Kitchen Appliance Patents

Intellectual Property is a type of work or invention that is the result of human creativity, such as a book or a design, to which the creator has rights and for which the creator may apply for a patent, copyright, trademark, and other legal protections. Certain types of ideas (but not all ideas) are protected by the law, and thus are considered property and can be valuable. And because they are property, the ideas can be bought, sold, licensed, etc. Intellectual Property law determines which ideas are protected by the law, and which are not.

Whirlpool Corporation designs, manufactures, and supplies household appliances. Whirlpool develops a range of appliances, such as laundry machines, refrigerators, dishwashers, and air conditioner units. Whirlpool products are marketed under many brand names, most notably KitchenAid, Maytag, and of course, Whirlpool.

Of course, inventing new products isn’t easy. As inventors are coming up with these new, bold ideas, Patent lawyers are checking these ideas against the claims and functions of other already existing products that have patents and any other legal protections. Ms. Taleyarkhan stated, “We want them to think outside the box. We don’t want them defining what that box is… interpreting what those patents are and what they are not is equally important.”

When thinking about a new product, understanding where any possible competition could come from is crucial to the product's success. Ms. Taleyarkhan explained that for a company as big as Whirlpool, competition comes from everywhere. Every appliance company, regardless of size, wants to beat the competition. The idea of competition doesn’t just pertain to who can make the most money. As Ms. Taleyarkhan stated, “You’re also thinking about what materials you’re using. Is it more environmentally friendly to use one or the other… certain materials are chosen for different reasons, such as price, performance, even general availability.”

We interviewed Pervin Taleyarkhan, an intellectual property attorney at Whirlpool. She was born in Pittsburgh, graduated from Purdue with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering, and attended Indiana University for law school. When she is not working at Whirlpool, Ms. Taleyarkhan is an adjunct professor and helps out at the Intellectual Property Clinic at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law. Ms. Taleyarkhan’s responsibilities are mainly in the transaction space but she assists the patent team in many different ways. A key job of an IP Lawyer is research. In our interview, she said, “Early and often we keep in touch with the inventors … especially when the initial development is taking place.” Throughout the development process, while the inventors are doing the designing and creating, IP lawyers are looking for anything about the design to acquire legal protections. “IP lawyers are involved from the cradle to the grave of that product,.” Ms. Taleyarkhan stated.

Whirlpool has been named, “One of the World’s Most Trustworthy Companies for 2023,” (PRNewswire). Whirlpool has 16833 patents globally. The U.S. seems to be the R&D epicenter for Whirlpool, with 5,448 of their global patents being filed in the USA (Insights by Greyb). The Multiple wash zone dishwasher (US7594513B2) is the most referenced Whirlpool patent in patent applications by other companies, being cited 228 times by companies such as Haier and LG. “If a patent or patents from a particular technology area of a company receive a lot of citations, it implies that the technology is being followed and incrementally innovated by the citing companies. It also indicates that citing companies are working on similar and closely related technologies” (Insights by Greyb).