Your quilt is violating a Patent!

Whether 1993 is the filingdate (20 year term) or the issue date (17 years), that patent no longer has any effect on other parties.

More broadly, the US patent Office switched many years ago from scrutinizing patent applications to much more liberally granting patents and letting other interested parties sort it out in court.

Yes, the "non-obvious" clause is pretty much ignored in the process nowadays.

Yep, a patent is only worth what you are willing to spend to defend it. In addition, there are maintenance fees that must be paid to keep it active. If someone hasn't paid the fees, they have abandoned it.

As someone who was seriously considering patenting two designs, and then deterred by the $6-8k cost for each, I can say the quoted patent above is invalid or, at least, unenforceable. A patent needs to be a unique idea, design, process, or idea (I know, I said idea twice) and what Roger quoted simply describes a stuffed blanket. That idea is neither novel bor unique. Now if it described a pad sleeve for secure and lightweight attachment of a sleeping pad (i.e. Big Agnes) it would be a valid claim.
So, no. Even if someone is a patent troll and decides to sue Enlightened Equipment or GoLite or any other quilt maker they have no case. And if someone is trolling cottage industries betting they don't have the funds to defend a lengthy civil case I can only suggest finding a patent defense attorney.

Just so everyone understands what I am trying to say: read the last line.
The Patent Office let that patent app through! HOW, and WHY?????

Cheers

Were there quilts with shiftable down on the market in 1993? If not, it may well be perfectly proper subject matter for a US patent.

Even if there were, in the US system the onus isn't on the patent examiner to find every tiny niche product that might invalidate a patent. If someone feels a patent were improper, they can sue and provide evidence of prior art.

There's far more silly patents out there.

http://www.google.com/patents/US6080436

Here's a patent for toast.

Patent reform anyone? Please? :)

Maybe BPL member Bob Shaver will see this thread and comment. He is a patent attorney.

"top and bottom shell panels is releasable and restorable"

I think is the key here.

All the quilts we use here do not have fabric panels that seal shut, open. This sounds like a baffle that can be physically opened and then closed to move the insulation.

The Patent Office let that patent app through! HOW, and WHY????

Sadly, it's all about making money from the inventor. These days, patent applicants are mostly big business with plenty money.

So, grant grant lots of patents and the Patent Office gets lots of fees.
Then let someone else (big business again) challenge the patent in court, so lawyers get lots of fees.

Unfortunately this means that the little guy cannot afford to patent, but who cares? Money talks louder than anything else.

There are different types of patents in the U.S. Most people think of Utility Patents (i.e. new and novel inventions) when they think of the term "patent." However, you can also get a design patent which is explained as follows –

http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/types-patents.html

"Design Patent

If you create a new and original design that ornaments a manufactured device, you may qualify for a design patent. A design patent is granted for product designs—for example, an IKEA chair, Keith Haring wallpaper, or a Manolo Blahnik shoe. You can even get a design patent for a computer screen icon. There are strings attached to a design patent, too. As noted, the design must be ornamental or aesthetic; it can’t be functional. Once you acquire a design patent, you can stop others from making, using, selling and importing the design. You can enforce your design patent for only 14 years after it’s issued."

What good is a design patent? See Apple v. Samsung http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc._v._Samsung_Electronics_Co.,_Ltd..

"Yes, the "non-obvious" clause is pretty much ignored in the process nowadays."

Isn't that the truth. I've seen plenty of patents that were obvious. Others that after being rejected several times for prior art simply excluded that prior art on the next application and received the patent. That one put several companies out of business. Patents, the business version of an ICBM!

> "top and bottom shell panels is releasable and restorable"
I found that part obscure. Eventually I decided it referred to a zip down the side between the top and bottom layers. Funny – I think I have seen that before.

Cheers

So, I finally got curious to go read the actual patent.

What’s being claimed is not moving down around between various baffles in a quilt. Indeed, the author even refers to the traditional karo step baffles. The innovation is that the quilt is large enough to include both a sleeping and a non-sleeping area, with the down initially contained in the sleeping area. The two areas are separated by sewn seams with snap tape in a couple sections (that’s the releasable part). When the weather gets hot, you unsnap those seams, massage some of the down into the part that you don’t lay under, and then resnap them – thus getting a warmer-weather quilt.

If you look at Figure 1 in the patent, the inner square is the sleeping area, the outer square is the non-sleeping down storage, and the snap seams are at 24 and 25.

Dunno that I’d ever buy one, but it’s not as silly as we might have thought. And it isn’t an attempt to patent the whole idea of a down quilt with shiftable down.

And anyhow it’s a comforter patent, not a quilt patent. Looks like http://www.downlite.com/index.htm is the assignee.

but don't step on my blue patent shoes