Corporate Influence

February 28, 2006 1:32 AM

Was U.S. Patent Number 7,000,000 reserved for DuPont? The USPTO issues utility patents every Tuesday. Patent numbers are normally assigned sequentially first to the week's general and mechanical inventions, next to chemical inventions , and finally to electrical inventions. In the Official Gazette (OG) published on February 14th, there was gap in the list of the list of electrical patents where the patent number 7,000,000 was supposed to be. And at the very end of the list of chemical patents you find U.S. Patent 7,000,000 assigned to E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company of Wilmington, Delaware. Just random chance, I wonder, or perhaps just another indication of the ability of corporations to influence U.S. government agencies?
posted by three blind mice (40 comments total)

Is there something magical about that number? Is anyone aside from an extremely limited circle even aware of the patent nu ber of a specific invention?

Lamest. Conspiracy. Ever.
posted by Pontius Pilate at 1:41 AM on February 28, 2006

Don't companies get a certain allotment of patent numbers, according to their previous amount of issued patents, to make the whole process easier for those with lots of patents? Sorta like "Well, your company has had about 500 patents issued every month for the last 10 years, so we'll just allot, say, the first 300 for you to make things easier"?
posted by slater at 1:46 AM on February 28, 2006

...perhaps just another indication of the ability of corporations to influence U.S. government agencies.

Probably just a deal between friends.

• A: Hey, 7M is coming up, can I have it?
• B: Sure. We're scientists, not numerologists ;)
• A: Just as long as some MeFite doesn't notice :D

posted by teppic at 1:48 AM on February 28, 2006

I would certainly hope patent assignation isn't that presumptive, slater.
posted by Pontius Pilate at 1:48 AM on February 28, 2006

I could've sworn it is, Pontiuth.
posted by slater at 2:23 AM on February 28, 2006

Must get out my tinfoil Tyvek hat.
posted by fixedgear at 2:30 AM on February 28, 2006

fixedgear, lol.
posted by ParisParamus at 2:48 AM on February 28, 2006

Well, I'm not even going to try to patent my anti-gravity paint now. Me and Danny Dunn will just take our own little trip to the moon, and fuck the patent office.

Write a poem about that, Joe.
posted by Astro Zombie at 2:56 AM on February 28, 2006

Is there something magical about that number? Is anyone aside from an extremely limited circle even aware of the patent number of a specific invention?

Other than the very limited marketing value, the number 7 million has no particular value. In front of a jury it may have rhetorical value, but it's really meaningless.

And that's the thing PontiasPilate. No huge conspiracy. No one will likely die. No movie will be made. But it does seem to be another instance of the cozy relationship between the government agencies whose activities have a direct bearing on the fortunes of private companies and those same private companies.
posted by three blind mice at 3:05 AM on February 28, 2006

You have the most/least faith in government of all time.

I salute you sir, who has such faith in bureaucracy that when you find ONE patent out of sequence you have such astounding faith in the people of the patent office that you conclude no mistake could have been made, and that therefore they must be a bunch of elitest scum in bed with big industry for the huge cash benefits that exist for the creation of numerically cool [lucky? harmonious? 0s are good?] patent numbers.

Truly a massive feat of mental foolery.

--

Even if you're right, this isn't bad. It's only bad if you can show that Ma and Pop chemical company would get turned down if they asked specially for 7,000,042 because they liked that number. Bureaucrats giving good service isn't an issue unless they start discriminating about who they give good service to!
posted by tiamat at 3:32 AM on February 28, 2006

But what is so odd about a major company getting 7,000,000? Don't major companies get most patents, therefore it's more likely that 7m will go to a big company by simple chance? And why not DuPont?

Now if it was Halliburton, that might make a conspiracy thread...
posted by Mcable at 3:43 AM on February 28, 2006

But what is so odd about a major company getting 7,000,000? Don't major companies get most patents, therefore it's more likely that 7m will go to a big company by simple chance? And why not DuPont?

For the week in which U.S. patent 7,000,000 was issued it would have been issued on an electrical invention. Had it been issued in sequence maybe another large company would have copped it. The number was clearly reserved for Dupont in particular - for whatever reason.
posted by three blind mice at 4:03 AM on February 28, 2006

or perhaps just another indication of the ability of corporations to influence U.S. government agencies?

