5/9/2023 0 Comments Battery status meter![]() (Which makes sense, because it’s the version Duracell licensed.) The Kodak patent, which was initially filed about a year after Burroughs and O’Kain filed theirs and granted six months after the Burroughs patent, has a design very similar to what ended up in the Duracell PowerCheck. When a battery is easily tested, as the battery of the present invention, the user of the battery is more likely to routinely check condition of the battery.Ī drawing from the Kodak patent for the on-battery power meter. Thus, with the improved battery of the present invention, a user can quickly and effortlessly determine the strength or condition of a battery. It is normally not possible to test new batteries at the time of purchase because of the battery protective packaging.Īccordingly, it is the object of the present invention to provide an improved battery having a built-in battery-strength indicator which permits one to immediately determine the battery’s strength or condition. Although it is not complicated to test batteries, it is time consuming to disassemble a device, remove the batteries, test the batteries, and, if they pass the test, reinstall the batteries in the device. Some individuals will even test the batteries under both loaded and unloaded conditions to measure the voltage drop. Some individuals will test the batteries on a battery tester to determine the condition of the batteries. If the device operates, the individual is normally satisfied that the batteries are operational. Most individuals test their batteries by turning on the device in which the batteries are installed. In the patent filing by Burroughs and O’Kain, it’s made somewhat clear by the that the device was clearly inspired by personal frustration with testing batteries manually: O’Kain, they were by far the smaller of the two organizations-essentially a pair of entrepreneurs taking on both an iconic camera company and an iconic battery company-and it meant that it would potentially be easy to wear the patent-filers down through legal action. ![]() Burroughs, filed first with his business partner Alan N. ![]() Despite the fact that said inventor, James R. This was not a fight that favors the inventor working alone. And at the center, a patent system that has faced challenges of increasing complexity in recent years, and accidentally approved the same general idea twice. In one corner was Eastman Kodak, still a giant of innovation at the time with a massive camera business to support itself in the other, an independent inventor team that came up with the idea on a hunting trip, when a flashlight konked out. And, unwittingly, USPTO set up a David vs. ![]() Patent and Trademark Office approved patents for two separate battery-charging technologies during roughly the same period. What happened?īoth were working on releasing the technology: Energizer announced first, and as soon as Duracell found out, it released a press release of its own, essentially to show Eveready that it, too, had the goods.īut why did both companies have the goods? Well basically, the U.S. In the case of both companies, it was a significant upgrade-while Duracell had a useful tester inside its plastic case, while Energizer maker Eveready sold its model separately.īut there was just one problem with the announcement: only one of the companies had legally licensed the technology that made this innovation possible. Something strange happened on December 14, 1995: Both of the major national battery brands, Duracell and Energizer, announced that they were adding this innovative power-testing technology to their respective battery lines. The complicated patent battle that charged up the on-battery power meter debate
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