

Method of Exercising a Cat (Patent System Is Hilariously Broken) - jordanbaucke
https://encrypted.google.com/patents/US5443036

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otterley
"Method of swinging on a swing" is my favorite; we covered it in my law school
patents course:
[http://www.google.com/patents/US6368227](http://www.google.com/patents/US6368227)

~~~
zeeed
what was the outcome of the class?

Can I be sued for a patent violation if I swing the way I swing?

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otterley
The professor (who literally wrote the reference book on patent law used by
practitioners) said the patentee was a practicing patent attorney who drafted
and filed it as a homework project with his child. The patentee has never
asserted it, and almost certainly never will.

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shabble
> " directing an intense coherent beam of _invisible light_ produced by a
> hand-held laser apparatus to produce a bright highly-focused pattern of
> light at the intersection of the beam and an opaque surface"

(Emph. mine)

How does that even make sense? I'm pretty sure people aren't playing with
their cats with IR or UV lasers. Not least because it'd be hard to aim them,
and you'd need a fluorescent target to even see the target point.

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jordanbaucke
Discussed in this video: The U.S. Patent System is Broken: Derek Khanna on
Trolling and Low-Quality Patents
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySUD3X0_Azc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySUD3X0_Azc)

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Nadya
Good thing it expired. Now I can market my laser pointer as a Cat Aerobic-
Exercise Tool. Or "CAT" for short.

