I have recently finished watching season three of Clarkson's Farm on Amazon Prime Video. In it there was a section that got my attention as a patent attorney. This is of course the "Clarkson's Ring". The manufacturer commented that they patented it. However, similar concepts are already known both for pig farming and for other animals - thinking here of whelping or farrowing crates, or fenders. Could even a villager farm in Minecraft be considered something similar? They often have barriers whereby baby villagers can pass but the adult villagers cannot!
The prior products - known in the patent world as "prior art" - thus may beg the question from many of you as to how it can be patented, if its functionality is not new as a concept.
The simple answer here is that the specifics of the Clarkson's Ring will likely be different to the specifics of the previous commercial products, and it would be those differences that might be able to be patented, if both novel and non-obvious (i.e. inventive).
The product concerned is a raised steel ring inside a farrowing pod that is designed to prevent the mother pig from rolling onto her piglets, or at least to give the piglets room to escape! The farrowing pods used by Jeremy Clarkson on his farm are believed to be Aardvark XL farrowing arks from Con-tented Products - a company owned by Techneat Engineering Ltd based in Cambrigeshire, and the ring fits inside the pod, to create a barrier that define an inner circle for the mother and an outer circle for the piglets to run around her.
John Harvey Engineering has also developed fenders to protect piglets, albeit it seems for fitting outside the pod. These utilise an overhang to create a running space for the piglets, rather than a separate ring. Could it be this different configuration, perhaps along with its easy to assemble structure, that the new patent application for Clarkson's Ring will encompass? Until it publishes, we simply cannot know.
I should just add that it is important to distinguish between a patent and a patent application. This "patent" for the raised steel ring is currently only a "patent application", and thus "patent pending". It will remain a patent application until it is granted by the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office. Applicants should be careful in this respect as there are potentially serious consequences for misrepresenting your product as being patented when it isn't, and as all followers of the show will know, Jeremy Clarkson already has enough issues to deal with!
I would certainly recommend this show for anyone interested in farming or the countryside. The insights it gives about the problems and obstacles that farmers face are eye-opening and accurate, and it is certainly not a prerequisite for you to be a Top Gear or Grand Tour viewer. If nothing else, it will show off some of the amazing pieces of technology that farmers get to use, alongside the heartbreak and reality of livestock and arable farming, but mostly it is a fun few hours of viewing.
Have you got a new product development? Marks & Clerk would love to hear from you to see if we can help you get a patent, a registered design or a trademark for it. As with many products that seek patent protection, it can be relatively small changes between similarly functioning products that can allow new developments within any given sector to be patented, and we are ready to guide you through the process.
"I've got a new idea – pigs," Jeremy announces in the trailer, which goes onto highlight that, inevitably, the new venture did not turn out to be as straightforward as he hoped, along with virtually everything else on the farm.
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