FYI:
Dewar refused to patent his invention.
[1]
Dewar's design was quickly transformed into a commercial item in 1904 as two German glassblowers, Reinhold Burger and Albert Aschenbrenner, discovered that it could be used to keep cold drinks cold and warm drinks warm.
[2][3] The Dewar flask design had never been patented but the German men who discovered the commercial use for the product renamed it "
Thermos," and subsequently claimed both the rights to the commercial product and the trademark to the name. In his subsequent attempt to claim the rights to the invention, Dewar instead lost a court case to the company.
[4] The manufacturing and performance of the Thermos bottle was significantly improved and refined by the Viennese inventor and merchant Gustav Robert Paalen, who designed various types for domestic use, which he also patented, and distributed widely, through his Thermos Bottle Companies in the United States and Canada. The name later became a
genericized trademark after the term "thermos" became the household name for such a liquid container.
[2] The vacuum flask went on to be used for many different types of scientific experiments and the commercial “Thermos” was transformed into a common item. "Thermos" remains a
registered trademark in some countries, but it was declared a genericized trademark by court action in the United States in 1963, since it had become colloquially synonymous with vacuum flasks in general. However, there are other vacuum flasks.
