Patents: the Polynesians, Woody Brown, and Hobie Alter
The wikipedia entry for Woody Brown contains the following:
After the war [World War II], Brown served as a US government surveyor on Christmas Island. There he was fascinated by the speed of the Polynesian natives' twin-hulled outrigger canoes. Back in Hawaii he adapted the idea, using lightweight hulls and adding huge sails, and in 1947 built the Manu Kai ("Sea Bird"), probably the fastest sailing boat in the world at the time and now seen as the first modern, ocean-going catamaran. He did not patent the idea; Californian surfer Hobie Alter, who sailed on the Manu Kai, did so and made a fortune as a result.
In the world of patents, one can patent a thing (for example, a device or a composition) or a method, but one can't patent an idea.
What Hobart ("Hobie") Alter patented in US 4,021,874 was a boat hull; claim 1 states:
A closed boat hull, comprising:
a main body shell consisting of a vacuum-formed synthetic plastic sheet and having a heat-activated adhesive on its interior surfaces except along the gunwale portion of said shell;
a layer of fused synthetic plastic foam secured to the interior surfaces of said main body shell by said heat-activated adhesive except along the gunwale portion of said shell;
a plurality of longitudinal and transverse upstanding main body ribs integral with said foam layer;
a deck shell complementary to said main body shell consisting of a vacuum-formed synthetic plastic sheet and having a heat-activated adhesive on its interior surfaces except along the gunwale portion of said shell;
a layer of fused synthetic plastic foam secured to the interior surfaces of said deck shell by said adhesive except along the gunwale portion of said shell, with the underside of said foam layer being adhered to the upper ends of said main body ribs, the foam affording sufficient buoyancy to render the boat hull unsinkable and also providing rigidity for said boat hull without utilizing other than said main body and deck shells; and
with the gunwale portions of said shells telescopically interfitting and being interconnected at longitudinally spaced points by fastening means extending through said gunwale portions.
See also information at hobiecat
**Note Philly Channel 12 broadcast on 20 June 09 the film: Of Wind and Waves: the Life of Woody Brown.
After the war [World War II], Brown served as a US government surveyor on Christmas Island. There he was fascinated by the speed of the Polynesian natives' twin-hulled outrigger canoes. Back in Hawaii he adapted the idea, using lightweight hulls and adding huge sails, and in 1947 built the Manu Kai ("Sea Bird"), probably the fastest sailing boat in the world at the time and now seen as the first modern, ocean-going catamaran. He did not patent the idea; Californian surfer Hobie Alter, who sailed on the Manu Kai, did so and made a fortune as a result.
In the world of patents, one can patent a thing (for example, a device or a composition) or a method, but one can't patent an idea.
What Hobart ("Hobie") Alter patented in US 4,021,874 was a boat hull; claim 1 states:
A closed boat hull, comprising:
a main body shell consisting of a vacuum-formed synthetic plastic sheet and having a heat-activated adhesive on its interior surfaces except along the gunwale portion of said shell;
a layer of fused synthetic plastic foam secured to the interior surfaces of said main body shell by said heat-activated adhesive except along the gunwale portion of said shell;
a plurality of longitudinal and transverse upstanding main body ribs integral with said foam layer;
a deck shell complementary to said main body shell consisting of a vacuum-formed synthetic plastic sheet and having a heat-activated adhesive on its interior surfaces except along the gunwale portion of said shell;
a layer of fused synthetic plastic foam secured to the interior surfaces of said deck shell by said adhesive except along the gunwale portion of said shell, with the underside of said foam layer being adhered to the upper ends of said main body ribs, the foam affording sufficient buoyancy to render the boat hull unsinkable and also providing rigidity for said boat hull without utilizing other than said main body and deck shells; and
with the gunwale portions of said shells telescopically interfitting and being interconnected at longitudinally spaced points by fastening means extending through said gunwale portions.
See also information at hobiecat
**Note Philly Channel 12 broadcast on 20 June 09 the film: Of Wind and Waves: the Life of Woody Brown.
posted by Lawrence B. Ebert at 5:21 AM
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