Patent search for pancakes

Patents can sometimes be a bit dry and at Tidman Legal we’re very much in pancake mood, so we thought we should search for Pancake-related patents using a free patent search service. We may not have quelled our hunger but we certainly found a number of interesting pancake inventions, from ready-made pancake mix to pancake flipping machines.

Searching for Pancakes

Patent searching is a critical part of the patent process, where it is used to find “prior art” to challenge the novelty of inventions claimed in patent applications. We searched for patent documents using the free online service Espacenet. There were approximately 1,410 results with the word “Pancake” in the title.

As usual, the search results included both patent applications and granted patents. We found that most of the patents were Chinese. This is not surprising as we all know how much the Chinese love pancakes! Nearly all the Chinese patent documents are published “utility model” patent applications or granted patents. They have a U or a Y after the publication number, for example CN205624151 (U) “Automatic Upset Pancake Machine”. Compared to regular “invention patents”, utility model applications, which cover shapes or structures, are not fully examined by the Chinese patent office and have just a 10 rather than 20 year term.

Another thing to watch out for is that some of the results are US design patents. They have a publication number starting with USD, for example USD751342 (S) “Pancake forming plates for pancake baker”. These US design patents cover ornamental design of functional items. In confusing contrast to the Chinese naming convention, regular US patents (with the US prefix) are called “utility” patents.

What was our best pancake patent?

The invention that really stood out for us was described in a US utility patent US6997699 (B2) “Pancake die”, granted in 2006. Here the B2 is the code that tells us that the patent is granted. Now expired, the patent protected a pancake production system for producing pancakes having a highly uniform weight but exhibiting a substantially random peripheral shape reflective of a desirable homemade appearance.

Happy Pancake Day!

Tidman Legal is a firm of intellectual property specialists based in Edinburgh. For further information or advice on how to search patents and protect your invention, contact us.