Beginning at NYU in Jan 2013 within the context of a Patents Translation course delivered online, this blog seeks to uncover the patents that rock our daily lives....
The Guerlain Homme Intense perfume was released in 2009, as a deeper, more aromatic and sensual, version of the Guerlain Homme fragrance, released the year before. The Guerlain Homme Intense fragrance was created by Thierry Wasser, Guerlain’s Master Perfumer,and Sylvaine Delacourte, Guerlain’s Perfume Creative Director.
The Guerlain Homme Intense bottle is made of dark grey glass, cladded with dark grey metal, on the front and back of the bottle. Guerlain commissioned therenowned public italian car design firm, Pininfarina to design and manufacture the bottle. Pininfarina, founded in 1930, works in collaboration with such famous car makers as Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Peugeot, Fiat, GM, Lancia, and Maserati.
The Guerlain Homme Intense bottle is patented. The US design patent, USD588469S, titled Perfume bottle, was awarded to Paolo Pininfarina, inventor and CEO of Pininfarina, who assigned the patented design to Guerlain. Below, the patent Figure 6, together with an image of the marketed Guerlain Homme Intense perfume bottle.
Expert perfumers describe the Guerlain Homme Intense fragrance in following terms :
Top notes are Mint, Mojito and Rhuburb; middle notes are Rum, Geranium and Floral Notes; base notes are Vetiver, Virginia Cedar and Patchouli.
Guerlain’s Abeille Royale line of cosmetics includes a patented honeycomb-shaped flask, used as vessel for the collection of night, day and eye creams. Beyond mimetics and the company's twenty-first century research on the benefits of bee-related compounds, the flask design isaligned with the history of the Guerlain products. In particular, the honeycomb flask celebrates the renowned bee bottle, containing the Eau de Cologne Impériale, created by the founder Pierre-François Pascal Guerlain, in 1853. Guerlain's choice of a bee design had then honored the French Emperor's own heraldic selection of this symbol, together with the eagle, almost two centuries ago.
The US design patent USD908501S, titled Flask, in contrast to a utility patent,covers the ornamental aspects of the Guerlain honeycomb flask. As a reminder:
“a utility patent” protects the way an article is used and works (35 USC 171), while a “design patent” protects the way an article looks (35 USC 171) [MPEP Chapt. 1502.01; [R-07.2015]].
Below, the patent Figure 1 depicting a front view of the flask, together with the marketed day and night Abeille Royale creams, in their patented honeycomb flasks.
Shrinkflation,
a term combining “shrink” and “inflation”, meaning charging the same for less (1), is hardly new. The United Kingdom Office for National Statistics (ONS) already recorded
the following phenomenon, between Sept. 2015 and June 2017, as reported below:
We
identified 206 products that shrank in size and 79 that increased in size
between September 2015 and June 2017. There was no trend in the frequency of
size changes over this period, which included the EU referendum. The majority
of products experiencing size changes were food products and in 2016, we
estimated that between 1% and 2.1% of food products in our sample shrank in
size, while between 0.3% and 0.7% got bigger. We also observed that prices
tended not to change when products changed size, consistent with the idea that
some products are undergoing "shrinkflation." [Payne, 2019 - UK ONS]
What is
perhaps more current is the resurgence of the term (and phenomenon) post-pandemic.
Indeed, if you have a hunch that your cereal box, or chocolate bar, appears a bit
smaller, this is no gaslighted figment of your imagination. The product you are purchasing
may very well have been downsized or shrunk. You might even search "downsizing" at the Edgard Dworsky(2) Consumer Advocacy website Mouseprint.org,
which more generally seeks to expose “the strings and catches
buried in the fine print”. A whole section of the website is dedicated to showing you many products that have definitely changed sizes, year in, year out.
“Beware!”,
as Rosalsky (2021) warns. Shrinking products is a stealthy way of increasing prices (without changing prices). Manufacturers resort to downsizing when are facing pricing pressures, such as shortages. Sometimes, when there is inflation (higher pricing) and downsizing, then the increase in prices is in fact double.
