Million Dollar Novelty

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Are you someone who likes to be creative with your interior design projects? Well, something that you may have never considered using beyond the bathroom are shower curtain rods for your decorating ideas. You can use the same rods that keep your bathroom dry during a shower to create beautiful decorative poles all over the house.

Even though you can buy a rod for a couple of bucks, or maybe even a buck at the dollar store doesn't mean that they can't look like a million bucks when used creatively. How great is it that a college student with no cash can still create a fabulous look in the dorm on the cheap, as well as be able to impress his or her classmates.

If you're looking to hide a not-so-pretty wall or closet space in the bedroom, then look no further than the shower curtain rod as your savior. The best bet would likely be the pressure style rod, which you just twist out to the size you need and it will be easily held in place by the pressure. Just be careful with the weight of the drapery that you use with this style, as it usually doesn't hold a lot of weight. For example velvet would not work without a rod that screws into the wall.

In the bedroom there's another idea to consider beyond closets. How about a nice soft headboard or canopy over the bed? Simply suspend a couple of rods from the ceiling and hang across and down a nice sheer fabric with a simple little dip in the center. As for the headboard, you could, just let some fabric hang down at the head of the bed to cover the headboard.

If you have a pantry in the kitchen that you'd rather not be seen at all times then using a shower curtain rod and some kitchen type fabric will work wonders here. If you have the classic kitchen style café curtains then you can easily coordinate the materials as well.

Do you have a sunroom that's not properly vented and just gets too hot?

If you get a pressure type rod and at both ends of the overhead window slip through a fabric that's been stitched to have a pocket, you can then pull the fabric taught or leave it loose if you like, but either way you now have a fabric there that's going to dimmed the sunlight as it makes it way into your sunroom from the outside. Now the room's temperature can be much more easily controlled.

Bathroom remodeling doesn't have to be a boring old mundane project anymore. You can now purchase an "s" shaped rod that will give you old claw footed tub a way to have a shower head and spray nozzle. If you want to go even a little more out of the ordinary then using a suspended rod that hangs from the ceiling by chains is a great option for you. You can have some extra fun by using different materials for hanging the shower curtain itself, rather than the plain old store bought plastic rings that you usually see.

If you use your imagination and continue to be creative you can no doubt think of endless ideas for using shower curtains in your home.

Being very excited about bathroom remodeling, John C. Baker has been authoring various web pages on the topic. You might find out more about his publications on shower curtain rods over at http://www.curtains-drapes-coverings.com/shower-curtain-rods.html and various other sources for shower curtain rods tips.

Robert Kearns

Early career

Kearns was born in Gary, Indiana. He grew up near the large Ford plant in River Rouge, Michigan, a city south of Detroit. His father worked for the Great Lakes Steel Corporation.

He excelled in cross-country foot racing during high school, was a talented violinist, and became a teenage intelligence officer when he served in the armed services. Kearns was a member of the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the U.S. CIA, during World War II.

He earned engineering degrees from University of Detroit and Wayne State University and a doctorate from Case Institute of Technology, a predecessor of Case Western Reserve University.

Intermittent wipers

It is reported that the inspiration for his invention stems from an incident on Kearns' wedding night in 1953, when an errant champagne cork shot into his left eye, which eventually went almost completely blind. Nearly a decade later, in 1963, Kearns was driving his Ford Galaxie through a light rain, and the constant movement of the wiper blades irritated his already troubled vision. He modeled his mechanism on the human eye, which blinks every few seconds, rather than continuously. Kearns later downplayed his courtroom story of the inspiration and played up a more conscious, deliberate inventive process.

Legal case

He sued Ford Motor Company in 1978 and Chrysler Corporation in 1982 for patent infringement. The Ford case went to trial in 1990, and there were two trials. Ford lost, although the court held that Ford's infringement was not willful (meaning that damages for infringement would not be enhanced). Ford agreed to settle with Kearns for US$ 10.1 million with an agreement of no further appeals.

