Quickie
This cracked me up: Someone has patented two new punctuation marks.
I can understand that one can trademark new punctuation marks (if they really, really like), but in my bestest ability cannot I fathom how these could be considered patentable. It is starting to look like even art could be considered patentable. I should probably make a painting of a tree and a building and a person, and write a patent on "an invention where one embodiment depicts a tree, a building, and a person", and then sue anyone who publishes a similar picture.
Bashing the patent office (and WIPO) is tantamount to hitting a retarded person: far too easy.
(Via Joi Ito.)
Update: Phosita sets us straight - apparently the patent was only applied, but the patent was not received. Well, that's good at least. But people seem to try to patent the oddest things, like love. (But it's God's love, not people's, so it's okay.)
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Comments
Didn't Yves Klein patent a shade of blue already in the 1960s? I think it's called International Klein Blue.--Jouni K Seppänen, 29-Aug-2004
Apparently.
http://www.acquavellagalleries.com/main/artist_bio.cfm?artist_id=143
So things were screwed back then already.
--JanneJalkanen, 29-Aug-2004
In Finland you can trademark/patent/copyright a shade of color when listed along with the (types of) applications it is used with. The two most important ones are IIRC Fiskars' orange in scissors and Fazer's blue with chocolate.
Worth their while, apparently, as Fazer and Fiskars are almost always among the ten most valuable Finnish brands.
--Markus M, 30-Aug-2004
You mean *all* of them, or just one of them? There's a huge difference between trademark, patent and copyright, you know...
--JanneJalkanen, 30-Aug-2004
Are you familiar with Despair, Inc?
They humorously claim to have trademarked the :-( emoticon.
Checkit out at http://www.despair.com/demotivators/frownonthis.html
--Jim, 01-Sep-2004
But it's a trademark. I have no problems with that :-D
--JanneJalkanen, 01-Sep-2004