Questions For Red Matthews

logueb · Aug 28, 2012

First, I would like to say that I enjoy your input on glassmaking. I think that it's great that the forum has a member who has such a vast knowledge of making glass.

I am currently doing research on soda bottle patents from the 1920's and 1930's. I am completely amazed at the number of patents issued. I realize that some of these are so intricate that they probably never made it into production. I also ran across some soda bottle patents that were assigned to Thatcher Glass . I believe that is where you worked.

Here are the questions: What are the steps between a patent being issued and the production bottle being produced? Some patents are assigned to Glass Houses and some to individuals.

How much can the Glass Factory change on the patent?

How long does the patent have to be shown on the bottle?

I have found many soda bottles from the 20's and 30's in the bottle dump that I am currently digging. I have located many of the patents. Some however; appear to be a combination of / or alterations of the original patents.

Hope that this is not asking too much. Thanks for any help on this. Buster

RED Matthews · Aug 28, 2012

Well Buster your request for answers â€“ is a long distance from my experience cycle. When a potential bottle consumer makes contact with the bottle sales people. - they have to find out what their needs are and supply the glass houses design and specifications engineering with the details of what is needed.

I worked in the Central Mold Manufacturing Division. We would get request for wooden models of what the salesmen figured the customer wanted. These were taken to the customer for design acceptance. This was to give them an opportunity to evaluate how it fit into the potential product application.

The next thing we might have to do, is make a plastic form of the bottle which could be labeled and supplied to the customer. After that a set of mold equipment could be required for making a small run of the glass product.

We were never involved with the patent regulations, so I have no knowledge of that aspect of the business. So I can't help you there. RED Matthews

andy volkerts · Aug 28, 2012

Patents are good for seventeen years, and then are renewable for another 17 years, I believe there is no time frame for the patent being on the bottle. That info is put there to discourage scumbags from infringing on the bottles patented design nothing more. Any change in a design of a patent must have an amended filing so the patent is kept up to date, if another person files a change on your patent say, he may get a patent for that change if it can be proven that it does not infringe on what you have already patented, So it pays to amend all patent filings as you go along.... this from a patent atty..........

logueb · Aug 29, 2012

Thanks Red. I knew from your previous posts that you had experience with molds and how they worked. The information on the wooden bottle and plastic prototype forms was very interesting. That was the link that I was looking for between the patent and finished product. Appears that the absence of a wooden bottle landed one inventor in hot water with the patent office. See below.

"To prove the last contention, he introduced in evidence two letters purporting to be copies of letters written to the Coca Cola Company in his behalf in the year 1934 and three letters purporting to be written by an official of the Coca Cola Company acknowledging receipt of these letters and of a wooden bottle which he claimed to have submitted to the Coca Cola Company as a model of his design. The examiner in the Patent Office went fully into the facts ........"

Thanks Andy. I also thought that patents were good for 17 years, but the patents on the soda bottles that I have found so far , vary from 3 1/2 years, to 7 years, to 14 years. I have no idea why.

I have located over 300 soda bottle patents so far. Many probably never made it into production.

Questions For Red Matthews

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logueb

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