From Sikorsky's engineering department, legal department or marketing department?

[Dave_Jackson]

Sikorsky's last four+two patents [D524,227, D524,228, D524,229, D524,230, D524,718 and D526,269] are Design Patents, not the normal Utility Patents. They are simply a collection of sketches of six coaxial helicopter arraignments.


Excerpts from 'What Are Design Patents and When Are They Useful?' (http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/matters/matters-9303.html)

"the design patent does not focus on utility; rather, it is directed toward an ornamental design of an article of commerce."

"The United States Patent and Trademark Office has defined the design of an object to be the visual characteristics or aspects displayed by the object."


Sikorsky, are you trying to prevent others from producing anything that 'looks' like; a coaxial helicopter with rigid blades and a pusher propeller???? :eek:


PS. I'm sure you'll understand that I must rush off now and get the thread [UAVs: Three Twin-Rotor Electric Configurations] onto PPRuNe. These three helicopters also have; two main rotors with rigid blades and pusher propellers.

It would be a shame if ONE were to patent the 'looks' these helicopters, to the disadvantage of OTHERS that may wish to satisfy the requirements of MANY.

_________________________________________________
Edited to add a forth patent, which was issued today. Plus change the above link's format.
Edited yet again to add a fifth and sixth design patent.

[Ian Corrigible]

Was trying to access the U.S. Patent Office page (http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=D524,228.PN.&OS=PN/D524,228&RS=PN/D524,228) on this last week, but couldn't get the images to load. Anyone have more luck?

I/C

[Dave_Jackson]

Ian,

I had the same problem a while back. You may have to load a later version of the TIFF image plug-in program into your computer.
See http://www.uspto.gov/patft/help/images.htm


A question for you.:)

How did you 'overwrite' the link URL address with a text description, in your PPRuNe post?

Dave

[Heliport]

How do you overwrite a link URL address with a text description?


The http://www.pprune.org/forums/images/editor/switchmode.gif button in the top right corner enables you to switch between two editing modes when you write a post. The background of the text box (in which you write your post) changes colour to show which mode is selected.
(The http://www.pprune.org/forums/images/editor/switchmode.gif button also changes colour, but less obviously)


Cream background: (Default setting)
Clicking on the http://www.pprune.org/forums/images/editor/createlink.gif button creates a simple URL link.
eg http://www.pprune.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=23


White background:
Clicking on http://www.pprune.org/forums/images/editor/createlink.gif creates an URL link with the option of inserting a name for the link. Simply overwrite the highlighted part of the link when it appears in the text box.
eg Rotorheads Forum (http://www.pprune.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=23)


For most purposes, the default setting (cream background) is easier to use because you see exactly how your post will look as you type - WYSIWYG.



Heliport

[Dave_Jackson]

Heliport,

Thanks.

Dave

[Ian Corrigible]

Dave,

Thanks for the TIFF advice - I'll give it a whirl. I look forward to seeing this 'ornamental design.' (Does this mean it only works at Xmas ? Or that it was designed by some clever chap from the Far East...) :E

I/C

[Dave_Jackson]

In addition to the six Design patents, the first Utility patent for Sikorsky's proposed Coaxial helicopters has been issued.

Compact co-axial rotor system for a rotary wing aircraft and a control system thereof - 7,083,142 (http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=7,083,142.PN.&OS=PN/7,083,142&RS=PN/7,083,142)

The Good:

Sikorsky further acknowledges the advantages of twin main rotors, by stating; " Conventional coaxial rotor systems are exceeding efficient as lift generating mechanism for a heavy lift VTOL aircraft. There are no power losses to an anti torque device and rotor efficiency is somewhat improved relative to a single rotor due to swirl recovery."


The Not So Good:

The blade pitch is controlled by mechanical servo-flaps; as used on the Kaman intermeshing synchropters.

http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/aero/aircraft/images/kamen_k-225.t.jpg
This is done in an attempt to reduce the craft's overall height and yet provide a safe clearance between the blades of the two rotors.


The Questionable:

This 'fluffy' patent looks as if it is little more than a part of an eventual marketing campaign to government agencies.


The Solution:

Since you are concerned about the craft's overall height and safe blade clearance ~
Develop the Interleaving configuration.

http://www.unicopter.com/1441.gif

Freely offered ~ No cost, no thank you. ~ No kidding (http://www.unicopter.com/1121.html) :)