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