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A beautiful story about the inner workings of a patent-pending species-specific insect repellent based on a small strip of magnetic strip. As one might guess,
by nkurz 11y ago
A beautiful story about the inner workings of a patent-pending species-specific insect repellent based on a small strip of magnetic strip. As one might guess, it involves encoding the words "FLEA" and "TICK" on the strip. Or maybe "AELF" and "KCIT" to properly actuate the quantum polarity? The story was written in 2010 while the patent was still pending. But surely it's been rejected by now. Nope. Also as one might guess, the patent was granted by the USPTO with the the main claim intact: https://www.google.gg/patents/US8382001 https://www.google.gg/patents/US8382001
Have you ever thought to yourself "Sure, this advertisement says 'patent-pending', but that only means that someone was able to scrape together enough money to file a patent. It's not like someone has vetted the technology and actually granted them a patent." Well, now you see that you can safely shorten that to "Sure, this advertisement says 'patented', but that only means that someone was able to scrape together enough money to file a patent. It's not like someone has vetted the technology."
This is probably not surprising to anyone who understands the role of patents. They aren't designed to act as evidence that a technology is useful, or even possible. Instead, they are designed to "promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts", which seems to be interpreted as to "create a secondary market for dubious patents". I was surprised though to see that they had been granted a second patent, covering the ornamental design of the tag: http://www.google.com/patents/USD626704 http://www.google.com/patents/USD626704
I was aware that design patents existed to cover essential innovations such as the rounded corners of a "portable display device" (http://www.google.com/patents/USD670286 http://www.google.com/patents/USD670286), but I hadn't realized how broadly they could be applied. Is there a threshold that needs to be exceeded when determining how much the grant of a design patent will "promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts"? Or can one expect to receive design patents for any design variation you can dream up?
- DanBC 11y agoThe article is from 2010. Amazingly shootag is still on sale at Amazon. $35 for two! They have 150 reviews. 42% 5 star, 12% 4 stars and 31% 1 star. The reviews seem to have many genuine people who absolutely believe these work - even though these things clearly can't work. Reading the reviews makes me a bit angry and a bit sad.
- steve19 11y agoRational wiki points out that it is vaugly possible they do work, although not by the mechanism claimed. if they were heavily coated with chemicals they might work... while possibly poisoning the pet they are being used on.
- tempestn 11y agoSome of those Amazon reviews suggest that the tags only work when "fresh", which might support that theory. Still I expect confirmation bias is more likely.
- TeMPOraL 11y agoThe video on their page says that the tags work for up to four months, which suggests that they upped their scam even further.
- 0942v8653 11y ago> shoo!TAG is a revolutionary chemical-free way to protect your pets from fleas and ticks I don't think so. But I highly doubt the card is actually chemical-free, so they're lying either way. Also, I think they would be more afraid of lawsuits by people whose pets were poisoned than for false advertising.
- porsupah 11y agoObligatory SMBC on "chemical free": http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=3324 http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=3324
- madaxe_again 11y agoThe card comprises a unique matter-free pocket universe. Or at least it had better, or they're lying.
- eru 11y agoAs long as it's not atoms, but eg just neutrinos, it's not really chemistry.
- gertef 11y agofrom the Patent: LEGAL EVENTS 28 Sep 2010 AS Assignment Owner name: ENERGETIC SOLUTIONS, LLC, TEXAS 3 Aug 2012 AS Assignment Owner name: R&T ENTERPRISES, LLC, OREGON Effective date: 20111121 Free format text: MORTGAGE FORECLOSURE;ASSIGNOR:ENERGETIC SOLUTIONS, LLC the patent was transfered in a mortgage foreclosure!
- sbhere 11y agoSo it's now owned by a mortgage bank?
- madaxe_again 11y agoYou can ask the "scientist" behind it - http://engineering.tamu.edu/biomedical/people/fink-rainer http://engineering.tamu.edu/biomedical/people/fink-rainer Frankly, he sounds dangerous. If he honestly thinks a magstripe can repel insects, do you really want to use other biomedical tech he's had anything to do with? I guess Texas A&M give degrees out like candy... can I have one? Need firelighters.