I imagine the people at the Patent Office just check to see if something similar was patented in the past, then grant a patent and leave it up to the courts to sort it out. They're probably required to do this by the Attorney Full Employment Act.
My company gets the Official Gazette, a summary of patents granted during the preceding week. At about three to a page, each volume is two to three inches thick - and that's just for one week. To give you some idea of what gets through, in the volume for April 17th 2001 my eye falls on number 6,217,074, which appears to be a patent on a ring binder with file tabs (don't take my word for it, look it up for yourself). Or what about number 6,216,363? It took the patent office 62 weeks to process this application so surely the description is worth a few lines space:
"1. A method of treating the diapered area of a child's skin to prevent diaper dermatitis, the method comprising:
"removing a diaper worn by the child;
"washing the diapered area of the child's skin;
"providing a portable drying apparatus that includes a housing having an air admitting inlet and an air discharging outlet, a rotary impeller mechanism disposed within the housing for producing and discharging a flow of air at or near ambient air temperature through the air outlet, and a handle mounted to the housing; and
"drying the diapered area of the child's skin by directing the flow of air at or near ambient temperature towards the diapered area."
In other words, this is a patent on drying a baby's ass using a hair dryer without a heating element. There's even a drawing of a $5.99 travel hair dryer with a folding handle, with all the parts labeled except the (conspicuously absent) heater. But it's not the idea that makes it patentable, it's the application.
I wonder if anyone ever thought of patenting a rotary impeller mechanism, etc, and directing the airflow towards a microprocessor package.
Slashdot Mirror
My company gets the Official Gazette, a summary of patents granted during the preceding week. At about three to a page, each volume is two to three inches thick - and that's just for one week. To give you some idea of what gets through, in the volume for April 17th 2001 my eye falls on number 6,217,074, which appears to be a patent on a ring binder with file tabs (don't take my word for it, look it up for yourself). Or what about number 6,216,363? It took the patent office 62 weeks to process this application so surely the description is worth a few lines space:
"1. A method of treating the diapered area of a child's skin to prevent diaper dermatitis, the method comprising:
"removing a diaper worn by the child;
"washing the diapered area of the child's skin;
"providing a portable drying apparatus that includes a housing having an air admitting inlet and an air discharging outlet, a rotary impeller mechanism disposed within the housing for producing and discharging a flow of air at or near ambient air temperature through the air outlet, and a handle mounted to the housing; and
"drying the diapered area of the child's skin by directing the flow of air at or near ambient temperature towards the diapered area."
In other words, this is a patent on drying a baby's ass using a hair dryer without a heating element. There's even a drawing of a $5.99 travel hair dryer with a folding handle, with all the parts labeled except the (conspicuously absent) heater. But it's not the idea that makes it patentable, it's the application.
I wonder if anyone ever thought of patenting a rotary impeller mechanism, etc, and directing the airflow towards a microprocessor package.