The Conveyor Belt

In April 1958, «Mawaru Genroku Zushi» opened in front of the station at Fuse in Osaka. The idea came from the conveyor belt in a beer factory, and it took ten years to turn that into restaurant equipment. The device was registered in 1962 as a utility model — legally a utility model, though both the restaurant and its commemorative stone call it a patent. And the year after the right expired in 1978, Kappa Sushi started up; six years later, Kura Sushi and Sushiro. The same thing that happened with the razor and its blades. The moment the enclosure lifts, the model belongs to the industry. This is the second time on this map that intellectual property expiring makes a whole industry explode.