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Patenting Roads

As I was thinking about a new road design, I found a number that had been patented. The idea of patenting a road may seem a little strange, but it has happened a number of times. In very few cases have the patented designs become widely used. Some references below:

Continuous flow intersection

Traffic intersection - Patent 3915580

Simultaneous left turn vehicular intersection - US Patent 5795095

Vehicle highway system having single-level uninterrupted traffic-flow intersection - US Patent 5897270

Traffic interchange - US Patent 5921701

Some additional prior art cited in patents above:


1173505
February 1916 - Hale

1515251 November 1924 -Graves

1543080 June 1925 - Graves

3107590
October 1963- Cedeno

3272097
September 1966 -
Gazis et al.

3394638 July 1968 -
Burrell

3915580 October 1975 - Kaufman

4592673
June 1986 - Lee

4630961 December 1986 - Hellwig

5049000 September 1991 - Mier

Posted by David Levinson on April 16, 2008 10:40 AM |

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