Beware – More Drones are Coming

Drones are hovering over homeowner’s yards.

Everyone with a dog up north knows the first nice day of spring is crappy. It’s the day you pick up all the winter poop in the yard. That was my chore on a gorgeous first day of spring.

I joked with my five-year-old daughter, Danielle, “I’ll give you 10 cents for each piece you pick up.” Surprisingly, she said, “No, but I’ll do it for twenty-five cents; how do I do it?”

I explained that you put a plastic bag over your hand, pick one up, and drop it in the garbage bag. She grabbed a box of bags and headed out.?

After about an hour, she asked for more bags. I asked, “What for? You only need one.”?

She said, “You need one per piece. How else will you count them?”

It’s a classic story shared whenever our family gets together. Recently, my sister Karen told me about the inventor Caleb Olsen’s PoopCopter. As reported by the New York Post, Olsen said, “It’s fully self-guided, fully capable of retrieving poop from grass, and it’s full of crap.”

Caleb reported that he’s seeking patent protection for this invention. He’ll have to contend with at least one piece of prior art: the Petco DooDoo Drone, which was first disclosed years ago on YouTube. To get patent protection, Caleb must show the Patent Office what’s different about his drone and Petco’s.

The great news for Caleb is that there’s a market for these poop-scooping drones. People were lining up to buy the Petco DooDoo Drone. Unfortunately for them, that drone was an April Fool’s joke, but it’s still prior art.?

One great idea and you can clean up. To help you identify your intellectual property, I’ve created a Guide and Checklist. Click the button below to download a free copy.

About the Author:

Bill Honaker, “The IP Guy” is a former USPTO Examiner, a partner with Dickinson-Wright, and author of the new book, Invisible Assets – How to Maximize the Hidden Value in Your Business.

To get answers to your questions schedule a time to talk, you can access my calendar by clicking here, email [email protected], or call me at 248-433-7381.