Vigoro, a hybrid sport

The BBC website has a story titled Vigoro: the Edwardian attempt to merge tennis and cricket. It is an entertaining account of a hybrid sport invented by John George Grant, a London commercial traveller, who even took out a trade mark for it. It is rather like playing cricket with a racket. The sport continues to be played in Australia, mainly by women. There is a Wikipedia article on Vigoro. Below is a video showing the sport being played.

I can add that George took out a British patent for the sport by applying in 1901 for his Improved game for affording recreative exercise with bat and ball. One feature that appears to have been dropped was the need to "defend a netted structure" as shown in the patent drawing given below. The batter, incidentally, is described as a "striker".

The inventors are given as John George Grant, commercial traveller, of 36 Savernake Road, Hampstead, and William Saunders Edwards, net manufacturer, of "Thornleigh", Bridport, Dorset.

Grant also had a later patent, GB 1909/02717, for bats, but this while published was not granted protection. Its drawings are given below.

Hybrid games were popular in the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. There is for example US442438 by Edward Horsman Jr. of Brooklyn, applied for in 1890, "Parlor tennis". It is for playing tiddlywinks on a miniature tennis court. The delightful drawing is shown below.

Football trade marks

With the World Cup almost here, let's look at some football (soccer) trade marks from the European Community trade marks database, e-Search.

They always say you should start at the beginning. Some years ago I heard a talk by someone about Sheffield FC, a club which started in 1857 as the first football club ever. My question is, who could they play against ? Here is their rather magnificent trade mark, applied for as 008592339 (with a much clearer image) by the awkwardly named "1857 Sheffield F.C. the World's First Football Club Ltd." for numerous classes of goods.

Then there was the first World Cup tournament, which was won by Uruguay in 1930 (they also won in 1950). A good quiz question: how many South American countries have won the World Cup ? Those who know little of football assume it's two, but Argentina in 1930 and Brazil in 1950 lost the finals.

The image below is presumably from a contemporary poster. It was applied for by FIFA in 2006 as 0896057.

In 1938 Italy beat Hungary 4-2 in the 3rd tournament. Here is another poster by FIFA marking the tournament. A better image can be seen at 00896056.

The 2006 tournament was held in Germany. Very different artwork was used for the following image, which was in fact withdrawn and was not registered. A better image can be seen at 002741296.

Turning to this current tournament, here are two trade marks by FIFA, 009283921...

...and 011529311.

In 2013 FIFA applied for an image of the Jules Rimet Cup itself, 012100125.

Of course it's not all about the World Cup. I have only posted on the trade marks of one football club, and it was Manchester City, in January, who are now England's champions.

Coming second, after looking like about to win it, were Liverpool, with this impressive trade mark, 002695146.

Manchester United, who have won so many championships, were not a contender this season. 000761312.

There are often in fact multiple registrations covering variants or different activities. And in case anyone is wondering, Football World Cup has been registered by FIFA as 006939298 for numerous classes.

Skateboard inventions with a difference

Skateboards have been around for decades, with the earliest patent with the word in the title being Skate board provided with longitudinally adjustable wheel carriage units by Louis Bostick of California, filed in 1965. The sport actually goes back a few years earlier. Over 700 US patent specifications since have used that word in the title. This post is on some of the more unusual ones.

There's for example Control system for a skateboard type device by Samuel Shiber for Saroy Engineering of Illinois, filed 1975:

Combination cycle seat-skateboard by Charles Persons II and Robb Harst, both of Ohio, for Persons-Majestic Manufacturing Company of Massachusetts, filed 1978, the idea being that the seat part of the bicycle can be detached to form a skateboard (see the tiny wheels underneath the saddle):

Radio controlled skateboard with robot by Steven Derrah of Rhode Island, filed 1997:

Solar skateboard by Chien-Ching Su of Taiwan, filed 2006:

Motorized skateboard  by James Hawkins of California, filed 2009:

Self-propelled skateboard by Craig Gager of London, UK, filed 2010:

Finally, only published a few weeks ago, is Electric skateboard by Aaron King for Redrock Boardshop, both of Florida, with a very cool looking drawing showing it in action. Looks like he's on his way to work, though actually he has batteries in his backpack (which would be heavy, I think ?).

