Logan, Utah Patent Tuesdays – LUPT Trois: Robo Shredders and Thirst Quenchers
The great blog fast of 2020 breaks now. Thus, we usher in LUPT trois!
To explain, the patent application and examination process can take years. Inventors and their patent attorneys spend that time in cycles of analysis, strategy, advocacy, and wait. For an invention that finally makes the cut, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) grants patent rights on a Tuesday. These are holidays declared (by no one but me) as “Logan Utah patent Tuesdays” or LUPT. Significantly “lupt” also means “fight” in Romanian, which emphasizes its importance in some tangential way I think. Our last declared LUPTs were June 27, 2019 and September 26, 2017.
June 8, 2020
U.S. Patent No. 10,675,632, Tire Processing Apparatus and Method of Use, TMP Enterprises, North Salt Lake, Utah
When I was a young patent attorney, I dreamed of patenting a gigantic, remote control robot arm with a head full of saws and rasps. Voila! Originating with Western Tire Recyclers/OTR Solutions in Logan, Utah (later acquired by TMP Enterprises in North Salt Lake) this is one hellish, mad maxian tire shredder.
The machine recycles tires of up to 13 feet in diameter from the mining industry. First, as the tire is slowly rotated on amount, a human operator with a remote control rasps the outside tire treads that are sucked into a vacuum tube, sorted, and then processed into rubber landscaping mulch. This operation is liquid-cooled by a water nozzle in the head. Second, the machine cuts a portion of the remaining tire into livestock troughs. The business model generates revenue both from the tire depositor (in the form of recycling fees) and purchasers of the end products (rubber landscaping mulch and livestock troughs).
Independent claim 1 of the patent reads:
A tire processing apparatus comprising: a head that is operable to move about two or more axes at a first end of a swing arm, the head further having a rasp operable to strip rubber particles from a stationary tire for use of the particles as a landscaping mulch, the head further having a circular saw operable to cut the tire into two or more separate pieces.
June 15, 2020
U.S. Design Patent No. D887,202, Container Top, Hydrojug, Ogden, Utah
There is a point in every good workout where you want something bigger than a regular water bottle, but not as pretentious as a sloshy milk jug. This is where Hydrojug from Ogden, Utah solves the problem. Hydrojug designs and retails water bottles with half a gallon of capacity – just right. these bottles come in a variety of really cool colors, ranging from the classic white, black and gray, to the more statement pieces of olive, lavender, mint, blush, and hot coral.
Hydrojug also makes bottle accessories like cool sleeves with straps and cell phone pockets.
Hydrojug bottle designs sport a variety of features that are patent pending. Their most recently issued patent is for a bottle lid design.
