On September 3, 1963, U.S. Patent No. D196173 issued to Al Lapin, Jr. on a “Building”:

The subject building was The Dog House a Los Angeles chain of tiny restaurants, created by the inventor Al Lapin, and his brother, founders of the International House of Pancakes, to who the patent was assigned.

It does not appear that any of these restaurants survived, but here is what the looked like: