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The Santa Claus Detector Mar 7, 2010: This is the first in a monthly column about patents which are interesting in themselves or which are in the news. With over 50 million to choose from it will take some time for the well to run dry, and of course more are being published all the time. With the Christmas season let‘s look at one which is topical. The free Espacenet® covers much of this patent material, and the "Simple text" search box lists sixteen patents with Santa Claus in their titles of abstract summaries. One of these is the intriguing "Santa Claus detector", US 5523741. The abstract provided by the inventor, Thomas Cane of San Rafael, California, states that "It is useful for visually signalling the arrival of Santa Claus by illuminating an externally visable light source having a power source loaded within said device".

Light-transmitting concrete Mar 1, 2009: Sometimes an idea seems so simple and obvious you wonder why no one thought of it before.
Translucent Concrete is a combination of optical fibres and fine concrete. Thousands of fibres run side by side transmitting light between the two surfaces of each element. Because of their small size the fibres blend into concrete becoming a component of the material like small pieces of ballast. In this manner, the result is not only having the two materials mixed - glass in concrete - but a third, new material, which is homogeneous in its inner structure and on its main surfaces as well.

Reverse osmosis Feb 1, 2009: I enjoy watching Dragons’ Den, the BBC programme where those asking for money for their businesses or inventions are cross-examined by potential investors. Very often the supplicants are poorly prepared with facts and figures, and the resulting mauling they get from the infuriated millionaires is entertaining.

Bricks from ash, not straw Jan 1, 2009: Disposing of waste products such as household waste is a perennial problem. It is excellent when a waste product can be recycled into a new and useful product.

Henry Liu of Missouri has done just that for the "fly ash", the fine waste removed from the smoke emitted by coal-fueled power stations. Only a third of the ash waste is at present re-used, meaning that in the USA alone 40 million tons annually is disposed of in slurry pits or in mine pits. Besides finding a use, they would reduce the use of conventional means of producing bricks, and of pollutants such as mercury from that activity. The USA makes 9 billion bricks annually.

Shaking, movin’, speaking Santa Claus Dec 1, 2008: Novelty item shops are notorious for selling small shaking figures which presumably are meant as gifts or decorations – and this is particularly noticeable at Christmas.

A company that specialises almost entirely in Christmas-themed novelty figures is Telco Creations of Hicksville, New York. To say that they are devoted to kitsch is putting it mildly. I can’t imagine ever buying one of their products except as a terrible joke (maybe that is the idea ?) but presumably their products sell, or they would be out of business. The private company is still around but seem to have stopped applying for new designs in about 1997.

Robot Legs Nov 1, 2008: Honda recently announced the idea of robot legs to assist workers in factories. The Walking Assist device is designed to help people who work standing, or in a crouching position, for a long time. The footage at the site makes it look a bit uncomfortable in a certain part of the demonstrator’s anatomy.

Getting under the skin Oct 1, 2008: Being kidnapped, even if eventually released unharmed, must be a terrifying ordeal for the victims, and their friends and relatives. Some potential victims in Mexico are taking the precaution of having tracking devices injected into them.

The iPod® MP3 player Sep 1, 2008: The iPod® has been around for quite a while, of course, but recently it got in the news again when Apple admitted that Kane Kramer had thought up the original idea, which I will talk about later on.

Coffee cup holders Aug 1, 2008: Sometimes it is the little item that you hardly notice that plays a role in protecting you (or a company’s profits).

I was in Boston on holiday recently and did what for me is very unusual. I walked into one of the many branches of Starbucks and bought a coffee. The cup had a sleeve made of corrugated paper. On the few occasions I’ve bought coffee in a shop, it came without a sleeve. I was intrigued to see the mention of three patents: two utility patents, and one design patent (prefixed by a D). Designs are for the look, the others are for function.

Recycling PET plastic Jul 1, 2008: Quite a few sources on the Web state that the PET bottle for pressurized drinks was invented by Nathaniel Wyeth of Du Pont. This is the familiar thin-walled, flexible bottle found in every shop.