You are okay at this time with releasing the billiard table idea to the public?
My billiard patent is official so no worries about divulging anything proprietary. Readers can review my billiards patent or google “Bumper Pocket Billiard Table # 6,371,861”. At this point, I just want the world to know that there is another way to play pool that is more kid-friendly while still challenging to an expert player as well.
Sharp-eyes readers will notice on the patent that my father actually submitted the patent for me. He is a retired patent attorney and we had a lot of fun working on it together. I gave him the nuts and bolts of the concept and he wrote it up and created all of the drawings... I can tell you that the most satisfying part of this process for me was having him do the patent.
But some would say a round table is a billiard idea whose time hasn’t yet come. It came to you in a daydream?
Here's a little of the backstory... I created and designed the round billiards table while on an East Coast vacation. I had just watched the sun set in Key Largo, Florida and was in my hotel room watching a pool competition on TV when I saw the round table clearly formed in my mind’s eye. My educated guess is that the round sun burned on my retina combined with the pool table on the TV and helped me discover/rediscover the concept of a round pool table.
It took me about 15 minutes to draw the design and I must have got it right the first time because the current table is nearly identical to that very first drawing. I talked to my father about my idea that night, and he said that if I was willing to do the patent search, and if it turned out to be patentable, he would write the patent for me.
Soon I drove up the coast to Washington, DC and did the entire search all by myself at the USPTO. After the trip, I came home and built the table from scratch plus created all of the rules of the game for my table.
How does the pool and billiards industry feel about this invention?
I attended several Billiard Expo shows after patent submission to see who was the most interested, but to be honest, I became frustrated with the lack of vision on the part of some of the industry and finally decided to wait until I found just the right person or link to help me bring it to fruition. Maybe someone reading this article is that vital link...
I called the round billiard with bumper concept "BumperGolf" from the beginning due to the fact that the pockets extend into the table creating situations where the balls can lip out or hang on the edge of the hole tantalizingly, just like in golf. However, I have an even more clever name that will ultimately be used if it ever comes to market. It's a perfect name for the game, but due to trademark issues I don't want to reveal it until the time is right to launch the product.
Please tell our readers how you became inspired to go on to produce an actual working round billiard table.
Regular pool tables are inherently expensive due to the fact that someone else has to move it and assemble it for you. This cost is usually not included in the purchase price of a pool table so the buyer ends up actually paying much more than the original purchase price.
Plus you need to buy a lamp for above the table and have it installed. And if you ever need to move the table, you pay again to break it down and set it back up again. Cues and balls and racks are extra, but you need them for mine as well, so we will just focus on the cost of the table.
A smaller, rounded table becomes easy to “roll out” to consumers. One note about the "rectangle view” of billiards--I found that the most enduring concept of billiards is that a standard table should be twice as long as it is wide.
To honor that sacred billiard standard, I included in my patent three additional table designs that fit the 2:1 scale, but since I like the challenge of curved rails I made the ends half circles. You can see these three additional table designs under the drawings for my patent.
