Patent Attorney and Founder
Hi everyone, I’m J.D. Houvener, your host of the Bold Today Show, where you, the inventor, entrepreneur, business owner, get your daily dose of inspiration to make the world a better place. This week, we’re talking about baseball. Happy Monday, everybody! And I’m sure you all know if you’re in a baseball city that your hometown baseball team has kicked off the season. We’re well into April now, and the first games have already been batted off or kicked off, whatever the right word is. I’m a little impartial; I’ve got the Seattle Mariners in mind. We’re gonna be going to a game here next week. I’m pretty excited to go check that out. So if you’ve got some time, put it in the comments below who your favorite team is. I want to hear about it and get the conversation started.
This week, we’re gonna be focusing on an invention that was just issued. Believe it or not, baseball’s been around for over a hundred years, I mean since the 1800s. This patent was just granted in February 2018, and it’s for a swing apparatus, patent number 9883544. To enforce as the patent owner when you go out and try to enforce your patent on the free world. So I’m going to claim one, which is obviously the first claim. We’re gonna focus on the words and the preamble. The preamble is the first part of the claim that’s right above, just next to the number one. It sort of sets the stage for the later words that come into the claim. Here it states, “a ball swing training apparatus.” Don’t mix that up, and it just says “ball,” it doesn’t say baseball or softball or cricket ball, right? It just says “ball,” and that’s on purpose because the claims are meant to be read in terms of the broadest reasonable interpretation. That’s the way the courts are gonna read into that.
So the claim itself here was well-crafted. He didn’t just say baseball; he just said “ball,” which allows for the potential for this claim to have rights over softballs and cricket balls and who knows, golf balls, right? If there’s a swing apparatus, if it’s positioned in the same way, it could certainly be applicable for other types of sports. Claim language and claim interpretation are really important, and this is governed under 37 CFR 1.75. So that’s the law we cover today. So any of you who are baseball fans, you love this sport, and I want to see some comments below and have you share this with anyone you have on social media and want to maybe get a little kick in the right direction if they’re innovating. You know, baseball is one of those sports that’s constantly got something new, even though the common threads go way back to the 19th century. So hope you all have a wonderful day. I’m your host J.D. Houvener of the Bold Today Show. Go big, go bold.