Last week a number of escape room owners let us know that a guy named Howard Cutler of ULTIMATE MOBILE ESCAPE ROOMS dropped into the Mobile Escape Room Owners Facebook group brazenly announcing that he had filed a patent on the concept of “mobile escape room” and demanding that everyone get off of his lawn.
“Ladies and Gentlemen. I have a patent pending for a Mobile Escape Room. It seems like the word ‘mobile’, gets used loosely. My Mobile Escape Room is indeed 100 percent mobile. We are not brick and mortar and we are not a trailer. We literally build the specific themes for each client, inside or outside, 100 percent turnkey system. If you are thinking or currently have a tent, pip and draping, inflatable frame, igloo or anything to make the actual room and place puzzles, locks codes or anything under the sun inside the room, you will be in violation of my patent. This is not a joke and I want each and everyone of you to be advised of this before you are thinking of pursuing this idea or may already be doing this. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to call me at 3014247114 during business hours.”
The Community Reaction
The Mobile Escape Room Owners Facebook group responded with a mix of assertive clarification of facts and mockery… both of which seem well-deserved given the circumstances.
Patent Filings Are Serious
It’s easy to look at Cutler’s poorly written declaration of war and laughable claim to ownership of the idea of mobile escape rooms as a joke. If you know anything about the history of escape rooms, this should seem utterly hilarious.
If you know anything about patent trolls, the damage they can do, and the cost involved with killing even stupid patents, you’ll know that we as a community need to take this seriously.
Based on Cutler’s statement, his refusal to answer basic questions, and a whole lot of evidence that I will lay out before you, it’s clear that to me that he is either a forum troll or a patent troll. All signs point to the latter.
My Conversation with Cutler
I called Cutler as per his posting to hear about his innovation, his intentions, and his timing.
When I finally got him on the phone a day after calling, he answered all but one of my questions by telling me that I’d have to ask his attorney.
When asked how long he had been in business, he answered, “25 years,” which was a cute response. When asked how long he had been in the escape room business… you guessed it: I had to ask his attorney.
His attorney could not be reached for comment.
About ULTIMATE MOBILE ESCAPE ROOMS
I did a bit of digging around ULTIMATE MOBILE ESCAPE ROOMS to try and learn where this company came from, and more importantly, when it came about.
All signs point to late November and early December of 2017.
Domain Records
According to the WhoIs record on the website’s domain, it was created on November 12, 2017.
Facebook Posts
A search of “ultimate mobile escape room” on Facebook brought me to Cutler’s company page ULTIMATE AMUSEMENTS. The oldest post mentioning escape rooms appears to be from December 3, 2017. There isn’t a lack of promotional content for other products on their Facebook page.
ULTIMATE MOBILE ESCAPE ROOMS’ Website
(We are purposely not linking.)
All 5 of the games listed on the ULTIMATE MOBILE ESCAPE ROOMS website are listed as “NEW.”
This further suggests that this company emerged in late Q4 2017.
IP Infringement?
When I perused ULTIMATE MOBILE ESCAPE ROOMS’ website I learned that they have a few games based on pre-existing intellectual property:
- Da Vinci Code
- Twilight Zone
- Die Hard
Cutler didn’t stay on the phone long enough for me to ask about licensing, but I do know that these licenses take a lot of time and money. I would be surprised to learn that ULTIMATE MOBILE ESCAPE ROOMS negotiated deals with the appropriate rights holders.
I’m not the IP police and I don’t get particularly worked up over the subject, but given Cutler’s IP tantrum, in this case it’s worth noting.
Pricing & Quality
It looks like ULTIMATE MOBILE ESCAPE ROOMS’ business model is fundamentally different from most escape room companies in that they seem entirely focused on setting up temporary games for large events. It would cost an incredible amount of money to play these games.
I normally never judge an escape game by photos, but a quick glance at the Facebook post from December 3rd shows what looks like a bland retread of a lot of old cliches: blacklights, book safes, and uninteresting settings.
All of this suggests that ULTIMATE MOBILE ESCAPE ROOMS and its owner are neophytes to escape rooms.
Some Mobile Escape Room Facts
We’ve been tracking the growth of the escape room industry in the United States since mid 2014, before the overwhelming majority of escape rooms even opened in this country. There are a ton of different mobile escape games in the market and plenty of different definitions of mobile.
Trailer Escape Rooms
The first branded mobile escape room that we became aware of was Mobile Room Escape in Chicago. We added this company to our map in February of 2016. It opened in 2015.
There are plenty of trailer-based games all over the United States. We first played one at the Chicago Room Escape Conference in August of 2016.
Trailer games, however, aren’t the only portable or temporary escape games on the market.
Portable Escape Rooms
Back in March of 2016 while on our honeymoon, Lisa and I played 60 Out’s Quest in a Box, a game that existed in the lobby of a brick and mortar escape room, but could be broken down and moved about.
Tent Escape Rooms
We met the guys from Mindgames Productions at the Niagara Falls Room Escape Conference in May of 2017. These guys had a tent-based product that looked similar to what Cutler claims he has recently patented.
When I reached out to the guys from Mindgames I learned that they’ve been producing these experiences since April of 2015.
