Patents

[Timo04]

Hi all,

I have heard somewhere that the Montecarlo/Scorpion has over 20 original (US?) patents. Is this correct? Also where can I get a list of these patents? Thanks in advance.

[Frezer]

There are two that I know of: regarding the trim-less windscreen and one regarding the spider folding roof. I haven't got any more info, but these two are mentioned in several books.

Cheers,
Merijn

[Timo04]

Hi Merijn,

Thanks for this info. Yes these two patents, the trim-less windscreen (glued in windscreen) and the folding top on the Spider are the only two that I know of...I will research and see about the other supposed 18 or so original patents. Thanks again and happy motoring!

[Brad]

I search patents regularly for work. Here is the US Patent office web site. http://www.uspto.gov/ (http://www.uspto.gov/) I ran a quick search on Pininfarina and only found one relating to the Scorpion/Montecarlo which was the one regarding the Sunroof.
http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/4663/sunroofpatentat2.jpg

[John Allen]

It is my understanding that the horizontal gauge movements are also patented.

Ever notice that some of the gauges reads 'backwards' from what you'd expect? I think the 'original idea' is that you should be able to glance quickly at the dash and see if all of the needles are 'in line' vertically and that one direction from center is considered "bad" (low fuel, low oil pressure, high temp) while the other direction is considered "OK" (full fuel, high oil pressure, low temp).

As stated earlier, the folding top and trimless windshield are two more...

-John Allen
(2 patents of his own)

[Will]

Ha, I tried the online search at the patent office when this posted and got zip- couple of unrelated FIAT- Alfa patents, I figured since the online search only went back to '76 I was looking too "late".

Interestingly, that's not even how our sunroofs work! (look at the picture!)

What are yours, John? Just curious.

[John Allen]

My 2 patents are from a life long ago..... when I worked for a high end office furniture company...

one is for an office panel partition connector that allows assembly of the panels without tools, and the other is a design of a lateral file interlock system that prevents 2 or more drawers from opening at the same time (a requirement in certain seismic regions).

no, not getting rich off of those! an interesting thing about patents, patents cannot be issued to corpoations - only individuals.

finding any information in that database is nearly impossible.... I would assume the patent was issed to someone in the Pininfarina company and the 'lawyer speak' description would be VERY vague.....

-John Allen