User:Sean O'Brien
Homework 1
Patent 4,697,285: Ballistic Vest
Date Issued: October 6, 1987
This patent describes a ballistic vest as a worn garment designed to protect the wearer from bullets and/or explosive shrapnel. Awarded in 1987 to William Sylvester of Safariland Ballistics, Inc., it is for a vest that is comprised of a front panel that will protect the front end of the user as well as a rear panel. These panels are held by front and rear carriers, respectively, and are connected to the carriers by elastic straps which are rigidly fixed to the edges of the panels. The panels are composed of multiple layers of flexible impact-resistant material, such as Kevlar, that are contained within a flexible jacket. The layers are free-floating across the area of the panel, making the vest light and comfortable to wear. The rigid fixing of only the edges of the layers to the fasteners ensures that they will remain intact after multiple bullet impacts from different angles as tested.
The patent can be found here.
Homework 2
The patent for a ballistic vest described above cites two earlier patents, 4,079,464, by Sam Roggin, and 4,483,020 by Anthony G. Dunn.
The earlier patent by Roggin dates to 1978 and is for a "Protective Garment" that incorporates a folded segment of Kevlar sealed together by a thermosetting resin into the front and back plates, which are connected by shoulder straps. This design is similar to Sylvester's 1987 vest patent but there are also many innovations. The newer vest offers greater protection due to new developments in how the ballistic material in each panel is connected layer to layer and held in place, as well as improvements on its connection with the vest. These innovations are novel and provide greater utility in the form of protection. The innovations came about through many prototype designs invented to specifically address the drawbacks of the earlier vest, namely heightened penetration from angled projectiles. This reflects invested development over time, and does not constitute they type of "obvious" innovation or combination necessary to invalidate the patent.
The latter by Dunn from 1984 reflects a development in the protection offered by the vest wherein multiple layers of hard and soft bullet resistant material act together to stop a bullet. This solved a problem with earlier vests in which wearers suffered blunt trauma type injuries from the kinetic energy impacted by a slug hitting the vest. This new innovation provides markedly better protection and is a new combination of materials before unused in ballistic vests, making it a nonobvious progression in vest technology and warranting a new patent. Sylvester's vest is newer still, and beats Dunn's vest in protection offered. It reverts back to a vest composed completely of soft ballistic material, yet does not lack Dunn's energy dispersion. It also adds protection from angled projectiles as mentioned above. This new method of fixating the ballistic material is novel and would not be obvious to someone familiar with bullet proof vests.
Both patents follow shortly after patent 3,829,899, which was awarded in 1974 to Second Chance Body Armor Company as the first bullet resistant article of soft clothing and there are many similarities between the ballistic vest patent of 1987 and the earlier patents. A basic design of a vest that contains two plates of bullet resistant material is common, and also that each has layers of material composing their respective plates. However in each succeeding patent, there is evident that a significant improvement has been made in offering superior protection to the wearer. Sylvester's patent represents the progress of vest technology through research and development likely funded heavily by the Department of Defense.
