Oh, patents! The Body Shop® (1)

Copyright Françoise Herrmann

Do you shop for cruelty-free cosmetics? Are you 4ever against animal testing? Do you shop fair trade in a tradition of ethical consumerism? Do you also support human rights, advocate against human sex trafficking, and domestic violence? Do you militate against female beauty stereotypes? Are you also an AIDS-HIV activist, striving to educate youth and helping those living with AIDS and HIV?

In any one of those cases, or all of them combined, you may be shopping The Body Shop®.

The Body Shop® is the first cosmetics company to have successfully crafted its business plan based on cruelty-free natural products and an activist platform for ethical trade practices, including ethical sourcing of raw materials and local community production. Since its inception in the United Kingdom, in 1976 --the year of the worse heatwave in Europe-- the small cosmetics shop, founded by Dame Anita Roddick, has multiplied into more than 1000 Body Shops® worldwide. The small shop that first re-used its bottles and containers, is now a public company that also trades on the stock market, under the stock ticker symbol BOSB. It is the second most trusted brand in the UK. 

True to its original activism, the company has continued to launch one successful social justice campaign after another, relentlessly expanding its reach to all of the allied causes mentioned above. Most importantly, The Body Shop® keeps on selling a few classics, and an ever-changing line of fabulous natural products, ethically sourced and produced, in faraway places across the globe.  

An early invention for which The Body Shop® filed a British patent application is recited GB2293545A, titled A multiple use cosmetics device. The device disclosed in this patent is a container with two applicators on each end, designed to dispense one product with two or more applications, or two separate products, all in a single container. The preferred embodiment for this device comprises an eyeliner brush and a mascara brush, each screwed on with a cap, on each end of the dispensing body. However, the scope of this invention extends to all sorts of cosmetic products that might be conceivably applied in a 2-step process, not only for eyelashes but for lips, hair, nails, face or other parts of the body. The scope of the invention also covers a device containing one product, or two separate products housed in separate compartments of the container.

The abstract for this invention is included below, together with the three patent drawings, Figures 1, 2A and 2B.

 A multiple use cosmetics device comprises a cylindrical container (1) for a cosmetic or toiletry product or products. and at least two applicators for dispensing and applying the product or products, wherein one applicator comprises a mascara brush (26) and the other an eyeliner applicator (18). The applicators (18, 26) are secured to respective caps (15, 22) which serve to close the ends of the container (1), the caps being cylindrical and having the same diameter as the container. [Abstract GB2293545A]

Figure 1 depicts the double-barrelled container 1, with cylindrical openings (2 and 3) at each end, and necks (4 and 5).  The necks (4 and 5) have tight-fitting inner sleeves (8 and 9) and an outer threaded cover that is part of the main cylindrical body (1). The inner sleeves (8 and 9) have frusto-conical sections (11 and 12) that taper towards the inside of the container, culminating in the openings (13 and 14) for access to the cosmetic products within the container.   

Figures 2A & B depict the respective applicators that are designed to screw onto each end of Figure 1 container (1). Figure 2A depicts an eyeliner applicator with a screw cap (15). The screw cap (15) has an insert (17) with an internal thread (16) designed to cooperate with the Figure 1 container neck (4). The insert (17) has a shaft (19), attached to the eyeliner applicator (18) equipped with a frusto-conical section, at the end (20) of which the eyeliner brush (21) is secured.  Figure 2B, analogous with Figure 2A, depicts the mascara brush applicator, comprising a screw cap (22) with an insert (23) and internal thread (24), designed to cooperate with the Figure 1 container neck (5). The insert (23) has a shaft (25) ,at the end of which is attached the mascara brush (26). 

Reference

The Body Shop®
https://www.thebodyshop.com/en-us/