Below, images of Costco paper towels, which have shrunk (for real) from 160 sheets to a roll 140 (courtesy of Mouseprint.org).
___________
Note
(1) The term downsizing is used as synonym of shrinklation at the consumer Advocacy website MousePrint.org.
(2) Edgard Dworsky, Former Massachusetts Assistant Attorney General.
Imagine
being encouraged to voluntarily download a clever little app,
able to detect via Bluetooth® low-energy handshakes, all the people you have
been in contact with, if you were to test positive for the SARS-coronavirus-2. Then, imagine such an app pinging (alerting) all the folks at risk, to inform them that they
need to self-isolate, depending on the distance of the contact, amount of exposure, time, date and location,
as processed by an infectious diseases risk-assessment algorithm.
Conversely, imagine receiving
such a ping, alerting you that you
have been in contact with someone infected, and that consequently: You need to self-isolate. The tracing and the pinging would be
the ying of the brilliant UK-NHS (United
Kingdom-National Health System) contact-tracing app, called COVID 19. However, the yang
of this fabulous little app is over-sensitivity. For example, when the app
detects your neighbors through walls as contacts. Or, when the app pings you to self-isolate,
upon detecting contact with a CoV2-positive person, after you have been vaccinated.
Such is now
the pending dilemma in the United Kingdom, which is re-opening its economy. A dilemma
causing another sort of torment, dubbed the pingdemic.
Only the
results of interview-based contact-tracing obligate a person to self-isolate in the
UK. Thus, people are essentially free to ignore what the app suggests. However,
since the UK is also currently facing another serious surge of COVID 19
infections, due to the Delta mutation, a corollary surge in ping-related job walkouts has also occurred. A surge of ping-notified self-isolations that is perceived as undoing the scheduled re-opening of
the economy, considering that even vaccinated folks are pinged. All of which warrants a major update in the app’s risk-assessment algorithms.
Without evaluation of the app's ping-effectiveness in curbing infections, or raising a privacy-related pingdissent discussion, screen captures of the brilliant, UK NHS contact-tracing app, are included below. In particular, the app's set-up steps are depicted.
Designed in 1853 by Pierre-François Pascal Guerlain, who commissioned
Pochet du Courval(1) Glassmakers for manufacturing the Eau de Cologne Impériale bottle, the
Guerlain"bee" bottle is still produced, used, and much commemorated.
For example, for the 160th anniversary of the bee bottle, in 2013, the House of Guerlain asked 25 artists to create a variation of the bee bottle. The re-created bee bottles
were then exhibited at the Guerlain flagship store, on the Champs-Elysées, in
Paris. On this occasion, Guerlain also issued a 24K-gold special edition of the
bee bottle. Otherwise, the bottle is used for several other, currently marketed, Guerlain
fragrances, such as Samsara, Eau de Fleurs de Cedrat, Jardins de Bagatelle, Muguet (2021 Lucie Touré Edition), or Petit Guerlain (children’s eau de toilette with a blue or pink label), in addition to the historic Eau de Cologne Impériale.
Below, a Guerlain Youtube video of the present-day bee bottle glassmaking
process, together with an image of the iconic Eau de Cologne Impériale bee bottle.
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Note (1) The Groupe Pochet (former Pochet du Courval) patented several glass bottle stoppers, as well as electric glassmaking equipment in the early 1960s.
Almost 200 years after the foundation of the House of Guerlain, in Paris, in 1828, the famous French luxury cosmetics brand continues to innovate in the spirit of the founder, Pierre-François Pascal Guerlain. The House of Guerlain became famous in 1853 with the creation of L’Eau de Cologne Impériale for the French Emperor Napoleon III. A commission that promoted Pierre-François Guerlain: “His Imperial Majesty’s Official Perfume Maker”.
