Shelving designs
which include no visible provision for resistance to racking (side-to-side movement) make me nervous.
Both of these units could easily have included a stretcher placed on edge beneath one or more of the shelves . . . it would seem. The brass fasteners in the first instance are nice looking -- and tightenable ?
In the US, you can file a...
In the US, you can file a provisional application in order to establish an early filing date before you file your regular patent app. Once a provisional is filed, you have one year to file a regular non-provisional application based on it; if you don't file within a year, you lose the provisional's early date.
Provisional applications were introduced to the US in the early 90s, so if the OP's shelves are older than that, the provisional patent number is from some other country's patent office (where "provisional" might mean something different than it does in the US).
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