On (2003/09/01 18:53), John (TJ) Penton wrote:
> The problem is that (in recent years, and particularly in America I
> believe) patents have been granted for obvious ideas, ideas which are
> already widely assumed, or ideas which have prior art.
For an extreme example:
|Method of swinging on a swing
|=============================
|
|A method of swing on a swing is disclosed, in which a user positioned on
|a standard swing suspended by two chains from a substantially horizontal
|tree branch induces side to side motion by pulling alternately on one
|chain and then the other.
|...
|Licenses are available from the inventor upon request.
To view the patent at the United states Patent and Trademark Office,
search for 6368227 at
http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/srchnum.htm .
Ciao,
Sheldon.
