patent

Massage Gun “SIXPAD Power Gun”

  • 2022年04月22日

#design #patent #trademark #utility model

Recently, I have come across a device called a massage gun (or power gun). As the name suggests, a massage gun is a type of massage device that is shaped like a gun and whose tip vibrates at high speed.
I was a little curious about it because I heard that it can help relieve stiff shoulders and back pain as well as take care of muscles. I had a chance to try it out and was very pleased with how it felt, so I bought it.

SIXPAD Power Gun

To use it, simply press the tip of the power gun lightly against the area of the body you want to relieve. The SIXPAD Power Gun from MTG Corporation, which I purchased, allows you to adjust the vibration speed of the tip in five stages, from about 1,800 rpm (revolutions per minute) to about 3,000 rpm. When I first used it, I was surprised at the speed and power of the vibration. The tip attachments, such as U-shaped and ball-shaped ones, can be changed to suit the part of the body being used, and I feel that the vibrations reach deep into the muscles very well. I use it when I have stiff shoulders or when I feel muscle fatigue after exercise. I recommend it to anyone who is similarly concerned.

MTG Co., Ltd is a company located in Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. If you search for “MTG Co., Ltd” on J-PlatPat, a great number of patents, utility models, designs, and trademarks will hit. Also, 21 trademark were hit for “SIXPAD”. (Syszo)

SIXPAD Power Gun Website (Japanese)
https://www.mtgec.jp/wellness/sixpad/products/powergun/

Multicolor penlight patent; what happened to it afterwards

  • 2022年03月30日

#patent

There is a TV program that introduces the work and life of the people who TV crew visited at the location and revisit them after a few years. Following that method, this time, I will inform you about what happened to the patent for “multicolor penlight” (Japanese patent publication No. 5608827, registered on September 5, 2014) introduced in my blog six years ago (December 16, 2015).

This patent was filed with trial for invalidation of a patent on March 19, 2019, five years after registration on the ground of inventive step. The patentee, TurnON co.,ltd., corrected claims 1 and 2, but the JPO stated that “this invention could easily be come up with by those skilled in the art based on the technical matters and well-known techniques described in Exhibit A1 and Exhibit A2” and on July 28, 2020, an invalidation decision was made. In response, the patentee filed a lawsuit to revoke the trial decision in the Intellectual Property High Court.

On October 6, 2021, the Intellectual Property High Court ruled that the trial decision made by the JPO had an error in finding the subject of the invention of Exhibit No. 1 and decided to revoke the trial decision. As this decision was finalized, the JPO ruled on January 13, 2022 that the Patent was not invalid.
After all the twists and turns, the patent has survived. The “multicolor penlight”, which is the target product of this patent, is also posted on the TurnON website. (Conan)
Link
https://turnon.co.jp/patent/ (Japanese Only)

Fuku-Can and Good Luck Charms

  • 2022年03月02日

#design #intellectual property #patent #trademark #utility model

One of the stores I like to stop by regularly is MUJI. While I have a variety of favorite products, I was able to buy the pre-ordered “Fuku-Can (Fortune Can)” for the first time last year, which I had been curious about for a long time. This year, I won the lottery and was able to buy one.

The “Fuku-Can” has a gift card with an amount equal to the purchase price (2,022 yen this year) and Japanese lucky charms in it. There are cute and interesting lucky charms in the can, and it’s fun just to look at the enclosed flyer that introduces them on both sides. It is also an opportunity to become familiar with Japanese culture rooted in the region.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Fuku-Can, which was launched on New Year’s Day 2012 with 14 kinds of lucky charms from four prefectures in Tohoku, with the intention of supporting Tohoku’s recovery from the earthquake.
“CREATIVE IMAGINATION” exhibition was held at ATELIER MUJI GINZA in Ginza to celebrate the 10th anniversary the other day. I would have loved to drop by if it was close by.

Now, a search on J-PlatPat shows that there are 94 trademarks that hit the keyword “mujirushi ryouhin”. All of them are already registered. A search for the company name “Ryohin Keikaku” shows 224 trademarks, 368 designs, and 40 patents and utility models, indicating that the company is making extensive use of intellectual property.

