Logan Utah Patent Tuesdays – LUPT Cinq: Powered Racks and Glass Sleeves
Patent application and examination can take years. Inventors and their patent attorneys spend that time in cycles of analysis, strategy, advocacy, and wait. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issues patents on Tuesdays for inventions that make the cut—for Project CIP, that’s a “Logan Utah Patent Tuesday” or “LUPT.” LUPTs are more commonly declared when the patents come in bunches. Or, yus fohr fuhn. You can check out our prior LUPTs here, here, here, and, of course, here. Engage LUPT Cinq:
February 21, 2023
U.S. Patent No. 11,584,306, Equipment Rack for a Vehicle, Rise Outside (dba REVLRAX), Layton, Utah
E-Bikes (or electric bicycles for the unhip) seem to be everywhere nowadays. I was a purist snob until I tried one. What’s not to like about zipping around quietly at 20 – 30 miles per hour? I rolled carefree and electrified with the wind in my hair like a damn fool.
Of course, if you are destination e-biking, you are going to need your auto mobile to get your zipper wheels there. The problem is that most standard hitch-mount bike racks just aren’t tough enough to pack a murder of e-bikes when these weigh in at forty to eighty pounds apiece. It’s even worse if you have to keep loading and unloading your e-bikes from the mount heights you typically find on standard trucks and SUVs.
New outdoor equipment designer Rise Outside (dba “REVLRAX”) has invented a solution in the form of a powered rack that turns out to be perfect for transporting e-bikes. What makes REVLRAX’s design special is the unique, wide hinge plate that is engineered to provide cradling stability as well as the leverage required for some serious e-bike craning when coupled with a high-powered linear actuator attached at one end of the hinge plate and the upright post. The design is further unique due to a far aft pivot axle that also enhances the mechanical leverage in combination with the linear actuator. What you get is an equipment rack that is engineered to lift, lower, and transport literally hundreds upon hundreds of pounds of e-bikes with the stability of a Buddhist monk on Bodhi Day. I’ve seen some of REVLRAX’s early builds – they are super-quality and made like a tank. Now you and your e-bike gang can pirate all over tarnation with the low decibel motor-tire whir that only e-bikes can provide.
February 28, 2023
U.S. Design Patents Nos. D979,345 & D979,346, Container Sleeves, Hydrojug, Ogden, Utah
Hydrojug’s products just keep getting better. What started as a single line for a colorful, oversized plastic water bottle has expanded into multiple lines of water bottle products that include large insulated stainless-steel jugs (that you can logo!) as well as glass container versions. Across stainless-steel and glass versions, you can get and use the same interchangeable lid that has achieved the miracle of simultaneous pour or sip-from-the spout functionality. (As Homer Simpson once said: “Patent pending, patent pending, patent pending.”)
There’s something unique about drinking from glass. I keep learning, as I recently heard from a wise teenager, drinking something really cold out of glass that isn’t cold at all may be even better. To that end, Hydrojug offers its glass jugs with just patented silicone solid or diamond-studded sleeves. More from Hydrojug in LUPTs to come.
