NE AATCC Annual Golf Outing & Banquet - June 20th

The New England Chapter of the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists Golf Outing & Banquet will be Friday June 20, 2014, with golf at the Cranston Country Club, Cranston, R.I. and banquet at the Venus de Milo Restaurant, Swansea, Mass. For more information contact Heidi Carvalho, Director of Business Development, Rothtec, at HCarvalho@rothtec.com.

Wool Rules Changes Explained

Yesterday the U.S. Federal Trade Commission announced approval of final changes to its Wool Products Labeling Rules ("Wool Rules"). The changes will go into effect 30 days after publication in the Federal Register, which is expected to take place within a few days.

Clients of Agathon Associates and subscribers to Agathon Associates' Trade Advisor may view an annotated version of the announced changes by CLICKING HERE and scrolling down to the link "Revised Rules Effective Mid-2014 (Annotated by Agathon Associates)." You will need to enter your username and password. If you do not know your username and password email David Trumbull at david@agathonassociates.com. The document contains the full text of the FTC Federal Register notice in the left column with running commentary in the form of explanatory notes by David Trumbull in the right column.

ATHM Reception in New York City

ATHM will be hosting a reception at the New-York Historical Society on Monday, June 9, 2 p.m. - 4 p.m., celebrating ATHM's critically acclaimed 2012 traveling exhibition, Homefront & Battlefield: Quilts & Context in the Civil War, which is currently on view at the New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West in New York City.

Celebrating the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War, Homefront & Battlefield uses quilts, textiles, clothing, and other artifacts to connect deeply moving and insightful personal stories about the war, its causes, and its aftermath with the broader national context and public history. Read the New York Times review of the exhibition.

Please RSVP to Sally Gould at sgould@athm.org or 978.441.0400 x241 if you would like to attend the New York reception.

FTC Approves Final Amendments to Wool Products Labeling Rules

The Federal Trade Commission has approved final changes to its Wool Products Labeling Rules ("Wool Rules") that clarify and update the Rules, provide more flexibility to industry, and align several provisions with recent amendments to the Textile Fiber Products Identification Act Rules ("Textile Rules").

The agency now has amended the Rules to conform with the 2006 amendments to the Wool Act and the amended Textile Rules. The changes include incorporating the Wool Act’s new definitions for cashmere and very fine wools, clarifying descriptions of products containing virgin or new wool, and allowing certain hang-tags disclosing fiber trademarks and performance even if they do not disclose the product’s full fiber content. The changes will become effective 30 days after the notice is published in the Federal Register.

Children’s Pajamas Recalled by Empress Arts Due to Violation of Federal Flammability Standards

Name of product: Children’s Pajamas

Hazard: The pajamas fail to meet federal flammability standards for children’s sleepwear, posing a risk of burn injuries to children.

Consumer Contact: Empress Arts toll-free at (844) 295-8181 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT daily or online at www.empressarts.com Then click on “Product Recall” for more information.

Units: About 1,400

Description: This recall involves Empress Arts 100 percent cotton children’s two-piece pajamas sets, sold in boys and girls sizes 12 mos. to toddler size 4. The pajama sets were sold in four styles: Blue Dot, Blue Stripe, Pink Dot and Pink Floral. “Empress Arts” is on a label at the back of the neck of the tops and the center back of the waist on the bottoms which have an elastic waistband and drawstring.

Incidents/Injuries: None reported

Remedy: Consumers should take the pajamas away from children and return them to Empress Arts for a $36 online credit at www.empressarts.com plus free shipping.

Sold at: Children’s boutiques nationwide and online at www.empressarts.com from December 2012 to April 2014 for about $36.

Manufacturer: Empress Arts Ltd. of Valencia, Calif.

Manufactured in: China

How to Protect Your Apple Device Against a "Ransomware" Attack

By now you have probably seen news accounts of users of iPhones or iPads getting locked out of their devices with a ransom demand for release. I have read several online reports and I believe that the best advise I have found is that from Jonny Evans of Computerworld, which may be found at blogs.computerworld.com/cybercrime-and-hacking/23953/how-defend-against-apples-oleg-pliss-icloud-attack.

Catching Up

Since I am still behind on publishing the patent summaries, this week I will again focus on the issued patents.

Below is a summary of selected patents that have been recently issued in textile related classification codes:

Towel:   The towel wraps around the shoulders and upper part of the body and is secured to the user. The towel has pockets for placement of accessories, wristbands and a releasable neck strap for assisting in safely securing the towel to the user.  Patent #: 8640262.  Inventor:  Rossi.  Not Assigned.

