AIRBAG DEPLOYMENT SAFER
Article Date: 4-8-2003

LERNER & GREENBERG PROSECUTES PATENT FOR DEVICE THAT MAKES AIRBAG DEPLOYMENT SAFER

Manfred Beck and Werner H. Stemer of the Hollywood-based IP law firm Lerner & Greenberg, P.A., successfully prosecuted a patent from the United States Patent Office for a system that will make airbags safer at their moment of deployment.

The system, invented by Ruprecht Sinnhuber and Thomas Wohllebe with Volkswagen AG in Wolfsburg Germany, includes a smaller airbag that deploys ahead of the regular, protective airbag (Patent 6,536,799.) This smaller airbag is not as potent and it is much smaller than the protective airbag. When the smaller, or "sensing airbag" comes into contact with a person, or an object, it sends a signal back to the protective airbag. The protective airbag then inflates only as far as necessary and at the appropriate rate to protect the person from the impact. Manfred Beck, a U.S. patent agent and German patent attorney, said that helps avoid the airbag from hitting a person it is supposed to protect with excessive force, reducing the chance of serious injury or death, risks associated with standard airbag systems.

"The problem with the past configurations is that an inflating airbag can have an unfavorable so-called 'aggressiveness' toward occupants and objects in the inflation zone," said Stemer, senior patent attorney and Vice President of Lerner and Greenberg. "These problems arise, in particular, in the case of occupants outside a normal position, so called 'out of position occupants,' such as a child standing in the front seat, or an adult leaning far forward."

Lerner & Greenberg, P.A. advises clients in key issues of intellectual property law, such as patents, trademarks, unfair competition, licensing, trade secrets, international patents and dispute resolution, as well as issues concerning the Internet and domain names. Lerner & Greenberg, ranked among the top 25 patent firms in the country by Intellectual Property Today magazine, is based in Hollywood, Fla. You can learn more about the firm at www.patentusa.com.

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