It’s time to play the music, it’s time to light the lights, it’s time to meet the patent behind the Muppet Show delights. In 1958, Jim Henson filed an a patent application with the USPTO for a “puppet doll or similar article”. The patent application, Patent Number D186119, was for a design patent, as the patent claim states it is for, “the ornamental design for a puppet doll or similar article as shown or described.” If you check out the patent application, you will see a figure that looks similar to the Muppet known and loved throughout the world as Kermit the Frog. Henson’s Muppet mastery had debuted a few years earlier when in 1955, when Kermit the Frog made an appearance on “Sam and Friends”.
According to the Muppet Wiki,
In the early days of the character, Kermit wasn’t yet a frog — he was more of a lizard-like, abstract character. As Henson explained, “Kermit started out as a way of building, putting a mouth and covering over my hand. There was nothing in Kermit outside of the piece of cardboard — it was originally cardboard — and the cloth shape that was his head. He’s one of the simplest kinds of puppets that you can make, and he’s very flexible because of that… which gives him a range of expression.”
Henson created the doll while studying applied arts at the University of Maryland. He used foam rubber covered in fabric that provided a flexibility facilitating the expression of emotions. Although the patent application itself was not for the Kermit the Frog, one can see the similarities in design concept: wide, far set eyes, big open mouth, with long thin arms and fingers. Henson’s puppet patent is currently a reference for a variety of patent applications, one of which features the familiar Kermit face on a hairbrush.
Today, other intellectual property rights that effect Kermit and the rest of the Muppet gang belong to Muppets Studio, LLC, such as registered trademarks for the terms “Muppets”, “The Muppet Show”, and “Kermit the Frog”. It comes as no surprise that the man behind some of the most successful children’s educational programs was also smart about his IP.
Tags: design patent, Jim Henson, Kermit the Frog, patent application, The Muppets
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