Patent announcement

[spinn_MP]

To get a patent
on a invention the invention must have what the patent office calls utility. Utility means some value. Or to put it differently a invention
that does not have any value is not patentable. Therefore the U.S. patent office thinks these gravity powered machines have some value.

The first half of your post is true (about utility), the second part is not... Nowadays, they patent anything, as long as you pay them (the authorities) the fee....

There are literally hundreds of thousands of "worthless patents" currently valid ...

So, what's the difference?
Patents are mostly "The Joke of the week" stuff...

[TinselKoala]

Here's a patent that describes something that actually works:

Method of swinging on a swing
United States Patent 6368227
A method of swing on a swing is disclosed, in which a user positioned on a standard swing suspended by two chains from a substantially horizontal tree branch induces side to side motion by pulling alternately on one chain and then the other.

[the_big_m_in_ok]

Here's a patent that describes something that actually works:

Method of swinging on a swing
United States Patent 6368227
A method of swing on a swing is disclosed, in which a user positioned on a standard swing suspended by two chains from a substantially horizontal tree branch induces side to side motion by pulling alternately on one chain and then the other.

I saw the patent and the 2 reference patents.  I don't see how this one improved on what someone already had invented.  To get a patent, something usually has to be improved over "prior art", in most cases, right?

Who is going to improve on demonstrably obvious physics?  A "swing" is about as simple as inventions come.   

--Lee

[brian334]

You can get a patent on a improvement of a invention , or you can get a patent on a new invention. I have a patent on a new invention.

[brian334]

Some people that post here can not understand any thing more complicated than a swing.