In the next few days, many of us will celebrate the new year with fireworks, confetti, and champagne. As you prepare for this Sunday night, keep in mind that many of the celebratory New Years Eve products are, in fact, patented innovations. Below is a short list of some New Years patents that we found to be fun and interesting.

U.S. Patent No. 8,936,503
Mobile Celebration Device
January 20, 2015

Have you ever seen the prominent ball drop in New York’s Times Square on New Years Eve, either on television or in person? Well, now you can carry your very own celebratory ball everywhere you go this New Year’s Eve with the Mobile Celebration Device disclosed in this patent. An illuminated, timed decending ball is mounted to a base that can take the form of a pair of eye glasses, a hat, tiara, or ring. An electrical motor will control the decent of the ball down a post via batteries and mechanical drive assemblies. The device can visually resemble the Times Square ball and can be synchronized to drop at midnight on New Years Eve. Other features, such as colored or flashing LED’s, decorative elements including stationary lights assembled to form numbers representing a year, such as 2018, or letters to form celebratory words, such as ‘Happy New Year, ‘ can be incorporated to enhnance the device.

U.S. Patent No. 6,572,435
Controllable Confetti Launcher
June 3, 2003

I think we can all agree that no New Years Eve celebration is complete without confetti! This patent discloses a Controllable Confetti Launcher that includes a housing for storing the confetti, a rotatable actuator attached to the housing, and a spring biased movable member disposed within an interior of the housing for ejecting the confetti. The movable member is positionable between a locked position and a position where it is free to move. Upon actuation, a spring releases its stored energy on the movable member, thereby ejecting the confetti from the housing. For example, in order to discharge the confetti, as shown in the drawing, a user will rotate the actuator relative to the housing until the spring is released, thereby displacing the movable member. This applies a force to the confetti and results in the confetti being ejected from the housing, perferably in celebratory fashion on New Years Eve, of course.

U.S. Patent No. 8,376,161
Novelty Associated with Beverages
February 19, 2013

This patent is directed to a fun novelty cork or stopper that will almost certainly enhance any celebration, particularly on New Years Eve. The stopper can be used to seal just about any type of pressurized bottle, including, for example, a bottle of sparkling wine or champagne. In some instances, confetti, ribbon or other like material is stuffed or packed inside a hollow chamber within the bottle stopper. The bottom of the hollow chamber is temporarilty closed or sealed off with a disk made of natural cork material to isolate the confetti from the beverage. As shown in the drawings, when the stopper is removed from the bottle, the cork disk will separate, and the confetti or other material will be ejected from the hollow chamber.

U.S. Patent No. 9,409,100
Confetti Popper
August 9, 2016

This patent describes another confetti launcher or “Confetti Popper” that begins with a quantity of confetti (e.g., confetti paper, strings, sparkles, tissue paper, reflective items, streamers, etc.) stored within a elongated cylindrical or other shaped body. In this device, an expandable membrane, such as a balloon, is inflated within the body until a certain amount of pressure is developed. In many cases, an air pump is either permanently or removably attached to the balloon at its inflation end, allowing for manual inflation of the balloon via a hand or foot pump. As the balloon is inflated, it grows or expands on the inside of the body, increasing the pressure with each pump. The increased pressure will eventually cause a cover to be forcefully released, ruptured or broken from the body, while simultaneously ejecting or popping the confetti.