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Tonya Papanikolas ReportingEvery year Americans apply for more than 300,000 patents. Seventy-five to 80-percent of those are approved. This year Utahns are set to receive hundreds of patents for all kinds of inventions.
Utah inventors have patented a lot of scientific inventions, like a model for bearing heavy loads. It's extremely light, but can support hundreds of pounds of weight. A thin speaker has the ability to go under water or bear extreme heat, so you can leave it in your car outside. And a tiny bag can attach to your key chain, belt loop or bag, it unveils into an eyeglass or camera cleaner, perfect for our photographer.
With a few weeks left in December, Utah inventors are set to receive more around 920 patents this year, the most yet. Kathleen McCurdy and her husband Michael are inventors. They've designed a baby product with a patent pending.
Kathleen McCurdy, Co-Inventor: “Our aunt had lots of little children and she was always getting up at night finding their pacifier. And it was a little difficult, and she didn’t want them sleeping with the strings around their neck.”
So the McCurdys came up with a scratch-free baby mitt that unsnaps to fit a binky.
Kathleen McCurdy: “When they want mom or lose their pacifier, they just naturally put their hands up there and find it."
Don Savage has a patent pending on a store ice cream dispenser.
Don Savage, Ice Cream Dispensor Inventor: “My wife went into Baskin Robbins once, and she got an ice cream cone and came out and said, ‘You’re an engineer. You ought to be able to figure out something, some way to get around that hand-dipping of ice cream.”
So Savage worked on his invention for 20 years. He developed a cylinder that holds a three-gallon bucket of ice cream. The operator just has to flip the handle for a cold scoop.
At the company Back to Basics, the CEO designed a home smoothie maker since his regular blender created problems.
Randy Hales, Back to Basics President: “He couldn't get all the frozen ingredients down into the blades and then trying to pour it out afterwards, he'd have that ice dam that would often break and spill out on the tabletop."
So the inventor made a stir stick for the blender and a dispensing valve. The invention propelled the company onto the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing corporations.
Artist Marko Johnson wanted to create a smaller version of the aboriginal 'didgeridoo' instrument. So he took out a patent that covered many different shapes and sizes of what he calls the "Didg Box".
It seems Utahns are getting patents for all kinds of inventions they hope will make it big.
