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

Doubtful

[symes]

And the rest of the article goes on to say:

"Unfortunately, the details are really sparse. Wikipedia notes that it holds the Austrian patent AM 7738/2003, but navigating the Austrian patent website didn't work very well (um... language barrier...). The only source cited by Wikipedia is a speech from a few years ago, which mentions in passing that a woman's church the town had patented it."

Any Austrian patent experts here that can verify this claim? I call BS.

Re:Doubtful

[danlip]

Austria must be some small country. never heard of that one..

Seriously? Ever hear of Vienna (in Austria), one of the most important cities in European cultural history? Mozart? Strauss? Freud? Schrödinger? and many others.

Re:Doubtful

[MrNaz]

GP may or may not have heard of Schrödinger...

Re:Doubtful

[Dachannien]

The Austrian Patent Office website is pretty obtuse to navigate, but if you manage to find the search page, you can put "7738/03" in the trademark search box and get this result:

Anm.: IMAGEWORX MEDIENPRODUKTIONS-, VERLAGS- UND EVENTMARKETING GMBH *FRAUENKIRCHEN ^ST. MARTINSGASSE 5

Vertr: ZUST.ADR.: CORINO FABIANI *A-7132 FRAUENKIRCHEN ^ST. MARTINSGASSE 5

So there is at least some truth to the story, inasmuch as someone has registered a trademark there. But not a patent.

Re:Doubtful

[ZippyTheWonderDog]

yes, trademark is radically different than a patent (even though that is still dumb). This whole story smacks of inaccuracy.. not just patent instead of trademark, but also assuming that "geophysical" == "geographical". Language is picky - you really have to learn to use the *right* words.

Re:Doubtful

[Ecuador]

I think the point is that he both has and has not heard of Schrödinger...

Re:Doubtful

[maxwell demon]

There are no kangaroos in Austria.

Re:Doubtful

[Beardo the Bearded]

/. does not differentiate between patents, trademarks, copyright, industrial design, or trade secrets.

Re:Doubtful

[oodaloop]

The real center of Europe is probably in the UK, Germany, France, or Russia. Austria must be some small country. never heard of that one..

Have you ever seen a map of Europe? Like, ever? How would the UK be at the center? I can forgive you for Germany, since it's right next to Austria. France is next to Germany, so not quite. Russia is almost as bad as UK.

Re:Doubtful

[Platinumrat]

Obviously, you need to be an Einstein to navigate the Austrian Patent Office website.

Re:Doubtful

[GumphMaster]

He was actually a German-born Swiss patent clerk. Einstein renounced his German (Württemberg) citizenship in 1896 (avoiding military service) and took up Swiss citizenship in 1901 (and was stateless in between). Swiss citizenship was a requirement of employment in the Swiss patent office, which he started 1902. In order to take up a post in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, he took up citizenship there (circa 1911). So, at least for some of his life he was "Austrian", although not in the modern sense of Austria and never while working at the Swiss patent office. He later resumed German citizenship (without ceding the Swiss) in order to take up a post in Berlin.

Re:Doubtful

[yuri benjamin]

Yeah, but it's not like a lot of people were involved in that war or anything. (Funny story actually, most people blame the war on the Germans when it was really Austria who set the stones rolling.)

Actually it was a Serb nationalist who started it. But that event was just a spark in an already volatile situation. The real reason that the European countries were itching to have a go at each other was imperialism on all sides. They were all expanding their empires/colonies throughout Asia and Africa and were fierce rivals.

The assassination of the Austrian duke just gave them an excuse to start open hostilities.

Re:Doubtful

[yuri benjamin]

In any case, I just think it's kind of funny since some people seem to think Germany actually started two world wars.

I tend to think of the two world wars as one war with a twenty year cease-fire in the middle of it. If the Allies hadn't been so harsh with their terms of surrender at the end of WW1 then Germany might not have gone through the hardship that breed such extreme fascism. If we give our defeated enemies a little dignity they hopefully won't rise up twenty years later and clobber us. But we never learn.

When Turkey gets the go ahead

[Anonymous Coward]

Obviously this patent should be revoked when Turkey Joins the EU, as the center should shift eastwards

Re:When Turkey gets the go ahead

[gsslay]

EU != Europe

Re:When Turkey gets the go ahead

[Attila Dimedici]

If this had been modded "Funny" instead of "Interesting". I would have let it pass. However, even if Turkey joins the EU, it will still be in Asia rather than Europe and since this "patent" is for being the "geophysical center of Europe" it would apply to the geographical meaning of Europe, not the political meaning.

Re:When Turkey gets the go ahead

[Sique]

Oh yes.
It is the continent north of Africa and west of the Ural mountains.

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.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Meh ...

[dc29A]

Meh ... still not as cool as living in Fucking.

Re:Meh ...

[symes]

I find this hilarious - there's a whole bunch more here. My favourites are, along with Fucking, Wank (Germany), Dildo (Canada) and Cock (UK).

For marketing the town?

[Meshach]

What is strange about that? It sounds like they want to secure the term for use in marketing the town. Cities are just looking for a way to set themselves apart and make them marketable.

It is just like Microsot patenting or trademarking their latest slogan ("Your Potential. Our Passion" or whatever it is).

Underground

[jbeaupre]

Because the Earth is curved, the actual geophysical location is going to be many kilometers underground. So technically, they are all fighting over who is closest to Hell. No, not that Hell (Norway), the Hell

Re:Underground

[jbeaupre]

Don't be redundant.

Re:For tourism, obviously...

[Abstrackt]

We tried something similar to raise tourism here in Canada. With famous alterations to the English language (i.e. "what's that aboot?" and the ever-classic "eh"), killer mosquitoes (why watch Jurassic Park when you can live it?), and our happy-go-lucky play-hockey-anywhere-that's-frozen (everywhere) attitude we've managed to achieve global recognition. And instead of T-shirts (because everyone does those), we have the line "I went to Canada and all I got was this stupid hangover" you'll often hear at customs when tourists are leaving our beautiful country.

Re:Publicity

[Joce640k]

I'm betting they'll even have a cross on the ground for tourists to stand on and take photos.

Right next to the souvenir shop.