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By Amanda Foley
This coming Thursday, June 3 2021, is World Bicycle Day, so get your bikes out, abandon your cars, and experience your local area from the cycle path for a change. Take the opportunity to enjoy your surroundings and appreciate the simple pleasure and convenience that is your bicycle.
And give thanks for the more than 200 years of innovation, and the Intellectual Property, behind the bicycle, one of the most important inventions in history, driving social mobility, fashion, and even, arguably, women’s liberation, to name just a few advances!
But surely, after 200+ years, there isn’t much room for improvement left?
The ancestor of today’s bicycle , the velocipede, invented in 1817 and patented in France in 1818 by Baron Karl von Drais, was intended as an aid to running. It looked similar to the bicycles that we know and love today, although it didn’t include any pedals and was propelled by the riders’ feet.
Subsequent improvements came thick and fast, and resulted in innovations with terrifyingly illustrative names like ‘the boneshaker’. Pedals were added in the 1850s and patented in the 1860s; high-wheel bikes, like the Penny-farthing, were introduced in the 1870s; and although brakes in some form had been included from the outset, bicycles were considered a dangerous toy for adventurous young men until the 1880s.
The development of the safety bicycle in that decade shifted this perception to the extent that bicycles were seen as an everyday transportation device for all. The invention of the pneumatic bicycle tyre by John Dunlop in 1888 made the ride a more comfortable one, and the folding bicycle patented by Isaac R. Johnson included the diamond-shaped frame that we still use today.
Innovations over the course of the last century have included the various developments to gear mechanisms (including electronic gears), clipless pedals, carbon fibre frames, and improved braking systems. Add to that the various developments in other areas (protective helmets, tyre repair kits, compact, LED lights and cycling computers) and it seems that all that is left is for someone to design a bicycle that rides itself.
Oh, wait… Uber and MIT have both been working on these, although the Google demo of its own ‘self driving’ bike on YouTube is dated April 1 2016, so possibly not real?
Today, riding a bike without stabilisers is probably the second truly challenging physical activity we experience, after learning to walk. It’s definitely one that most of us will remember, and some of us still bear the scars of.
Cycling was our first taste of freedom, a rite of passage, and a step toward mobility and independence.
On a social level, the bicycle transformed our world, the 19th century equivalent of the mobile phone. It changed the clothes we wore, the art we admired and the people we socialised with. It offered the working and middle classes the chance to move around as they pleased, and enabled women to make huge strides in their move toward emancipation.
Even today, not only does it provide entertainment and diversion, but the bicycle continues to offer cheap and reliable transportation that is environmentally sound, as well as a way to get from A to B that helps us stay active, promoting health and well-being.
Significantly, in some countries, the bicycle offers people the only means of transportation that they may ever have access to, and can be a fundamental business tool.
Arguably, coronavirus has given the bicycle the opportunity to be transformative once again. In the post-COVID world, cycling is an alternative to public transport for those concerned with maintaining social distancing.
Even though the various lockdowns resulted in some permanent changes to cycling infrastructures (an extra 600 miles of cycle lanes were created across Europe during 2020), the cynic in me worries that it is more likely that those worried about transmission rates will favour their private cars, which will do nothing for zero carbon and sustainable development targets, or obesity rates.
But the positive impact that the ‘bike boom’ has had since that first lockdown over a year ago is undeniable, and we ought to consider what can be done to ensure that cycling continues to gather new converts.
Consistent focus on building the required infrastructure is unquestionably key, but perhaps attention to keeping the bicycle relevant and appealing is also worth considering.
At Inngot, we have been in the happy position of working with several innovators to profile and value the IP and intangible assets they have built up relating to bicycles, either through bespoke IP audit and tech evaluation work or using our online IP identification and valuation tools.
Research suggests that innovations typically under consideration today are concerned with improving cycling comfort, safety, and sustainability, and include patents for lights, alternative, sustainable tyre materials, alternatives for traditional bike chains, and bicycle seat positioning, to name just a few.
And how about trademarking the catchy names that will make those innovations memorable? Or checking no-one is stealing your copyright images and marketing materials online?
Change and improvement will always be critical to keeping anything relevant and competitive, as will IP and related intangible assets – and why should bicycles be any different?
Imagine the difference that those changes and improvements could have on a global level, not to mention to the value of an innovator’s IP!
Do you have any bicycle-related intellectual property or intangible assets such as trademarks, copyright, non-registered rights, know-how, patents, relationships etc. that could have value?
If you do, then to celebrate World Bicycle Day 2021, we are offering a 15% discount off our online valuation tools (Sollomon and Sollomon2) to bike-related companies who contact us by 5pm on Friday 4th June 2021. Call us on 0333 8008090 or email info@inngot.com quoting WBIKED21 for your discount code.
