What you do not know about patents

WHAT YOU DO NOT KNOW ABOUT PATENTS HISTORY HAS ALSO BEEN a method for BEEN FILLED WITH SILLY PATENTS: swinging on a swing (duh!) Massachusetts gave Joseph Winslow a patent to make salt in 1633, the YOU PATENT AN INVENTION. a face-mask to first in North America prevent eating The ancient Greeks in a banana case 500 B.C. granted protection to inventors. a bike with a sail Patent terms generally last for 20 years AND FROM 2007 TO 2011, THE PLACES WITH THE HIGHEST NUMBER OF PATENTS PER CAPITA ARE: 16% San Jose computer hardware and peripherals Burlington, Vt. semiconductor devices Rochester, Minn. computer hardware Corvallis, Ore. semiconductors Boulder, Colo. communications Poughkeepsie, N.Y. semiconductors Ann Arbor, Mich. motors, engines and parts Despite the large legal costs of obtaining a patent, 16 percent of patents are allowed to expire after just four years because the owners refuse to pay a $900 maintenance fee. San Francisco and Oakland biotechnology Austin, Texas computer hardware Santa Cruz, Calif. computer hardware