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Tornado in a Can
geyser writes "What stuff matters more than a device that can tear things apart? Frank Polifka has a patent on his Windhexe device that creates a tornado force wind. Besides pulverizing concrete, it can pulverize small objects including jelly fish, and chicken feet without destroying the organic compounds. The chickens don't like it. Is this really a prototype Quake weapon? I could only find newspaper articles about the device. Has anyone seen it in action and can you give us a first hand report?"
This again proves that it's not a degree or an education, but thinking outside the box that will move technology forward.
Fantasy remains a human right; we make in our measure and in our derivative mode... -- JRR Tolkien
Things such as this are what the patent system was designed for. This is a legitimate 'new' device that performs a 'new' function that was previously unavailable - and it deserves a patent.
Of course, someone will hook it up to a computer and obtain a new patent for 'Method of using a tornado in a can with a computer'
Oh well, something may never change.
It does not matter what you do, it's wrong.
I believe some landfills use waste methane to produce power. Perhaps by pulverizing waste and feeding it into a digester you could produce enough power to smash the waste in the first place? =) And the remaining byproduct could be sold as cheap fertilizer.
Certainly no-one aware of the problems associated with prion diseases will want more mechanically reclaimed meat.
The alternative is even more stifling.
The inventor - seeing that his invention could too easily be copied by a large multinational - decides not to risk money for nothing, but instead goes back to his real job, farming.
No invention. No innovation.
We see a lot of this kind of behavior in the software industry today. Microsoft has made such a business of stealing other people's useful ideas, there isn't much innovation left anymore - outside of the hundreds of freeware grad-student projects that makes up the backbone of Gnu/Open Source/Linux.
Now I am not defending the joke software patents have become either, where adding "...with a computer!" is considered "innovation" by our rubber stamp patent office. But some degree of protection is needed, including both a comment period and a looser pays system for claims.
Effectively the problem with patents is twofold:
1] It is too easy to get a bogus patent, with which you can bully people who don't have the legal resources to fight your ludicrous claim.
2] It is too easy for large companies to simply ignore small patents, knowing that judges are very reluctant to enforce the law against them (it's not just Microsoft that gets this kind of special treatment, Intel is famous for this).