A spooky spin through Halloween patents

October is here. The leaves are turning. Green, gold, orange, and then gone. There’s a chill in the air that sends shivers down your spine. This can only mean one thing. Halloween approaches, and you are not ready. But fear not – out there in the patent ether, spooky inventions lurk. They will save you.

 

The first thing you need is a mask – no, sorry: a “Multilayer Novelty Item”. The secret to a perfectly ghastly disguise, hidden within the dusty pages of US2009/0130942, is layers. And we’re not talking about subtext.

 

First, you need a rigid layer. Its inner surface fits to your face while its outer surface is afflicted with “indicia”, which here means bones, teeth or other assorted facial innards. But that is not the end of it. If a werewolf were to poke your horrifying visage and find it rigid, the illusion would be ruined. You need a second, softer layer; a foam layer, with openings cunningly placed to display your indicia in all their ghastly glory. You must not forget to cut holes in the nose region – breathing is a must – but you may conceal them behind a mesh layer. After all, slime monsters don’t have nostrils, do they?

 

The next thing you need is a costume. But those are tricky, so why not cover your normal clothes in fake blood, instead? A note of caution here: you might think your fake blood looks real enough to fool the layman – but would it stand up against scrutiny? You never know when a sceptical witch might pop up, fish a centrifuge from her cauldron and demand a sample.

 

Fortunately, US2014/0243181 has you covered. Therein lies a recipe for fake blood that mimics the real deal, even after a hellish spin. Before your very eyes, it will separate, as if by magic, into a plasma layer, a red blood cell layer and, between them, a buffy coat layer. Buffy the coat layer, that is – not to be confused with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. However, fake blood is very important for both intellectual properties. 

 

Now, you look the part – but does your abode? The creepiness of any dwelling, be it semi-detached or a damp cave, is elevated by cobwebs. Fret not: thanks to a technology so wondrous as to be almost indistinguishable from magic, never again must you convince a spider to do your bidding.

 

Of course, you know your way around a conventional glue gun. Once released, hot glue, beholden to the shackles of gravity, merely drips, predictably, onto the first surface to cross its path. This cannot help you. But, shriek the inventors of US2008/0135644, what if the glue were instead cast into a stream of pressurised air? Blown from the gun, the glue will cool and dry in the very air itself. With such arcana at your disposal, the world becomes your canvas. Doorways, train carriages, tunnels: you may web where even our eight-legged friends dare not.

 

But harken! The hour is nigh, and you are ready. The macabre ingenuity of humanity’s most devious minds has transformed you and your burrow. The rest is up to you: go forth and terrify.

 

 

This briefing is for general information purposes only and should not be used as a substitute for legal advice relating to your particular circumstances. We can discuss specific issues and facts on an individual basis. Please note that the law may have changed since the day this was first published in October 2025.