PTO Requests Working Model of Warp Drive

aborchers writes "According to Patently-O: Patent Law Blog, the PTO has requested a working model of a Warp Drive for which a patent was recently applied. From the article, "Among other rejections, the Examiner has asserted a rejection under 35 U.S.C. 101 for lack of utility -- finding that the invention is inoperable." At least one examiner is paying attention!"

Comments

Wont they be suprised...

[Anonymous Coward]

If they actually turn something in..

Re:Wont they be suprised...

[Spy der Mann]

If they actually turn something in..

Then I wouldn't be surprised if the inventor begins with "Greetings, hoomans!"

Re:Wont they be suprised...

[Keebler71]

More so when you read the fine print and realize that the patent was filed by 3D Realms!

About darn time they paid attention.

[AltGrendel]

Now I've got some time to finish mine.

Re:About darn time they paid attention.

[skoaldipper]

Yeah, I remember that show. I have all the seasons on DVD with the director's cut and interviews. The funny thing is, in 842 they originally had MacGyver using an old snake skin and banana peel instead, but for some strange reason, all the working prototypes in rehersal kept transporting the MacGyver crew on location to the Quantum Leap studios instead.

Re:About darn time they paid attention.

[Foo2rama]

I thought he ended up in some warped reality, fighting Egyptian gods...

I have a working model.

[kote-men-do]

I have a working model, but unfortunately it's stranded a couple of galaxies away. I can give you directions though, would that suffice?

Actually let them patent it now

[argoff]

.... that way we won't get harrassed with frivolous lawsuits when it becomes a reality 20 years + down the road.

Essay: A Violent Protest Against Patents

Re:Actually let them patent it now

[tomhudson]

I was going to say the same thing, but it doesn't matter.

The warp drive will not be used down on earth, and will probably not even be constructed planetside (and if it is, it is more likely to be built in Chana than the US anyways), so it will be outside the USPTOs jurisdiction.

My rights online

[Musteval]

Thank you for this useful insight into my online rights. Keep up the good work, slashdot! :)

Re:j public requests release from corepirate nazis

[JustNiz]

spelling:0 composition:0 see me.

So this is how he makes his $$$

[JoeGee]

Warp engine designer: it's nice to see the time cube guy has a day job.

Legal Action

[turtleAJ]

Hello Earthlings,

I'd like to inform you, that ony of my many clients has in posession the MWOCPT titles to all kinds of warp drives. I think that if you where to see the patent, you'd understand we've got everything covered. Obviously, you (Earth) haven't developed gravity control yet... so, because of evolutionary "process" clauses in the Federation, we can't show you the patent. Besides... it's a 18.65TB PDF.

It's quite obvious that all your human efforts will fail, until you attaint a little bit of element 115. I'll leave you with that. Just so you know, the Orion Confederation doesn't take lightly to violations of Intellectual Property.

Thank you very much for your attention, and I hope this doesn't repeat itself,

-Stitch
Presently @ MilkyWay.Sol.3 (aka, Planet Earth)

BTW: If you want to survive the next galactical gravity fabric quake, we suggest you hurry up your nanotechnology advances...

Re:Legal Action

[jimm]

This has to be a fake. The email address should end with @3.Sol.MilkyWay, not @MilkyWay.Sol.3.

Dumb question

[Bombula]

Here's a dumb question from a non-lawyer: how long do patents last? Forever? I ask because if a patent only lasts 15 or 50 or 100 years or whatever, what sense does it make to patent something - even if it's essentially just an idea - if your protection is likely to expire before you take anything to market?

Re:Dumb question

[cpt kangarooski]

For patents being filed now, they last 20 years from the date they were filed. This is plenty of time to get to market, and remember that you may be able to make improvements and get patents on them so that even when the first patent runs out, you've moved on and your competitors are still in a less advantageous position. Likewise, the reputation you build while you have the patent can provide you with an advantage in the future. For example, patents on drugs such as prozac or viagra will eventually expire, making generics available, but many people will stick with the brand-names they're used to, even if they have to pay more for exactly the same thing.

