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Gene Bachman

Mechanical designer and product developer with more than ten years of engineering and product-development experience.

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Professional Photograph

Reserved for an approved professional photo of Gene Bachman.

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Biography

A career built around mechanical problem-solving

Placeholder — draft biography Gene Bachman is a mechanical designer and product developer with more than ten years of engineering and product-development experience. His background spans mechanical design, prototyping, and hands-on product iteration across multiple industries. This section is a placeholder pending an approved short biography and should be replaced with his own words before the site goes live.

Read more about how the linkage technology came about in the design history below, or connect with Gene directly.

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Design History

From an ATV seat mechanism to a prosthetic-knee prototype

The following outlines the general path the technology has taken. It reflects Gene Bachman's own account of the project's development and is not independently verified.

  1. Origin: Adjustable ATV Seat-Height Mechanism

    Gene worked through a multi-link approach to adjusting seat height on an ATV, using a connected set of links and pivots to create a controlled, repeatable motion path — later issued as U.S. Patent 10,328,822.

  2. Recognizing a Broader Motion Principle

    Gene identified that the same linkage principle used for the seat mechanism could potentially describe other controlled motion paths, including human joint movement — later issued as the broader U.S. Patent 11,059,395.

  3. Early Prosthetic-Knee Concept

    Gene began studying an existing six-link reference mechanism used in prosthetic-knee designs and explored whether a reduced-link version could achieve a comparable motion path.

  4. 3D-Printed Prototype

    An early physical prototype of the reduced-link prosthetic-knee concept was built using 3D printing to test the mechanical motion path.

  5. Current Stage: Early Development & Partner Outreach

    Next EV To Do is now seeking engineering evaluation, co-development opportunities, manufacturing relationships, and licensing conversations across four-link mechanism applications beyond the original prosthetic-knee prototype.

Documentation

Issued Patents

Gene Bachman holds two issued U.S. utility patents, individually (no company assignee), covering the linkage principle behind Next EV To Do's technology.

US 10,328,822

Adjustable Seat and Support System

Inventor: Eugene Edward Bachman. Filed May 24, 2013 · issued June 25, 2019. Covers the original adjustable ATV seat-height mechanism — the project's starting point.

View full patent on Google Patents
US 11,059,395

Position Changing System

Inventor: Eugene Edward Bachman. Filed June 25, 2019 · issued July 13, 2021. Generalizes the concept into a three-link, three-pivot system intended to replace traditional four-link parallelogram mechanisms.

View full patent on Google Patents
On scope: These patent numbers, titles, and inventorship are independently verified as of this writing. What is not independently verified here is the exact legal boundary of the claims — whether they would be read by a court to cover any specific product a partner is considering (a garden shears, a door hinge, etc.) is a legal question for qualified patent counsel, not something this website determines. The examples illustrated in the patent drawings below are the examples the patents themselves use — they are not a promise that every four-link mechanism is covered. Also note: neither patent's drawings depict a prosthetic-knee embodiment specifically. The prosthetic-knee prototype is Gene Bachman's own extension of the same three-link principle, not one of the illustrated claims.
From the Patent Drawings

Selected figures, as filed

These are the original, official drawing sheets from the two patents above (self-hosted from the public USPTO/Google Patents record, at their native low-resolution scan quality — click through to Google Patents for the full document). Each is labeled with its actual FIG. number and whether it's the patent's "prior art" comparison or the invention.

US 10,328,822 FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, side views of the adjustable ATV seat mechanism
US 10,328,822 — FIG. 3 & 4
Adjustable seat mechanism
US 10,328,822 FIG. 9, the adjustable seat mechanism mounted on an ATV
US 10,328,822 — FIG. 9
Mounted on an ATV
US 11,059,395 FIG. 4, the mechanism applied to a vehicle seat
US 11,059,395 — FIG. 4
Vehicle seat application
US 11,059,395 FIG. 3A, prior art four-link basketball hoop mount
US 11,059,395 — FIG. 3A (prior art)
Conventional basketball hoop mount
US 11,059,395 FIG. 3C, the invention's linkage system replacing the basketball hoop mount
US 11,059,395 — FIG. 3C
Same mount, patented version
US 11,059,395 FIG. 10A, prior art four-link camera mount vertical stabilizer
US 11,059,395 — FIG. 10A (prior art)
Conventional camera-mount stabilizer
US 11,059,395 FIG. 10B, the patented linkage system replacing the camera mount stabilizer
US 11,059,395 — FIG. 10B
Same stabilizer, patented version
US 11,059,395 FIG. 13A, prior art four-link robotic arm positioning mechanism
US 11,059,395 — FIG. 13A (prior art)
Conventional robotic-arm linkage
US 11,059,395 FIG. 13C, perspective view of the patented linkage system applied to a robotic arm
US 11,059,395 — FIG. 13C
Same arm, patented version
US 11,059,395 FIG. 14C, the patented linkage system applied to a forward-thrusting scissors mechanism
US 11,059,395 — FIG. 14C
Scissors mechanism

The FIG. 14C scissors embodiment is also referenced on the Applications page alongside the garden-shears worked example.

Connect

Interested in learning more about the project?

Next EV To Do welcomes conversations with engineers, manufacturers, researchers, and licensing professionals.

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