The 1853 perfume bottle was no less famous than the Eau de Cologne, as it was decorated with hand-painted bees, in gold. Bees, which were the Emperor’s symbol of choice, appearing embroidered on the imperial ermine coat, together with the Imperial Eagle. Thus, it comes as no surprise that a cosmetics product line, research-driven using the beneficial properties of bees, should arise so many years later. A line of bee products that, most significantly, boasts another fabulous ornamental bee design on the bottle.
The 21st century Guerlain Abeille Royale (royal bee) bottle design is patented with the US design patent USD862244S, titled Perfume 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]].
Below, one of the patent drawings of the 21st century Guerlain Abeille Royale bottle, together with an image of the marketed embodiment.
Selected
Toyota Mothers of Invention in 2019, Miranda Wang and Jeanny Yao, have garnered
more than one prize for their invention, including the Sanofi BioGenius Canada Award, in 2012, when they were still in high school. For
such accolades, Wang and Yao invented a new way of upcycling plastic waste,
considering that 340 million cubic tons
of plastic are produced each year, most of which (86% in Canada, 79% gobally) is going to landfills
once used, 8 million cubic tons of which is dumped in the ocean, and less than
15% of which is recycled (globally) (e.g.; EarthDayorg; Dean, 2018; Geyer et. al, 2017; Plastic Oceans; Plastic Tides). A quantity of plastic produced, together with its versatility
and value, that on the one hand prompted Wang and Yao to speak in awe of the
Age of Plastic, and on the other hand propelled both entrepreneurs on a fierce
mission to mitigate the devastating environmental impact [Novoloop video]. For example, in a 2016 Ellen MacArtur Foundation study, scientists warned that, at the current
rate of ocean pollution, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish, in 2050. (Ellen MacArthur Report, 2016)
However, for
Wang and Yao, no denying the value of plastic, or the urgent need to solve the disastrous
problems associated with the perennity of plastic, made for durability instead of degradability. Thus, Wang and Yao both founded Novoloop (former BioCellection, Inc). After hiring
a team of scientists, the start-up built a platform that does more than recycleplastic, since it produces brand new building blocks of endlessly
recyclable plastic, made 50% out of post-consumer plastic waste, produced using 45% less
CO2 emissions, in a process termed upcycling.
Driven by
the motivation to produce the right
product, at the right time, for the right reasons, right now, to solve a 100%
solvable problem, using existing technology, Novoloop built the ATOD™ platform (Accelerated Thermal Oxidative Decomposition), a
reactor for the production of OISTRE™,
a polyurethane (PU) product derived from polyethylene (PE) plastic waste. As the company
name Novoloop(meaning “new cycle”) suggests, the company
produces an endlessly recyclable new plastic, suitable for pervasive use in such varied applications as sports equipment, consumer electronics, fashion and apparel, or for automotive parts.
The microbial path that
eventually led to the invention of the chemical reactor, and its output, together with the foundation of Novoloop, is no less
interesting, since Wang and Yao initially assumed that the plastic, they could
see polluting rivers, was also being metabolized by bacteria. Consequently, they set out to sequence the
plastic-consuming bacteria, while still in high school. A project they submitted for a Sanofi BioGenuis Award, which they won, much to everyone’s exhilaration, considering the press
they both received. However, once recognized, and the process of breaking down post-consumer
plastics identified biologically, they still had to find a way to chemically reproduce the
process of plastic decomposition, and transformation, on an industrial level, so that
they could begin to practically address the plastic problem, outside of the
laboratory. Thus, Novoloop was born,
to bridge the last mile, from
inventive step to industrial applicability, cost-effectiveness and economic
viability. With the assistance of chemists to build the
reactor, plus many additional collaborators and advisors, variously in charge
of moving the company forward, Novoloop is building needed partnerships.
Partenrships able to shift the marvels of the plastics industry, in a
more beneficial post-consumer direction.