Fuku-Can and Good Luck Charms

The photo shows the lucky charms that were included in last year’s and this year’s Fuku-Can. (I bought two of each).
From left to right, Kyoto City’s “Kyoto Ceramic Doll Koban (Ox),” Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture’s “Fukutaro,” Setouchi City, Okayama Prefecture’s “Oku Hariko (Tiger),” and Tamana County, Kumamoto Prefecture’s “Mud Mask (4 pieces).
The cans can also be used as pen holders, and I’m sure I’ll be collecting them every year♪ (Cacao)

CREATIVE IMAGINATION| ATELIER MUJI | 無印良品

Looking for earphones

  • 2022年02月16日

#design #patent #trademark

The other day, my old earphones broke, so I decided to buy new ones. When I went to the electronics store, I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of products and the range of prices. After much deliberation, I bought one that was similar in design to the previous one, but the Bluetooth function did not work properly, perhaps due to an early defect, and I had an embarrassing experience of sound leaking on the train. I was so traumatized by this that I ended up buying a new one with a cord, but it didn’t fit my ear size and kept coming off, so I took the plunge and bought another new cordless one. Here it is.

earphones

This time, I chose a less expensive one, but I am very satisfied with it. It doesn’t leak sound, fits well in my ears, and is very comfortable. The more expensive ones may have a better sound, but once you get used to them, you won’t mind so much. I am amazed at the convenience of wireless.

I searched for “wireless earphones” on J-plat pat and found 194 patents, 200 designs, and one trademark. There was no result of the one I bought, but I would like to thank the people who invented such useful thing and use them carefully. (Marigold)

Pokayoke; Ingenuity to prevent accidental mistakes

  • 2022年01月20日

#patent #trademark #utility model

The TV programs I often watch include “0655” and “2355”. The content varies from day to day, but “Pokayoke” is sometimes introduced. “Pokayoke” is a mechanism or device installed in a production line, for example, in a factory to prevent work mistakes (from Wikipedia). “Pokayoke”, a solution to make people notice their mistakes and thus to prevent “Poka”, accidental, small mistakes, may be famous as one of the basic concepts of Toyota Production System. It seems to be sometimes called “Poka-Yoke” even outside Japan.

In the program, one “Pokayoke” was introduced. When cleaning the inside of a large tank, you will go inside with a deck brush, you can prevent forgetting to take out the deck brush by connecting a string to the deck brush and keeping the string out of the tank. With such a little ingenuity, you can prevent big mistakes.

If you search for “Pokayoke” on J-PlatPat, 34 patents and utility models and 10 trademarks will be found. Mistakes are common in any job, not just in the factory production line. I also want to do my daily work while devising with “Pokayoke”. (Syszo)

Pokayoke; Wikipedia:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poka-yoke
E-Tele(NHK) 0655:https://www.nhk.jp/p/e0655/ (Japanese Only)
E-Tele(NHK) 2355:https://www.nhk.jp/p/e2355/ (Japanese Only)

Memories of first writing of the year: Japanese ink culture

  • 2022年01月12日

#patent

This is swimmer.
In the calligraphy class I attended when I was little, at the occasion of first writing of the year, we used to make ink by rubbing solid inkstick on the inkstone instead of using commercially available ink.
It is often watery even after rubbing it many times, and I remember having a hard time because it did not have the ideal concentration and stickiness.
Every year when New Year time comes, I feel grateful for the convenience of the ink that can be used immediately after pouring it from the container into the inkstone.
The ink was patented in Japan in 1893.

Inkstick – Wikipedia

Manufacturing method for keeping raw noodles delicious

  • 2021年12月15日

#patent

“Maruchan Seimen” by from TOYO SUISAN KAISHA, LTD. is one of my favorite instant noodles because the noodles taste good.

Maruchan Seimen

The package says it employs “the special manufacturing method for keeping raw noodles delicious” and the Japanese patent number was written on the back.

