The other silly patent I'd like to talk about is the Banana Protective Device patent. While this patent is useful in terms of storing banana, and the ease of use in some ways. It is rather an obvious apparatus to anyone who has ever eaten a banana before. This makes a strong case of ensuring that the importance of the non-obviousness requirement.
I've seen this kind of banana holder being sold in a lot of shops. Clearly, it has drew some market interest. Though I am not sure if this could possibly be an argument to defend against non-obviousness validation in terms of proven market/commercial success. Personally I wouldn't agree this apparatus is patentable because it is immediately obvious to me.
I have to admit, I have purchased a banana holder while I was on holiday in Hong Kong once, mainly for the amusement of it (and thus a nice souvenir) and it being the first time I saw it. I am not too sure whether the creators had obtained rights from the inventor, or if they knew about the patent in the first place. Anyway, the holder I bought had no cushion in it but was otherwise similar.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, it is true to say that the invention could have been obvious, since I have had a banana squished while in my bag's side pocket before. Although I did not think a case could be a solution (because I did not think), anyone who gives some thought into it would have figured out the solution, such as a person who happens to work in a plastic manufacturing company who experienced the same thing as me.
I'm not quite sure how viable this product will be. The nuisance of packing bananas in this device, transporting it, and then consuming it later is simply not worth the cost of the product--I could just as easily pack my banana on the top of my lunch bag and not have it get squished. I think that if there were similar product for other fruits before this patent application was filed, then there could potentially be grounds for invalidating the patent because it was obvious and the patent was based on a suggestion from the prior art. However, if there is no such prior art, then I don't think it could be considered obvious (maybe not novel, but it's not obvious).
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