Watch him defy gravity by leaning forward! Let's ask ourselves: is this novel? Well... it's a bit hard to say. I would say 'yes' given that the 'lean forward' motion in general is a dance move popularized by Michael Jackson in his routines and music videos. It is difficult to achieve without being superbly skilled at dance, so this method through using shoes allows a person to 'cheat' without mastering the move. In that way, I would say it's novel. It's a way of using the move without being skilled. The patent was also issued in 1993, which is around the time that the move was used as well... so we can see that it's possibly directly influenced by the culture.
Obvious or not? I would say nonobvious, because the real obvious way to do it would be to define the practice and regimen to achieve this without the shoes. And is this a valid patent? Well, despite the silliness, I would say yes, given the fact that while it's silly, it does feature something new and useful for those who might be in the field of dance.
I agree with you that this patent seems generally non-obvious, because most people wouldn't think of creating a device to allow you to lean forward - let alone creating shoes that allow you to lean forward. This seems like a legitimate patent, although I don't think its really that useful.
ReplyDeleteAgree that this patent sounds legit. It's non-obvious and kind of novel. The patent should also get through the requirement of no prior art, and be enabled. But it worries me that whether this patent has considered ergonomics at all. Most of these silly patents did not fully consider potential problems that may occur for real products.
ReplyDeleteI'm seeing a trend of these silly patents falling in the debate of whether it is genuinely useful or not. The deeper question should be: Well, how are you going to use it? With some lateral thinking (some more than others) you could probably find a use-case for anything. A broken pencil? It's a table leveler. round object that is made out of cement? Well that could be use as a birdstand. You see? It all lies in the use case!
ReplyDelete