Maruchan Seimen

When I looked it up, this patent has been granted under the accelerated examination scheme. After the patent was granted, NISSIN FOODS HOLDINGS CO., LTD. became the claimant and filed a trial for invalidation for this patent. The claim 1 was accepted as invalid, but appeal for the claims 2 to 10 were not considered invalid so the patent right was vested. In addition, divisional applications based on this case have been filed up to the 4th generation, and all of them have been registered. Furthermore, an international application has been filed as a PCT application with the Japanese application as the basic application.

When I learned that the ramen noodles I ate casually was supported by the technology protected by making full use of the patent system, I felt that it was more delicious than ever. (Marron)

Patent application filed a year and a half ago

  • 2021年09月29日

#patent

When a year and a half is passed since the filing of a patent application, a publication bulletin is issued, and everyone can know the contents of the application. It was on January 16, 2020 that the first infection of the new coronavirus was confirmed in Japan. After that, the latter half of January and February 2020 was the beginning of the Corona disaster. A patent from just that time has recently been published. (As of September 16, 2021, patent applications with filing dates up to around March 6, 2020 have been published, with exceptions such as early publication.)

So, I checked to see if there were any patent applications that were the first to describe terms such as “Three Cs,” “Social Distance,” “refrain from going out,” “stay home,” and “unnecessary and nonurgent,” which have come to be used a lot in the Corona disaster, but I could not find any. Based on the tendency of utility model bulletins to be published within three or four months of filing, we can guess that corona-related terms began to be included in application specifications probably from applications filed around April 2020.

So, when I was looking at the search screen to see what applications had been filed around February 2020, I happened to see an application by GURUNAVI INC. for “information processing system, information processing method, and program”. GURUNAVI INC. is a company that operates the GURUNAVI website, which accepts restaurant reservations and delivery orders.

https://gurunavi.com/

GURUNAVI INC. has been consistently filing patent applications related to information processing for some time now; from 2017 to 2019, the company filed about 70 applications per year, an average of 5 to 6 per month. In contrast, I was curious to see that 12 applications were filed in the month from January 23 to February 21, 2020, which is double the average of the previous year. It may not be directly related to Corona, but was there any strategy behind it? I can only guess now, a year and a half later, that each company must have been thinking of various strategies in the early days of the Corona disaster. (Conan)

The technology of deliciousness

  • 2021年09月24日

#patent #trademark

I like Ichimasa Kamaboko’s “Karikko” snack series, and whenever I see them at the supermarket, I can’t resist buying them. The texture is chewy and hard, and I can’t stop eating them. There are three types: sardine (Karikko Iwashi), shrimp (Karikko Ebi), and seaweed & hijiki seaweed (Karikko Wakame&Hijiki), but sardine is my favorite.

Karikko Iwashi

On the back, there is a patent number for the manufacturing method. (Japanese Patent No. 3816037)

Karikko Iwashi

I felt that the crunchy texture with the flavor of fish is supported by this kind of technology.
In addition, “Karikko Iwashi” and “Karikko” have been registered as Japanese trademarks.

This product is often found in supermarkets, not in the confectionary section, but in the section where fish paste and fish sausage are sold, so if you are curious about it, please look for it. (Marron)

Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM)

  • 2021年09月05日

#patent

Today, I would like to introduce an invention related to September 5. What I will introduce this time is dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) devised by American electronical engineer and inventor Robert H. Dennard (1932.9.5 ~). Today, September 5th, is his 89th birthday.

DRAM is a type of semiconductor memory. It has the disadvantage of constantly consuming power for refreshing (memory retention operation) because information is lost when it is discharged, but it is widely used in computers’ main storage devices, digital televisions, and digital cameras, etc. due to its large capacity and low cost.
Currently, all the main storage devices of computers are DRAM. In recent years, DRAMs that specialize in low power consumption have also appeared.

The DRAM we use every day was conceived by Dennard in 1966 at IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center. The following year of 1967, a patent application was filed, and it was registered in 1968 (US3387286A). Dennard also won the Kyoto Prize in 2013.

By the way, IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center is a research division of IBM. In addition to Dennard, it is known that many prominent scientists such as Benoit Mandelbrot in mathematics and Leo Esaki in physics also worked there.

Related Link: Robert H. Dennard – Wikipedia

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