What a fabulous invention. All birds' owners are saved. Now they can let their Geshas and Pollies out of the cage to fly freely in the house without being worried that their house will covered with their favorite pets poop all over the place. Say thanks to United States patent 5934226 for [a] bird diaper for an uncaged pet bird to wear, featuring an enclosed pouch for receiving and containing excrement, and apertures to accommodate both the wings and the tail of the bird, now a happy bird owner who prefers to keep his house tidy will be able to accommodate his pet's happy lifestyle without compromising his love for a clean house.
However, I am not sure how happy the bird will be to wear this fashionable accessory, and how difficult it will for the owner to put on the diaper on a bird. It might be easier to clean up the mess after Polly's flying tour around the house than it is to make it wear the diaper. However, it can be a happy solution for both - the pet owner who loves tidiness, and for a bird that loves "fly freely" lifestyle.
It is clear how the patent covers three main concepts for it to be a ligit patent:
1. Novelty - People have created diapers before but no one would ever think that it is a possibility for birds. The novelty of this idea is accommodation of bird's wings when it wears a diaper.
2. Usefulness. No comment here. I am sure it relieves lives of millions of unhappy birds who are prevented from flying around the house because they can't control their desires to poop all over the place. It also makes bird owners happy - now they can keep their house tidy and let the bird do whatever it wants to do.
3. Non-obviousness. After looking at several diagrams, drawings and descriptions of the patent it is still hard for me to imagine the bird in a diaper. Please look at the picture below:
The diaper is pretty unusual and definitely not too cleanly. As the bird flies what prevents any drainage from the diaper as I doubt there could be a vacuum seal over all the bird's feathers. I think you hit the mark with the three criteria, great job!
ReplyDeleteIts very interesting that these kinds of inventions are patented, given their lack of future profitability. I cannot see the economic value of the patent.
ReplyDeleteI would easily argue that there is no obviousness involved in this. It is clearly able to be done with any normal person in America.
ReplyDeleteThis is definitely unique because it takes a very obvious solution and implements it on birds!
ReplyDeleteHowever, it is not useful, and it might actually prevent the bird from flying because of the additional weight!
I don't think this is non-obvious aside from geometry. This mimics the human version as well. I also have no idea what the market for such an invention is.
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