ACINIFORM – The Right Word for the Right Shape

It’s always rewarding to stumble across the perfect word to describe or claim an invention, and today’s word from a word a day has that potential: aciniform, which means shaped like a cluster of grapes.  This word has been used in 48 patents, and has been used in the claims of four patents.

In claiming a separator for a lithium ion battery, U.S. Patent No. 8,192,873 claimed the ceramic particles forming the separator has having an aciniform shape:

In describing carbon black, U.S. Patent 9,580,606 (Col. 5, lines 19-23) explained it was an aciniform, prudently adding a parenthetical definition given the vagaries of construing patents: