{"id":4995,"date":"2025-11-01T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/?p=4995"},"modified":"2025-11-01T14:53:38","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T19:53:38","slug":"november-1-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/?p=4995","title":{"rendered":"November 1, 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On November 1, 1988, Claude G. Coots received U.S. Patent No. 4,780,985 on an Electric Mouse Exterminator<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The metaphor “Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door” originated in a different form with Ralph Waldo Emerson, who in 1855 wrote:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If a man has good corn or wood, or boards, or pigs, to sell, or can make better chairs or knives, crucibles or church organs, than anybody else, you will find a broad hard-beaten road to his house, though it be in the woods.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In 1882, a month after his death, the following quotation was attributed to Emerson by The Cincinnati Enquirer<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon or make a better mouse-trap than his neighbors, though he builds his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door. If a man has good corn or wood, or boards, or pigs, to sell, or can make better chairs or knives, crucibles or church organs, than anybody else, you will find a broad hard-beaten road to his house, though it be in the woods.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Whoever edited Emerson to add “mouse trap” knew what he was doing — the USPTO has issued more that 4400 patents, on mouse traps, the most recent being U.S. Patent No. 12,446,567, on a Rodent Disposal Device, which electrocutes the rodent and projects the rodent out with a spring:<\/p>\n\n\n

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On November 1, 1988, Claude G. Coots received U.S. Patent No. 4,780,985 on an Electric Mouse Exterminator The metaphor “Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door” originated in a different form with Ralph … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-patent-of-the-day"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4995"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4998,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4995\/revisions\/4998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patents.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}