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Ibm Patents Caps Lock....


borfast

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Ah, it's not Caps Lock itself but any method of notifying you that it's on. Interestingly enough, Windows XP's login screen warns you when you start typing the password that Caps Lock is on. Hmmmm. Let the games begin.

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Yes, the title I wrote is a bit misleading, sorry.

But it's going to be fun, anyway.

 

Humm... I wonder if I'll have to thrash my keybord in order to remove the Caps Lock light :P

 

Oh, by the way, my Caps Lock is off, as I type this. Now, since I told you this, which is a way of letting you know if my Caps Lock is on/off, must I pay them royalties because of this post? :(

 

This is just too much :P

I just hope the people in the European Parliament open their eyes to this and see how ridiculous this is. Elections tomorrow... I wonder how this will end up...

Edited by TCH-Raul
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I think that just as there are laws on the books that are deemed unenforceable and therefore arrests are not made, there will be patents whose violations are equally unenforceable and not pursued. Companies will certainly have to consider the bad PR (Public Relations, not Page Rank) of going after 'violators' and looking silly. But then again, maybe not. Especially when you consider that these decisions are made by lawywers.

 

BTW.... I'm patenting the idea of using initials to abbreviate complete phrases. By my estimation, members of this board owe me a nice chunk of change.

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[Pant! Pant! Whew!]

 

Okay, everyone:

 

I just returned from a trip back to the ultimate past—the exact moment of the Big Bang—where I have patented the following:

 

Matter

Antimatter

Energy

Dark Matter

Dark Energy

Time

Space

Gravity

Creation

Evolution

Destruction

Thought

Imagination

Language and all components thereof

Mathematics and all components thereof

The laws of physics

Everything else

 

I also took the precaution of retroactively patenting anything that may be imagined or invented by anyone using any of the above, with or without licensure.

 

By my calculations, you now jointly and severally owe me the combined GNP of this and every other universe past, present or to come. I'll thank you to pay me now, before you get any further into debt.

 

(Please note that I have foreclosed the patent office for patent infringement. If you wish to patent anything [after paying your share of the debt mentioned above, of course], contact me. I will not grant you a patent, but I can virtually promise you a good belly-laugh at your expense.)

Edited by Boojum
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Not if you patent said something 15 billion years or so before the existence of the patent office.

 

By the way, itemizing the royalties you owe me for the patented components of the preceding question, I find:

 

Matter (gray; used for thinking; approx. 4 lb @ $.98/lb) + (fleshware; used to support gray matter; approx. 200 lb @ $.98/lb) + (food; used to support fleshware; approx. 1825 lb/yr x approx. 45 yr @ [avg] $4.27/lb) + (air; used to support respiration; approx. 2.7 x 10^29 l @ $0.000312/l) + (water; used to maintain hydration; approx. 1.3 x 10^5 l @ $0.0173/l)

+

Energy (1.39 x 10^229 kEv @ $0.000276/kEv) + (1.62 x 10^18 joules @ $0.0000724/joule)

+

Evolution (3.2 billion years @ $1.27/yr)

______________________________________

 

More money than you or anyone else will ever have.

 

(Please note: I am allowing you a temporary amnesty on your royalty debts for Antimatter, Dark Matter, Dark Energy, Time, Space, Gravity, Creation, Destruction, Thought, Imagination, Language and All Components thereof, Mathematics and All Components thereof, the Laws of Physics and Everything Else, in spite of your liberal use of all of them. This is partly an act of kindness, and partly a result of the fact that all the universe's accountants are now in bankruptcy for overusing Mathematics and All Components thereof. As soon as they emerge from bankruptcy, of course, I will have to charge them for using bankruptcy itself, since it is clearly a subset of Everything Else.)

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(Please note: I am allowing you a temporary amnesty on your royalty debts for Antimatter, ... and Everything Else, in spite of your liberal use of all of them.

AHA! I'm a conservative so there! I make liberal use of nothing. Like Robert said, Nyah!

 

 

(You really do have too much time on your hands don't you? :))

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You have no way to enforce your patents. Nyah nyah! :(

I hereby revoke your existence license, retroactive to the moment of conception.

 

Please hand in your body, mind and soul to the Head Guru, who is my agent in this matter and authorized to draw 10 percent of all profits.

 

The good news is, TCH is now worth $7.61 x 10^32 and appreciating at a rate of 65 billion percent per day.

 

Therefore, Rock Sign and rolls!

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(Please note: I am allowing you a temporary amnesty on your royalty debts for Antimatter, ... and Everything Else, in spite of your liberal use of all of them.

AHA! I'm a conservative so there! I make liberal use of nothing. Like Robert said, Nyah!

 

 

(You really do have too much time on your hands don't you? :D)

1) If you're going to take that attitude, I will be forced to retract the amnesty offer. You therefore now owe me $8.31 x 10^664, payable six billion years ago. At five trillion percent interest, compounded hourly, you therefore owe a total that cannot be displayed without exceeding the server capacity.

 

2) Since you will never be able to pay that amount, I will accept payment in kind. To be precise, you owe so much that you'll be a liberal if I say you will ... and be glad I haven't reassigned you as a Peruvian Shining Path Maoist—yet.

 

3) As for time on my hands, I would like you to compare the number of posts I've added to this forum with the number contributed by the late, lamented Robert.

 

4) Be glad you're useful enough not to have shared Robert's fate—again, yet.

 

5) :(

 

6) So there.

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I am happy to be simple minded. I understand none of this so even if I was reassigned as a Peruvian Shining Path Maoist I would not care as I still would not understand it.

 

Ty,

 

To patent nothing is to patent everything, for everything is in nothing.

Edited by TCH-Rob
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My crack legal team, immediately upon completion of its rehab program, examined this issue in all due depth and has determined that nothing:

 

1) cannot be patented because it doesn't exist, and

 

2) even if it did exist, it is incorporated into Everything Else, on which of course I hold the patent.

 

The team thereupon returned to its rehab program for an additional 30 days on the grounds that the preceding opinion constitutes prima facie evidence of continued mental disturbance.

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I hold patent to "Nothing Else" go after that one. :)

Oh, and to the gum that gets stuck to the bottom of your shoe while checking the mail at the communal mailboxes found in most all housing developments... but I'll gladly give you the ABC gum back if you really want it.

Edited by TCH-Glenn
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