I feel a surge of irrational anger every time I see a drone flying around my neighborhood.
The Anti-Drone Ray Gun
Author: unmakeme
Instant Snowman – Just Add Snow
Reporting in from the U.S. Northeast, we're getting a big pile of snow dumped on us right now. To put off clearing the driveway, I thought I'd look into snowman patents. Take a guess, how many snowman patents do you think there are? Oh boy, there are a whole lot. A lot of them are … Continue reading Instant Snowman – Just Add Snow
The Banana Protective Device
"Necessity is the mother of invention" has a corollary: Strange needs beget strange inventions.
A Celebratory Device
I've never watched the New Year's ball drop, not even when I lived in New York City.
The Inflatable Kwanzaa Candelabra
Design patents are pretty simple things, relative to the more common utility patent. A design patent just protects the look of a thing, so it is mostly governed by its drawings. Here's an example: https://patents.google.com/patent/USD525009S1/ USP D525,009, FIG. 1 Now, that is not the drawing that was originally filed. The original drawing looked like this: … Continue reading The Inflatable Kwanzaa Candelabra
The Personal Energy Christmas Ornaments
At first, I was thinking this post would be about oil fields. I was finding all sorts of patents about Christmas trees on oil wells, and I thought it was amazing that the people who drill for oil had such festive spirits. But it turns out that "Christmas tree" is just a term of art … Continue reading The Personal Energy Christmas Ornaments
A Man Trap… You Know, for Vaults!
1884 problems require 1884 solutions.
An Urn That Looks Like You
t used to be, if you wanted your terrifying visage to glare balefully down at your descendants for generations, you needed to get a portrait done.
The Doomsday Machine
You would think that Dr. Strangelove would have been prior art.
The Carplaneboat
I was told that, in the future, we would have flying cars. But if you believe the patent records, we have had flying cars for nigh on a century!
Patenting the odd, the impossible, and the unnerving 