This is my thirteenth IEOR 190G Blog Post.
This time I will be talking about Silly Patents. Following some research, it is amazing to see how many crazy patents have been awarded! In this first post I would like to show you some Patents which are completely legitimate but are pretty silly in terms of what their uses may be.
The first patent is titled:Patent Acquisition and Assertion by a (Non-Inventor) First Party Against a Second Party
This patent basically outlines how to be a Patent Troll. Even as legitimate this patent may be due to lack of prior art, in 2008 it seems to me that any Person of Ordinary Skill in the Art (POSITA) dealing with patent law would be well aware of how to conduct this practice! Aside from the fact that trying to patent a method to assert patent infringement as a non-inventor seems quite ludicrous to me.
The second patent is titled:Light bulb changer
Jokes aside this is a very novel machine and there is no prior art making it un-patentable. However, I would like to call the practicality of this invention into cause. Is this machine really useful? How is having a huge contraption permanently taking up significant space on the floor that changes light-bulbs for you when they run out once every couple of MONTHS? Seems pretty silly to me!
The third patent is:Frameless glasses attaching to body piercing studs
This patent is for eyeglasses that attach to a body-piercing either on your nose or eyebrows. This invention is novel and not by any means obvious! however, at the same time who would ever use them? The weight of the glasses seem to be a safety issue as there is a risk of ripping a piercing off of your face! Quite silly!
That's all for this first blog post and as always, feel free to watch the video below for a discussion on the above!
Oliviero,
ReplyDeleteNice post on silly patents, the patents you chose were quite funny and made me laugh (especially the light build changer LOL!!) This makes me wonder about how these patents actually get signed on for and what is the actual use for a patent if you can just throw it at anything. Granted that these people definitely have ideas and have thought about them, but a light bulb changer?? Come on! I think it is pretty reflective of the patent system as a whole as granting more for effort of writing your ideas down and drawing diagrams as opposed to actually making a good idea.
Awesome work! I especially loved the fact that you gave a lot of personal opinion and insight into these patents, in addition to a brief description/overview of the patents. It was also very entertaining to read this post because you used really effective formatting that highlighted the key details. Good work!
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