Patents are granted by governments to inventors offering a time-limited monopoly to exploit an invention in return for open disclosure of the know-how behind the invention. Specific rules differ from country to country.
Questions tagged [patents]
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Did the US Patent Office issue a patent for a stick?
An episode of Last Week Tonight claims that the US Patent Office once patented a stick:
Okay, but we shouldn't necessarily trust the US Patent Office as an arbiter of good judgement. It's the same place that issued patents for an umbrella for…
Rebecca J. Stones
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