[QUOTE="Grimly"] It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Cane" US patent law may be different, but if a thing's been in common use for ages, you can't simply turn up and patent it.[/QUOTE] MacDonalds tried to patent the use of Mac in front of names for personal or business use and nearly got away with it. Apparently they had no idea where it came from.[QUOTE] Mind you, it's the US after all. I'm waiting for them to award the patent on breathing to some corporation. [/QUOTE] There have been some dodgy dealing done in the US patents office. Boeing tried to take AirBus to court for using their patented wing flap actuation design. AirBus proved that Boeing's filled patent was false and that the designer of the flap was actually working for AirBus at the time of the design. Someone had slipped a predated patent in to the patent office's computer filing system