“A method of styling hair to cover partial baldness using only the hair on a person’s head. The hair styling requires dividing a person’s hair into three sections and carefully folding one section over another.” The patent is right here — but don’t try this, er, “practice” it, at home, lest you infringe.
No, I can’t speak with confidence as to whether the patent would stand up, since I’m not a patent law expert. But I’d bet that if a case came to court, the patent would probably be invalidated.
Thanks to my friend Haym Hirsh for the pointer.
UPDATE: Reader Tom Hynes points to what I should have checked at the outset — the patent was granted in 1977, when I believe the term of protection was 17 years from the date of the grant. The method is thus now in the public domain, so comb over to your heart’s content! (Tom, Haym, and I all want to assure you, though, that we have fine heads of hair, and the patent is thus of purely academic interest to us.)
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