As I talked about earlier, during the summer, I'll occasionally discuss patents related to curling. What makes me qualified for this? In my real life, I'm an engineer and I have one patent and one patent pending. Also, I don't really see anyone else writing about this at the moment.
For my first post on this, I've picked the "Energized Curling Broom" from Johannes Hoesli, US patent application 12/380884. From what I can tell, this is also pending in Canada. Let's look at the main picture:
Kind of a simple idea, right? You have a "Device for Energy Transmission" which in the patent is described as capable of delivering, for example, "heat, vibration, or irradiation" that would then melt the ice a little. It's wise to make the energy transmission device as general as possible just in case some new technology comes up.
However, I can't really imagine that with current technology that a battery that fits inside a curling brush would be able to power anything for an entire game. Also, most updates to brooms have the aim of making a broom lighter (carbon fiber brooms, for instance.) Adding a battery and the energy transmission device would add a significant amount of weight to a curling broom, which wouldn't be fun. It would have to far surpass what you can get from an Equalizer brush head since you would have to work that much harder as you sweep.
I'm not 100% on the rules of curling, but wouldn't a device like this be illegal, at least for official type games? Maybe no one's tried before.
For the several thousand it must have cost to file this patent in both the US and Canada, I guess I'm unsure the inventor would make money. It looks like this patent was filed without a patent attorney, so at least there was some money saved there. Also, FYI, this is actually the shortest patent I've ever looked at with only 3 pages, with only one page of actual text.
What do you think? Would you buy one? I (and Johannes Hoesli) would like to know.
For my first post on this, I've picked the "Energized Curling Broom" from Johannes Hoesli, US patent application 12/380884. From what I can tell, this is also pending in Canada. Let's look at the main picture:
Kind of a simple idea, right? You have a "Device for Energy Transmission" which in the patent is described as capable of delivering, for example, "heat, vibration, or irradiation" that would then melt the ice a little. It's wise to make the energy transmission device as general as possible just in case some new technology comes up.
However, I can't really imagine that with current technology that a battery that fits inside a curling brush would be able to power anything for an entire game. Also, most updates to brooms have the aim of making a broom lighter (carbon fiber brooms, for instance.) Adding a battery and the energy transmission device would add a significant amount of weight to a curling broom, which wouldn't be fun. It would have to far surpass what you can get from an Equalizer brush head since you would have to work that much harder as you sweep.
I'm not 100% on the rules of curling, but wouldn't a device like this be illegal, at least for official type games? Maybe no one's tried before.
For the several thousand it must have cost to file this patent in both the US and Canada, I guess I'm unsure the inventor would make money. It looks like this patent was filed without a patent attorney, so at least there was some money saved there. Also, FYI, this is actually the shortest patent I've ever looked at with only 3 pages, with only one page of actual text.
What do you think? Would you buy one? I (and Johannes Hoesli) would like to know.
It does appear to be cheating, it's as if putting hand warmers on the broom (to phrase someone at my club after posting this in my FB page). It can put a "permanent" mark on the ice which not only affects the rest of the game but even for the remainder of the season.
ReplyDeleteReminded me of when I kept my bare hand down on the ice after attempting a takeout for about 10 seconds, the opposing skip ran across the ice to give me an earful on how that affects the ice.
I think that's kind of overreacting if all you're doing keeping your hand on the ice for a while.
ReplyDeleteIf it's cheating, why would anyone spend the money to patent this? I'd like to see one though just out of curiosity.