After the settlement with Ford, Kearns mostly acted as his own attorney in the subsequent suit against Chrysler, even questioning witnesses on the stand. The Chrysler verdict was decided in 1992, and was a victory for Kearns. Chrysler was ordered to pay Kearns US$ 18.7 million with interest. Chrysler appealed the court decision, but the Federal Circuit let the judgment stand. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case. By 1995, after spending over US$ 10 million in legal fees, Kearns received approximately US$ 30 million in compensation for Chrysler's patent infringement.

Chrysler was represented by Harness Dickey and Pierce, one of the first firms Kearns went to when he contemplated suing Ford in the late 1970s. Indeed, according to his son Dennis Kearns, Kearns wanted Harness Dickey removed for conflict of interest, but was unable to convince his attorneys to make a motion to remove Harness Dickey. He then decided to manage the Chrysler litigation on his own with his family. However, this strategy did not seem to work out well in subsequent litigation against GM and Mercedes as these firms were able to make the litigation so difficult that Kearns's claims were basically dismissed in the district court.[citation needed]

Late career

In the late 1990s, he served on the board of directors of the Veterans of the Office of Strategic Services and the General William J. Donovan Memorial Fund.

Death

On February 9, 2005, Kearns died of brain cancer complicated by Alzheimer's disease in Baltimore, Maryland. The story of his invention and the lawsuit against Ford forms the basis of the 2008 film, Flash of Genius. Robert Kearns and his wife Phyllis were divorced. They had two daughters, four sons, and, at the time of his death, seven grandchildren.

Auto industry's legal argument against the validity of the Kearns patent

The legal argument that the auto industry posed in defense was that an invention is supposed to meet certain standards of originality and novelty. One of these is that it be "non-obvious." Ford had claimed that the patent was invalid because Kearns' intermittent windshield wiper system had no new components. Dr. Kearns noted correctly that his invention was a novel and non-obvious combination of parts. Kearns' position found unequivocal support in precedent from the U.S. Court of Appeals and from the Supreme Court of the United States. See, e.g., Reiner v. I. Leon Co., 285 F.2d 501, 503 (2d Cir. 1960) (t is idle to say that combinations of old elements cannot be inventions; substantially every invention is for such a ombination: that is to say, it consists of former elements in a new assemblage.) (Hand., J.) (cited with approval in KSR Int'l Co. v. Teleflex, Inc., 550 U.S. 398 (2007)).

Other inventors in similar patent disputes

There are many other inventors who have fought long battles to enforce their patents as Dr. Kearns did. These included Edwin Howard Armstrong, who battled over the invention of frequency modulation in radio broadcasting; Walter C. Avrea, who eventually won multi-million-dollar lawsuits against Ford and GM for their unauthorized use of a coolant recovery system he invented in 1970, and which was needed to prevent overheating of Pinto and Vega aluminum-block engines; Philo Farnsworth, the "father of television", inventor of the first all electronic television set battled RCA, and Gordon Gould, who had a thirty-year fight with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to obtain patents for the laser and related technologies and who fought with laser manufacturers in court battles to enforce the patents he subsequently did obtain.

Perhaps most notably and egregiously in terms of lasting misconceptions and inaccurate history books to this day  Nikola Tesla died just months before the US Supreme Court upheld his basic radio patent issued in 1900: effectively recognizing Tesla as the true inventor of radio, the decision overturned the US Patent Office's sudden reversal in 1904 granting Guglielmo Marconi the patent despite repeated rejections over several years, which in turn led directly to the questionable award of the Nobel Prize in Physics to Marconi in 1909.

Patents

United States Patent 3,351,836, Robert W. Kearns, Filing date: Dec 1, 1964, Issue date: Nov 1967, Windshield Wiper System with Intermittent Operation

United States Patent 3,602,790, Robert W. Kearns, Filing date: October 18, 1967, Issue date: August 31, 1971. . Intermittent Windshield Wiper System.

United States Patent 4,544,870, Robert W. Kearns, Timothy B. Kearns, Filing date: Sep 7, 1982, Issue date: Oct 1, 1985, Intermittent windshield wiper control system with improved motor speed

Lawsuits and legal references

Kearns v. Ford Motor Co., 203, U.S.P.Q. 884, 888 (E.D.Mich. 1978)

Kearns v. Chrysler Corp., 32 F.3d 1541 (Fed. Cir. 1994)

Kearns v. General Motors Corp., 152 F.3d 945 (Fed. Cir. 1998) (unpublished decision).

