Patents on the soles of your shoes...: May 2019

Friday, May 31, 2019

Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Oh, Lalique! L’air du temps

The most famous Nina Riccci perfume of all times is L’air du temps, launched in 1948 by Robert Ricci.

The perfume is famous not only as a fragrance but also because of its bottle, arising out of a collaboration between Marc Lalique, the son of the famous French luxury jeweler and glassmaker René Lalique, and Robert Ricci, Nina Ricci's son, both of whom were childhood friends.

The bottle, crafted by Lalique, has an iconic double dove cap, made of crystal, the glass decorative process of which is patented by René Lalique.

The Lalique Museum in Wingen-sur-Moder, in the northeast of France, has a dedicated exhibit of the bottle.

To date L’air du temps is still marketed with its signature Lalique bottle, and yellow and white packaging, although a limited edition of the bottle was redesigned by Olivia Putman, in 2013, and the graphic design of the packaging has updated through the years.

L’Air du temps is also connected to Andy Warhol who designed New York City department store windows for displaying the perfume.

Reference

Musee Lalique - L’air du temps

https://www.musee-lalique.com/en/lair-du-temps-perfume-bottle

Nina Ricci

https://www.ninaricci.com/
Olivia Putman Studio
https://studioputman.com/

Thursday, May 23, 2019

Oh, patents! Nina Ricci (3)

The bottle for Love in Paris Nina Ricci perfume was awarded the US Design patent USD526212S1 titled Flask for perfume.

The patent figure No. 1 is included below, together with an image of the marketed Love in Paris Eau de parfum bottle.

As a reminder: “a utility patent” protects the way an article is used and works (35 U.S.C. 101), while a “design patent” protects the way an article looks (35 U.S.C. 171) [MPEP Chapt. 1502.01; [R-07.2015]].

References

Nina Ricci

https://www.ninaricci.com/en-US/

MPEP – Chapt. 1502-01 – Distinction between design and utility patent

https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/s1502.html

Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Oh, patents! Nina Ricci (2)

The flask for the Mademoiselle Ricci perfume line was awarded the US Design patent USD606875S1 titled Perfume bottle.

The patent figure drawing No. 2 is included below, together with an image of one of the three marketed Mademoiselle Ricci perfume bottles.

References

Nina Ricci

https://www.ninaricci.com/en-US/

MPEP – Chapt. 1502-01 – Distinction between design and utility patent

https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/s1502.html

Monday, May 20, 2019

Oh, patents! Nina Ricci (1)

The apple--shaped perfume bottle for the Nina Ricci Nina perfume product line was awarded US design patent USD546195S1 titled Flask for perfume. The Nina Nina Ricci perfume product line includes such hits as Nina, Pretty Nina, Nina Limited Edition, Bella, L’Elixir, Love, La Tentation, Woman and Les Délices, each conditioned in the patented apple-shaped bottle.

Figure 1 from the patent drawings is included below together an image of the marketed baseline Nina Nina Ricci perfume bottle.

Just FYI, Nina Ricci was born Maria Nielli, in 1883, in Turin, Italy. Combining her nickname with her husband's name “Ricci”, she created the brand name Nina Ricci. Her fashion house was founded in 1932 in Paris. Her son, Robert Ricci, founded the perfume branch of the famous fashion house in 1941.

References

Nina Ricci

https://www.ninaricci.com/en-US/

The House of Nina Ricci

https://www.ninaricci.com/en-US/The-House-of-Nina-Ricci

MPEP – Chapt. 1502-01 – Distinction between design and utility patent

https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/s1502.html

Tuesday, May 14, 2019

EPO Inventor Awards 2019 – The finalists

On May 7, 2019, the European Patent Organization (EPO) announced the list of 15 finalists who will be contending for the five 2019 European Inventor awards. EPO Inventor awards are granted in 5 categories of activity: Research, Small & Medium Enterprise, Industry, Lifetime Achievement and Non-EPO country. A sixth award, the popular award, is also granted. The popular award invites everyone, including you, to vote for their favorite inventor/invention among the group of 15 selected finalists.

The winners are then announced at the EPO Inventors awards ceremony, to be held this year on June 20, 2019 in Vienna, Austria.

The finalists in each of the 5 categories, together with a few of the recent EP patents granted for their inventions, are listed below.

Research

Jérôme Galon (FR), inventor of the Immunoscore®

EP1943520 An in vitro method for the prognosis of progression of a cancer and of the outcome in a patient and means for performing said method
EP2241891 An in vitro method for the prognosis of progression of a cancer and of the outcome in a patient and means for performing said method
EP2420836 An in vitro method for the prognosis of progression of a cancer and of the outcome in a patient and means for performing said method

Matthias Mann (DE), inventor of protein analysis to diagnose disease

EP1355666 Use of repulsive guidance molecule (RGM) and its modulators
EP2767834 Quantitative standard for mass spectrometry of proteins

Patrizia Paterlini-Bréchot (IT), inventor of the ISET® blood test for the detection of tumor cells

EP2633912 Device for separating by vertical filtration of biological particles contained in a liquid
EP1108057 Method, equipment and reagent for cell separation
EP1383926 Prenatal diagnosis method on isolated foetal cell of maternal blood
EP1866091 Method and device for the separation of biological particles contained in a liquid by means of vertical filtration

Industry

Antonio Corredor Molguero and Carlos Fermín Menéndez Díaz (ES) inventors of a concrete mould for better breakwaters

EP2202361 Mould for manufacturing concrete cubipods

Kaus Feichtinger and Manfred Hacki (AT) inventors of higher-performance plastic recycling

EP2766166 Apparatus for processing plastic material
EP2689908 Device and method for processing plastic materials
EP2766157 Apparatus for processing plastic material
EP2766158 Apparatus for processing plastic material
EP2766159 Apparatus for processing plastic material

