floor (6), said nozzle (13) comprising a neck (14) having two converging surfaces (16, 17) facing each other, one of which is formed in the frame (2) of the convenience (1).

Note: The Dolle Minas (Mad Minas) are a Dutch feminist group of the 1970s, now occupying Amsterdam’s urinals!

References

Chemaly, S. (Jan. 05, 2015) The everyday sexism of women waiting in public toilet lines. TIME Magazine.

http://time.com/3653871/womens-bathroom-lines-sexist-potty-parity/

Stroobants, JP (Sept. 29, 2017) A Amsterdam les femmes réclament des toilettes publiques. Le Monde.

http://abonnes.lemonde.fr/m-actu/article/2017/09/29/a-amsterdam-les-femmes-reclament-des-toilettes-publiques_5193177_4497186.html

JC Decaux

http://www.jcdecaux.com/

Herrmann, F. (July 1, 2017) Oh, patents! JC Decaux (1). Posted at Patents on the soles of the your shoes.

https://patentsonthesolesofyourshoes.blogspot.com/2017/07/oh-patents-jc-decaux-1.html

Herrmann, F. (July 4, 2017) Oh, patents! JC Decaux (2), Posted at Patents on the soles of the your shoes.https://patentsonthesolesofyourshoes.blogspot.com/2017/07/oh-patents-jc-decaux-2.html

Herrmann, F. (July 6, 2017) Oh, patents! Velib’ and JC Decaux (3), Posted at Patents on the soles of the your shoes.
https://patentsonthesolesofyourshoes.blogspot.com/2017/07/oh-patents-velib-and-jc-decaux-3.html

Saturday, July 1, 2017

Oh, patents! JC Decaux (1)

Street furniture? Outdoor advertising? Vélib' bike rental?

These three business activities, operating in 4280 cities worldwide, are the hallmarks of JC Decaux, a hugely successful public company, established in France. The company was founded by Jean Claude Decaux in 1964, which makes it a young company in France and Europe, where companies of similar stature often date their foundation back one or two centuries.

Indeed, JC Decaux invented the modern advertising (and advertiser-financed) bus shelter, changed the face of billboards, and replaced the 478 men-only outdoor urinals, installed in Paris in 1830, with unisex (even universal access) public toilets. Considered street furniture, these modern public conveniences are also fully automated, self-cleaning and regularly serviced by JC Decaux.

On a linguistic and socio-cultural level, JC Decaux’s modern street furniture is no less significant (e.g.; Humphreys, 1970). In France, having replaced the 19^th century term “vespasienne” an eponym derived from the Roman Emperor Vespasian, who taxed the collection of urine (vectigal urinae), the JC Decaux public conveniences are called “sanisettes”, in the UK “Superloos”, and in San Francisco “port-a-potties”!

The rest is history since JC Decaux street furniture and outdoor advertising systems are now operating in more than 70 countries worldwide. JC Decaux even recently signed on as a partner for the installation and maintenance of Arbor Informaticus etrees, beginning in the city of Nevers, in Burgundy, France, in May 2017.

JC Decaux’s flagship products are all patented whether it is the bus shelters, the bike racks or the port-a-potties. And many of the various components of the furniture are also patented.

Below, a picture of the 1830 “vespasienne” and JC Decaux’s 20th century universal access “sanisette” in Paris.