(More lawsuits of Dr. Kearns)

Notes

^ In Memoriam to Robert W. Kearns, OSS Society Newsletter, Spring 2005, p.13: "Robert W. Kearns, 77, died in Baltimore on Feb. 9, 2005. He invented the adjustable windshield wiper for automobiles. During World War II he served with OSS."

^ Schudel, Max, "Accomplished, Frustrated Inventor Dies", Washington Post, Saturday, February 26, 2005, Page B01: "Earlier in life, Kearns had been a high school cross-country star, an outstanding violinist and a teenage intelligence officer in World War II. But from 1976, his sole focus in life was to battle the auto giants and reclaim his invention."

^ Robert W. Kearns entry at NameBase

^ a b "Robert Kearns, Inventor of Intermittent Windshield Wipers and Battled Car Companies, Dies at 77" AP News, February 25, 2005

^ Wohleber, Curt, The Windshield Wiper : Nonstop ones made drivers crazy. Inventing a solution did the same to Robert Kearns", American Heritage Invention and Technology, Summer 2007, Volume 23, Issue 1

^ Johnson, Reed, Robert Kearns' flawed 'Genius' , AP / Los Angeles Times, October 3, 2008. Quoting the article about the cork and eye blinking inspiration: "When I asked him about that charming anecdote 15 years ago, Kearns quickly dismissed it as baloney".

^ a b Associated Press, Robert Kearns, 77, Inventor of Intermittent Wipers, Dies, New York Times obituary, February 26, 2005

^ Kearns v. Chrysler Corp., 32 F.3d 1541 (Fed. Cir. 1994).

^ 514 U.S. 1032.

^ Ronspies, Jeff A., "Does David Need a New Sling? Small Entities Face a Costly Barrier to Patent Protection", 4 J. MARSHALL REV. INTELL. PROP. L. 184 (2004), The John Marshall Law School, Chicago. Cf. p.196.

^ Bob Kearns' Biography page

^ Burk, Dan L., and Lemley, Mark A., "Policy Levers in Patent Law", Virginia Law Review, Vol. 89, No. 7 (Nov., 2003), pp. 1575-1696. Cf. p.1590-1591 and note 42.

^ Merges, Robert P., "A Transactional View of Property Rights", Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, University of California, Berkeley, Year 2005 Paper 8. Cf. p.17 and note 37.

References

Seabrook, John, "The Flash of Genius: Bob Kearns and his patented windshield wiper have been winning millions of dollars in settlements from the auto industry, and forcing the issue of who owns an idea", The New Yorker, January 11, 1993

Seabrook, John, Flash of Genius And Other True Stories of Invention, St. Martin's Griffin, September 2008. ISBN 0-312-53572-4

Further reading

Andrews, Edmund L., "Patents : Are Disputes Too Complex For Juries?", The New York Times, May 12, 1990. About Dr. Kearns' case.

Schudel, Matt, "Accomplished, Frustrated Inventor Dies", Washington Post, Saturday, February 26, 2005; Page B01. Dr. Kearns' Obituary.

External links

Robert Kearns movie called Flash of Genius (2008)

Robert Kearns at Find a Grave

An Obsession With Justice and Auto Parts

Persondata

NAME

Kearns, Robert

ALTERNATIVE NAMES

Kearns, Robert William

SHORT DESCRIPTION

Inventor

DATE OF BIRTH

March 10, 1927

PLACE OF BIRTH

Gary, Indiana

DATE OF DEATH

February 9, 2005

PLACE OF DEATH

Baltimore, Maryland

Categories: American inventors | Cancer deaths in Maryland | Case Western Reserve University alumni | Deaths from Alzheimer's disease | Deaths from brain cancer | Discovery and invention controversies | People from Detroit, Michigan | People from Gary, Indiana | University of Detroit Mercy alumni | Wayne State University alumni | 1927 births | 2005 deathsHidden categories: Articles with hCards | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements from September 2009
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