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.

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.

It’s summer, and by the afternoon it’s often sweltering in London’s Underground.  In 1906 the tube was hailed as being “The Coolest Place in Hot Weather”. It had the ambient temperature of the surrounding subsoil, which was about 15 to 16 degrees Celsius. However the movement of rolling stock, working equipment and people using the lines emitted heat over time. This went into the walls and then into the subsoil, raising the ambient temperature and drying out the clay which reduced its ability to conduct heat away.

There’s been a story in the press recently about a man who used 49 cloned credit cards to steal £10,000 from a cash point. It was late at night, and it took him two hours to do it. Whenever anyone wanted to use the machine, he politely stood back. And then went on stealing money with another card.

A new kind of electronic trolley may soon be making its way to your supermarket. The idea is to use RFID technology to enable, to be honest, increased sales for the retailer. It may also help the consumer to get more out of the “shopping experience”.

I was on holiday recently when I noticed a street vendor selling those pesky weasels which move back and forth as they try to manoeuvre a ball. I picked up a box, saw that it was called the “Weazel Ball®” (not “weasel”), that it was made in China, and that it claimed to be patented.

Electric toothbrushes have been around for decades, but I’ve just found on the supermarket shelves a disposable electric toothbrush.

It was back in 1997 that Amazon.com applied for the so-called “one-click ordering” patent, but its repercussions rumble on.

I was reminded of it by a notice on the European Patent Office’s web site stating that EP 927945, a granted patent which they called the “gift order patent”, had been revoked after opposition by three parties, including the Foundation for Free Information Infrastructure (FFEI). The notice stated that this patent was not to be confused with the “one-click” patent.

Christmas is coming, and one present that will certainly be in short supply is Nintendo’s Wii™ game console.

As of the end of September 2007 over 13 million units had been sold worldwide, following the launch at the end of 2006. Despite this the console sells out almost immediately in the UK as soon as supplies are delivered to shops. A typical price, with a few games bundled in, is £300.

For a long time I have eyed the self-service checkouts at my local Sainsbury’s, but have been too nervous to try them out.  The impetus behind them seems to date from American patent 4787467, which was applied for in 1987 by Neldon Johnson. It is key because over 40 later patents from many companies have it cited against them as relevant prior art, quite a number.