Weekly Worthless Patent

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Lidded container

While this is the first patent I looked at for this week I looked at about 25 others trying to find a clearer winner. There weren't any in the immediate vicinity of this one though the next non-assigned patent gave this one some competition. The problem with this patent is determining just what is "the invention." It turns out to be only the "protruding ridge" and then only in conjunction with all the other items in each claim including the fact that this patent ONLY applies to a moist product dispenser.

It also appears that the examiner didn't notice on his initial look that the invention as spelled out in claim 1, which is a combination of originally filed claims 1, 6, and 7 (you have to go look at the prosecution documents in the PAIR system on the uspto.gov web site), isn't really "useful" because most likely the lid will pop off every time someone pulls out a wipe. Some of the other claims include ways to hold the lid on but the real issue is will anyone care about this new "protruding ridge"? The prior art listed shows a lot of variants of moist towel dispensers. Do you suppose the inventor can show scientifically that adding the "protruding ridge" does, in fact, make his superior at retaining moistness? I don't but opinions may differ.

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