Written by: AJS Labels
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When is a hoover not a Hoover? When it’s a vacuum cleaner that’s not been made by the well-known appliance manufacturer Hoover. The same rule applies to sticky tape that is not Sellotape. However, just because someone else seems have gotten a market all sewn up with a proprietary brand, is not reason enough not to try to better it. Sometimes the wheel needs to be reinvented.
“How can you patent a piece of folded paper? It’s just folded paper after all.” Someone recently asked me this about Little Book and was quickly disabused of any thoughts he might be having about copying the format.
It is, though, a good question and one which, no doubt, crosses many people’s minds when they first come across this remarkable compact booklet. To answer it we have to go back to the beginning when, undertaking a marketing project for a friend, I came across a Z-Card. Having seen plenty of folded promo products, concertina folds and other booklet designs in my time, initially I was most impressed - so much information in one place and highly pocketable to boot. As a marketing and communication tool it seemed to have a lot going for it.
But commuting back and forth daily between Bristol and London provides plenty of time for mulling over ideas and so it was that I started to discover some of Z-Card’s shortcomings.
My thoughts turned to how I might improve the concept without infringing the existing patent. And so followed many weeks of origami, during which the appealing idea of a folded sheet held inside a book-like cover was born. Unlike the Z-Card, this format would allow the pages to be turned like a book, revealing key information without any disruption to neighbouring passengers or passersby. Pulling downwards on the first page prompted the whole sheet to snap open with an element of surprise that still delights me, while flipping the page up revealed 14 more pages of information. Couple these elements with a well-behaved re-fold and what I had was a vast improvement on the z-fold concept, something entirely different and therefore patentable.
The moral of this story is don’t stop looking for improvements and opportunities to innovate just because there is already a proprietary brand on the market. If that were the case where would James Dyson be today?
Patrick De-la-Hunty
