Patent Attorney and Founder
Hi, everyone, I’m J.D. Houvener, and welcome to the Bold Today Show where you, the inventor and entrepreneur, get your daily dose of inspiration to help you make the world a better place. Today is Presidents Day, and it’s exciting, right? We’ve had a lot of news about our president, President Trump, and it’s interesting to keep that top of mind and remember all the presidents that preceded him. So, this is a celebration of the leaders of our country. The challenge for you today is to think about a president. It could be the one that’s in office today, but any president that has really inspired you. I want you to pick one and put it in the comments below about what it is that inspires you. What have they done or the change they’ve made to our country or the world that has put you in a really good position?
Today’s invention of the day is a little silly, but I wanted to show you that almost anything innovative can be patented. So today, if any of you, and I’m sure a lot of listeners, remember the year 2000 election, Al Gore and Bush, right? The big competition and all the hanging chads and the big controversy around the voting in Florida. So, this wheel was actually designed as part of a game. It’s a design patent that shows the different potential outcomes, you know, Al Gore, Jeb Bush, some sort of different controversies that existed in the year 2000. This patent got issued, unbelievably, and whether it was monetized or not, it’s kind of to me, it was really fascinating to see that there’s a presidential design patent game out there. So, have a look at this; this is really unique.
I don’t want to mention as well as far as the law goes in our design patent statute, 35 USC 171. This is the part of the statute that talks about the difference between a utility and a design patent. A utility patent, as I talked about before, requires novelty, non-obviousness, and utility or usefulness. Well, the usefulness aspect is not in the design aspect of the statute. So, what it includes is novelty, non-obviousness, but instead has to be ornamental. Alright, it has to have design aspects, right? Three-dimensional observances, things that you can see, touch, and feel and are able to be drawn. So, this is the third requirement for design, aesthetics.
For you today, your challenge was to figure out what president was your favorite. I encourage you to share this video with one of your friends and ask them what their favorite president was of all time, and it might be enlightening to find out what inspires them, what president from history really moved them forward and that they respect. Everyone has a wonderful day today, and thank you for tuning in to the Bold Today Show. Go big, go bold.