Show HN: Explore ideas whose patent protection expires today

The majority [1] of patents are never commercially exploited or licensed - I wanted a way to browse recently expired patents to find hidden gems and get inspired by existing inventions. The site uses the recently released USPTO-API [2] to fetch newly expired patents each day.<p>NB: The reason the most recent patents displayed are from 12&#x2F;31 is because no new patents were granted during the first few days of January 1997.<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.forbes.com&#x2F;sites&#x2F;danielfisher&#x2F;2014&#x2F;06&#x2F;18&#x2F;13633&#x2F;#799ec00c4183" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.forbes.com&#x2F;sites&#x2F;danielfisher&#x2F;2014&#x2F;06&#x2F;18&#x2F;13633&#x2F;#7...</a><p>[2] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.patentsview.org&#x2F;api" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.patentsview.org&#x2F;api</a>

Fellow hackers, a word of advice... always start with the marketing before building a product.<p>I too think a power actuated toilet seat sounds like a fantastic foundation for a business, but it&#x27;s what the market things... not what your gut thinks.

&quot;Mole Gassing Device&quot;- <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;patents.google.com&#x2F;patent&#x2F;US5588252" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;patents.google.com&#x2F;patent&#x2F;US5588252</a><p>Brilliant stuff.

Huh. Work firewall won&#x27;t let me access. I&#x27;m assuming that the problem is the domain: &quot;patent <i>sex</i> piringtoday.com&quot;.

Coming soon: the sister site softwarepatentsborntoday.com listing all software patents starting today that will stifle innovation for the next 17 years

I actually want to explore patents whose protection expires in the time I need to implement them.<p>Perhaps 6 months would be a good compromise.

I have to say I like this; personally, it will probably just be entertainment for me (like I need more distractions), but I can easily see it being useful for others. Great job!<p>One suggestion - can you put the page selector at the top of the list as well (and maybe add an option to allow more than 10 items on the list)? That was just a small thing I noticed...

Awesome site, this is the best one today. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;patents.google.com&#x2F;patent&#x2F;US5588175" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;patents.google.com&#x2F;patent&#x2F;US5588175</a><p>Word of warning, privacy services like Privacy Badger and Decentraleyes block the data tables cdn your using so your users using those services see no data at all

This is epic. Love it. I&#x27;m going to share this with others. I see this as a great way to learn about patents in general, and as a way to get inspiration for new ideas. I&#x27;ve always found patents fascinating, even if they&#x27;re a little over-hyped as a business moat. Ask Apple. Have any of their ideas from their beginning until now, not been copied? Windows GUI vs Mac OS GUI, iPhone vs Galaxy, Android vs iOS.<p>But I still think patents are at least stimulating to read and apply for. It&#x27;s proof of invention, which I still think is pretty cool and useful.

Those shoes were actually great: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;patents.google.com&#x2F;patent&#x2F;US5588227" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;patents.google.com&#x2F;patent&#x2F;US5588227</a>

Finally, after years of stifling innovation, the power actuated toilet seat is public domain.

This is a great idea! There are undoubtedly many great solutions to be found through here that were either before their time, or simply ignored after filing.<p>Great work!

This is a great way to find ideas that have all their obvious improvements covered by newer patents, and get sued anyway.

Is there an analogous service for copyrighted works? &quot;Explore books whose copyright expires today&quot;?

I can&#x27;t believe that this was a patent [1]. Surgical gown? Really? In 1995? A suit with a ventilator? [1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;patents.google.com&#x2F;patent&#x2F;US5588153" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;patents.google.com&#x2F;patent&#x2F;US5588153</a>

An expired patent is of public domain or it is just free to be patented again by another person?

I was randomly clicking and found this one: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;patents.google.com&#x2F;patent&#x2F;US5588162" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;patents.google.com&#x2F;patent&#x2F;US5588162</a><p>The Legal events at the bottom says it expired in 2001. Seems strange?

I had thought of doing something like this. I thought it would be great to have countdowns for popular patents such as the one Apple uses for MagSafe, as these would mark dates of &quot;freedom&quot; that would benefit the consumer.

Now I can safely launch my &quot;decorative stone encrusted zipper teeth&quot; [1] startup!<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;patents.google.com&#x2F;patent&#x2F;US5588185" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;patents.google.com&#x2F;patent&#x2F;US5588185</a>

I like this one - backpack vacuum cleaner. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;patents.google.com&#x2F;patent&#x2F;US5588177" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;patents.google.com&#x2F;patent&#x2F;US5588177</a>

Does anyone think there are viable&#x2F;profitable business ideas in there? If the original inventors didn&#x27;t bother to build something out of it, I wonder if it&#x27;s because the patents themselves are &quot;good thought experiments&quot; or if the inventors lacked the business wherewithal to make it happen.

This IBM patent is practical and viable: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;patents.google.com&#x2F;patent&#x2F;US5588199" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;patents.google.com&#x2F;patent&#x2F;US5588199</a>

You get interesting things when you type Linux[0].<p>[0] - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;patents.google.com&#x2F;?q=linux" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;patents.google.com&#x2F;?q=linux</a>

I&#x27;m so curious, what&#x27;s your lead source&#x2F; is there a USPTO API feed that you&#x27;re parsing?

Is it just me (it&#x27;s not) or are 80% of these fairly trivial?<p>Patents don&#x27;t make sense when you think about it.

I thought all domain names with the word &quot;sex&quot; in them were already taken.

Time for some word2vec to explore them without having to crawl through them manually

Good idea - perhaps you should patent it!