Five-year-old sweeps up patent with his first Cracking Idea

Sam thought to be youngest ever to be granted official patent for invention

Little Sam Houghton’s idea to help his Dad sweep up leaves has resulted in him becoming the youngest known holder of a patent for his invention.

Sam Houghton was just three when he saw his Dad swapping between one brush to clear up the larger leaves and twigs and another to pick up the finer debris in their backyard.

Inspired by his favourite inventors - film stars Wallace & Gromit, who front Cracking Ideas a campaign to get young people inventing, and Archie The Inventor from children’s TV series Balamory - Sam thought there must be an easier way to get the job done.

After just a few minutes in his Dad’s shed he had strapped two brooms together with a large rubber band and come up with the ‘Improved Broom’.

Dad Mark was so impressed that he decided to get a patent application together for the ingenious Improved Broom. Now at the age of five Sam’s idea has gone through the rigorous patent process overseen by the UK Intellectual Property Office and he is believed to be the youngest person in the UK to hold a patent for his invention.

It means Sam, from Buxton, Derbyshire, is fully protected if someone else decides to copy his idea.

Sam was helped because his Dad is an experienced patent attorney. However Mark insists that the idea was completely Sam’s and his own input was to put the idea on paper and submit the application.

The UK-IPO is currently promoting young inventors with the successful Cracking Ideas project which offers schools and clubs lesson plans and activities all linked into a nationwide invention competition and website www.crackingideas.com

But their initiative is aimed at 9 to 11 year-olds and UK-IPO officials admitted they were surprised that someone as young as Sam had come up with an invention that passed through the patent process.

Sam said: "I saw my Daddy brushing up and made it. There are two brushes because one gets the big bits and one gets the little bits left behind. I don’t know if I want to be an inventor when I grow up but this was fun."

He added that he did not have any other inventions at the moment.

Dad Mark said that children come up with great ideas all the time and Sam, who has a younger brother Benjamin, 3, was lucky that he had a father who knew about the patent process.

"It was such a simple solution that only a child could have come up with it. I was swapping from one broom to the other and he asked why. When I said it was to pick up the different leaves and twigs it must have got him thinking. He got a large elastic band from the shed and put it over the two brooms, holding them just the right way to use both together. He then called me and announced that had had made up an invention. Putting the application together was just a matter of extracting the underlying principle and carefully describing that and Sam’s specific way of using the invention.

"I do have experience of patents so I knew what to do next but I am convinced there are other young children who come up with ideas but never have the chance to get a patent for them. I knew about the UK-IPO’s Cracking Ideas initiative to get children inventing but unfortunately Sam’s class are too young," he said.

The broom works with the coarser brush at the front to pick up larger objects and the finer brush at the back. Mark, who spent about £200 getting the application approved said there were no plans to take the invention to market.

"We have protected the idea but at this stage I think it would be a lot of work to get it on the market and I don’t think it would be very fair to put him on Dragon’s Den! Perhaps Sam will take it on when he is a bit older, after all a patent can last up to 20 years. This is all about Sam learning about innovation, letting him have some fun and now highlighting innovation in education which is so important in today’s world. We were keen Sam’s achievement was used to highlight Cracking Ideas," he said.

Sally Long, project manager of the Cracking Ideas project, said Sam’s invention showed how children could often come up with the best ideas.

"Characters like Wallace & Gromit can really inspire children to innovate and we use Cracking Ideas to make the most of this. Sam has shown what a young mind can come up with. Patent applications do not always record ages but we have never come across anyone as young as Sam who has been successful in their application and believe he is the youngest yet," she said.

Notes to Editors

• For more information, pictures and interviews, contact Ed Stearns, Mason Media on +44 (0)207 3951104 or +44 (0)7939 188889 or ed@masonmedia.co.uk or Sarah Challenger, UK-IPO on +44 (0)1633 814305, email communications@ipo.gov.uk.

Date of release: 17 April 2008