Method of Swinging on a Swing
So apparently a guy managed to patent how you "pull alternatively on one chain and then the other", so you probably owe Steven Olson a lot of money.
This is a patent about literally the METHOD of how to swing on the swing.
How absolutely ridiculous haha.
This is very ridiculous. I don't know how it fits the 3 categories on being a patent but I guess it slipped through the USPO yet again. They should be stricter after looking at how many silly patents there are in today's world.
ReplyDeleteI want to see this individual posted at a middle-school looking for various patent infringers. It is a quite a funny patent and impossible to enforce. Good find!
ReplyDeleteWe actually just talked about this patent in class during our silly patents week! Definitely agree with Jon that it would be nearly impossible to enforce... if the owner decided to lurk around middle schools, his or her intentions may be highly misconstrued and may actually regret the decision to camp out and look for infringers. However, I believe the story told in class was that this patent was filed by a lawyer who wanted to prove just how easy it is to get a silly patent through the USPTO. I'm surprised though, that with this passing, so many other silly patents are still out there. I wonder at what time this patent was granted and if any amendments to the USPTO's patent policy arose due to this lawyer's little trick. Either way, I think he definitely was able to prove his point, and won't be hanging around schools any time soon to infringe his rather expensive move to stick it to the USPTO.
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