Proposal

[m33p]

Dear Friend, I am Mr Andrew Peter Worsley and I have an important business proposition for you. On December 12th, 2001, while testing my Warp Drive (patent pending) transport, the ship was stranded in Galaxy N37 due to technical difficulties. The patent office is now demanding that I show it to them before they will approve my patent. But unfortunately, I spent my last penny developing the prototype! As you can see, this patent would be very valuable, and recovering my ship would be a good business investment. I am currently lookinging for investors to gather the $35,273,000 needed to recover the ship. etc, etc, etc... Awaiting your urgent reply. Thanks and regards.

Re:Proposal

[Anonymous Coward]

Fortunately I just got some emails from some very nice people in Africa that have a large sum of money they are willing to split with me. Maybe I should hook them up.

Some common sense in the patent office?

[Opportunist]

Well, it's nice to see that at least someone applied some brain before passing a patent. Unfortunately, it's not always so easy.

My guess is that normally, the patent clercs simply shake their heads, say "don't understand it, but since they wanna patent it, it's prolly working" and pass it. In this case, though, at least "warp drives" are so well known to be science fiction and far from a working model, that it rang someone's alarm bell.

I wonder, though, if a quantum singularty drive would have been shot down as well. It's not really common knowledge anymore that those don't work (yet) either. Worse yet, they won't be used in Federation starships.

I really sometimes wonder what kind of approval course a patent has to go before becoming patent. Does anyone who has a clue take a look at all?

Solution

[hool5400]

Just call it a software warp drive, or even just include the word software somewhere in the application. Just watch the bastard fly throught the application process.

I like the part in the technical example

[HotNeedleOfInquiry]

Where you rotate a superconductive sphere 1 meter in diameter 1,500,000 rpm. That'll work.

I bet that

[g0bshiTe]

that clerk is a /. reader.

Re:Too bad...

[Daniel Dvorkin]

Just what I was thinking -- I'd really like to see the PTO require working models of all "inventions" submitted for patent, and while I'm as pleased to see this frivolous application rejected as I would be any other, I can't help be a bit bothered by the double standard involved. "Silly, unworkable, sci-fi-inspired idea probably filed as a joke? Forget it, pal. Silly, unworkable, b-school-inspired idea layered in suit-speak? No problem!"

have the rules changed?

[the_wesman]

hi - at my company, we hold a lot of patents. In fact, there's a program in which people at the company can submit patent ideas and our legal department checks them out and sees if they exist/are viable/etc. I submitted one last year (that already existed - damn) and while speaking with one of the lawyers he mentioned, quite empatically, that whatever is being patented does not actually have to exist. According to him, you can patent a process or software or hardware that has no working proof of concept. I think the idea of submitting a patent on something that can never exist is pretty lame, but on the other hand, I don't think that people should be allowed to call dibs on patents just so they can wait for somebody else to do the work and then sue them. It's tough to find a same medium. how close is too close (or too far) from the realization of an idea for it to be patented?

Re:j public requests release from corepirate nazis

[Bazzalisk]

What's that skip? Timmy's trapped down the well?

Re:At the Bottom of the Gravity Well

[Alien54]

You're confusing this real warp drive with fictional hyperspace and warp drives. Assuming this one is real; this at least is a real design even if it does not work.

Of course, it a cobbling together of parts in an imagined configuration, borrowed for a well known fictional source, without having actually invented any of the needed sub components, except for the usual nuts, bolts, screws, etc. But not really. There is not real confusion, as the concerns from fiction might be based in actual possible Very Bad Side Effects(tm), among other things.

• Interaction of drive fields with atmospheric particles may produce wierd radiation, among other things. What happens when these are manipulated by a drive designed to move heavy objects at trans-light speed? Can you say Enviromental impact statement? Significant numbers of these acting in atmosphere might be enough to incrementally remove atmosphere from a planet (by acceleration of atmospheric particals past escape velocity). This would be a Bad Thing(tm). Like hitting your head with a hammer, this is not something you want to do on a repeated basis.
• Relativistic effects tend to show up only when you are moving fater than one half the speed of light (rough estimate) Maybe the time-space warpage needed to produce thrust can only be achieved at relativistic speeds. Similar to a ram jet, it would need a booster to get to the appropriate speeds for start up conditions. This concern is Subject to Test(tm), and, of course, would be hard to achieve in earth orbit, or from a standing start at Area 51.

I could go on, but you get the idea. Of course, Arthur C Clarke is credited with the invention of the Communications Satellite, based on a detailed technical destricption he wrote in a magazine, back in 1947. (If I recall correctly)