#HTE

A Silly Innovation That I Want to Eat: The Hamdog

Here’s Australian inventor Mark Murray being openly mocked on Shark Tank last year. The sharks not only declined to fund him, but laughed at him:

Murray persisted with the Hamdog on his own, and began selling them at fairs in Australia this summer:

Somehow, the Hamdog went viral. This week everyone from the BBC to CNET, from Reddit to CNBC picked up on Murray’s invention. If you’re part of any food-based groups on Facebook you’ve probably seen it come across your feed.

Murray patented the bun in the ‘States back in 2009. These are the most awesome patent drawings ever:

On Hamdog’s Facebook page, commenters suggested that Murray had ripped off the Hamdog, insisting that it had been invented in 2005 by American Chandler Goff. We looked into it and found Goff’s invention to be significantly different:

It appears that only the name is the same. Should conflict arise, it ought be a simple matter for one party to call theirs a Hotburger.

Murray is currently seeking Hamdog franchisees. I can just about guarantee that if somebody starts selling these in New York City, there’s going to be a line around the block. People are still queuing up for those Cronuts, for chrissakes.