The University of Alaska owns the look of a Fairbanks man's pliers

Timothy Illguth of Fairbanks designed a pair of pliers. The University of Alaska owns what they look like for the next 15 years.

The patent office granted the design on Sept. 8, from an application filed in March 2025. A design patent covers only ornamental appearance, not how a tool works, and the entire claim here is to "the ornamental design for pliers as shown and described." The university, not Illguth, holds the rights.

What happens next is up to UAF's Office of Intellectual Property and Commercialization, which decides whether to try to bring the design to market. Under the university's Innovator's Handbook, an inventor takes the first $10,000 and half of net proceeds after that, subject to the terms of employment. If the university decides not to commercialize it, the pliers revert to Illguth.