A major component of most big companies is the competitive evaluation. As part of one of those groups in my past, we spent lots of time picking through patents. One to ensure we won't get sued for our own designs, two to see how much room we have around the competition's patents. A simple phrase like "up to 3mm" allows us to design a part at 3.001mm that is not restricted by the patent.
As others have said, us humans have covered a lot of ground on the mechanical design side. A lot is patented. Concepts aren't as pinned down yet.
Clearly I've been thinking too small, fretting over aircraft designs that might be good for a drone, when Amazon just patented the concept of drone delivery!
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/12/politics/amazon-patent-drone-delivery/index.html
Well, drone delivery to a moving target. Such a novel idea, that's never been done before, right?
I'm honestly surprised Amazon didn't crack my idea when they tried to design a purpose-built delivery drone. Instead they came up with this big overcomplicated thing:
Amazon would patent their own boogers, so if it's possible to patent an aircraft shape I should find out soon enough. If there was a way to sell my design to them without giving it away like the automotive wiper mechanism, I'm sure they'd like to buy it.
You can patent anything (except humans, nature and math and a few other exceptions) as long as it is novel.
So patent away!
Sorry for the delay, I have been trying to withdraw from the interwebs some and become a human again. (and I just realized that this is from a long time ago so I feel even worse! How did I miss this?)
It is of some interest that Tesla had the RC patent
Here is a good place to start if you are going to do this yourself.
Classifications that would be relevant.
B64C39/024 Aircraft not otherwise provided for characterised by special use of the remote controlled vehicle type, i.e. RPV
A63H27/12 Helicopters; Flying tops
B64C2201/024 Helicopters, or autogiros
B64C2201/108 Unmanned aerial vehicles; Equipment therefor characterised by the lift producing means using rotors, or propellers
This should help you get started on your search. That is about as much help I can give you legally. Good luck.
Toyota has patented a flying car.
http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/Toyota-Files-Flying-Car-Patent-224862-1.html
DHL's got a much more elegant drone design than Amazon, a more conventional tiltwing, and they're making use of it:
https://www.wired.com/2016/05/dhls-new-drone-can-ship-packages-around-alps/
Still a good ways off from being as good as my idea, but they're on the right track, and they've figured out the vast advantage of a VTOL fixed-wing aircraft over a rotorcraft for drone delivery.
Edit: Also, Amazon has still not patented their aircraft shape as far as I can tell. Ran across this while searching around:
http://www.uavpatents.com/category/hardware-patents/drone-design/
Thread resurrection: This guy is so damn close he can taste it. He's properly identified and described the problem, which to paraphrase Einstein, is 91.7% of the way to finding the solution.
https://www.engadget.com/2017/07/07/us-army-versatile-flying-squirrel-like-drone/
Final update: The company Wingcopter figured it out - apparently not long after I did:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR_koyVE__8
For those of you who downloaded the encrypted file, the key is wqU1#zwEG0UpV9=cO6@aSUCmDd%ttQdr*0YJICXb?yFvz^vUOrW7K!$dno7L
And here is the content of the file for those who didn't. Wingcopter still used props instead of EDFs, but close enough, I won't nitpick.
Flight Service said:
You can patent anything (except ... nature... ) as long as it is novel.
Try telling Monsanto or any of the agribusiness/chemical conglomerates (or some biotech) that.
There are even companies that will claim a patent on your DNA.
Found a video of the production model in commercial use:
https://youtu.be/id00S4L0P5A
Wingcopter claims to have patented the "tilt-rotor mechanism"
https://wingcopter.com/technology/
I can't find the actual patent and there's obviously nothing novel about a movable nacelle.
