Every week, The Competitive Insight lists the Utah patents and trademarks pursued by Utah businesses.  These filings are insight into the competitive landscape of your peers.  It allows you to see what people are doing well, and what people are doing poorly.  Perhaps it will even give insight into an underserved niche.  I'll be giving recognition to the most interesting ones that come across my desk.  Here's my favorites from this week.

Patent of the Week

7,287,775

Adjustable ski skin attachment device

Ben Walker, Draper, UT; David Narajowski, Heber City, UT; David Mellon, Park City, UT; Thomas Laakso, Park City, UT

Black Diamond Equipment, Ltd., Salt Lake City, UT

Sometimes you come across a patent and think "wow, I could have thought of that."  Of course, everything is more obvious once someone has shown it to you. If the patent is simple, straightforward and is cool technology, chalk one up to competitive advantage.  Black Diamond just got a patent on an easy way to attach a skin to skis and snowboards.  The skin allows the person to climb the snowhill with their equipment attached to their feet.


Trademark of the Week

Pure Life Expeditions LLC

Salt Lake City, UT

I'm not sure I can tell you how much this mark resonates with me.  This mark is full of life and excitement.  In our world of organic fights, back to basic, non-trans fat world, this mark hits a homerun.  Tear it apart.  "Pure" evokes mountain streams, repels bad ingredients and makes one think of the essence of something.  "Life" is something that all of us work-a-holics want to have.  It is the birth, journey and experiences we want.  Expeditions adds the excitement, the unknown, the struggle.  Combined, you have the essence of the excitement of our journey.