Optical Illusions are cool. Clothes are cool. Why not combine them?
Here is the full patent.
Honestly, this is very similar to the glow-in-the-dark toothbrush example from class. Toothbrushes exist, and so does glow-in-the-dark material, but the combination of the two may be considered innovative. Similarly, although optical illusions and clothing are two previously existing mechanisms, combining them may be considered innovative.
That said, who would want optical illusions on their clothes? Well, perhaps men or women who want to appear thinner than they are. Everyone knows black is slimming, but perhaps an optical illusion could do more.
Let's look at the patentability breakdown:
Non-Obvious - I would say this passes. Just like the glow-in-the-dark toothbrush, the separate preexistence of each individual aspect does not warrant their combination obvious.
Novelty - This is pretty novel. I highly doubt anybody has thought of it before.
Usefulness - This is probably the most questionable one. What purpose does this serve? Sure it's cool, but not every T-shirt design warrants a patent. Of course, there is the "slimming" argument, but I highly doubt that enough evidence exists to support that.
Enablement - Pass. An average person in the clothing industry can easily print any pattern they want, including this.
Overall, I'd say that the Usefulness clause is the deal breaker. I'm a little surprised it got approved.
I agree that the usefulness of this 'invention' is unclear. Although I would say this concept is quite similar to camouflage clothing. Couldn't such clothing be considered 'optical illusions' that help make the person less visible within their environment. I feel like that could affect the novelty of such a patent as well.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it looks like it was filed in 2004. I'm pretty sure it is not novel based on that time line, I definitely heard of optical illusion clothing from my mom when I was pretty young (1990's). She told me about it as if it was common knowledge so my guess is it is not novel as of 2004.
ReplyDeleteIt might be useful if it actually makes you look a lot thinner. However, this probably wouldn't make you look a lot thinenr, and moreover if everyone starts to know that the design just gives the illusion of being slimmer than you are, then the whole purpose is defeated, as everyone will know that it is just an illusion
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