Diaper Patents

I remembered hearing a while back that some adult diaper manufacturers wont include inner leakguards or waistbands because they are afraid of patent infringement. That got me curious as to what diaper patents there are out there. Google has a patent search engine that you can use to check out patents filed for diapers. Some interesting stuff there. Check it out sometime if you are bored.

Some interesting ones I found:

Entertaining Nose Clip Assembly for Diaper Changing ( link )

An early version of the disposable diaper ( link )

The (unfortunate) beginning of cloth like disposables ( link )

Please post any interesting ones you've found

Not posting any links as I'm too lazy to do that on my phone, but as I recall--I searched a while back--there are quite a few patents around cloth diapers, and I'm talking the old-school stuff. There are patents for diaper fabrics and layering techniques to keep in moisture, and quite a few patents for fasteners--variations on, and alternatives to, diaper pins.

Really, one should not be surprised to find patents on just about everything, even though, under close examination, many would probably be vulnerable in court due to obviousness. Having been deep in the patent process a few times, I can tell you with certainty that patent attorneys and government patent clerks alike are generally all too eager to get patents granted for inventions that don't really pass the sniff test--which makes sense when you see all of the processing and assignment fees involved. It's all pretty busted.

I think patents are becoming a nuisance, especially when it comes to smart phones. Companies are suing others for simple finger gestures.

Diapers are actually a particularly active area of technological development. Over the past several decades, everything from the processes for creation of SAP to the shape of tapes and guards for most efficient fluid distribution and absorption has been patented. Nearly every law school patent class discusses at least one diaper patent case, and famously (for nerdy lawyers at least), there was even a "diaper wars" in the 1980s over diaper innovations in which pampers and huggies had a massive court battle in which each side tried to smash the other one via patent law. There's a whole podcast about it, in fact, it's pretty interesting. http://www.lifeofthelaw.org/2015/02/the-diaper-wars/

I have fun with this too from time to time. It's remarkable how much effort and engineering goes into disposable nappies. I found this out when I was wondering why Pampers all have netting on the inside of them. (the reason why: https://www.google.com/patents/US5342338 (fair warning, the reason may be a bit icky)). Also interesting: how much effort goes into making the prints on the diapers: http://www.google.com/patents/US5503076.

Now if only some of this tech could be applied to say, store brand adult diapers, how nice that would be.