My Selected US Patent

Patent 4889041: Electric Appliance for Making Hot Beverages

Date issued: December 26, 1989

The idea behind this invention is to improve upon the classic household coffee/tea maker by inserting a water softening mechanism. This allows a water softening agent to act upon the tap water (which would be full of minerals) in the appliance before it flows through the conduits. By softening the water, the likelihood of the conduits clogging due to mineral scale deposits. I found this patent because I am a coffee drinker and was interested to investigate improvements on the classic household appliance. It could be fascinating to compare this improvement with other similar advancements. I found the patent while searching FreePatentsOnline.com. The link can be found here: [1]. The patent can also be found on Google Patents: [2].

Homework 2

The patent for the electric appliance for making hot beverages 4889041 cites patent 4070956 which concerns a coffeemaker with brewing waterspreader. Essentially, this older patent is a basic home coffeemaker appliance where the water is distributed over the dry coffee grounds by the 'spreader'. The significant difference between this patent and the patent I chose is that the chosen patent incorporates a water softening apparatus. This water softening incorporation was previously seen in the referenced patent 4565019, where a steam iron comprises a water softener in conjunction with the pipes in the iron.

Under analysis of A. & P. Tea Co. v. Supermarket Corp., in order for a new invention to be patentable, it must improve upon any older patented items.