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Expired Patent Project

Somewhere in the eleven million patents the U.S. Patent Office has issued is a pair of glasses for a chicken. It was granted in 1903, it has belonged to the public since 1920, and nobody has built one in a very long time. Your job is to pick an invention like it, build it in Fusion, and present it to the class the way its inventor never got to.

Overview

The Fusion video tutorial series taught you the tools. This project is the first time you'll use them without a recipe. You'll choose an expired patent, read it the way an engineer reads a specification, plan your model before you touch the mouse, build it in Fusion, and give a three-minute presentation covering the patent's history and how you built it. The model matters; so does the timeline behind it.

Builds on: Learn Fusion Tutorials — sketching and constraints, extrude, revolve, sweep, loft, patterns, shell, fillet, and the parametric timeline.

Before you start

Sign in to Autodesk Fusion and open your notebook. You'll be writing in the notebook before you open Fusion, so keep both handy.

You've got it when…

  • Every element named in your patent's claim 1 is present in your model, in the proportions shown in the patent drawings.
  • Your timeline tells the story: sketches are dimensioned rather than eyeballed, and the features are in an order that makes sense when played back.
  • Your notebook holds the patent number, its filing, grant, and expiration dates, and the modeling plan you wrote before you started.
  • You've presented the patent's history and your build to the class in three minutes, timeline reveal included.

Collaboration & AI

Work: On your own. Talk through your plan with a neighbor, but drive Fusion yourself.

AI — two levels for two parts of this lab. For the research (finding an expired patent, understanding what a claim says), this is AIAS Level 2, AI Planning: you may use AI to explore and explain, and the decisions are yours. For the modeling, this is AIAS Level 1, No AI: the timeline is your own work. What the levels mean.

Pacing

This project runs five class periods. Use the schedule to check whether you're on track; it's a plan, not a stopwatch.

Day Where you should be by the end of it
1 Patent chosen, dates recorded, claim 1 read, modeling plan in your notebook. Fusion open and your file named.
2 The main body of the invention modeled.
3 Every claim 1 element present. Timeline cleaned up.
4 Finishing touches, challenges if you have time, presentation prepared.
5 Presentations.

How a Patent Works

A patent is a deal with the government: you publish exactly how your invention works, and in return nobody else may make or sell it for a limited time. When that time runs out, the invention enters the public domain, meaning anyone may build it, including you. Every patent on the menu below has expired, so you're free to make them.

A patent document has three parts you'll use:

  • Drawings. Numbered figures showing the invention from several views. Each part has a number that matches the description. There are no dimensions; proportions are on you.
  • Description. A plain-language walkthrough of the drawings. This is where you'll learn what part 14 actually does.
  • Claims. The numbered legal sentences at the end that define exactly what is protected. Claim 1 is usually the broadest, and it's the one that lists the essential parts. If a part is named in claim 1, the invention isn't that invention without it.

A patent can end two ways. It can reach the end of its full term (17 years from the grant for older patents; 20 years from filing for anything filed after 1995), or its owner can stop paying the maintenance fees that keep it alive, after which it is marked "expired, fee related." Three of the six on the menu died early for the second reason. That's part of the history you'll present.

What 'implements' means here

Your model implements a patent when every element named in claim 1 appears in your model, arranged the way the drawings show. A banana case with no hinge is a banana-shaped box, not the banana protective device. Read the claim, list the elements, and check them off as you build.

The Patent Menu

Pick one of these, or propose your own (see step 2). Each link opens the patent on Google Patents, where you'll find the drawings, description, claims, and the dates you need.

