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New Quiz
Don´t Stretch Your Neck Out
Imagine you had the brilliant idea to produce and market the hanger
depicted below. You want to know if it is worth applying for a patent to
protect it. Try to determine whether this invention is really new using
esp@cenet®.
More information on the
product Web site
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Solution to previous quiz
The Rolling tank
The following text describes an innovation that has the potential to
change millions of lives. “Imagine waking up long before sunrise and
then walking for more than two hours to the nearest river or borehole and then
carrying a bucket full of water on your head all the way home - every day for
the rest of your life. This hell-on-earth scenario is faced by millions every
day, causing extensive personal injury and suffering with no respite. The
Hipporoller carries 20 gallons of water, four times the water that one person
can carry in a 20 litre bucket (5 gallons weighs nearly 42 pounds or 18.9
kilograms) and it does so without placing undue stress on the neck, arms or
spine.”
“The Hippo Water Roller is a barrel-shaped container designed
to transport 90 litres of water. It is made up of a drum with a large screw-on
cap and a clip-on steel handle.
“The drum is made from UV stabilised Polyethylene and has
been designed to withstand typical rural conditions such as uneven footpaths,
rocks and even broken bottles. The large opening (135 mm / 5.3 inch diameter)
allows for easy filling and cleaning of the interior. The sealed lid ensures
hygienic storage of water, and the steel handle provides firm control over
difficult terrain while pushing or pulling the roller.”
Try to find similar inventions using esp@cenet®
Solution
Step one: To find similar patents, identify the most pertinent
aspects of the invention -- common technical features that may be found in
related patents -- and for each aspect, define a comprehensive set of synonyms.
To perform the search, this set of synonyms can be combined as keywords in the
patent database.
In this case, the following concepts -- groups of synonyms covering
the different aspects of the invention -- can be defined:
- tank, reservoir, vessel, container, enclosure
- roll*, wheel*
- mov*, displac*, distanc
- weight
- developing countr*, dry
Many attempts are necessary to find relevant records. It is by
combining “liquid container and roll*” in the title field that an
interesting document appears:
Rolling liquid container,
DE3400224
Finding more documents using keywords does not prove successful for
this search. Let us move to the second step and check whether classification
can help.
Step 2: Use the classification assigned to relevant documents to
refine and complete the search.
One of the classification symbols assigned to above document
corresponds to our invention:
Tank vehicles, the tank itself rolling on the ground: B60P3/22A
Using this symbol, you can retrieve all
records assigned with this
classification.
Browsing through the results you can find additional documents
like:
Rolling fuel transport device,
US3368822
Fuel containers,
GB922122
Unité de transport,
FR1225431
All those patent documents relate to rolling tanks. However, we
cannot conclude that those inventions completely match the type of rolling tank
used to transport water in developing countries. It is likely that if such a
patent existed it would have been found under the classification symbol
detected above. Finding a better document is a daunting task but, as usual, the
“absence of evidence is no evidence of absence”.
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