A first-named inventor's portfolio companion to a granted US utility patent. The story of an invention I co-created during my time at Bracketron, the engineering choices that shaped it, and how it works.
Fig. 1 from the granted patent — top view of the mount. The outer disc (104) is the gel-faced exterior that hinges relative to the central section (103); the keyed center (102/112) is the mechanical interface for whatever the mount is carrying.
This repository documents US Patent 11,137,017 B2 — Suction Cup Mount, a re-usable mounting device for securing mobile devices and accessories to flat surfaces. I am the first-named inventor; the patent is assigned to Bracketron, Inc. of Edina, MN.
This is a portfolio piece, not an open hardware project. It exists to:
- Document the engineering and design history of the invention from my perspective as first inventor.
- Reference the public patent record so that anyone Googling the patent number lands on a thoughtful explanation rather than just a Justia entry.
- Showcase my work as a named inventor on a granted US utility patent.
Please read NOTICE.md before any other content in this repository. It explains who owns what.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Patent number | US 11,137,017 B2 |
| Title | Suction Cup Mount |
| Filed | March 7, 2016 |
| Issued | October 5, 2021 |
| Assignee | Bracketron, Inc. (Edina, MN) — owner of commercial rights |
| First-named inventor | Anthony David Koop (Minneapolis, MN) — that's me |
| Co-inventors | Andrew Chow (Hugo, MN); Wonsik Oh (Hwasung-si) |
| Public record | https://patents.justia.com/patent/11137017 |
The patent is currently active and will remain so until approximately March 7, 2036 (20 years from the filing date, the standard term for a US utility patent).
A conventional suction cup is pressed against a surface; air is squeezed out from underneath; atmospheric pressure on the outside holds the cup against the surface. Two well-known failure modes:
- The cup loses suction over time as air leaks in around the edges.
- The cup struggles on rougher surfaces because the seal isn't perfect.
The invention addresses both with a different geometry. Quoting the patent abstract structure (this is public-record content):
The exterior portion is movable between first and second positions about a hinge — a pre-mounting position in which a gel material on the exterior contacts the mounting surface to form a cavity, and a mounting position in which the exterior is rotated about the hinge toward the surface to enlarge the cavity and create a partial vacuum.
In plain language: instead of relying on a single rigid suction cup whose air pocket gradually leaks, the design uses a hinged exterior that you rotate after placement. The rotation actively creates and enlarges a sealed cavity, and a gel layer on the contact surface provides a forgiving seal that conforms to surface roughness. The result is a mount that holds longer and on more surfaces than a conventional cup.
The two cross-sections below tell the story:
Fig. 4 — pre-mounting position. The exterior (104) is tilted up; the gel-faced lip (108/116) seats against the mounting surface (400) and traps an air pocket under the mount. The curved arrows (414/406) indicate the direction the exterior rotates next.
Fig. 5 — mounted position. A user pushes down on the exterior (502 arrows). The exterior rotates about the circular hinge (113) toward the surface, lifting the central section (103) away from the surface and enlarging the trapped air volume. Because the gel lip stays sealed during the rotation, that volume change is what creates the partial vacuum — dimension 416 is the resulting cavity height.
(For the full claim language, prosecution history, and the rest of the figures, see the public patent PDF in patent/ and the extracted figures in patent/figures/.)
As first-named inventor I led the design work behind the geometry that became the granted claim. The other named inventors contributed in their respective areas (manufacturing engineering, materials science, etc.). The patent prosecution itself was handled by Bracketron's IP counsel; my role was the engineering work that the patent documents.
This was during my Senior Product Design Specialist tenure at Bracketron (Feb 2013 – Nov 2015) — the same role in which I shipped 110 products across four consumer-electronics-accessories brands.
A working prototype from the design phase — the hinged-mount geometry rendered in 3D-printed PLA, sitting on a clear off-the-shelf suction cup base. Photos like this are how the design choices that ended up in the granted claim were tested against ergonomics and mechanical-advantage assumptions before tooling was committed.
Fig. 6 — alternate embodiment disclosed in the patent. The radial ribs (110) are a stiffness-and-airflow variant of the same hinged-exterior idea: they bias how the exterior deforms during rotation and give the gel lip a more uniform seat. The top-view geometry should look familiar after the prototype photo above.
You will find:
- The public patent PDF and figures, downloaded from the USPTO public record
- My written commentary on the engineering choices, why the hinge geometry matters, and what the gel-layer interface contributes
- Photos I took during the project that I have the right to publish
- "What I would do differently now" reflections — eleven years of additional engineering experience applied to my own past work
- Cross-links to my portfolio of related work — particularly the
retail-displaysrepo for my immediately-following Excel Plastics work
You will not find:
- Bracketron's proprietary CAD files, manufacturing drawings, or process documentation
- Pre-launch prototype photography that wasn't already publicly disclosed
- Any content that would represent IP transfer or licensing of the patent itself
See NOTICE.md for the patent ownership disclaimer.
The original written content, photographs, analysis, and commentary in this repository are released under CC-BY 4.0 — use freely with attribution to Anthony David Koop. This license does not apply to the patented design itself, which is the property of Bracketron, Inc. If you are interested in licensing the design, contact Bracketron.
suction-cup-mount/
├── README.md ← you are here
├── NOTICE.md ← patent ownership and IP disclaimer
├── LICENSE ← CC-BY 4.0 (scoped to original content only)
├── .gitignore
├── patent/
│ ├── US-11137017-B2.pdf ← downloaded from USPTO public record
│ ├── _pages_temp/ ← full-page PNG renders of the patent (staging)
│ └── figures/ ← extracted/cropped figures (also public record)
├── photos/ ← my own photographs from the project
├── reflections/ ← longer-form writeups on specific design choices
└── reference/ ← related patents, prior art, public references
| Section | Status |
|---|---|
| Repo description, license, NOTICE, gitignore | ✓ done |
| Patent PDF download | ✓ done |
| Patent figures extraction (Figs 1, 4, 5, 6, 11) | ✓ done |
| Hero figure | ✓ Fig 1 from the patent |
| Reflections — hinge geometry | forthcoming |
| Reflections — gel-layer interface | forthcoming |