Amazon wins patent for Treasure Truck as it makes plans to expand beyond Seattle

Treasure Truck
When the Treasure Truck is opened up, customers see a flashy array of signs. (GeekWire Photo)

If you’re thinking about building a knockoff of Amazon’s Treasure Truck, the funky delivery vehicle for flash deals ranging from cameras to candy, consider yourself warned: The design is now patented.

The patent was issued today, covering the ornamental design for the heavily modified Isuzu cab-over truck. The truck is typically stocked several times a month with one or two types of discounted goodies and makes deliveries to a few locations in the Seattle area.

The Treasure Truck been compared to an ice cream truck for grownups: Amazon app users can get alerts about the deals on their smartphones, but once all the goods are spoken for, that’s it. (Today’s deal, offering two pounds of wild Dungeness crab for $35, is already sold out.)

Earlier this month, the truck made a rare pilgrimage to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show.

The patent lays out a series of sketches for the truck’s boxy back end, festooned with electronic display strips. The filing also covers the marquee sign on the top of the cab, and cites GeekWire’s “First Look” story as part of the documentation.

Treasure Truck patent
The Treasure Truck patent covers the marquee sign on top of the cab. (Amazon Illustration via USPTO)
Treasure Truck patent
The patent focuses on the truck’s display-festooned delivery box. (Amazon Illustration via USPTO)

For what it’s worth, we now know the official inventors of the truck design: Sherman Griffin, Samuel Pike Hall VI and Douglas James Herrington, all based in Seattle. Their patent application was filed on April 17, 2015, two months before the truck was first spotted on city streets.

Will more Treasure Trucks roam the streets of cities beyond Seattle?

Amazon hasn’t said anything officially yet, but it’s looking for a product manager to identify which cities are ripe for the picking and oversee the expansion plan. There’s also an opening for a senior business development manager to deal with Treasure Truck real estate issues.

So it sounds as if the answer is yes.

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