I recently came across the LumiPotti toilet to help children use a toilet at night. I have written on the topic of toilets with aids for children before, in my post Toilet training aids for children.
The LumiPotti website says that two mothers, Rachael and Kerry, thought of the idea over “coffee morning banter”. The site announces that they have received a granted UK patent, Childs pot. Its main drawing is given below.
It involves a “potty” (child’s toilet) with a removable lamp which has a motion detector with a timer to switch off after an interval. As often happens, the title had changed since the patent application, when it was called Motion detector lamp for potty. Rachael Louise Forder is given as the inventor, and the applicant was Small Ideas Limited, of Southsea, Hampshire. Both women are named as the directors of that company.
The website says that the recent grant of the patent “is a big step in the security of LumiPotti and means that we are now officially the world’s first and only ‘night-light child’s pot’ for night toilet.”
I’m sorry but that isn’t quite true. It may indeed be the only toilet that switches a light on when used in darkness, but having a granted patent for a method of doing so (there may be more than one way of doing this, which can also be patented) does not make the invention “official”. The UK IPO themselves found 8 patent specifications which had a certain similarity which are listed here.
I would also suggest that the owners add the ® symbol to the end of LumiPotti on their website and in other usage as this makes it clear that the brand name is a UK registered trade mark, as it was registered last September as no. 2623533.
While it is not essential, it is a good idea to use the symbol in a consistent fashion as it shows that the mark is registered, which gives it stronger rights over non-registered usage, and that the owners are serious about their intellectual property.
The product is not yet available for sale. I wish the owners well with the product in the future.
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