US 7,922,031 B1 – Insulator Sleeve for a Beverage Container:
- Priority Date: March 1st, 2006
- Background: The insulator sleeve provides a reusable beverage sleeve for a frusto-conical beverage cup, rendering prior art disposable sleeves unnecessary.
- Anticipation and Obviousness: The issue that arises with this patent is all it simply does is transform the traditional disposable beverage sleeve into it being reusable. However, this claimed invention couldn’t be ruled as anticipated due to the structure of its claims as no one had known about or used the invention before the patent had been put into place. What makes this invention novel is the description of it provided in claim #1. The unique structure of the invention listed in claim #1 through describing the invention as “having an inside diameter sufficient to allow at least partial insertion of the inner sleeve within the outer sleeve such that the inner and outer sleeve are coaxially aligned” is a disclosure that is not available as prior art. Furthermore, the construction, design, and materials utilized that are described in the later claims differentiate this invention from any predecessor or similar inventions created before. Therefore, while this invention may not be very novel, it nonetheless possesses validity due to the unique nature of its claims.
US 2,661,889 A – Thermal Coffee Cup:
- Priority Date: July 20, 1948
- Background: The thermal coffee cup was designed to provide a container adapted to receive a coffee cup which would normally be too hot to handle whereby the inner coffee cup would be insulated from the hand.
- Anticipation and Obviousness: There is only 1 claim to this invention, but what it presents is a design that is both novel and non-obvious. This claim divulges into the design of the overall product and how each component works with each to ensure that the invention works. While simple, this invention is one that cannot be anticipated over a disclosure that is available as prior art as nothing of its kind in thermal beverage insulating technology had existed before. The one claim describes how this invention was designed to provide a cover cap with a lip so the contents of the cup could be kept covered and heated and the purpose of this was to provide a combined holder and coffee cup which was convenient and efficient for manufacture and use. Therefore, the novelty and non-obvious nature of this invention reinforces the validity of the patent.
Rushil,
ReplyDeletevery interesting blog post about US Patent #7,922,031. I would like to address your comment about the "reusable" addition. Do you think that the patent may have arisen to be unique out of a contemporary demand for environmentalism? I believe that over time as peoples needs change, that the obviousness of something can be altered as it provides a different aspect of change. Being "reusable" may actually be obvious as there is a large demand for that aspect. Awesome post!
This is a great post. It is clear that you have read and understand his post. I like how you present an opposing view point which shows that you have critically thought about and internalized the issue behind US Patent #7,922,031. To make this even better you could talk about some evidence that supports your argument. Great work!
DeleteRamie,
DeleteGreat job on this comment. I think you brought up a lot of good points on the development of patents over the course of time and how they each ended up effecting each other in the long run. The questions you raised on reusables-ness is appropriate as well.
Great descriptions, I like how detailed it is about each claim and what the claim itself entails.
ReplyDeleteNice work! I enjoyed how it was very detailed and easy to follow!
ReplyDelete