Alexander van der Lely and Karel van den Berg (NL) inventors of milking robots for healthier cows

EP1188368 A construction for automatically milking animals
EP0951651 A sensor apparatus, as well as a method of determining the position of an object, in particular a teat of an animal to be milked
EP1221282 A device for and a method of cleaning a milking machine, and a milking machine
EP1163843 method of increasing the utilization capacity of the implement

Small & Medium enterprise

Esben Beck (NO) inventor of Lasers and AI for healthy salmon

EP2531022 Method and device for destroying parasites on fish

Rik Breur (NL) inventor of marine antifouling fiber wrap

EP1996453 Antifouling fibre coatings for marine constructions

Richard Palmer and Philip Green (UK) inventor of flexible armor that hardens on impact

EP1832186 Energy absorbing material and corresponding method of manufacturing

Non-EPO countries

Akira Yoshino (JP) inventor of lithium-ion battery and its evolution

EP2063435 Novel polymer electrolyte and electrochemical device
EP2063436 Polymeric electrolyte, method for production thereof, and electrochemical element

Gideon Stein (IL) inventor of vision for vehicles to improve road safety

EP1806595 Estimating distance to an object using a sequence of images recorded by a monocular camera
EP1236126 System for detecting obstacles to vehicle motion
EP1741079 Collision warning system

Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre (US) inventors of eco-friendly packaging from mushrooms

EP2702137 Method for making dehydrated mycelium elements and product made thereby
EP2094856 Method for producing grown materials and products made thereby

Lifetime achievement
Margarita Salas Falgueras (ES)DNA amplification for genomics

EP2450453 Method for the replication, amplification or sequencing of a DNA template
EP2450436 Phage phi 29 DNA polymerase chimera
EP1970380 Inhibitor of the uracil-DNA glycosylase enzyme and uses thereof
EP0527728 -i(in vitro) DNA synthesis reactions using phi 29 DNA polymerase and a DNA fragment encoding said polymerase

M arta Karczewicz (PL) inventor of advances in video compression

EP2304961 Rate-distortion defined interpolation for video coding based on fixed filter or adaptive filter
EP2074828 Efficient significant coefficients coding in scalable video codecs
EP2165542 Adaptive coefficient scanning in video coding

M aximilian Haider (AT) inventor of sharper electron microscopes

EP1057204 Device for correcting third-order spherical aberration in a lens, especially the objective lens of an electronic microscope
EP1012866 Method for eliminating first, second and third-order axial image deformations during correction of the third-order spherical aberration in electron optical systems

A YouTube view of the 2019 EPO inventor finalists is included below.

The Popular Vote

To vote for your favorite inventor/invention, please click here.

You may vote every day, as many times as you like, for one inventor/invention.

Reference

The European Inventor Awards 2019

Saturday, May 11, 2019

Oh, patents! Concours Lépine 2019

On April 27, the grand opening of the 118^th year of the Concours Lépine International was celebrated within the auspices of the annual Paris fair, Foire de Paris, held at the Parc des Expositions, Porte de Versailles, from April 27 to May 8, 2019.

Louis Lépine

Indeed, it was in 1901 that the Paris Police Commissioner Louis Lépine drafted and decreed the official rules for the Concours Lépine, a contest and exhibit for small artisan inventors, which offered to patent the entries to the contest and exhibit. At the turn of the twentieth century, the idea was to protect Parisian toymakers, who were facing stiff foreign competition, while populating the Foire de Paris with interesting exhibits.

Since then, the contest is open to all inventors who have received patents for their inventions. The inventions on exhibit are also judged and awarded the many contest prizes. Beyond the major Concours Lépine Prizes: the Grand Prize, the Jury’s Prize and the President of the Jury’s Prize, awarded in Bronze, Silver and Gold, for the various contest categories ranging from smart home to construction materials and energy efficiency, many additional prizes are awarded. Each award highlights the connections between the contest and the Public Administration at the foundation of the contest. Thus, for example, awards are designated The President of the Republic Award, The Prime Minister’s Award, The Senate Award, The National Assembly Award, The Mayor of Paris Award etc.

In addition to the International Contest and Exhibit, held each year in Spring at the Foire de Paris, many regional Concours Lépine are also held in France. The same company, founded in 1901, to administer the contest, La Société des Petits Fabricants et Inventeurs Français (SPFIF), now designated Association des Inventeurs et Fabricants Français (AIFF), manages and administers the Concours Lépine.

This year’s award-winning inventions are listed here.

References

Concours Lépine

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

Foir de Paris

https://en.foiredeparis.fr/

Sunday, May 5, 2019

Hijacking The Wall in celebration of Cinco de Mayo

Question: Who’s gonna build the wall?

Answer: Ron English, the famous street artist, is building The Welcome Wall with his street artist friends from around the world, on the Tex-Mex border.

The Welcome Wall?

Yes, a 2000 ft, 15 ft high Welcome Wall. Each artist gets 100 feet of wall, both to express his or her perspective on the wall and to generate more dialogue. The Welcome Wall project was launched on April 22, 2019. The Welcome Wall will stay up until election night in 2020 when the pieces will be auctioned in partial support of wildlife, indigenous communities, and non-profits.

In the interim, the artwork might be prepared offsite, on the three full sheets of 15/32" x 4 ft x 8 ff plywood that make up the wall panels, and then assembled on site. Alternatively, the art might be created on site by the artists. The Welcome Wall project is crowdfunded at Indiegogo.

Below, The Welcome Wall concept and a Youtube video of the state of the Welcome Wall in April 2019.

¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

References

Ron English

http://www.popaganda.com/