Rosbach used prominent design patent labels to deter competitors for months
Travis Rosbach · Hydro Flask: Travis Rosbach. How a thirsty surfer changed the water bottle industry · Nov 24, 2025 · at 43:50
Hydro Flask founder Travis Rosbach explains to Guy Raz how he protected his drinkware brand from competitors despite being unable to obtain a utility patent on vacuum insulation technology.
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“What we did was we design patented the design, the shapes, and the sizes of the bottles, and made sure that it was on the packaging front and center patent pending or patented. And what I found was that a lot of people who Maybe would have been competitors saw patented and they figured out, well, they've got the vacuum insulated market. We'll just leave them be. And it helped for about six or eight months that people just kind of left us alone and weren't really doing double wall vacuum insulated bottles until, oh, it's just design patent. And then they started designing around it.”
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