google patent finds

google patents has a searchable list of over 7 million u.s. patents so i thought i'd start a thread to list interesting ones that members find amongst them.

heres my starter which was filed on sep 10th 2001 and approved on july 1st 2003...

spacecraft with integrated pulsed-plasma thrusters

what are the criteria for actually getting a patent, because i assume many are technologies we have not seen.

like the first one you shown, does he have to prove it is workable or does some sciencetist just say it may work.

Originally posted by andy1033
what are the criteria for actually getting a patent, because i assume many are technologies we have not seen.

like the first one you shown, does he have to prove it is workable or does some sciencetist just say it may work.

i attended a lecture years ago (at a fortean times unconvention) by a guy who worked for the uk patent office. if i remember correctly, he said anybody can apply for a patent (which you will see marked as 'patent pending') but the patent will only be issued to you providing that the idea actually works. it's probably the same for the u.s.

his lecture was quite interesting in that he told of some of the wild and wacky things that were applied for but said the reality was that hardly any of them worked. it probably annoyed a lot of conspiracy theorists there who were convinced there were allsorts of suppressed technologies hiding there never to see the light of day. it was one of the most attended and interesting lectures of that conference