[sdiy] reamp/patenting in US

[KA4HJH]

>   >>Guess every thing is patent-able in the US.
>
>Pretty much.  To their credit, there are no patents on perpetual
>motion machines.  :-)

There's been mention of this in the Skeptical literature lately. They don't
call them that anymore--there are new buzzwords like "free energy machines"
to obfuscate patent examiners and, more importantly, the gullible public.
Apparently there IS some bizarre stuff being patented these days, some of
it highly questionable.

Of related interest was the recent case of a fellow who was fired from the
US Patent Office. He claimed he was illegally discriminated against because
he's an activist for some sort of contemporary quackery (I'm sure he didn't
word it in quite those terms). He won his appeal and was reinstated. The
only hurdle to complete victory was that the ruling said that he was
discriminated against on the basis of "religious belief"--a minor setback
in his quest for _scientific_ recognition.
-- 

Terry Bowman, KA4HJH
"The Mac Doctor"

"It gets calls when nothing else works"--Walter Eugene Scott, EdD, somewhat
facetiously explaining why he, a "TV preacher", was smoking a cigar.