I'm an IP lawyer :) The patent covers a pressurized space elevator tower. However, note that the part they have really patented here is the "plurality of segm

I'm an IP lawyer :) The patent covers a pressurized space elevator tower. However, note that the part they have really patented here is the "plurality of segments and pressurized cells" part. The claims were amended during prosecution, in light of the examiner rejecting them all as anticipated by various references :) The way to discover this is to go to the USPTO's "public pair" system, enter the application or patent number, click "image file wrapper", and you can see all the correspondence between the examiner and the applicant. You are looking for the rejections and the amendment/claims parts that happened. In response to this rejection, the applicant added the "divided into a plurality of segments along a length of the space elevator tower, each of said plurality of segments containing a plurality of cells defining a core, and a plurality of stabilization devices distributed along the length of the space elevator tower; wherein the plurality of cells are pressurized with a gas to support the pneumatically pressurized structure; and wherein said plurality of stabilization devices is configured to provide active stabilization of the space elevator tower using a harmonic control strategy." requirements in claim 1. This means a space elevator tower which was not exactly this would not be covered in any way (because they have given up doctrine of equivalents by amending the claims). That is just on it's face. In court, if someone came up with a reference for a space elevator with these features, it would be invalid there too ;)