As if Haliburton wasn't enough. You have to start peering under rocks.
posted by crunchland at 4:17 AM on February 28, 2006

Interesting
posted by caddis at 4:38 AM on February 28, 2006

Interestingly, patent 7,000,001 was awarded to Research in Motion :)

slater, you are going to have to back that up - looking at the list, it appears you are completely out to lunch.
posted by Chuckles at 4:57 AM on February 28, 2006

I don't believe that patents are reserved, the company I work for receives a lot of patents yearly and I've got a fistful of them myself. The last batch I filed for has a spread in patent numbers that wouldn't indicate a reserved block.
posted by substrate at 5:15 AM on February 28, 2006

The number was clearly reserved for Dupont in particular - for whatever reason.

Yes, yes... clearly. C'mon. It was clearly assigned to DuPont, but not clearly reserved for them. And really, so what? I think teppic is on the right track with what probably happened.

"Dude, hook us up with number 7 mil... pretty please."
"I'll try, but you owe me a coke."
"Word."
posted by Witty at 5:17 AM on February 28, 2006

Maybe I should patent a patent office numbering scheme in which patent numbers are granted in non-sequential order...
posted by clevershark at 5:18 AM on February 28, 2006

fixedgear, I salute you.
posted by OmieWise at 5:34 AM on February 28, 2006

In legal briefs, it would be referred to as the "'000" patent, which would just look weird.

Seriously, is there a law against this? Dupont has gazillions of patents, and its attorneys probably deal with the folks at the PTO all the time. As long as there was no special treatment in the prosecution, I don't see what the big deal is.
posted by Saucy Intruder at 5:53 AM on February 28, 2006

Hey. Why doesn't somebody write them a letter and ask? Shoot, I'll send an email.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 6:03 AM on February 28, 2006

fixedgear, that was hilarious.
posted by shoepal at 6:09 AM on February 28, 2006

I sent an email in this direction. We'll see if anything happens.

oooh look... kid's page! Time for learnin'.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 6:16 AM on February 28, 2006

At any rate, synthetic cotton, that's going to be a useful patent.

They just found another way to hook up glucose* into a polymer. Starch is glucose hooked up by an alpha 1,4 linkage - great, but it can fall apart in water. Cellulose (cotton is nearly pure cellulose) is glucose hooked up by beta 1,4 linkages. Great, much more stable in water (one of the reasons we can't digest it) but the chains are fairly short. Makes it hard to make long threads, a labor intensive process. They flip things arounf here and link up glucose in an entirely different way, a 1-3 linkage. Instead of end-to-end the molecules are going to be linked in a sort of stair-step manner. You pour corn syrup into one end of their machine, and glucose chains come out the other end, like biodegradable polyester, except it looks and feels like cotton.

Who cares what the patent number is? At least it's not a patent on my DNA or some ridiculous internet mechanism that supposedly makes my every mouse click worth money for some freeloading get-rich-quick-off-of-someone-elses-work thing.

*Glucose comes in two forms, alpha and beta. Starch is made from alpha glucose, cellulose is made from beta glucose. (And there's additionally a right- and left-hand version of each, so actually four forms. And it can be either a ring form or linear, too, but only the ring forms have an alpha or beta version.)
posted by caution live frogs at 6:17 AM on February 28, 2006

"Dude, hook us up with number 7 mil... pretty please."
"I'll try, but you owe me a coke."
"Word."
posted by Witty at 5:17 AM PST on February 28 [!]

I'll agree. What you have is the cozy relationship of people who have to work together.

But the parties are supposed to be objective. And not let outside influences on their work.
posted by rough ashlar at 6:19 AM on February 28, 2006

Who cares what the patent number is?

Marketing departents.

If it is stupid and banal, Marketing is all over that action.
posted by rough ashlar at 6:23 AM on February 28, 2006

three blind mice, you might want to dial your outrage meter back to "stuff that matters." I promise, it will help relieve that tense, jittery sensation.
posted by pardonyou? at 6:37 AM on February 28, 2006

If the patent office has a soft spot for round numbers, maybe it's not a recent phenomenon.

Patent #6,000,000 went to 3Com, it's about HotSyncing.

Patent #5,000,000 concerns alochol production by plasmid-modified bacteria. It went to the University of Florida.

Patent #4,000,000 went to some guy in Las Vegas, concerning improved material properties of asphalt-aggregates.

Patent #3,000,000 was for Kenneth Eldredge's barcode reading system.

Patent #2,000,000 had something to do with constructing wheels.

Patent #1,000,000 also involved tires.

