Not to be outdone by Toyota’s “Party Mode” feature, Ford just patented its new “Portable entertainment support system for a pickup truck box” (Patent #10,207,623).
It’s an entertainment center for the back of your pickup truck, offering a “plurality of receptacles in sidewalls of a truck box spaced above a truck bed” that make it easy to mount a flat-panel TV or projector and screen, plus an audio-visual system. To your truck bed.
One factor the United States Patent and Trademark Office uses to determine patentability is whether the invention solves a problem.
Ford addresses this its background: “Some pickup truck owners may drill holes in the pickup truck box or use existing holes or other structural features … to provide interface points for accessories. Drilling holes in a pickup truck box may increase the extent of corrosion, disrupt the integrity, and reduce the strength of the structure. Using existing structural features to secure objects to a pickup truck box may not meet all of a user’s needs and requirements.”
In other words, it may not meet your transportation needs, but you can check the box for entertainment needs.
(Originally published Mar 14, 2019)