Patent Invention Inventor Granted How it ended Modeling notes
US730918 Eye-protector for chickens Andrew Jackson, Jr. 1903 Full term, expired 1920 Two round frames and a band. Thin parts and a curved band; good practice with sketch planes.
US2602996 Revolving spaghetti fork Philippe Piche 1952 Full term, expired 1969 A handle, a shaft, tines, and a thumb wheel. Revolve and pattern are your friends.
US3299891 Hypodermic syringes pleasing to children Robert L. Smeton 1967 Full term, expired 1984 A barrel shaped like an animal, with a cavity for a swab. Mostly cylinders until the animal, then sculpting or careful lofts.
US4605000 Greenhouse helmet Waldemar Anguita 1986 Fees unpaid, lapsed 1994 A dome, a collar, filters, and plant holders. Shell is the main event.
US4986433 Crispy cereal serving piece Alton A. Davis 1991 Fees unpaid, lapsed 1995 Two bowls joined by an angled chute. Revolve, then a lofted or extruded chute; the angle is the challenge.
US6612440 Banana protective device David B. Agulnik 2003 Fees unpaid, lapsed 2021 Two hinged, U-shaped covers with padding and vent holes. Shell, mirror, and a pattern of holes.

Difficulty is your choice

None of these is the easy one. The chicken glasses look simple until the band has to curve; the syringe is simple until the barrel has to look like a rabbit. Pick the one you'll enjoy staring at for three days.

Select a Patent and Plan the Build

Modeling without a plan is how you end up rebuilding on day three. This section is notebook work; Fusion stays closed until step 6.

  1. Choose a patent from the menu, or find your own on Google Patents. If you search on your own, add "expired" to the search or check the Legal status line on the patent's page; it must read Expired.

  2. If your patent isn't on the menu, get it approved before you continue. Show me the Google Patents page and be ready to point at the legal status and claim 1.

    Off-menu patents need three things

    An expired status, drawings clear enough to model from, and claim 1 short enough to finish in three days. A twelve-element claim is a three-week project.

  3. Start a notebook entry for this project. Copy the table below into it and fill in the right-hand column. Google Patents lists the dates in the sidebar and the status under Legal status.

    Patent record
    Patent number and link
    Invention
    Inventor
    Filing date
    Grant date
    Expiration date
    How it expired (full term or maintenance fees)

  4. Read claim 1 and the description of the drawings. Below the patent record, list every element claim 1 names, with the figure number where each one is shown. This list is your checklist for the rest of the project, so a table you can add a checkmark to works well.

    Element (from claim 1) Shown in Done

    Claims are one long sentence on purpose

    Claim 1 is written as a single sentence with a lot of "said" and "wherein" in it. Read it once for the shape, then once more to pull out the nouns: "a first cover member," "a hinge," "a pad." The nouns are your parts. AI is allowed for this step if the legal phrasing won't hold still.

  5. Write your modeling plan below the element list: the real-world size you'll build to (a chicken's head is about 60 mm wide; a banana is about 200 mm long), which element you'll model first, and the Fusion tool you expect to use for each element. A few sentences is enough. The plan will be wrong in places. Write it anyway; the point is to be wrong on paper instead of in the timeline.

Model It

You have the tools. This section is a set of checkpoints, not a recipe.

  1. Create a new Part Design, confirm the units are millimeters, and save it right away as Patent <number> - <short name> in the Fusion Labs project. For example, Patent 730918 - Chicken Glasses.

  2. Bring the patent drawing into Fusion as a reference. Save the clearest figure from Google Patents as an image, then use Insert ▸ Canvas, choose the image, and click the plane the figure should sit on. A canvas is a picture placed on a plane so you can sketch on top of it, like tracing paper.

    Calibrate the canvas

    Right-click the canvas in the Browser and choose Calibrate. Click two points on the drawing that you know the real distance between (the width of the chicken's head, the length of the banana), type that distance, and the picture scales itself to your model.

  3. Model the main body first, the element everything else attaches to. Sketch on the canvas, dimension what you sketch, and extrude, revolve, or loft it into a body.

    Dimension it or it will drift

    A sketch with blue lines is unconstrained; Fusion will let it move the moment you nudge something. Press D and lock every size that matters. Black lines stay put.

  4. Work through your element list from step 4, one element at a time, and check each one off in your notebook as it appears in the model. Use the drawing's proportions, not your memory of what a banana looks like.

  5. Name things as you go. Right-click a sketch or body in the Browser and choose Rename so the Browser reads "hinge" and "cover" instead of "Sketch7" and "Body3". Right-click a feature in the timeline for the same option.

    Why the names matter

    On day five you'll play your timeline for the class. A timeline full of "Extrude12" is a mystery; a timeline that reads band, left frame, right frame, mirror is a story. Renaming takes five seconds per feature. Untangling a mystery timeline takes a class period.

