I opted out at PHX recently, they made a big deal out of making us stand to one side and calling out on their radios for agents to come and do a pat down. While we waited he insisted they were safe blah blah blah. My objection is more political/war profiteering than health risk so I just ignored him and didn't bother trying to engage in conversation.

Anyway after the pat down was done I realized that not only had we bypassed the silly x-ray machine but we had also bypassed the standard metal detector.

Yay security!

What, you don't think there are cameras in taxis in the US?

Knowing how lazy students are, they probably just copied the list off someone else.

Well, how big is YOUR solar sail?

Not really, for two reasons.

1) To have a valid patent, you need to make an enabling disclosure. i.e. describe it in enough detail that someone can make it. If it's inner workings are just fiction then you can't really describe how it works.

2) Even if there is enough information in your sci fi film to actually make one, the film itself is prior art.

It would be easier to just use a solid rocket booster from ATK.

Anyone? Beuller?

It's also a clever way of avoiding income tax.

You don't actually know what a design patent is, do you?

Having an actual patent court staffed by judges who are dedicated to patent law and nothing else and cutting out juries (who don't know anything about patent law) like they do in the UK would be a great step forward.

Agreed, there is something nice about folding up the newspaper and filling in the crossword, the way the biro feels on the paper that can't be reproduced by printing out a crossword or filing it in on screen.

Okay then, which one pays/evades/avoids the most corporate taxes?

I'm still using 3.something.

I bet none of them are standards compliant.

Odd that the article doesn't mention the patents at hand are continuations from 5,752,011 dating from in fact 1994.

I do also note the very long list of prior art on each patent. They were found to be novel or inventive over all that prior art. One would have to read the entire file wrapper on PAIR to understand why they were granted over that. Not a fun/easy/quick job.

Self editing. Applies equally to ebooks and old fashioned paper ones.