Lauren McClean

MEC 323

B00519883

Patent Assignment US 5615750 Climbing harness having adjustable leg loops and rise.
Claim 1 A climbing harness comprising: -a waist band having an adjustable-girth closing strap; -a tie-in point located on said closing strap; -a pair of leg loops, each leg loop being constructed and arranged to encompass the leg of a user about the user's thigh; -a leg loop strap for attaching each of said leg loops to said waist band; and -an adjustment mechanism associated with each leg loop for simultaneously adjusting the girth of each of said leg loops to a fixed circumference and adjusting the length of said leg loop strap to a fixed length, thereby providing an adjustment in the length of rise between said leg loops and said waist band.

Climbing harnesses jointly support a load when climbing and consist of a singlelength strap configuration, a pair of strap ends and two slots located at a middle part of the harness. They include a waistband and a pair of leg loops. In this patent, the leg loops have an adjustable girth for fitting about the user's thigh and they are joined to the waistband. An adjustment mechanism is provided which allows the user to adjust the rise of the leg loops relative to the waistband and also to adjust the girth of the leg loop.1 Inventors of this patent consist of Phillips and Douglas and the patent was published on 1st April 1997. Metolus Mountaineering proposed the patent. Claim one of the patent regards a specific climbing harness, which will allow the user to adjust both the leg loops and the rise between the leg loops and a waistband. This is done by a single adjustment mechanism. Climbing harnesses are used for a variety of recreational and commercial purposes. These can include mountain climbing and exploration of caves, to emergency service rescues. The primary purpose of any climbing harness, however, whether for recreation or commercial use, is to prevent gravity from having an adverse effect on the climber. To this end, a climbing harness must be both functional and comfortable.2 Although many known harnesses provide for a number of adjustments to allow a comfortable fit; for example, some of which have adjustable leg loops, there has been no other harness which allows for the adjustment of the rise, which is the distance between the waistband and the leg loops. Moreover, the previously known solution to this problem was to provide leg loops, which are detachable from the waistband. This meant that manufacturers were to provide the leg loop assembly in a variety of sizes. However, this often meant that the sizes that were generally provided, consisted of a large leg loop with a long rise, which means where a climber has a smaller waist and has large legs, the harness will not fit adequately. This gives the proposed product an inventive step.

Lauren McClean

MEC 323

B00519883

The leg loops, which are attached to the waistband, have an adjustable girth for fitting about the user's thigh and are joined by the use of an adjustment mechanism. This is provided to allow the user to adjust the rise of the leg loop and also to adjust the girth of the leg loop. An object of this invention is to provide a climbing harness that will safely support a user during climbing activities by being fully adjustable to the user's body. This is achieved by the users option to adjust the rise of leg loops, relative to the waistband of the harness. A further object of the invention is to provide a user with a climbing harness, which has adjustable width and detachable leg loops secured to a waistband. The climbing harness further includes a belay loop affixed through a tie-in point; this is where the leg loop straps form a centerpiece including a second tie-in point. This is one of the patents claims. The patent states that the climbing harness has a retaining loop for retaining the centerpiece in a lateral position relative to the belay loop. This claim gives the patent a further inventive step and makes it less obvious. Furthermore, it includes a detachable elastomeric back-strap, which extends from a point intermediate the ends of said leg loop to said waistband. This patent shows many inventive steps and is definitely unobvious. It would be difficult to create a new climbing harness without infringing some of the aspects of this patent. Claims are made for almost every aspect of the harness patent, and with a new design aspect given for each section, for example, claim one, the leg loop adjustment mechanism, the patent is extremely detailed. There are a number of ten claims, ranging from materials to attachments to the actual body of the harness, and to create a new harness it would be difficult for the designer not to infringe this patent by Metolius Mountaineering.

Lauren McClean
References:

MEC 323

B00519883

http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5615750/claims.html Espacenet.com http://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?FT=D&date=19970401&DB=&loc ale=en_T1&CC=US&NR=5615750A&KC=A PETZL catalog, 1993, pp. 26-41, printed in France 1995 Rescue Systems, Inc. catalog, pp. 47-56 Fjellsport catalog, David Durkan, 1993, 3 pages (no translation available) Metolius Mountain Products, Inc. Brochure: Climbing Harness Leg Loops; Jan. 1994 Metolius Mountain Products, Inc. Brochure: Climbing Harness: Metolius S-1 Jan. 1994 Metolius Mountain Products, Inc. Brochure: Climbing Harness: Metolius Smart Jan. 1994 Metolius Mountain Products, Inc. Brochure: Climbing Harness: Metolius Big Buckle; Jan. 1994