The ATOD™ platform and OISTRE™
product are patented. For example, the following US utility patent US10557011B2, titled Methods for the decomposition of contaminated plastic waste, not only discloses viable decomposition of plastic waste products, but also their potential for production
of new value-added products.
Specifically, the invention arises out of the ineffective
landscape of the prior art of waste plastic treatment. Indeed, treatments, such as pyrolysis,
incineration, landfill disposal, and mechanical recycling, after thorough
cleaning, are recited as presenting too many disadvantages, not the least of
which is the issue of economic viability.
Pyrolysis, for example, is recited as very energy-consuming, requiring
many refinery steps for obtaining a useful product. Whereas, Incineration and
landfills are both dismissed as detrimental to the environment, while
mechanical recycling through cleaning, is dismissed on the grounds that it requires massive labor and resources.
The short abstract
of the invention is included below, together with the patent cover sheet diagram of the Novoloop decomposition reactor. The diagram of
the reactor, in particular, depicts the input of polyethylene plastic waste, the
adjunction of an oxidizing agent, and a chamber where the mixture is subjected
to conditions suitable for the decomposition of the plastic waste into a decomposition
mixture. The diagram also depicts output of the decomposition product.
This invention relates to the field of
contaminated plastic waste decomposition. More specifically, the
invention comprises methods and systems to decompose contaminated plastic waste
and transform it into value-added products. [Abstract US10557011B2]
In the Youtube video below, Miranda Wang pitches Novoloop (former BioCellection, Inc), the company she founded with Jeanny Yao, for a Circular Economy Session, at the 2019 MIT Solve® Innovation Challenges.
Geyer, R., Jambeck, J. R. and K. Lavender Law (2017). Production,
use, and fate of all plastics ever made. Scientific Advances, 3(7), e1700782. DOI:
10.1126/sciadv.1700782 - https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/7/e17007
Before the
importance of handwashing became almost a matter of life and death, within the
context of the COVID 19 pandemic, Shubham Issar and Amanat Anand, were selected Toyota Mothers of Invention, in 2019, for their invention of the SoaPen®. A pen full of soap, designed to encourage little kids to use soap to wash their hands, while
engaging in the fun of scribbling on their hands.
Hailing both from India, and the Parsons School of Design in New York City, the two inventors
responded specifically to the hygiene challenge of handwashing, A challenge for the prevention of many diseases, resulting in the preventable death of 1.5 million young children in the Third World (e.g., SoaPen®, 2015, Unicef, 2016, ). Researching the use of soap
in Indian schools, for example, the inventors found that even though soap was donated,
the donated soap was a precious commodity that had to be stored in cupboards, which
made using soap more complicated. As a result, the inventors took soap out of the bathroom, and
into the classroom. A move that enabled teachers to integrate use of the SoaPen® into their curriculum, drawing pictures on the children's hands and marking fingers for where to wash, while teaching them both how to wash their hands, and the importance of handwashing.
In fact,
the Soapen®was patented, in India, surprisingly enough primarily as a teaching tool,
rather than a personal hygiene, or cosmetics, product.The SoaPen®invention was awarded the Indian
patent IN3795/DEL2015, titled
Soapen®, listed at the UN World Intellectual Property
Organization (WIPO). In particular, the specification of the invention states:
Purpose - SoaPen is a teaching tool in the form of a.soap-crayon, which promotes the habit of handwashing with soap among school children of the impressionable age.
In sum, for little kids, using the SoaPen® is easy, fun
andnice-smelling. The Soapens® are scented berry blast, tangy tangerine and fresh pear. For parents, the SoaPen® is “non-irritating, non-toxic and free from SLS, parabens, EDTA, phthalates
and any animal by-product” (SoaPen). For social impact, SoaPens are donated to
classrooms in India, for every three-pack of red, blue and green, SoaPens sold.
Below, an
image the SoaPen® company logo, a satisfied customer, and the UNICEF version of the red, green and blue SoaPens.
