Patently Rediculous

[DreadPirateRoberts]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

The skeleton thing is 1,749,090. It was filed by Helene Adelaide Shelby and the patent was issued March 4, 1930.

You can view it more conveniently than at the USPTO site here.

ETA: Google Patent Search is full text all the way back as well so you might find it useful.

Very cool! I found a patent by my great-great grandfather.

[Snowflake]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

According to people I know who work regularly with the commercial patent databases, Google Patents leaves something to be desired. But as a non-professional I've found it very handy.

Well, I'm not a searcher, but always apreciate a silly patent. This enables me to search for more silliness.

[Snowflake]

Originally Posted by DreadPirateRoberts

Very cool! I found a patent by my great-great grandfather.

Hey, that is very cool!

I know in my research on Valentino, I found a design patent done by Valentino's second wife, even her biographer did not know about it, that was cool too!

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by Snowflake

Well, I'm not a searcher, but always apreciate a silly patent. This enables me to search for more silliness.

Silly is good.

[DreadPirateRoberts]

Bob Gurr has some patents you might recognize:


http://www.google.com/patents?vid=US...dq=robert+gurr

http://www.google.com/patents?vid=US...dq=robert+gurr

http://www.google.com/patents?vid=US...dq=robert+gurr

http://www.google.com/patents?vid=US...dq=robert+gurr

http://www.google.com/patents?vid=US...dq=robert+gurr

http://www.google.com/patents?vid=US...ert+gurr&jtp=1

http://www.google.com/patents?vid=US...dq=robert+gurr

http://www.google.com/patents?vid=US...dq=robert+gurr

[flippyshark]

Wow. Bob Gurr deserves a coffee table book all his own. Theme parks wouldn't be the same without him. (I met Bob once back in the day. Very interesting guy!)

[Ghoulish Delight]

When we saw Charles Phoenix's Disneyland slideshow last year, we were treated to a wonderful surprise...Bob Gurr was in the audience. It was truly eye opening to see slide after slide of different Disneyland vehicles and hear, "Bob Gurr designed this one too," over and over. He had great stories about going to junk yards and salvaging parts from old Buicks and Chevys to piece together everything from the Autopia cars to the Monorails. He had real vision to be able to take existing forms that were recognizable in their own right and come up with something new out of them with their own unique character.

[DreadPirateRoberts]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

When we saw Charles Phoenix's Disneyland slideshow last year, we were treated to a wonderful surprise...Bob Gurr was in the audience. It was truly eye opening to see slide after slide of different Disneyland vehicles and hear, "Bob Gurr designed this one too," over and over. He had great stories about going to junk yards and salvaging parts from old Buicks and Chevys to piece together everything from the Autopia cars to the Monorails. He had real vision to be able to take existing forms that were recognizable in their own right and come up with something new out of them with their own unique character.

very cool. I learned about him from his articles in laughing place.

[mousepod]

I'm surprised - not by how many cool things Bob Gurr designed - but by how little I apparently understand patent law. Why did WED allow an individual's name on a patent (I note that it does say "Assignor to Wed Enterprises") - do they still do that? How does patent for a design differ from copyright on, say, a show script?

[Ghoulish Delight]

I don't know any details, but I do see a lot of patents get awarded to software and hardware engineers in my company. While the IP does belong to the company, those that develop the patentable innovation are credited by name on the patent. So that much continues to be standard practice.