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Five idiotic patents you've never heard of |
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Written by Felix Da Silva (fdasilva@bitnip.com)
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Thursday, 14 February 2008 |
 The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued over seven million patents but it doesn't mean all of them are brilliant. Here are five patents that Purple Slinky found that makes you wonder why they were patented in the first place.
Here are two of my favourites from Purple Slinky's five idiotic patents:
U.S. Patent No.1,493,222: Feces Scale
A weighing device especially adapted for weighing feces as excreted...” “The
operation is obvious. After the feces are deposited a reading is made. Then to
wash the tray, the finger is pressed down on the cap 18 and the closet
simultaneously flushed.
U.S. Patent No. 3,150,831: Birthday Cake Candle Extinguisher
This invention concerns a candle extinguisher particularly adapted for
extinguishing lighted candles on birthday cakes and the like. These patents are not only silly but the scope of the patent is so narrow that it really only protects the exact product and not quite the 'invention'... whatever it is.
Oh well, it's good for a laugh.
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