Reading about the ongoing patent wars between companies like Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, LG, and others was making me a little intense, so I decided to shift my focus a bit. I did some searching on some of the weirdest and most peculiar patents ever.
The first weird patent that caught my eye was the "Anti-Eating Face Mask." It is basically a mask that people can wear so that their mouth is completely blocked. It was invented in order to help people who are on a diet. Similar to this invention, another patent is the "Thumb Sucking Inhibitor." This is just a metal device that people can wear on their thumb so they will not be able to suck on it!
An interesting patent is the "Motorized Ice Cream Cone." This was invented by a teacher; he put a motor inside a cone-shaped machine to automatically spin the ice cream, so people don't have to outstretch their tongue. Apparently, this was a success, as he sold thousands of these.
Many other interesting, weird, and/or funny patents exist. Here are a couple sites:
http://www.invention-protection.com/ip/inventor_resources/interesting_patents.html
http://www.buzzfeed.com/violas94/68-weird-american-patents
I have heard of the Motorized Ice Cream Cone. Jay Leno did a bit on it, and it really takes laziness to the next level. Patents seem to take any form, and their is no restriction on the stupidity of intellectual property (which allows for some interesting patents to slip by).
ReplyDeleteWell, it costs money and time to patent something so I will appreciate these "useless" patents if they can make me laugh :)
ReplyDeleteThese are actually great ways to figure out the extent of what you can truly patent, although I agree I don't agree that they are so intellectual. Yet they were filed as patents.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the laugh, I had no idea such types of patents existed. I feel like people could take this to a new extreme if they start patenting processes. For example, different efficient ways to bring food with a fork from the plate to your mouth.
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