The Origin of the Reverse Umbrella

Authors

  • Jyhjeng Deng DaYeh University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6977/IJoSI.201903_5(3).0003

Abstract

There has been much online controversy and discussion among members of the Taiwan umbrella industry regarding who was the original inventor of the reverse umbrella, since Kazbrella, a British brand, was successfully launched. The purpose of the reverse umbrella is to keep the wet side of the umbrella away from the user on rainy days. Some people argue that the Taiwanese inventor Li Sheng Chun, the owner of Taiwanese patent I254619, was the originator of the reverse umbrella, although he did not put his patent into commercial practice. This paper traces the origin of the reverse umbrella and surveys patent databases in Taiwan, the USA and Europe. Based on the timeline of the application dates of patents, the trend of evolution in the Creax innovation suite is used to indicate the status of trends of dynamization of patents. It is discovered that the dynamic structure of the Kazbrella based on US8893736 is far more advanced than that of I254619. I254619 includes a sliding ring feature, which is connected with two honeycombs, sliding along the central spine of the umbrella. The honeycombs trigger the umbrella to fold inside out. Note that the umbrella is not foldable. The US8893736 umbrella, in contrast, is foldable with three moveable parts, including the upper crown, outermost section, and inner section, which are connected to the central spine and a pulley system to control the relative movement of the upper crown and inner section. Obviously the patent US8893736 has a higher status, approaching ideality in terms of the trend of object segmentation.


Author Biography

Jyhjeng Deng, DaYeh University

Industrial Engineering and Management Department

Professor

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Published

2019-04-05 — Updated on 2020-04-17

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