Animals in patent drawings? It must be Friday…

“Animals in Patent Illustrations”? Yup, it must be Friday…

Today, we’re going to look at some strange patents that feature various creatures in their Figures! Why? Well, blame this article from the BBC which looked at the tricky business of re-designing the humble pair of glasses. Following references to anti-fog coatings and magnet hinges this BBC article ended, where else, with glasses for chickens.

So without further delay welcome to the weird world of animals in patents….[Warning: the BadPun^TM Generator and Naff^TM Picture Captioning have been switched on and used extensively in this post.]

Glasses for Chickens

Demonstrating that the “wacky” patent genre isn’t a recent phenomenon is this entry from 1903. Now these glasses aren’t used for corrective purposes but protective since it seems that groups of chickens like nothing better when left to their own devices than to peck each other in an avian version of Fight Club. Bite club, perhaps.

The first rule of Bite Club is you do not talk about Bite Club. The second rule…ooh bird seed

Dogs in patents

For some reason dogs feature prominently in patent drawings. As well as the examples below we also have a dog umbrella, a unisex protective garment,  elevated serving trays for pets, an excrement collector, dog earpieces in radio contact with the owner and many more.

1) Dog Hat

Deputy Dawg

US4969317 provides for a hat apparatus, or “hat”, for a four legged animal to protect said animal from extreme heat and sunlight. Nice.

Of course, if it’s sunny out then you need a pair of sunglasses which leads us neatly to

2) Pet sunglasses system

US5868104 provides your pooch with a cool pair of shades. Check out this happy chap

Man, I look so cool

3) Testicular Prosthetic Device

Prosthetic testicular implants……. for dogs! Apparently needed because owners get embarrased for their pets once they’ve had them neutered. This image (from US5868140) relates to a different species but I’m still wincing…

4) Animal Muzzle

A fairly innocuous title from US1175033 masks a dog that looks like it has stepped out of a horror film (he needs to borrow cool dog’s shades)

Fido the 13th

Flatulent Cows 

Cows are windy creatures. This patent (Process for the utilization of ruminant animal methane emissions) seeks to harness the power of the cow…

Hannibull Lecter

Well, that’s your lot for now. What are your favourite animal figures in patents?

Bark Richards* 2 May 2014

* – ever visited an office where you’ve been issued a visitor’s pass which doesn’t quite get your name correct? This was once issued to me!