  6. Save at the end of every work day, and any time you finish an element you'd hate to redo. Fusion keeps every save as a version, so saving often costs nothing.

  7. At the end of day three, drag the timeline marker to the far left, then play it forward with the Play button at the bottom of the window. Watch for features that appear out of order or fix something an earlier feature should have gotten right. Fix what you find by editing the earlier feature (double-click it in the timeline) instead of patching it at the end.

Checkpoint

Every element from claim 1 is in the model, the Browser reads like a parts list, and the timeline plays back in an order you could explain. That's the project. What follows is extra.

Go Further

Try these on your own once your model implements the claim. They're worth doing in this order.

  • Give it a material. Press A (or Modify ▸ Appearance) and drag an appearance, such as stainless steel or yellow plastic, onto each body. Then switch to the Render workspace and produce a photorealistic render of your model. Kevin Kennedy walks through the whole thing in this video. Paste the render into your notebook; it's the best slide you'll have.
  • Draw it like the patent did. Switch to the Drawing workspace (From Design) and produce a drawing sheet with front, top, and right views plus an isometric, each with dimensions. Patent drawings are numbered parts and no dimensions; yours will be the reverse, and it's the document a machine shop would actually want. Export it as a PDF and add it to your notebook.
  • Model the improvement. Every patent invites a "what if." Add one element the inventor didn't think of (a vent, a grip, a hinge stop) as its own feature at the end of the timeline, so you can toggle it off for the faithful version and on for yours.

Present It

Three minutes, no more. Presentations begin on day five, in the order I draw from a hat, so be ready at the bell.

  1. Prepare a short presentation that covers the four items in the table below. Slides are welcome but optional; Fusion on the screen and your notebook open is enough.

    Part What to cover About
    The invention What it is and what problem it solved, in your words 30 seconds
    The history Inventor, filing date, grant date, and how and when it expired (full term or fees) 30 seconds
    The timeline reveal Drag the timeline marker to the start and play it forward while you narrate the order you built in and why 1 minute
    The tools The two or three Fusion tools that did the most work, and the one that gave you the most trouble 1 minute

  2. Practice the timeline reveal once before you present. Set the view to an angle that shows the whole model, drag the marker to the left, and make sure playback runs without a red error flag. If a feature errors during playback, that's a day-four fix, not a day-five surprise.

    Narrate the decisions, not the clicks

    "Then I extruded" tells the class nothing. "I built the band first so the frames had something to attach to" is engineering. Explain why the order is the order.

  3. Present. Answer one question from the class if there is one.

Turn It In

  • Your design saved as Patent <number> - <short name> in the Fusion Labs project. It's on Autodesk's cloud, so saving is submitting.
  • Your notebook entry: patent number and link, inventor, the filing, grant, and expiration dates with how it expired, your claim 1 element list, your modeling plan (written before you started, warts and all), and a screenshot of the finished model. Add the render or drawing sheet if you did the challenges.
  • Your three-minute presentation, given in class on day five.

How It's Graded

This lab is worth up to 4 points. One score covers everything you turn in.

Score What it looks like
4 — Excellent Every claim 1 element is in the model in the drawings' proportions; the sketches are dimensioned and the Browser and timeline are named so the build plays back as a story; the notebook holds the dates, the element list, and a plan written before modeling; the presentation covers all four parts, including how the patent expired, in three minutes.
3 — Above Average The model implements the claim and the presentation covers its four parts, with minor slips: an unnamed feature or two, a proportion that drifted from the drawing, or a presentation that ran long.
2 — Average The model resembles the invention but is missing a claim 1 element, or the notebook is missing the plan or the dates, or the presentation skipped the timeline reveal. The row that catches people who opened Fusion before opening the patent.
1 — Below Average A partial model with little evidence of the claim being read, or a presentation with no model to show.
0 — Failing Nothing saved to the Fusion Labs project, or no presentation given.

Credit: Rendering and appearance challenge based on Day 28 of Learn Fusion 360 in 30 Days (2024 Edition) by Kevin Kennedy, Product Design Online. Patent documents courtesy of Google Patents and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.