Fountain Pen Patents

Think I finally found how I can contribute to the conversation at fountain pen groups, as well as layout some rationale for my collection strategy. 

Fountain pens are interesting from an IP law perspective because most of the core technological components are outside of patent protection. In a way, it gives you a preview of how technologies can mature and stay on as classics - by becoming fashion or art objects, or by appealing to nostalgia. The technological frontier, however, has more or less plateaued.

Every now and then, though, you'll be pleasantly surprised by something new. For me, one of those moments came with Pilot's invention of the retractable fountain pen in 1964. There was a real efficiency problem (those darn caps - gotta remove them, post them, return them, not lose them in the meantime) that needed to be solved. Sure, retractable pens existed before, but the retraction mechanism alone couldn't solve that efficiency problem. It isn't enough to retract the nib - because the water-based inks that have the capillary flow fountain pens rely on would dry out. So the non-obvious part - the real inventive step - was the mechanism that closes to create that airtight chamber once the nib is retracted: 

So that's why the Vanishing Point will always have a place in my collection -  it's one of the rare technical/design innovations in a field that has reached its technological apex. Now, for the next phase - I think TWBI's are a cost-effective way of getting pens that use off-patent technology, such as the the plunger type filling mechanism (VAC 700 and Mini) and the telescoping screw piston (Diamond and ECO).