Electronic Patent Databases Invent Difficulties

by Paul Marks NewScientist.com, 30 Mar 2005 It is a startling idea for a new machine, one that could revolutionise transportation. Take a circular frame of strong lightweight composite material, reinforce it with radial spokes and make a hole in the centre that can accommodate a shaft or axle. Then patent the concept before some other bright inventor steals it. If reinventing the wheel is ridiculous, being able to patent such a device is even more so. Yet that is what happened in 2001 when patent attorney John Keogh won a patent for a “circular transportation facilitation device” from the patent office in Australia. Read the article