The IIE team has truly gone to the dogs for this edition of Inventions in Everything. We can honestly say that because we've gone through a trove of patents for inventions that solve a technical challenge involving man's best friend and that friend's daily need to do their business, so to speak.

But only one of those patents stands out for its solution to that technical challenge. That's because U.S. Patent 6,769,382 perhaps best defines the nature of the problems its inventor, Chui-Wen Chiu set out to solve. That problem is described in the background of the invention:

Domestic pets such as dogs provide love and companionship to human being, but they also create the daunting task for the owners to provide a toilet facility for them to defecate. Owners may take their dogs outdoors to defecate and then collect the excrements for disposal. This may be a pleasant task to carry out in fine outdoor conditions, even if the owners have to get up from bed very early in the morning to do so or to take the pets out very late at night; but in bad weather conditions, such task is particularly distressful to perform. Attempts have been made to provide an indoor toilet facility for dogs such that the owners do not have to content with the above problems and to dispose of the dogs' excrements readily and conveniently indoors. It has been problematic in providing an indoor toilet facility for dogs; and the excrements, if not disposed of, would contaminate the indoor atmosphere and create an unpleasant smell and a harmful environment to health.

The next part of Chiu's invention background really struck home with us. Chiu explains why many of the patented inventions we reviewed didn't meet the technical challenges that must be met for a dog toilet to succeed as an invention:

Heretofore, attempts have been made to provide toilets for dogs such that it is no longer necessary to take them outdoor to defecate, and the excrements may be disposed of readily indoors. Dogs defecate in a standing position which is different than that of a human. Therefore, a toilet for dogs must provide means for them to get on and off the toilet as well as in the toilet in use in a standing position. Furthermore, known toilets are not satisfactory in that they are not suitable for use by dogs of various physical sizes so that the excrements may not be deposited at the intended location of the toilet by the dog to facilitate their disposal. Accordingly, it has been necessary to provide toilets of different sizes for dogs of different physical sizes, which is particularly troublesome to achieve and is economically not feasible for a household having dogs of different physical sizes. Since the physical sizes of dogs vary greatly in different breeds, owners having dogs of various physical sizes have been faced with the harrowing task of providing an indoor flush toilet suitable for use by different dogs.

Furthermore, male dogs urinate in a different way then female dogs. Male dogs urinate by raising one hind leg and turning their body to discharge the urine sideways. Known toilet has no provision to collect the urine from male dogs such that the urine may be ejected sideways beyond the side of the toilet.

So what did Chiu do to create a toilet that would solve these challenges that are unique to dogs? First, to illustrate the solution, here's Figure 3 from the 2004 patent:

Here's the patent abstract that simply describes his invention:

The flush toilet is suitable for use by dogs of various physical sizes. The toilet has two high side wall portions to collect the urine ejected by a male dog. A restraint frame is provided for retaining the dog on a leash in the toilet. The position of the restraint frame is adjustable to accommodate a dog of any size such that the excrement will drop in or close to the drain opening of the toilet. A grid pattern is formed on the inner surface of the high side wall to facilitate the male dog from urinating, and a baffle wall is provided at the front edge of the high side walls to avoid the urine from a male dog from splashing outside of the toilet.

We went looking to find products that fully embodied all the aspects of Chiu's invention in the market, but didn't find any that did. At least, not fully, as the products that are available don't include all the internal plumbing shown in the patent's illustrations. We suspect that like Charlie Sheen's patented chapstick holder, a product that incorporates all of Chiu's solutions would be very expensive compared to the kinds of products that are available, which many consumers find to be just good enough. The closest we could find to Chiu's vision is a model that can accommodate small and medium size dogs and another for large dogs, both of which includes a pee baffle to accommodate the urinary needs of male dogs.

As patents go, we look and Chiu's and Sheen's patents as the equivalent of concept cars in the automotive industry. They combine a lot of features that have never been put together before, only some of which may find their way into the cars that do make it to the market.

From the Inventions in Everything Archives

This isn't the first edition in which the IIE team has gone to the dogs. Here are a couple of previous editions featuring inventions for man's best friend!

• Inventions in Everything: Keeping Dog Time
• Inventions in Everything: Texting Your Dog a Treat