Well, hard to believe, that in the 10+ years of operation, the HalfBakery is getting serious attention from the U.S. Patent Office. Perhaps we should change the name to 75-percent-baked -- 'cause now the Halfbakery is cited in seven granted patent applications this August 2009. While the custard filled speed bumps have not been cited once (hard to believe) there seems to be sufficiently enabled ideas here to surmount the 'joke' barrier and ascend into seriousness.
I think the HalfBakery should sponsor a contest to give to the halfbaker who gets the zaniest idea cited at the U.S. PTO a small trophy of a gilded crescent at the time the USPTO cites (in a granted patent) the 12th Halfbakery reference. One way to spur this on, is for people to submit Halfbakery idea citations to peertopatent.org ...
I'd love to be a fly-on-the-wall in the patent attorney's office who gets a rejection from the patent office that cites a Halfbakery idea as teaching an obvious part of the attorney's invention. "You can't be serious, the Halfbakery is knocking out my invention?"-- pathetic, Aug 13 2009 Patent Office Spectacular Seven http://patft.uspto....RM2=&FIELD2=&d=PTXTThis patents were granted in spite of the Halfbakery [pathetic, Aug 13 2009] (?) Peer to Patent http://Peertopatent.orgCrowdsourced patent prior art searching [pathetic, Aug 13 2009] (?) Halfbakery inspired Art? http://web.media.mi...dsm/ass1/sketch.jpgA sketch of the commentary flow on the custard speed bump idea [Zimmy, Aug 13 2009] call me a cynic, but I don't think being cited 7 times (out of how many tens of thousands of ideas?) is much of an achievement.
If a HB idea is well described it should show up on an appropriately worded Google search and examiners doing their job properly should be doing a Google search (at least if they can't find anything in the patent databases). So, at least in theory, HB ideas are already being searched. As an Australian patent examiner I have never cited a HB idea (but not for lack of want or trying).
Anyway, I heartily endorse the trophy idea and hope that it goes to someone deserving like Farmer John.-- xaviergisz, Aug 13 2009 Seconded.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Aug 13 2009 My "Tundra Treeline" is being considered for implementation by the "world organization of tree science" or something like that though I didn't notice any honourable mention <hmmph>.
Much as I agree that the 'B should be cited when applicable, I think it's a silly idea (and not in a good way) to promote the HB or its contents as a free patent-idea trove [ ]... just my 2c.-- FlyingToaster, Aug 13 2009 [xaviergisz] - You're a cynic.Happy now?Re. the first link: items 5 & 7 are some kind of irony?-- coprocephalous, Aug 13 2009 [cop] same people, later version seems to be longer (I didn't read it fully); more detailed or loopholes closed up I imagine.-- FlyingToaster, Aug 13 2009 on the other hand (wikipedia article), there seems to be a few similar sites... I don't think a contest between them/us to see who can get the most patent cites from pre-existing material would be out of order.-- FlyingToaster, Aug 13 2009 [admin: Please don't use URL abbreviation services here unless you really, really want to - the links become invalid when the URL abbreviation service goes down, users can't see where you're sending them, and the halfbakery already shortens its own URLs on display.]
(-) It's nice that there are patent examiners with a sense of humor out there, and it's nice that the occasional posting here is realistic enough to (almost?) patent - but why push it?-- jutta, Aug 13 2009 I'm outraged no one's tried to patent my "Cheese sputtering gun"-- hippo, Aug 13 2009 And when someone talked about priors for Curb Side Blow Job, I thought they meant something completely different.
I typically am much more interested in "baked" status, especially when suggested products or services get some level of notoriety, as when a venture gets funded.-- theircompetitor, Aug 13 2009 //on the other hand (wikipedia article)//
Has anyone read "Observations about Halfbakery from a social perspective" linked at the bottom of wikipedia? There is an interesting sketch included as well. (link).-- Zimmy, Aug 13 2009 // much more interested in "baked" status //
So are we, especially for "Cat ejection pack" and "Venus cat trap".
Our cloud height smoke rocket has already reached the proof-of-concept stage.......-- 8th of 7, Aug 13 2009 //Halbakery Dozen // Sp: Halfbakery-- csea, Aug 13 2009 Search USPTO for "halfbakery" got 93 hits today.(June) 108 late September (should be back in school)-- popbottle, Jun 10 2014 Is there such a thing as a half-patented idea?-- xenzag, Jun 10 2014 Search USPTO for "halfbakery" got 114 hits today. Nov 11, 2014
("patent office" at halfbakery got 80 nov 18) //
130 hits at uspto april 20 2015-- popbottle, Nov 12 2014 Interesting that most of those (based on a small sample) seem to reference the same two or three HB ideas-- hippo, Nov 12 2014 //Search USPTO for "halfbakery" got 114 hits today.
Searching halfbakery for "patent office" got 141 results..and if you reverse the last two figures...-- not_morrison_rm, Nov 12 2014 Are you saying something about buried treasure in the arctic? I've got the pant part of the pantomime horse ready.-- rcarty, Nov 17 2014 Results of Search in US Patent Collection db for: halfbakery: 189 patents.-- popbottle, Jan 12 2017 Some of the cited for patents have the username too. So you can search by username. That worked for Absinthewithoutleave but not for st3f. It did not work for bungston, but I suspect not for the same reason that it did not work for st3f.-- bungston, Jan 12 2017 Interesting. Does the halfbakery not count as prior art?-- st3f, Jan 13 2017 I've posted two things here that are now on the market. One was a salt shotgun fly killer that's now marketed as Bug assault. Another is a throwable microphone.-- nomocrow, Oct 06 2017 Likewise. I can site several ideas copied, including one by Ikea. I fought them all the way to their MD, but they hid behind French copyright law, which is different to that of the normal world. (Surprise, surprise)-- xenzag, Oct 06 2017 Told ya.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 06 2017 I only said that to smoke you out, and make you happy. It worked a treat. Ha-- xenzag, Oct 06 2017 I've been pretty meticulous about updating my ideas when they get baked. By the patent's office latest calculation, I've already retired in the Cayman Islands.-- theircompetitor, Oct 06 2017 - and have you actually retired in the Cayman islands?-- hippo, Oct 06 2017 No, but he keeps a cayman in his pool.-- normzone, Oct 06 2017 Can't complain, [hippo], but neither retired, nor in the Cayman. But hey, as [normzone] points out, when I sell the movie rights for my latest idea, anything is possible.-- theircompetitor, Oct 06 2017 Whoa. [st3f] is still around. Hi! I thought you'd disappeared for some reason.
Anyway, this isn't the first idea I've seen on here to talk about HB ideas being cited by patents. I'll try to find the other one and link it here. I think it had lots more discussion.
ETA: Can't find it. :(-- notexactly, Feb 13 2018 Is there an archive/list of halfbakery ideas that have made it into the real world? Whether by the halfbaker or some- one else... (I've found quite a few, & linked them where I can.)-- neutrinos_shadow, Aug 04 2020 random, halfbakery