The EP-O’-Lantern

The European Patent Office (EPO) is a central cog in the intellectual property community, and according to the EPO website, it “offers inventors a uniform application procedure which enables them to seek patent protection in up to 40 European countries.”  The EPO contributes a wide range of valuable search and classification tools for both EP and international patent documents:

• Merger of INPADOC records and the EPO’s own master bibliographic file in 2007 to create the INPADOC/DOCDB database, which covers about 95 patenting authorities.
• The free online search service for EP and worldwide patent documents, Espacenet.
• The official register of legal status information for the EPO, the European Patent Register.
• The ECLA classification system, designed in-house by the EPO as an enhancement to the IPC classification system, which was frozen in July 2012 and will soon be replaced by the Cooperative Patent Classification (a joint effort between the USPTO and EPO).

These contributions are just scratching the surface of the deep wealth of knowledge and resources which the EPO has contributed to the patent search field.  As a small tribute to this fantastic organization, I’d like to create a Jack-o’-lantern in its honor (last year the USPTO got its own David Kapp-o’-lantern).

The easiest way to create an EP-O’-Lantern is to simply carve the EPO logo…

Logo for the European Patent Office.

…onto the face of a pumpkin:

The EP-O’-Lantern.

After the jump, see the EP-O’-Lantern lit up for Halloween night!

Candy ECLA Classifications

Soon the EPO will bid a fond farewell to the European Classification System (ECLA), which has already been frozen as of July 2012 and will soon be replaced by the  Cooperative Patent Classification System (CPC).  The full rollout for the CPC is January 1, 2013, but the EPO and USPTO have already released the complete CPC scheme, some finalized CPC definitions and an ECLA-to-CPC-to-IPC concordance in a recent “CPC launch package.”  Professional patent searchers will need to stay familiar with ECLA, since important patent prior art may have ECLA classification which will serve as a useful search tool.  Just in time for Halloween, let’s take a look at the sweetest ECLA classes, as well as some of the patents classified with these candy-themed codes!

After the jump, sample the sugariest ECLA class and sub-classes!

Creepy Costume Patents

Halloween is here next week, and that means a few things to kids: scary movies, Charlie Brown’s TV Special on The Great Pumpkin, and a large insulin response due to massive quantities of high fructose corn syrup.  However, for the adults, the art of costuming takes on a whole new meaning.  Sure, the kids want a cool costume, but that is because they are fickle, and cannot yet determine that all of their favorite characters are just fads relating to people of a certain generation (or that cartoons shown in the 80s are the only true cartoons…we will include all of the Hanna-Barbera and Warner Bros. cartoons from the 60s that were recycled in the 80s on that list).  With novelty stores replacing their risqué merchandise with Halloween costumes (both risqué and regular) and decorations, let’s take a look at some of the best efforts by inventors who stood strong and refused to spend their patent application budgets on Halloween candy, fake blood, and tickets to an Uwe Boll movie.

After the jump, check out some creepy costume patents!

Vampiric Design Patents

Come closer, children. Put away your Twilight books, your Castlevania games, and your Bram Stoker’s Dracula VHS featuring Gary Oldman.

Gather round while we explore some of the most dastardly vampire design patents around. Ve vant to suck your prior art!

Halloween vampire decoration – US D332,761

It's not as scary when you can see that the vampire is actually a balloon and a coat hanger put together...

This seems like the kind of thing you’d put together at the last minute for your party, without having to leave the house.

Jack-o’-lanterns of the IP World: The David Kapp-o’-lantern

We all love carving pumpkins, but don’t you get bored of carving the same old grin into every single Jack-o’-lantern you’ve ever created?  Do you want to carve a pumpkin that is relavent to your career?  Then maybe you should try making a David Kapp-o’-lantern!  David Kappos is the Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and if you work in the intellectual property field, you’ve probably heard his name.  Mr. Kappos has helmed the USPTO during the historic passage of the America Invents Act, and he was also a participant in the Supreme Court case of Bilski v. Kappos.  Mr. Kappos is an integral figure in the intellectual property field of the 21st century, so what better way to honor him than giving him his own Jack-o’-lantern?

Continue reading to learn how to make your very own David Kapp-o’-lantern, so you can celebrate an IP-themed Halloween!

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