6 ms·

Also, wouldn't all those hundreds of "box of the month"-style subscription sites where you can pick a product to send and get it periodically be prior art?

• j-g-faustus 14y ago
  I believe patents work by making the description impenetrable enough to make the examiner's eyes glaze over. So they approve the patent in self-defense, and don't notice that it's just a list of trivialities.
  • monochromatic 14y ago
    Do you believe this based on anything in particular?
    • j-g-faustus 14y ago
      It's the only explanation I can find for the fact that patents like this are approved :) (My alternative hypothesis revolves around evil conspiracies to extend property rights into the realm of generic ideas, with the aim to create a modern equivalent to the medieval landed gentry who can get rich entirely by rent-seeking[1]. All in all, I prefer the "examiners don't understand what they approve" explanation :) [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking
    • AlexHamilton 14y ago
      I've just read all the claims and everything looks trivial once you realise that this is the basic specification for a repeating delivery system. Can you point to a single aspect of any of the claims that would reasonably be described as novel?
    • drcube 14y ago
      The OP.
      • monochromatic 14y ago
        Yeah, but we already discussed how the OP doesn't know what he's talking about.
  • cabalamat 14y ago
    I don't know whether the examiner's eyes glaze over, but mine certainly do.