1 AUSTRALIA Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR A STANDARD PATENT ORIGINAL Name of Applicant(s): KATYLEA PTY LTD Actual Inventor(s): MATTHEW SULLIVAN Address for Service: FRASER OLD & SOHN Patent Attorneys PO Box 560 MILSONS POINT NSW 1565 Invention Title: A Power Board Details of Associated Provisional Applications: 2009 904 880 Dated 8 October 2009 The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to us: 5342A- AU 2 A POWER BOARD Field of the Invention The present invention relates to power boards and, in particular, to power boards 5 intended for use by travellers, however, the invention is not limited thereto. Background Art In a mains AC electricity supply, homes and other premises, such as hotel rooms, are normally supplied with general purpose outlets (or power points) to enable electrical 10 appliances to be operated. With the advent of many electrical appliances which are battery operated and draw relatively low currents, it has become necessary to re charge theses appliances, often at least daily. As a consequence of this development, power boards have become available which 15 enable the number of female sockets able to be provided by a single general purpose outlet to be expanded, typically in the ratio of up to four to one. Genesis of the Invention However, the current arrangement of appliance male pin orientations and 20 conventional power boards are often inefficient and it is the genesis of the present invention to address this inefficiency. Summary of the Invention In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention there is disclosed a power 25 board having a body with an upper surface having a plurality of female sockets each of which has a pin orientation, wherein said body has a predetermined peripheral shape with at least one geometric axis, and each of said female sockets has its pin orientation making a different angle with said body axis. 30 A method of more efficiently utilizing a power board is also disclosed. Brief Description of the Drawings A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: 5342A- AU 3 Fig. I is a front elevation of a conventional general purpose outlet and power pack of a first configuration, Fig. 2 is a similar side elevation of a differently installed prior art general purpose outlet, 5 Fig. 3 is a schematic representation of a prior art power board, Fig. 4 is a plan view of a power board in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention, and Fig. 5 is a side elevation of the power board of Fig. 1. 10 Detailed Description As seen in the drawings, a conventional general purpose outlet or GPO 1 has an on/off switch 2. Plugged into the GPO I is a plug in power pack 5 which includes a transformer (not illustrated) and a rectifier (also not illustrated) which in known fashion convert the AC mains supply voltage into a low voltage DC voltage which is 15 available on the cord 6 to recharge electrical appliances such as mobile phones, laptop computers, BLACKBERRIES (Trade Mark) and the like, which are battery powered. Indicated by broken lines in Fig. 1 is a female socket 3 which is obscured by the power pack 5. The female socket 3 has three sockets 7A, 8N and 9E which in known 20 fashion receive the active, neutral and earth pins which protrude from the power pack 5. As seen in Fig. 1, the GPO 1 is mounted well above a bench top 4, or the like, and so there is plenty of room for the power pack 5 to extend downwardly relative to the 25 female socket. It is also well known that the orientation of the sockets 7 to 9, and that of the corresponding pins to be received thereby, is determined by the supply authorities and is constant throughout a jurisdiction, or even multiple jurisdictions. Turning now to Fig. 2, a second form of GPO 11 having two female sockets 3A and 30 3B and an on/off switch 2 is mounted on a skirting board 14 and is thus adjacent a carpet 12. As a consequence of the mounting and installation of the GPO 11, the plug in power pack 5 is not able to be plugged into the GPO 11. 5342A-AU 4 The manufacturers of power packs, appreciating the abovementioned problem, have rotated the pins of the power pack 5 through 90 degrees in order to produce a modified plug in power pack 15 illustrated by broken lines in Fig. 2 which can be plugged into one or the other of the female sockets 3A, 3B of the GPO 11. However, 5 the modified power pack 15 covers over, or at least partially covers over, the other one of the female sockets 3A, 3B of the GPO 11 (or the switch 2) and accordingly both sockets 3A and 3B are not able to be used simultaneously with the modified power pack 15. 10 A further prior art development is illustrated in Fig. 3. Here the modified power pack 15 is illustrated in perspective view and in plan view is illustrated the front face of a power board 21 having four female sockets 3A to 3D. The power board 21 is connected to a conventional GPO by means of a cord 26. As indicated by a dot dash line in Fig. 3, the power board 21 can have three female sockets 3A to 3C, or as 15 indicated by a dashed line in Fig. 3, the power board 21 can have two female sockets 3A and 3B. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the geometry of the power board 21 and power pack 15, that a single power pack 15 can be plugged into the left hand 20 female socket 3A in Fig. 3, thereby allowing the remaining female sockets 3B to 3D to be used for other appliances. However, if one of those other appliances happens to be another modified power pack 15, then the following results happen. If only two female sockets 3A and 3B are provided on the power board 21, then the second modified power pack 15 cannot be plugged in at all. Alternatively, if three or four 25 female sockets 3A to 3C or 3A to 3D are provided, then if the second modified power pack 15 is plugged into the board 21 then one of the remaining female sockets will be at least partially covered and thereby rendered inoperable. With the proliferation of devices that need to be recharged, such as laptop computers, 30 mobile phones, BLACKBERRIES (Trade Mark) and other similar communication devices, IPODS (Trade Mark) and the like, the purpose of a power board, such as power board 21, is to increase the number of appliances which can be simultaneously supplied with power from a conventional GPO. Clearly, if an appliance such as a modified power pack 15 which, when plugged into the power board 21 effectively 5342A-AU 5 utilises two female sockets, then this is a very substantial inefficiency. It is also particularly galling to travellers who do not have, or wish to have, multiple power boards included in their luggage. 5 It is the amelioration of the abovementioned inefficiencies of the prior art that gave rise to the genesis to the present invention. Turning now to Figs. 4 and 5, the power board 31 of the preferred embodiment is illustrated. The board has a generally triangular configuration and is provided with 10 three female sockets 3X, 3Y and 3Z. The power board 31 is also provided with a cord 36, a USB power outlet 37, and a bezel, LED, or other type of indicator 38 which is illuminated to indicate when mains power is available at each of the three female sockets 3X to 3Z. 15 Indicated by means of a dashed line in Fig. 4 is a geometric axis 41 which, in addition to being a centre line of the power board 31, also bisects one of the corners of the triangle formed by the body 32 of the power board 31. It will be seen that in the arrangement illustrated in Fig. 4, the pin orientations of each 20 of the female sockets 3X to 3Z are different. The earth socket 9X of the female socket 3X is aligned with the axis 41, whereas the earth socket 9Y of the female socket 3Y is substantially perpendicular to the axis 41 and extends to the left as seen in Fig. 4. Conversely, the earth socket 9Z of the female socket 3Z is perpendicular to the axis 41 but extends to the right as seen in Fig. 4. As a consequence of the 25 abovedescribed arrangement, three modified power packs 15 can be plugged into the three female sockets 3X to 3Z without obscuring any other female socket and so the abovedescribed inefficiency of the prior art has been overcome. The foregoing describes only one embodiment of the present invention and 30 modifications, obvious to those skilled in the art, can be made thereto without departing from the scope of the present invention. For example, the present invention is not limited to a triangular shape and a hexagonal shape could also be used. Furthermore, the pin configurations and sizes will be different in different jurisdictions. 5342A-AU 6 In addition, the present invention is equally applicable to the arrangement of outlets of a general purpose outlet and the term "power board" as used herein should be construed to include such general purpose outlets. 5 The term "comprising" (and its grammatical variations) as used herein is used in the inclusive sense of "including" or "having" and not in the exclusive sense of "consisting only of'. 10 5342A-AU