2012 Patent Calendar

Last year I interviewed professional patent searcher Martin E. Keller after he sent me his 2011 patent calendar. Each month on the calendar is accompanied by a drawing of a funny device described in a US patent.

This year I received a PDF version of the calendar which I share with you here. It is entitled “The 2012 Keller Patents Top Twelve Calendar.” Martin indicates in his calendar he has

“conducted a few thousand patent searches in (his) career, starting in the “paper only” days – all the way up to the present EAST system. Everything from simple mechanical and electrical novelty searches to validity and infringement studies.

In the 2012 calendar Keller shares some fun patents with us. Here are a couple drawings I pulled off the patent calendar that you might find interesting.

One patent describes how to save the lives of airplane passengers in a disabled airplane by separating the passenger compartment from the fuselage of the airplane. It’s kind of like the idea of the saucer section of the Starship Enterprise separating in an emergency.

I’m sure it would have been valuable in the 911 terrorist attacks. But who would decide when to deploy the parachute’s? The captain or the stewardess.

And if there were hijackers aboard and have taken over the captain’s cabin should the stewardesses be able to do it on their own? And I’m sure it would not be the best ride in the world.

What about these wheels on this guy’s feet. This invention was from the 1980s. I am an ice skater but I I wonder if I could wear these. Of course the prototype probably has a lot of kinks to work out of it.

How about this motorized traveling case scooter. It appears that it’s probably so heavy it needs to be wheeled. But this was made in 1967. Before anybody used suitcases with wheels.

Too bad for him he didn’t try to sell the  suitcase with wheels.

He might have been much more successful. You remember that in 1967 a suitcase didn’t have wheels. Now you can’t find a suitcase without wheels.

What about this gasoline powered blender PDF? There’s a  Nissan commercial that leads a new ad campaign that asks “What if everything ran on gas?” This guy certainly wasn’t thinking green.

How about this bicycle fan from 1890. Seems like a good idea to me. Wouldn’t you want this on a hot summer day? I wonder why some of these inventions never took off?

Download “The 2012 Keller Patents Top Twelve Calendar (PDF) and take a look at all the rest of the interesting patents that Martin found for our enjoyment.

Thanks Martin for the calendar. Here’s Martin’s contact information:

Martin E. Keller
Professional Patent Searcher
1940 Duke St., Suite 200
Alexandria, VA 22314
T:703-624-0310
F:703-636-7700
e-mail: [email protected]