July 2, 2001

10:06 AM

Australian Man Patents The WheelThis story reads as if it was meant to be in The Onion instead. Freelance patent lawyer John Keogh was issued with an Innovation Patent for a "circular transportation facilitation device" ... in May. But he has no immediate plans to patent fire, crop rotation or other fundamental advances in civilisation.
posted by wackybrit (9 comments total)

THE AQUEDUCT IS MINE, ALL MINE.
posted by clavdivs at 10:16 AM on July 2, 2001

According to the /. comments, which appear to be from people who read the article (which is more than I'm prepared to do on a monday) it's just a registration of an idea, it doesn't give any monopoly rights etc.
posted by fvw at 10:18 AM on July 2, 2001

How do we know he didn't invent the thing?

I will not quote Star Trek movies...I will not quote Star Trek movies...

posted by frykitty at 10:23 AM on July 2, 2001

"wheel in the sky keeps turning" opps i quoted Journey.
posted by clavdivs at 10:30 AM on July 2, 2001

Wait, it's 2001 and the Australians have just invented the wheel? Man.
posted by Doug at 10:40 AM on July 2, 2001

This is not a new idea. There was an old sci-fi story about a guy who patented the wheel and began collecting royalties from everyone on earth. I can't remember the title or author, though.
posted by sonofsamiam at 11:15 AM on July 2, 2001

The Japanese have been patenting all sorts of herbal remedies and ethnic cooking recipies/processes for a few years now. I read somewhere that they now own the patent to make Tandoori Chicken. I will post a few links on these as soon as I go home and have time to dig up the URLs. I think Jakob Neilsen owns patents for some sort of hyperlinks. I need to reread his patents page to figure out which ones are the more idiotic ones.

Anyhow, these sort of patenting excercise is not limited to the Internet and One-click Shopping.

BTW, based on the articles on this, Keogh, the Aussie lawyer, is doing this in protest of the new patent process. Power to him for "inventing" the wheel. Now only if I could fly down there and take a photo with the man and his very first wheel. I never get to brush up with any inventors or celebrities.
posted by tamim at 11:22 AM on July 2, 2001

Yes, I believe Jakob Nielsen owns a patent for any e-mail system with a built in 'confirmation' system. That is.. you can specify that you want to get a confirmation that the other person has received the e-mail, even if they don't reply to it.

Now, since I remember this feature being in Outlook at least 3 years ago...
posted by wackybrit at 6:12 PM on July 2, 2001

Take your g'dang Journey quotes to the shame thread, Clav.
posted by dong_resin at 6:25 PM on July 2, 2001