Town Gets Patent On Being the Center of Europe

An anonymous reader writes "And you thought software patents were going to far? How about geography patents? Apparently, as a part of the weird fight over what place in Europe represents the 'geophysical center of Europe,' the Austrian town of Frauenkirchen has received a patent (Austrian patent AM 7738/2003) declaring it the center of Europe. Not clear how one 'infringes' on such a patent, but then again, it's not clear why anyone's patenting this either."

Comments

Re:When Turkey gets the go ahead

[Attila Dimedici]

As someone else pointed out, the geographical meaning of "Europe" is a reference to the continent of Europe. Historically, it is only recently that "Europe" had any meaning other than this geographical meaning. While the exact geographical area denoted by the word "Europe" has changed over time, that particular usage of the word goes back to at least Herodotus. Additionally, the modern definition of Europe as a continent is actually based on physical facts.