Jan
22
Oprah and Patents: Quick Change
Posted by Keeley Vega at 11:11 pm under Internet, Patent.
How I love it when I can talk about two of my favorite things in one post!
Appearing on Oprah’s How’d They Do That episode, David Maas and his wife, Dania Kaseeva, performed “Quick Change,” a costume-switching act in which they change into several elaborate costumes in just moments. Here they are on America’s Got Talent: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB-wUgnyGv0.
“The pair has been doing their quick-change act for 10 years, performing for such illustrious audiences as the Queen of England. To keep their patented quick-costume-changing techniques top secret, David says they don’t let the costumes out of their sight! ‘We worked on it a long time,’ he says.”
Perhaps someone should have told David about the difference between a patent and a trade secret. And his patent attorney should have notified him that his patent would be published. A simple query (IN/(David and Maas)) on the PTO’s website uncovers the secret behind Quick Change: US Patent 6,308,334.
Claim 1 recites: “A convertible costume construction for stage use for rapidly changing the appearance of a wearer comprising: an outer costume element, and an inner costume element of configuration enabling it to be worn substantially concealed by said outer costume element; said outer costume element including an upper above waist shirt having at least one interconnectible shoulder strap and at least one vertical seam extending from beneath said shoulder strap to a waist portion; and an expandable skirt interconnected to and depending from said waist portion to a lower hem, said lower hem having means for weighting, whereby upper end opening of said shoulder strap and vertical seam, with the expanding of said skirt, said outer costume may fall under gravity, to expose said inner costume element.”