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Like Kramer and Frank Costanza before her, Katerina Pew designed a bra made just for her -- except her biggest problem wasn't naming it (the Bro? The Manzier?). The 38-year-old struggling, single mom was sick and tired of bra straps, but her bra-making brainstorm only resulted in a lawsuit against Victoria's Secret after they allegedly stole her idea.
Pew thought of the idea in 1999 and materialized it a year later, saying of her design (pictured at top): "It's a versatile bra. You can wear it over 100 ways." After she patented her product, she sent a copy of the design to Victoria's Secret and had a meeting set up with the company in 2006. On her way to that meeting the company canceled and, voila!, soon after came out with their new "Very Sexy 100-way strapless convertible bra."
After seeing it in the store, Pew filed a patent-infringement lawsuit in Manhattan federal court, saying they stole her idea for the bold new brassiere; and in order to compare the two in preparation for her lawsuit, she even had to buy one (at 60 bucks a pop)! She is now seeking an unspecified amount in the lingerie litigation. Who will go down in history as the 100-way bra maker?
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I'd been looking at this drawing for a couple of days thinking it was a bird's eye view. Now I just got it that it's a lateral view and that what I thought were the cups are the straps!
[1] Thank you, I couldn't figure it out until you said that. I thought it was bird's eye as well, it makes a bit more sense now.
i hope she sues the pants off them.
This is actually more like the episode where Calvin Klein steals Kramer's idea for the Beach fragrance.
Per the NYT article and the patent, the woman's name is "Plew", not "Pew".
Looking at her patent, the language is very narrow. (For the benefit of those who don't know how to evaluate the scope of a patent, scroll down to the last page and look at item (1) under "The invention claimed is:". ) Notice the four separate elements a), b), c) and d) that she claims as comprising the improvement. The bra Victoria's Secret is selling has to be the same as all four of those things (plus the earlier part of claim 1) in order for them to be infringing.
My guess is that they researched her patent (which issued well before the canceled meeting), evaluated it, and then realized that they could market something similar but not within its scope.
The lesson for all you aspiring inventors out there: Get a lawyer to draft your patent application.
If she has prior documentation of her idea, and it appears she does given the patent, before meeting with Victoria's Secret then she has a very strong case against them. Unless of course they can show they had the same design in the works prior to the meeting. But that of course would have needed documentation prior to her patent. Also her patent needs to be studied to see what specific areas are covered regarding the bra. Is it the way the various options are obtained mechanically or was the patent for the various configurations?
As Jen Chung's Bra I have to say that I'm highly intrigued by this whole topic. But what we really need are 100 bodacious models demonstrating all the ways that this new bra can be put to use.
I second jenchungsbra's recommendation.
The demonstrations should also include jumping up and down in one place to ensure proper support while we supervise and record it for private informational sessions.
I agree with Kojak.
In fact, never mind the bras.
The real lesson for all you aspiring inventors: The patent system is broken.
The things that are broken in the patent system wouldn't have much of an impact on the problems with Ms. Plew's claim.