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Originally Posted by carpetmojo
Obviously, while some form of patent process has to exist in capitalistic democracies, some applications and those granted are plainly daft/dumb/stupid.
One obvious one is the claiming of rights over a word or abbreviation - the 'r' as in Toys R Us for example - which is truly pathetic.
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I don't think the backwards 'R' is patented, as patenting is for inventions. I think this is a matter of Trademark. Trademarks work quite differently from patents.
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Another recent one is the conviction of a company that it could claim patent rights to a shape - the famous rectangle with rounded corners.
A rather frightening one, to my mind , is the genome patenting that could have unforeseen consequences.....
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I have not looked at the patent, but I will put the rectangle down to error/incompetence on the part of the examiner. Rounded rectangles are obvious and prior art exists.
WRT the human genome. There was a flurry of patents filed on genes. As each gene was discovered, it was patented. The interesting thing is that to be patentable, it must be useful. A gene sequence by itself is not useful, so often the use was as a probe for its complement. This did very little except to make the sequence public. Researchers (other than the patent holder) continued working with the genes and finding new applications on which they then filed utility patents. Those initial gene patents actually did not stop any work and held very little value. And now the vast majority of them have expired.