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April 25, 2004
Check Out The EFF's Patent Busting Program

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has just launched its
Patent Busting Project, a formidable effort toward breathing a little sanity back into the United States Patent System.

Posted by Lisa at 04:59 PM
May 12, 2002
Prior Art on Recent Swinging Patent!

Looks like there's prior art on the infamous swinging patent that turned out to have been taken out by a seven year-old.

Posted by Lisa at 03:24 PM
April 26, 2002
Patent On An "Amusement Apparatus" For Kicking Your Own Ass

And we all know how amusing that can be. (Second only to banging your head against the wall...)

See:
United States Patent: 6,293,874: User-operated amusement apparatus for kicking the user's buttocks.

Posted by Lisa at 02:52 PM
April 18, 2002
What Do We Learn From The Swing Patent, Boys and Girls?

Here are more details about the Method of swinging on a swing that I mentioned earlier this week -- which turns out to belong to a 7 year-old boy (courtesy of his savvy IP dad).

Patent turns playtime into pay time.

Let's hope the little boy who took out this patent isn't the only one that will learn from this experience.

Posted by Lisa at 08:36 AM
April 12, 2002
It's not a patent on the wheel, but it's close

Someone's patented a Method of swinging on a swing (United States Patent: 6,368,227).

Posted by Lisa at 10:25 AM