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Patently Obvious

A list of 25 words by sionnach.

About

What kind of future are the nation's inventors cooking up for us? Here's a glimpse of that brave new world, courtesy of freepatentsonline.com.

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  • reesetee commented on the list patently-obvious

    Brilliant list idea, sionnach! And yet the items on the list terrify me....

    January 14, 2009

  • sionnach commented on the list patently-obvious

    They are terrifying indeed. Four or five in a session is as many as I can manage. Then the blank existential despair takes over.

    Fish. Despair.

    Despair. Fish.

    January 22, 2009

  • bilby commented on the list patently-obvious

    Try sea-kittens to reduce despair levels.

    January 22, 2009

  • reesetee commented on the list patently-obvious

    Sea kittens are too squishy. They make me sad.

    January 23, 2009

  • sionnach commented on the list patently-obvious

    Necessity is the mother of invention. And invention, it turns out, is the mother of litigation.

    Court dockets are clogged with lawsuits filed by "Patent Trolls" -- persons who obtain patents solely for the purpose of launching infringement suits. This term -- reportedly coined in 1991 by Peter Detkin, former general counsel of Intel -- is, of course, highly informal. In technical legalese, trolls are known as "Non-Practicing Entities."

    Adam Freedman; Vocabula Review, March 2009

    March 22, 2009