Snowboarding inventions

Snowboarding was influenced by surfing. In many areas you don't to surf in winter, and surfboards and snowboards both lack poles to help you move, unlike skis.

The first big patented invention here is usually credited to Sherman Poppen who filed in 1966 for his Surf-type snow ski. You were supposed to cling to a rope. He began manufacture of his Snurfer. Below is its illustration page.

Jake Burton Carpenter, who broke a finger while using a Snurfer, is credited with improvements to the snowboard concept -- he made it wider, provided high back bindings, and a steel edge to help turning. His first patent, filed in 1990, is for a Snowboard binding system, as illustrated below.

There have been plenty more since -- Google Patents lists over 60,000. Probably not all are new, and some may be of doubtful use. Others are more useful. Some may lead to yet another variant in sport.

What about the Seated skiing or snowboarding device, illustrated below.

Or the Wrist guard for snowboarding, illustrated below.

And then there's the Training aid for snowboard maneuvering, which features a miniature snowboard, as shown below. Let your fingers do the walking...

Here is a list of snowboarding patents since 2005 published through the PCT "World patent" system.

Manchester City's intellectual property

The annual report of Manchester City football club states that in the year to 31 May 2013 they made £47 million from selling "intellectual property". Of this, £22.5 million was sales to related parties, and £24.5 million from selling to third parties, such as, perhaps, a rumoured New York franchise. No other details were disclosed.

These helped bring their losses down from £97.1 million to £51.6 million. Their revenue was £271 million, up from £231 million. The wage bill of £233 million helps account for the loss. And sounds huge to me ! There were also big losses in buying and selling players (that is, they were paying a lot more than they were receiving).

But what is the intellectual property of the club ? Some may be sponsorship and partnership deals with companies such as Nike and Etihad Airways, but much I guess is trade marks in the form of sportswear and other items where the club sells rights to use the club regalia in return for, probably, royalties, or perhaps for cash sums. Hence you can buy their shirts as made by clothing companies in sports wear shops and the like.

In 1972 Manchester City applied for the following, still current, trade mark.

This was for six classes. You don't just register for everything, but for specified goods or services in specified classes. The idea is to allow different owners to use say Swan for different activities, so long as they don't conflict. Nobody expects a maker of matches to rent cars as well. In this case, Class 6 with key rings and key chains turns up, as it nearly always does for sports clubs and bands, as they are cheap memorabilia.

In 1997 they applied for this modified version. Still the ship, but no rose. It has less detail which makes it easier to reproduce clearly on small items.

This time there were 9 classes, which include such items as teddy bears, romper suits and baby boots. If you think you might sell it, just put it in, as failure to do so could mean someone trying to sell it.

Also in 1997, there was a version using the club's Latin motto, superbia in proelio. It means "Pride in battle".

And there is a colour version as well. Judging from the Manchester City FC website this is the favoured, modern version.

MCFC, Man City and Manchester City F.C. have also been registered, among other variants. This is a complete list of the UK registered trade marks. The same eagle is Manchester's symbol as a city, it seems, as the City Council registered it for many uses in 2008 as EU 6804462 through the pan-European EU system, as shown below.

Such registrations only cover the UK, and big sports clubs are global in their ambitions nowadays, especially with syndicated broadcasts and the reach of the Internet. The same colour insignia shown above was only published for "opposition", prior to registration, in the USA on the 21 January 2014, having been filed for in 2012. Many foreign countries were designated in a filing for the same, also in 2012, through the Madrid Agreement, which is an international treaty.

Hence we have football, business and intellectual property all coming together.