Insurance IP Bulletin
An Information Bulletin on Intellectual Property activities in the insurance industry
A Publication of - Tom Bakos Consulting, Inc. and Markets, Patents and Alliances, LLC 		June 15, 2004

VOL: 2004.1

Patent Tech

Broad Thinking - Yes, but will it fly?

The patent process, itself, ought to stir the inventor into thinking in broad terms about his or her invention. Inventors are granted exclusive rights to encourage them to share their inventive ideas so as to stimulate others to make further beneficial advances. What this means is that, if you the inventor don't think beyond the narrow confines of your inventive box, someone else will!

For example: The Wright Brother’s patent application for airplane control mechanisms might have only referred to "wing warping" as a method for controlling airplanes in flight. After all, per all of the documentaries we have seen, that was the essence of how the control mechanism they were testing at Kitty Hawk worked.

Contrary to popular belief, the Wright brothers did not invent the airplane. There invention was an improvement of an existing concept. Their invention made that existing idea for a heavier than air flying machine useful. In fact, what they referred to as "aeroplanes" in their patent were actually a reference to what we would call the wings of a modern aircraft.

The object of the Wright brothers patent (US 821,393 issued May 22, 1906) was to control a flying machine in flight as stated in their patent application.

The objects of our invention are to provide means for maintaining or restoring the equilibrium or lateral balance of the apparatus, to provide means for guiding the machine both vertically and horizontally, and to provide a structure combining lightness, strength, convenience of construction, and certain other advantages which will hereinafter appear.

The patent describes how the aeroplanes (wings) are constructed and how "each aeroplane is twisted or distorted around a line … so that each aeroplane surface is given a helicoidal warp or twist." Then, of course, the patent explains how this works on air flows to move the airplane about.

If the Wright brothers wrote their patent application to incorporate only the narrow "wing warping" process to bend the lateral edges of the aeroplanes that they were testing, they may have ended up being nothing more than a footnote in history and remained poor, frustrated bicycle mechanics.

But, for whatever reason, perhaps inspired by an astute patent attorney, the Wright brothers patent application described their control method more broadly by including in the description of the control mechanism the following wording:

We wish it to be understood, however, that our invention is not limited to this particular construction, since any construction whereby the angular relations of the lateral margins of the aeroplanes may be varied in opposite directions with respect to the normal planes of said aeroplanes comes within the scope of our invention.

Thus, the concept of moveable wing surfaces (equivalent to the ailerons of modern aircraft) was covered and the Wright brothers patent applied to all fixed wing aircraft ever flown. If they had not been inspired to move beyond the narrower "wing warping" claim, someone else would have probably improved their invention with the "moveable wing surface" method and trumped their patent.

So, the lesson is - get the most that you can out of your inventive processes. Look at the solutions you develop in their broadest possible terms. Look at them as another inventor would or get someone you trust to do that for you. And remember, your invention may be a solution to someone else's problem. Any use of your invention not contemplated in your application can become the property of someone else if they see it before you do.