Thread: The USPTO really will patent absolutely anything

The USPTO takes the view of approving pretty much everything - it's then upto the court to decide if it stands. Since uniquely the US allows first to invent rather than first to patent, almost every case ends up in court since irrespective of the patent you still have to demonstrate that you invented it first. They also allow a lot of 'with an X' or 'on an X' style patents, so you can take a bunch of existing stuff...

Originally Posted by Ivan Seeking Did you sell it? The only thing that I can see here is the possibility that someone will try to make and market an automatic exercise system for cats that uses a LASER. In that case the patent might be enforceable. Probably not, because it only talks about a hand-held laser. I wonder if the patent is owned by the company that sells the cheap laser pointers in the pet store labeled as a cat toy instead of...

Originally Posted by Alfi Is 'sell it' the criteria? Am I allowed to just look through a bunch of patent ideas and just build 'for me' the ones I find useful? Sure saves ME a bunch of R&D for some ideas. I 'gifted' a few laser pointers to my friends and family for them to use as cat toys. I guess my point is that I don't see this idea as a patentable item. Generally it is a matter of whether or not...

Originally Posted by Moonbear If she's any good at it, spare her the pain. Here is what she quickly said :) Good luck enforcing that. That also issued in the good ol 90s. Because of the good ol' 90s now they wont allow ANYTHING.

Originally Posted by Ivan Seeking Did you sell it? The only thing that I can see here is the possibility that someone will try to make and market an automatic exercise system for cats that uses a LASER. In that case the patent might be enforceable. Is 'sell it' the criteria? Am I allowed to just look through a bunch of patent ideas and just build 'for me' the ones I find useful? Sure saves ME a bunch of R&D for...

BTW, the drawing in the OP appears to be fake. It isn't the drawing page from the patent. Probably a spoof on the whole concept of the patent, but not from the patent itself. The drawings in the patent do not even show the traditional laser pointer -- instead it's some strange little laser gun-looking thing...

A patent like the one in the OP would be filed to help prevent competition. Most likely, a laser pointer manufacturer decided they would market a line of pointers for pet play, and patented (individually) every possible pet play "variation" (entertainment, exercise, interaction, etc) so that hopefully noone else would be able to market anything to that particular demographic. It's not a patent on a laser pointer,...

Originally Posted by TheStatutoryApe I think that there are alot of patents like this. I'm trying to think of the word for it and all I am coming up with is 'reapplication'. Even though a device is already patented one can submit a new patent using more or less the same device just claiming a different application. In this way someone can produce and sell an item that already exists without needed to get permission from the...

Plenty more here... http://totallyabsurd.com/archive.htm

Originally Posted by Alfi My cats love that form of exercise. I hope I don't owe anyone anything. I've been doing it for years. Did you sell it? The only thing that I can see here is the possibility that someone will try to make and market an automatic exercise system for cats that uses a LASER. In that case the patent might be enforceable.