Fort Worth, TX asked in Copyright, Business Law and Patents (Intellectual Property) for Texas

Q: I am trying to find the patent for the brush guard that GM put on their Commercial Utility Cargo Vehicle (CUCV).

These vehicles were provided to the US military from 1984 - 1987. I believe similar brush guards were an option on GM trucks as early as the 1960's. I would like to reproduce this brush guard for the same GM vehicles and other vehicles with slight modifications. Thanks for any help you can provide.

1 Lawyer Answer
Peter D. Mlynek
Peter D. Mlynek
Answered
  • Intellectual Property Lawyer
  • Moorestown, NJ

A: Sorry to be getting to this so late.

This is a common type of question, but unless the brush guard was ornamental, finding the patent is not going to be very helpful. The drawings that come with patents are there to help the reader understand the invention, and are not meant to be blueprints. Further, the patent application is filed long before the production of the product, thus, there were likely changes in the design of the brush guard.

Nonetheless, if you still are interested in finding the patent to the brush guard, find a patent lawyer who specializes i mechanical patents, or reach out to a professional patent searcher. Patent searchers can be found at https://www.piug.org/

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