Cap which utilizes an airfoil effect for inducing cooling:  A baseball cap with a second smaller bill under the main bill of a cap.  This creates a gap from the front to the back between the two bills, the two bills create a curved shape that acts like an airfoil and allows the free flow of air over a wearer's forehead, inducing a cooling effect. Patent #: 8640264.  Inventor:  Ramer.  Not Assigned.

Protective hood:  A protective hood with a modified gas exhaust system that inhibits ambient gas from entering through the exhaust system.  Patent #:  8640265.  Inventor:  Duncan.  Assignee:  Scott Technologies, Inc.

Disulfide or thiol polymeric hair dyes:  A dye structure consisting of a polymeric backbone, a chromophore, and least one sulfide covalently bound to the backbone.  containing compound. Very good dyeing results are obtained with disulfide moieties.  Dye formulations are included.  Effective as a wool dye.  Patent #:  8641783.  Inventor:  Marquais-Bienewald, et.al.  Assignee:  BASF, Se

Method and product for manufacturing vulcanized footwear or cupsole footwear:  A vulc style and cupsole style shoe that includes a midsole that is directly attached to the upper. In the method of manufacturing the footwear, polyurethane or other material for providing cushioning to the footwear is either injected between the upper and outsole or poured onto the outsole and the upper is traversed over the outsole so as to define the mold for defining the midsole. The polyurethane is directly attached to the upper and adhered to the outsole/cupsole.  Patent #:  8640291.  Inventor:  Fleming.  Assignee:  Pierre Andre Senizergues.

Device for attaching a flexible clothing in a textile machine:  A device that attaches a flexible fabric in the form of a strip to a card flat bar of a revolving card flat.  The device has press rams to assist in take up of the fabric. Patent #:   8640309.   Inventor:  Ott and Schatzmann.  Assignee:  Maschinenfabrik Rieter Ag

Sport footwear:  A shoe with a sole, a double-crossbow shaped elastic structure, and upper and lower walls.  The elastic structure is placed in the sole so as to elastically react under the weight of a foot. An element extends from one of the walls and is suitable for going into abutment against the opposite wall when the crossbow structure is not compressed.  Patent #:   8640361.  Inventor:  Testa, et.al.   Assignee:  Lotto Sport Italia S.P.A.

Article of footwear with embedded orthotic devices:  A shoe with an integrated orthotics system that provides support with progressive resistance in pronation and supenation motions of the foot during walking. Patent #:  8640363.  Inventor:  Hsu.  Not Assigned.

Knitwear with a perforated structure and method for producing said knitwear:  A method for producing knitwear formed at least partially as single jersey knitwear with a perforated structure with very fine knitting stitches and perforated structures with large holes meeting demands of sportswear and underwear. The knitwear is produced on a double jersey knitting machine with oppositely disposed needle carriers and a machine gauge of >24 needles/inch. The needle number/inch of the transfer needles is at most half that of the latch-type needles of the first needle carrier. The transfer needles form loop accumulations with at least one tuck loop per hole subsequently transferred with or without at least one knitting stitch from the transfer needles onto the latch-type needles.  Patent #: 8640503.  Inventor:  Kunde, et.al.  Assignee:  Terrot Gmbh

Airbag fabric and airbag:  An airbag module ensuring that when an airbag fabricated from fabric composed of a polyamide yarn excellent in heat resistance is deployed by an inflator gas, the deployment occurs without loss of the gas and an excessive amount of generated gas is not necessary, as a result, the inflator is reduced in weight, and the airbag module of the present invention comprises an airbag fabric composed of a polyamide yarn, wherein the air permeability of the fabric under a pressure of 200 kPa is from 10 to 200 cc/cm²/sec and in the thermal stress of the constituent yarn as measured under the conditions of an initial load of 0.02 cN/dtex, a yarn length of 25 cm and a temperature rise rate of 80° C./min, the summed thermal stress of the total of the warp yarn and the weft yarn at 230° C. is from 0.33 to 1.20 cN/dtex.  Patent #:  8642489.  Inventor:  Ise.  Assignee:  Asahi Kasei Fibers Corporation

Bra cup with an air bag:  A heat tolerant airbag for a bra cup that can be mounted in the cup before hot molding or embossing.   Patent #:  8641475.  Inventor:  Hung-Ming.  Not Assigned.

Jim Carson is a principal of RB Consulting, Inc. and a registered patent agent.  He has over 30 years of experience across multiple industries including the biotechnology, textile, computer, telecommunications, and energy sectors.  RB Consulting, Inc. specializes in providing management, prototyping, and regulatory services to small and start-up businesses.  He can be reached via email at James.Carson.Jr@gmail.com or by phone at (803) 792-2183.