CATCH BOX - WIRELESS MICROPHONE

Catch Box is a wireless microphone inside a foam cube marketed by a Trick Technologies OY, a European Company.  Catch Box boasts patent pending technology, a patented design and a registered trademark. 

United States patent applications have been filed on the technology for a magnetic interlocking mechanism and an imbedded gyroscope.  The applications have been published as: US2015/289,074 with a priority date of October 14, 2013 and US2016/040,461 with a priority date of August 7, 2014.  Pursuing, patent protection in the United States is rigorous and a review of the United States Patent and Trademark Office shows that both application have not been allowed yet.

Their US Design Patent issued as USD736,186 and protects the cube shape and domed microphone.   

Catch Box is also protected by a trademark US Reg. No. 4,717,010 and can use a Circle R. The trademark registration indicates that it claims priority to a European Community Trademark Application filed October 30, 2012 and that it's first use in commerce was December 10, 2014.   

Prices for Catch Box start at $399.00 USD with a 15% Discount to educators.  

Thanks to Lelde Dalmane of Catch Box for reaching out to us and sharing the above video.  

Pepper - The Friendly Robot

You can meet, Pepper, the four-foot-tall roving android, at the Westfield Malls in San Francisco and Santa Clara where it will be working for the 2016 holiday season.  Pepper is SoftBank Robotics' idea for a robot built to benefit humankind (see https://www.meetpepper.com).  Pepper hasn't had much work in the United States but 7,000 Peppers are in Japan..  

Pepper is protected by trademarks in the United States.  See US Reg. No. 4,920,360 and US Reg. No. 4,813,007.  

Pepper's design was invented by Vincent Clerc who is living in Clamart, France.  You can see all sides of Pepper's claimed design in U.S. Design Patent No. 719,620.

There is much more to Pepper then robotic-good looks.  Check out a sample of the utility patents and patent applications below:

US8997599 MOTORIZED JOINT WITH TWO PIVOT CONNECTIONS AND HUMANOID ROBOT WHICH IMPLEMENTS THE JOINT VIEW PDF

US2015122073 SPINAL COLUMN FOR A HUMANOID ROBOT VIEW PDF

US9429948 HUMANOID ROBOT HAVING FALL-MANAGEMENT CAPABILITIES, AND METHOD FOR MANAGING SAID FALLS VIEW PDF

US2016325437 ACTUATION OF A HAND INTENDED FOR BEING PROVIDED ON A HUMANOID ROBOT VIEW PDF

If you would like to do your own patent search go to www.uspto.gov or google.patents.com and search for ALDEBARAN ROBOTICS the assignee (i.e. owner or company). 

You can see an Japanese advertisement for Pepper below.

Check out more of our blog and books.  Enjoy!

Shark Bait - Episode 805

Shark Tank Season 8's, Episode 5 featured Parker Maple, Safe Grabs, Sandilake Clothing, and Silidog.  The episode aired on October 21, 2016.

Parker Maple

Josh Parker, an 18 year-old entrepreneur,  offers a line of products made from maple syrup.  One particularly innovative product is Parker's Maple Cotton Candy.  The question is whether he can build a brand that can stand out against all of the other maple syrup producers.

Parker Maple Farms, LLC filed their first trademark application (USSN 87/188,405) on September 29, 2016 for the goods Maple Butter.  The mark consists of the word "Parker's" in golden-beige stylized script above the words "maple" and "butter" in black standard characters above an inverted golden-beige fanciful maple leaf design, the stem of the maple leaf being a downward continuation, between the word "maple" and the word "butter," of the vertical portion of th letter "k" in the word "Parker's.  This was selected as the first trademark filing because this product is on-sale at Costco.

No sharks picked up Parker but encouraged Josh to continue forging ahead with the business.

Safe Grabs

Entrepreneur Cyndi Lee rebranded her product from Micro Easy Grab to Safe Grabs.  She's been in the market with Micro Easy Grab since 2013 and filed her trademark application for Safe Grabs on October 6, 2016.  She also has Patent Pending marked on her package and states this is for the design and shape of the silicon tray.  Lori will now partner with her to get her into Bed, Bath and Beyond and other retailers.

Her trademarks:

US Trademark Application USSN 87/190,921 for SAFE GRABS 

US Trademark Reg. No. 4,539,428 for MICRO EASY GRAB 

SandiLake Clothing

Entrepreneur Melissa Lay filed her trademark application for SandiLake Clothing on October 7, 2016 (See USSN 87/196,275).   She also appears to bring unique graphics to her clothing which have copyright protection associated with it.             

SiliDog

The company has a good idea - dog tags that don't jingle.  This product is made of durable colorful silicon and is ready for the market.

The SiliDog trademark (U.S. Reg. No. 4,557,447) is protecting the product.  New trademark applications include SILENT IDENTIFICATION, USSN 86/057,088 and GET SILI, USSN 86/057,110.  Unfortunately, trademark will protect the brand but won't prevent another company from entering the market.    

If the company would like to further protect the product, a patent or patent pending could provide some deterrence  to another wanting to enter a similar product.