Origin of the invention
Mr. Simon Ra Garben is an engineer and hobby surfer. Engineering can be studied and practiced as a profession in Zurich, but surfing cannot. Actually.
If you combine both interests, there is a solution. Mr. Simon Garben came up with the idea of using the current of the Limmat, which flows through Zurich, for river surfing, i.e. surfing against the current. This is known from structural measures such as the Eisbach wave in Munich, see Eisbach surfer wave, but so far requires either suitable natural conditions or suitable structures.
This gave rise to the idea of pulling a surfer against the current in order to achieve a sufficiently high relative speed to the river water and thus enable river surfing.
The actual implementation was carried out using a pulley mechanism on a bridge pillar. On one side of the pulley, one person and a contact surface drift down with the current of the river, while a second person on the other side of the pulley is pulled comparatively quickly towards the bridge pillar and can surf on the river. When the surfer reaches the bridge pillar, he drops into the river water, positions the surfboard crosswise to the current and drifts back to his starting position, while the first person flattens out with the contact surface and slowly lets himself be pulled through the river towards the bridge pillar to his own starting position. Then we swap again:
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Weitere InformationenOfficialExamination procedure
The patent application was filed with the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA) on December 15, 2014 under file number 10 2014 018 369.6. The search request was filed at the same time.
The official search result was absolutely positive, as all five prior art patent documents searched by the office were classified by the searcher as merely “technological background”, i.e. they did not preclude patentability.
In response to the positive search report, the examination request was submitted directly. The first audit notification followed promptly and only contained formal objections that could be addressed. This led to the granting of the German patent DE 10 2014 018 369 B3 on February 25, 2016, see patent publication at Espacenet.
Prior to this, an international subsequent patent application PCT/EP2015/079591 had already been filed within the 12-month priority period. The international search report of the European Patent Office (EPO) was also absolutely positive.
The international patent application was then used to initiate the national phase in the USA (later not pursued) and the regional phase before the European Patent Office. In accordance with the positive international search report of the EPO, the European patent EP 3 233 604 B1 was granted on December 12, 2018.
The European patent EP 3 233 604 B1 is validated for Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
Currentstatus and contact
The invention of river surfing was initially implemented and used by the company itself and later by URBAN SURF SOLUTIONS GmbH, Innsbruck, as a licensee and legal successor: