How the Pancake Wheel Products Came To Be.
By Rick Shapiro, Pancake Wheel Products Inventor
The idea for a “pancake thin” wagon first popped into my head during a summer day while at Virginia Beach. I thought about locals carting their big, bulky, overstuffed wagons or carts on and off the beach to their vans or SUVs. Because my family didn't have a van or SUV, carrying such a large contraption was out of the question for us. I started to daydream about a folding wagon or cart, one that would fold up flat to fit in even a small car trunk. They say that necessity is the mother of invention.
Since I work full time as a plaintiff's personal injury attorney, designing such a device wasn't really part of my “day job.” However, during law school, I had worked as a patent searcher for a prominent patent law firm in Arlington, Virginia. My job was to search the U.S. patent office library and report on the patent-ability of client inventions. The job was at times fascinating, at times very boring, but along the way, I learned a few things. I had done patent searches for big companies, where their mission was to search the "state of the art" for all patents covering one area and then improve upon it.
My goal was to create a new method to make the thinnest wagons and carts. I studied hand trucks, wagons, and anything else that folded. I looked at ideas everywhere. I built mock-ups in my garage out of cardboard, wood, and foam insulation. My "eureka" moment soon evolved into months, and years, of design drawings and a dedication to refining the designs into working concepts and ultimately prototypes.
Pancake Wheel was formed to design and license the various technologies which are evolving from the unique pivoting wheel axle. We are now actively involved in both marketing and licensing these unique Pancake Wheel designs to manufacturer/distributors in the USA and around the world. The U.S. Patent Office granted my first pivoting wheel axle technology patent in April, 2001, and now over 14 other U.S. and International patents have been granted and are pending for adaptations of the pivoting wheel to other products.
My background as a personal injury attorney really has informed my inventions, as I’ve endeavored to design these safe, sturdy, fold flat products. I think there are probably very few personal injury victim’s lawyers in the United States who also are inventors. As both an inventor and an attorney, I actively practice with a Virginia Beach law firm where I am a partner and serve as editor of a Virginia Beach personal injury law blog on the Injury board network.
As you will see on our products page, we have also been focusing on applying the pancake "fold flat" technology to the world's thinnest folding kid's fun cars, jogging strollers, tricycles, bike trailed carriers and other similar wheeled products.
The idea for a “pancake thin” wagon first popped into my head during a summer day while at Virginia Beach. I thought about locals carting their big, bulky, overstuffed wagons or carts on and off the beach to their vans or SUVs. Because my family didn't have a van or SUV, carrying such a large contraption was out of the question for us. I started to daydream about a folding wagon or cart, one that would fold up flat to fit in even a small car trunk. They say that necessity is the mother of invention.
Since I work full time as a plaintiff's personal injury attorney, designing such a device wasn't really part of my “day job.” However, during law school, I had worked as a patent searcher for a prominent patent law firm in Arlington, Virginia. My job was to search the U.S. patent office library and report on the patent-ability of client inventions. The job was at times fascinating, at times very boring, but along the way, I learned a few things. I had done patent searches for big companies, where their mission was to search the "state of the art" for all patents covering one area and then improve upon it.
My goal was to create a new method to make the thinnest wagons and carts. I studied hand trucks, wagons, and anything else that folded. I looked at ideas everywhere. I built mock-ups in my garage out of cardboard, wood, and foam insulation. My "eureka" moment soon evolved into months, and years, of design drawings and a dedication to refining the designs into working concepts and ultimately prototypes.
Pancake Wheel was formed to design and license the various technologies which are evolving from the unique pivoting wheel axle. We are now actively involved in both marketing and licensing these unique Pancake Wheel designs to manufacturer/distributors in the USA and around the world. The U.S. Patent Office granted my first pivoting wheel axle technology patent in April, 2001, and now over 14 other U.S. and International patents have been granted and are pending for adaptations of the pivoting wheel to other products.
My background as a personal injury attorney really has informed my inventions, as I’ve endeavored to design these safe, sturdy, fold flat products. I think there are probably very few personal injury victim’s lawyers in the United States who also are inventors. As both an inventor and an attorney, I actively practice with a Virginia Beach law firm where I am a partner and serve as editor of a Virginia Beach personal injury law blog on the Injury board network.
As you will see on our products page, we have also been focusing on applying the pancake "fold flat" technology to the world's thinnest folding kid's fun cars, jogging strollers, tricycles, bike trailed carriers and other similar wheeled products.