Tabletop Escape Rooms
There are also tabletop games, the first of which was Escape Room in a Box, which we played back in February of 2016 as well. These games made an appearance on the floor of the very same Chicago Room Escape Conference. They could certainly classify as portable or mobile escape rooms.
Train-Based Escape Rooms
In 2017 our Canadian friends from the Room Escape Divas ran a 3 hour escape room event on a moving train.
That’s pretty mobile.
Mass Escape Events
Then there is Real Escape Games, also known as SCRAP… the first company to sell a formal room escape product. They have been running portable, traveling mass escape games for longer than escape rooms have been in the United States.
Our first visit to a traveling SCRAP event was in June of 2014. This was also my first escape room review before this website even existed.
SCRAP has produced tons of games that have temporary and portable structures that hold puzzling content.
Prior Art
A patent can be denied or invalidated if there is proof of prior art. Prior art is essentially any evidence that the patented thing existed beforehand.
Unless ULTIMATE MOBILE ESCAPE ROOMS has been a sleeper silently making these escape rooms for years without anyone knowing about it, any number of posts on this website could invalidate their claim.
Mobile escape rooms isn’t a new concept. No one holds a patent on it… and that’s fantastic. It means that the idea is out there for all of us to enjoy and iterate on.
If ULTIMATE MOBILE ESCAPE ROOMS wants to become a patent troll and declare control over the idea, they are going to have to fight a host of escape room owners who have been in the business for some time.
If the US Patent and Trade Office happens to approve this patent and start suing, give us a call. We’ll happily take the stand and testify to the variety of mobile escape rooms that exist, and have already existed, in the United States and all around the world.
Patent Pending is just that. Pending. People file them for about $100. to keep others out of the market for 1 year while they go to market. And the patent office is way backed up, so his request for clarifications will probably not even arrive in that Time. This is either trolling or just a bad idea, or both. I doubt this patent will be granted for several reasons including prior art, lack of actual unique features (people and businesses have had portable versions of practically everything – including amusements…for 1,000’s of years) and the fact that it is merely a marketing device, not a new invention. Makes me want to create a series of (much better) mobile rooms. Yuck – what buzz kill. Good luck with that Howard buddy, and I hope all those licenses you are undoubtably using illegally come after you in short order. No way properties that big are giving away 50¢ licenses for tent shows.
Correct me if I’m wrong but shouldn’t it say “copyright” on the guy’s website instead of “copywrite?” Does that make him seem even more suspect?
We need to get ahead of this and reach out to the Patent Office in advance of it being granted. The cost and effort to challenge this kind of nonsense rises significantly after the fact.
“Prior to patent issuance, a third party (“3rd party”) can anonymously (1) submit prior art in the form of a preissuance submission, (2) file a protest of an application, or (3) request a public use proceeding.” http://www.bskb.com/news/articles/documents/MAA_ETP_JPAAArticle-AttackingaUSPatentorApplicatio.pdf
While whatever claims one is likely to make in such an application are likely laughable, the Patent Office is in a pretty laughable state and has approved stupider things. Anyone with an interest in this should look carefully at a Preissuance Third Party Submission (37 C.F.R. § 1.290) to inform the examiner of prior art. Even that should be done carefully, however.
I have searched published US pending applications and there is no such thing among them. You can go directly to the USPTO (http://appft.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.html), but https://patents.google.com/ is pretty handy. Since it isn’t yet published, anyone interested should set up an alert at https://www.uspatentappalerts.com/index.php
It’s not particularly my business, but I’ve set up an alert for this one just because I hate patent trolls.
Oh, and if anyone else is interested, “Die Hard” is a 20th Century Fox property, “Twilight Zone” appears to be CBS, and “Da Vinci Code” is Dan Brown. Large properties don’t seem to care much for enforcing their rights against escape rooms (I think they’re too small) but perhaps one of them would like to hear of this company.
His first documented use of his so called patented Mobile Escape Rooms was March 2017. This is simple. The patent application is submitted. It is not public knowledge for the first 18 months. Then it gets published for public review AND protest. If you have had a mobile escape room in operation before March 2017, then please get your documentation ready. The patent office clearly states:
“You cannot get a patent if your invention has already been publicly disclosed. Therefore, a search of all previous public disclosures should be conducted. A search of foreign patents and printed publications should also be conducted. ”
The patent attorney in this case has indicated that the patent submission was only done around the beginning of November, so we have 18 months from that point until it will get published for protest. When I talked to his attorney, the attorney hadn’t even done a simple internet search to see mobile escape rooms all over the world.
EZ-UP tents are already patented and didn’t take it lightly when I told them about this attempt to control what can be placed in their patented tents. It also appears from some of his photos that he bought readily available wooden puzzles and ciphers from Creative Escape Rooms out of Florida and is now trying to say that he designed EVERYTHING in his tents. From the photos, he didn’t even change anything about the walls or ceilings for the patented tents he bought from EZ-UP tents.
I agree that he can “copyright” his script/scenario and if he invented a specific puzzle or challenge that no one invented yet, that he should be able to patent that invention. Putting store bought puzzles in a store bought pop up tent is not an invention and will easily be disputed. I’m ready!