Nordic Journal

Top 3 Easter related patents

For those who celebrate the Easter holiday, this time of the year will likely be filled with Easter baskets and eggs, so this month we at Nordic Patent Institute have taken a closer look at Easter related patents.

With some research into Easter-related patents, we have found top three “solutions” to the “problems” of Easter that inventors considered important enough to want to protect with patents.

This makes sense because the Easter industry is literally worth billions of dollars in sales every year. The ideas might be whimsical, but the money and business interest at stake certainly are not.

1. Easter egg dyeing and drying device

US Patent No. 4,573,586

Easter egg dyeing and drying device

With millions of eggs being decorated in schools all over the western world it was inevitable that someone would come up with some way of automating the process. The U.S. Patent 4,573,586 issued to Michael T. Helmer in 1986 did exactly this, as his invention was an Easter egg dyeing and drying device that was meant to address the problem of messiness.

Even though we praise Helmer for his creative input in incorporating means to contain accidental spillage of dye, the patent has however now expired.

2. Rotating egg coloring device

US Patent No. 3,848,564

Rotating egg coloring device

 

An earlier patent from 1973, U.S. Patent 3,848,564, issued to Leo Kull took a slightly more mechanical approach to the coloring of Easter eggs. This invention was an egg coloring device that held and rotated an egg, in which it solved the issue of coloring an egg to some people that saw it as a tiresome or difficult task, especially when more than a single color is desired.

Thanks to Kull many more people might have enjoyed the coloring of Easter eggs, however the patent has now expired.

3. Hinged plastic Easter egg

US Patent No. 4,124,135

Hinged plastic Easter egg

But not all solutions have to be complicated like our previous inventions, and just because a design seems simple does not mean it is not worth protecting. U.S. Patent 4,124,135 from 1978 issued to Erwin H. and Donald E. Weder described a hinged plastic egg, which could no doubt contain other eggs or candies or toys. Even though we praise the Weder brothers for their invention, the patent has however now expired.

Nonetheless, this invention reminds us of the good old Kinder Eggs, where we as children or adults enjoy playing with the toy inside the egg while eating the delicious chocolate covering it.

We wish you happy Easter from all of us here at Nordic Patent Institute, and we sincerely hope that you have a blast coloring your wonderful Easter eggs.

If you’d like to know more about our global prior art search services, please check the links in the footer directly below this article.

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