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I found the Broom Groomer on Quirky's site [1], and what do you know?--the product description says, Patent pending. Well, that must mean there's a patent appli

I found the Broom Groomer on Quirky's site [1], and what do you know?--the product description says, Patent pending. Well, that must mean there's a patent application in the USPTO system! Sure enough, Quirky's patent application, dated September 7, 2011 (provisionally filed April 18), titled Waste receptacle [2]. Bill Ward is one of the inventors. I am not qualified to judge this patent against the one mentioned by OXO, so I invite others to compare the two. [1] http://www.quirky.com/products/36-Broom-Groomer-Broom-Cleaning-Dustpan http://www.quirky.com/products/36-Broom-Groomer-Broom-Cleani... [2] http://www.google.com/patents/US20120260453 http://www.google.com/patents/US20120260453

benzofuran 14y ago
Patent pending or not, there's clear evidence of prior art, and the patent will most likely be rejected. I can file a patent on about anything from the wheel on up, and for the period between filing and rejection, I can claim that the wheel is patent pending - it still doesn't give me much further protection.
- Gigablah 14y ago
  Apparently, Bill Ward earned $15k for re-appropriating a design from 1919. http://www.quirky.com/products/36-Broom-Groomer-Broom-Cleaning-Dustpan/timeline http://www.quirky.com/products/36-Broom-Groomer-Broom-Cleani... http://www.google.com/patents/US1315310 http://www.google.com/patents/US1315310
  - geetee 14y ago
    I love how easy it is to read and actually understand that patent.
  - DanBC 14y ago
    Did he put silicone prongs on it? That seems like a really bad idea. Silicone rubber is high friction - it's going to make cleaning the bristles hard work. And cleaning the prongs is going to be hard.
- dalke 14y ago
  It rather depends on the patent claims. There are over 500 patents on barbed wire, and searching for "paper clip" just now, there are new paper clip patents in the last few years, like 6,973,700 and 7,500,301. To say nothing of the many design patents for paper clips. So not, it's not obvious that it will be rejected. It could be a seemingly minor thing. I brought up paperclips because in Henry Petroski's "The Evolution of Useful Things", the author describes how one paperclip patent claim was for the variant where the outside wire extends beyond the loop of the paperclip. That seems like a minor variation, but the submitter showed that no one else had done it, and got the patent.
  - narcissus 14y ago
    I hate to say it but after ridiculing that change in the design I actually realised that it would totally solve the problem that I have with some paperclips: if I pushed it right down to level the clip on a pack of papers, pulling the clip off can sometimes catch the outside arm on the paper as it comes off. It doesn't tear the paper but it leaves a weird ugly mark. That new design would avoid that problem I imagine. I'd totally but those paperclips!
    - dalke 14y ago
      I spent a while looking for the paperclips. They are nothing new. I remember seeing them some 20 years ago. But the various sites I found mostly sold Gems, some sold Gothic, and the rest were decorative styles. I even went through the old patent literature looking for it, but the closest I found was pre-Gem, from around 1900. I did find a picture of what I'm thinking of, in the logo for http://www.bureaudirect.co.uk/ http://www.bureaudirect.co.uk/ . Still, I don't think you want an extended Gem. Try a Gothic - it has longer legs and is supposed to be favored by archivists, who are more affected by the problem you mentioned - but I haven't yet found an online source for them. Or perhaps an owl paperclip, since that doesn't look like it has anything which will catch the paper and several places stock it.
      - narcissus 14y ago
        Wow. I know I'm not really adding anything to the conversation now, but I just wanted to thank you for opening my eyes to a world that I didn't know existed. So much information about something I didn't know was even a problem. Awesome. Thanks!

benzofuran 14y ago

Patent pending or not, there's clear evidence of prior art, and the patent will most likely be rejected. I can file a patent on about anything from the wheel on up, and for the period between filing and rejection, I can claim that the wheel is patent pending - it still doesn't give me much further protection.

Gigablah 14y ago
Apparently, Bill Ward earned $15k for re-appropriating a design from 1919. http://www.quirky.com/products/36-Broom-Groomer-Broom-Cleaning-Dustpan/timeline http://www.quirky.com/products/36-Broom-Groomer-Broom-Cleani... http://www.google.com/patents/US1315310 http://www.google.com/patents/US1315310
- geetee 14y ago
  I love how easy it is to read and actually understand that patent.
- DanBC 14y ago
  Did he put silicone prongs on it? That seems like a really bad idea. Silicone rubber is high friction - it's going to make cleaning the bristles hard work. And cleaning the prongs is going to be hard.
dalke 14y ago
It rather depends on the patent claims. There are over 500 patents on barbed wire, and searching for "paper clip" just now, there are new paper clip patents in the last few years, like 6,973,700 and 7,500,301. To say nothing of the many design patents for paper clips. So not, it's not obvious that it will be rejected. It could be a seemingly minor thing. I brought up paperclips because in Henry Petroski's "The Evolution of Useful Things", the author describes how one paperclip patent claim was for the variant where the outside wire extends beyond the loop of the paperclip. That seems like a minor variation, but the submitter showed that no one else had done it, and got the patent.
- narcissus 14y ago
  I hate to say it but after ridiculing that change in the design I actually realised that it would totally solve the problem that I have with some paperclips: if I pushed it right down to level the clip on a pack of papers, pulling the clip off can sometimes catch the outside arm on the paper as it comes off. It doesn't tear the paper but it leaves a weird ugly mark. That new design would avoid that problem I imagine. I'd totally but those paperclips!
  - dalke 14y ago
    I spent a while looking for the paperclips. They are nothing new. I remember seeing them some 20 years ago. But the various sites I found mostly sold Gems, some sold Gothic, and the rest were decorative styles. I even went through the old patent literature looking for it, but the closest I found was pre-Gem, from around 1900. I did find a picture of what I'm thinking of, in the logo for http://www.bureaudirect.co.uk/ http://www.bureaudirect.co.uk/ . Still, I don't think you want an extended Gem. Try a Gothic - it has longer legs and is supposed to be favored by archivists, who are more affected by the problem you mentioned - but I haven't yet found an online source for them. Or perhaps an owl paperclip, since that doesn't look like it has anything which will catch the paper and several places stock it.
    - narcissus 14y ago
      Wow. I know I'm not really adding anything to the conversation now, but I just wanted to thank you for opening my eyes to a world that I didn't know existed. So much information about something I didn't know was even a problem. Awesome. Thanks!