If there’s one product that’s been the talk of the town in recent days, it’s toilet paper! With an average French consumption of 103 rolls per year, and an average of 120 per person in Belgium, toilet paper is the product that families have literally been snatching up since the announcement of the containment measures following the Coronavirus epidemic. Pink, white, blue, patterned or scented, with a soluble tube or a single sheet, a look back at this invention that has become an essential product in the perfect survivor’s pack.
From the birth of toilet paper to the patent
The first written reference to intimate hygiene dates back to the 5th century BC, and involved the use of rough or polished stones. Fortunately, however, comfort and hygiene solutions have evolved over time, from cloth, scented wool, linen, hemp and newsprint to toilet paper as we know it today.
China produced toilet paper as early as the 10th century, but its use was reserved exclusively for the emperor. The industrial history of toilet paper began in the United States in 1857 with Joseph Gayetty, founder of Gayetty’s Medicated paper. On his advertising posters, Gayetty pointed out that the newspapers with which the majority of the world still wiped itself in the 19th century were printed with inks that no one would dare put to the mouth, while the same ink was applied to the “most tender parts of the body” after a trip to the toilet. Gayetty emphasized the importance of impeccable hygiene to avoid disease.
The invention of rolled toilet paper, however, is attributed to Seth Wheeler, with several American patents issued between 1891 and 1893.
Toilet paper improvements over the years
The toilet and household paper industry represents sales of over 8.5 billion euros in Europe. Needless to say, the industry has continued to improve its offering in order to win market share for this product, which has become a staple in households worldwide.
Seth Wheeler, inventor of toilet roll paper, improved on his invention by applying for a US patent for detachable toilet paper sheet by sheet, which was patented in 1891. But patents on toilet paper continued to be filed until 2010, with Tissue France, for example, obtaining a European patent on a “toilet paper dispenser”. It’s a round dispenser, called “SmartOne”, which you may already have seen at service stations.
Innovation never stops, even with products as simple as toilet paper.
Seizure of counterfeit toilet paper
When there is a suspicion of counterfeiting of a patented product, the company holding the patent can request a seizure of the infringing products, and initiate an infringement action with the help of a law firm and an Industrial Property Attorney. This was the case for Tissue France, which, after obtaining a European patent (EP 1799083) for its “toilet paper dispenser in which the toilet paper roll and dispenser are housed”, the “SmartOne”, discovered two infringing competitors.
Two French companies were marketing toilet paper dispensers based on the features of Tissue France’s patented invention, which Tissue France seized and sued its two competitors for infringement in 2011. Tissue France considered that the offer to deliver toilet rolls constituted an act of infringement by supply of means.
After many battles, the French Supreme Court (Cour de cassation) ruled on June 8, 2017 that one of the constituent elements of a combination invention can indeed be an essential part of it. The delivery of this element can therefore be qualified as a supply of means and therefore of infringement. It will also rule that a good, even a consumable good, can be an essential element of the invention, within the meaning of the aforementioned article.
There’s still plenty of ink to be spilled over toilet paper, especially as the historic debate over whether the roll unwinds from the top or the bottom has yet to be resolved. Seth Wheeler proposed both versions in his patent applications.
So the mystery remains…
Read also: Patenting and counterfeiting in cosmetics, the figures to remember
