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IBM Snags Patent On Half-Day Off of Work Notifications

Posted by samzenpus on from the looks-like-you've-been-missing-a-lot-of-work-lately dept.

theodp writes "The USPTO appears to have lowered the bar on obviousness, awarding a patent to IBM Tuesday for its System for Portion of a Day Out of Office Notification. 'Out of office features in existing applications such as Lotus Notes, IBM Workplace, and Microsoft Outlook all implement a way to take a number of days off from one day to many days,' acknowledges purported patent reformer Big Blue. 'Yet, none of these applications contain the feature of letting a person take a half-day or in more general terms, x days and x hours off.' Eureka! And yes, the invention is every bit as obvious as you can imagine."

8 of 163 comments (clear)

  1. Huh by masternerdguy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Then I demand a patent on going to work.

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    1. Re:Huh by NicknamesAreStupid · · Score: 4, Funny

      I am writing a patent for taking portions of a day to slack off. The calendar will display all kinds of bullshit excuses, including writing a patent.

    2. Re:Huh by EdIII · · Score: 3, Funny

      I work in IT :)

      You can't tell if I have taken a half a day off or not.

      Boss: Uh why were you not at the office between 12 and 4?
      Me: I had to go to the datacenter.
      Boss: For what?
      Me: The EPS conduits were all gunked up because the flux capacitor in the power converter was 3 degrees out of phase.
      Boss: Ok. Isn't that what happened to my laptop last week?
      Me: Yes, but this was not caused by porn.

  2. I wonder by slackware+3.6 · · Score: 3, Funny

    if any one has patented the process of taking a crap yet?

  3. Re:Imagine.. by Mordok-DestroyerOfWo · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's probably a bunch of guys sitting around, trying to "one up" each other on who can get the most outrageous patent.

    I sense a new drinking game!

    --
    "Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
  4. Re:Obvious question ... by nschubach · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Method and system for taking a crap on a computer."

    1. Eat food (see our related patent application for "Method and system for eating food";

    2. Wait. (period of time depends on food eaten and any contamination such as salmonella, see our related patents and our "brown paper" on "Montezuma's Revenge")

    3. Do what comes naturally on a computer.

    Excellent, I shall file this immediately.

    --
    Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
  5. Re:Imagine.. by demonbug · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's probably a bunch of guys sitting around, trying to "one up" each other on who can get the most outrageous patent.

    I sense a new drinking game!

    Sorry, that was the second patent they filed.

  6. Cool! My patent is in the mail to the USPTO .. by roguegramma · · Score: 3, Funny

    .. a system to deliver quarter-day off notices ..

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    Hey don't blame me, IANAB