Fake Nails, Real IP

I've always enjoyed painting my nails, having fun colors and glitter enhance the ends of my fingers. However, as an adult, I find that this doesn't work well with my habits (gardening) or requirements (cleaning and other grown-up chores). I was beginning to think I was doomed to the semi-permanent dirt manicure and never using my hands for Instagram modeling*, until I started seeing more fake nails. Press-on nails you can apply at home. 

It strikes me sometimes that I am just an adult still playing dress-up, but the accessories are more expensive

Oh yes, in addition to being a fancy shoe person, I am now a press-on nail person.

But imagine my secondary delight at learning how much IP is involved! The trademark aspects should be immediately obvious; any brand worth its salt will almost certainly have pursued at least one registration/indication avenue to protect brands. 

It was the claim to patented technology that captured my attention. What could be patented? How the nails are made? The glue included in the kit? Their special formula to make them last longer? I had to know, and also if there were some brands with more patents that others! 

Heck yeah, IP

Now, one brand makes this too easy. Kiss has a webpage dedicated to their patents. It's unfortunate, because that takes out most of the challenge of learning if they have design or utility patents and what parts of the process they're for--nails, glue, etc. So I'm going to have my fun searching for patents by specifically excluding Kiss.

I quickly found, unsurprisingly, that there would be some struggle differentiating nail as in fingernail from nail as in the thing you hit with a hammer. I tried to control for this by requiring the presence of finger but found that might not be enough. Evidently, we are 3D printing more organs than I thought.  

I worked up to  ((((nail AND finger)OR fingernail) WITH artificial) AND manicure)NOT "Kiss Nail Products" but felt that was a little too specific, with only 92 results returned. (((nails AND finger) OR fingernail)WITH artificial) NOT "Kiss Nail Products" was a little better, with 661 results, yet it still had a lot of random results that were due to the weak relevance rankings and lack of natural language searching in Patent Public Search. 

Seriously, PPUBS? The one time I don't look for contact lenses...

Nonetheless, let's take a look at some recent fake nail technology granted patents in the US!

1.  Incidentally also the first on my results list... US 12,501,984: Artificial nail tip and curing composition set and applying method thereof. This is some higher-level tech, more likely to be found in a salon than at home so I won't likely use it myself. It's for artificial nail "extensions", and the glue and curing procedure for hardening and adhering them. If you want to do more detailed or challenging nail art, this is the kind of fake nail you'd use.
2.  Perhaps my favorite of the batch is US 12,161,211: Soluble 3D printed custom artificial nails designed through a mobile application. An independent inventor owns it, and it would be perfect for me! I could have any nail style created to perfectly fit my nails, all using an app. I can only hope this person implements or has implemented the patent. 
3.  A close second to the above is US 12,411,999: Customized artificial fingernail generation systems. The only reason it ranks lower? No app and it isn't an independent inventor. Otherwise, it is also a method for creating the perfect fake nails! Honestly, I'm excited to have a system make the perfect nail set for me. Maybe it will be this one. 
4. Honorable mention! US 11,327,565: Nail manicure tips for enabling use of a touchscreen device, and method therefore. Evidently these two Texans did not like that they couldn't use their phone while trying to remove nail polish. So while it isn't quite for fake nails, it is related to the decoration (or un-decoration) of nails. I can't say I've ever been so anxious to use my phone that I couldn't manage the wait time to remove nail polish but maybe they're using something different. Who knows; this is just the kind of innovation I like to highlight when teaching people about patents. See a problem? Solve it and own your solution. 

 

Well, now we all know a little more about how to get some press on nails in the future! Hopefully...

 

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