Your Hotel Room May Be Protected by Patent

By Barry R. Lewin

Sometimes, patents are granted for inventions which may not seem innovative or novel.

Did you know that you might be in a hotel room that is protected by patent? U.S. Patent No. 9,194,143 is owned by Six Continents Hotels, Inc., which is a company related to Holiday Inn. They received patent protection for the layout of a hotel room, where (in some claims) the room includes a bed, a television, a sofa, and a bathroom, and also an angled wall behind the headboard, such that both the bed and the sofa face the television at similar angles and there is a pocket space behind the bed. See Figure reprinted from the patent.