Journal: News & Comment

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The worst patents

Lawyers, Internet users, and competing companies cried foul when Amazon.com was granted a patent on "one-click shopping" by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in 1999. It's probably the most famous example of a dumb patent -- one for something that is either obvious or long established.

But there are many more. Scientific American lists four particularly nasty ones, and there is a whole Web site dedicated to cataloguing them as well.

Followup: In addition to the search terms I listed yesterday, people come here from search engines looking for availability of the Aerolatte milk foamer in Canada. My wife bought ours at a special pre-Christmas booth sale at The Bay, but they do not seem to sell it normally in the store or online.

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