After compiling this list I learned someone had already blogged about it, and actually had been counting down the race to 7,000,000: http://patentlibrarian.blogspot.com/

On the topic of the significance of the DuPont patent, Michael White wrote:

... milestone patents are significant for more than just their numbers. With the recent furor over low-cost Chinese textile products flooding the U.S. after the expiration of the 30-year old international agreement on textiles in January 2005, this patent may be symbolic of the pressing need to invest in U.S. technological innovation and development. Despite textile industry and union appeals to "buy American", American consumers are unlikely to pay top dollar for American-made underwear and golf shirts when they can buy similar goods at much lower prices on the world market. The U.S. economy needs technological innovation more than ever in order to compete in the global economy...

...The future of the U.S. textile industry is not cheaper golf shirts produced in more efficient mills by lower paid workers, it's technological innovation, research and development that leads to patentable inventions like Dupont's polysaccharide fibers.

posted by borborygmi at 6:45 AM on February 28, 2006

polysaccharide fibers? You mean shirts made out of sugar? Or is this just the next generation of edible undies?
posted by delmoi at 7:02 AM on February 28, 2006

lol delmoi.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 7:18 AM on February 28, 2006

(Intellectual property laywer here.) No scandal, folks. Someone was going to be issued U.S. 7,000,000 and it happened--shock!-- to be a big company. And btw, patent applications are initially filed under the name of the individual inventor(s) (who then typically assign the inventions to a company that they work for or that has a financial interest in the invention.) But the patent examiner who begins to consider an application may have no idea what if any big company s/he is dealing with.
posted by applemeat at 8:07 AM on February 28, 2006

I, also, find the invention much more interesting than the circumstances of how it got assigned #7,000,000. (Unless I'm mistaken, the longer chains will make this also more durable than cotton, yes? Cool. Yet another application for Corn, The Miracle Crop.)
posted by lodurr at 8:22 AM on February 28, 2006

No scandal? Fine.

It didn't just happen to be DuPont, it was special treatment. If you can count, you can see that.
posted by Chuckles at 8:22 AM on February 28, 2006

(Intellectual property laywer here.) No scandal, folks. Someone was going to be issued U.S. 7,000,000 and it happened--shock!-- to be a big company.

Well that's not the issue. Read the FPP. The special number 7,000,000 was specifically reserved for Dupont and not just any old random big company. It was assigned out of sequence. Yeah, it's no big scandal, it does not register ox-blood on my outrage meter, but it smells like the result of a cozy relationship.

Perhaps you, applemeat - intellectual property lawyer, might follow the links and shed some light on what Dupont had to to make that happen.
posted by three blind mice at 8:24 AM on February 28, 2006

Isn't there some issue about the length of cotton fibres after spinning... Something like, machine processing causes the fibres to be (or works because fibres are) shorter now than they used to be, which makes cotton much less durable than it should be.

I'm not convinced it's true, but it sounds like a good theory. I have no clue how to tailor a search for supporting documents, so...
posted by Chuckles at 8:30 AM on February 28, 2006

The bigger question is who will MeFi post #50,000 be reserved for?
posted by rocket88 at 8:30 AM on February 28, 2006

You're not supposed to ask that question.
posted by storybored at 8:55 AM on February 28, 2006

....MeFi post #50,000 ....

I have it on good authority* that there's a line in the "new post" routine that will cause the server to JRun as soon as someone posts #49,998.

--
*Trans: "I'm lying through my teeth fingers"
posted by lodurr at 9:14 AM on February 28, 2006

I feel bad for the guy in marketing whose job it is to come up with a good campaign for polysaccharide fibers that somehow involves patent number 7,000,000.

"Polysaccharide fibers: 7 millionth in patent, first in hexose units and glycoside linkage. By DuPont."
posted by hypocritical ross at 9:14 AM on February 28, 2006

....shed some light on what Dupont had to to make that happen.

I doubt applemeat could tell you anything that has real usefulness. The order of numbers is probably a function of the workflow in their application management software. One of the USPO's examiners might be able to shed some light on it. (I say "might", because it's my experience that low-level bureaucrats tend to be less inquisitive or genuinely observant than one might expect of a normal human.)

There's the makings, perhaps, of an interesting story here, but ox-blood level, no. I'm thinking this would have worked better as a supporting link to an FPP about DuPont's cozy relationship with the US gov't's bureaucracy.
posted by lodurr at 9:22 AM on February 28, 2006