Waterfowl Decoy Motion System - Patent 7975422

A waterfowl decoy motion system capable of moving a number of floating waterfowl decoys in various directions in a continuous manner.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Waterfowl decoy systems are well known to those skilled in the art. By way of illustration, reference may be had to U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,311,425 (flying waterfowl decoy system), 6,321,480 (self propelled waterfowl decoy), 6,339,893 (waterfowldecoy with separately movable wings and feet), 6,408,559 (animated waterfowl decoy apparatus), 6,412,209 (waterfowl decoy for selectively simulating feeding in water), 6,463,690 (steam jet propelled waterfowl decoy), 6,487,811 (waterfowl decoy withself-retracting anchor line), 6,643,971 (waterfowl feeding decoy), 7,117, (self-righting waterfowl decoy with integrated anchor and locking mechanism), and the like. The entire disclosure of each of these United States patents is hereby incorporated byreference into this specification. By way of further illustration, U.S. Pat. No. 6,138,396 discloses an apparatus for traveling a floating waterfowl decoy continuously around a predetermined route adjacent a surface of a body of water, According to claim 1 of this patent, thissystem comprises (a) a continuous loop of flexible line constructed of a material suitable for prolonged submersion in a body of water, (b) a plurality of line guides for movably supporting the continuous loop at a plurality of desired positions whichdefine the predetermined route, (c) a plurality of anchors, each of which is securely attached to a corresponding one of the plurality of line guides, for anchoring the line guides below the surface of the body of water at the desired positions along theroute, (d) drive means for applying a force to the loop to cause the loop to move around the predetermined route, the drive means operable to maintain continuous operation to continuously cycle the loop around the route, and (e) a decoy tether attachedto the loop for tethering a decoy to the loop. The entire