Patently Silly

Truth is stranger than fiction, they say--and when it's a patent truth and strange to boot, why then, it's Patently Silly! Daniel Wright brings together, for the first time ever, the most outlandish patents issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Representing an incredible range of patents for inventions that strain the boundaries of imagination, taste, and any form of usefulness, they are by turns really weird, really cool, or really scary. And they are all just plain ridiculous. Each patent title--from the self-operating seesaw to the talking toilet-paper roller--is real, and the accompanying images are those submitted with the patent application. Inventions often undergo a long period of mockery before catching on. Patently Silly seeks to be the first to ridicule, so that this phase of an invention's life can end sooner. Then, hopefully, it will grow up and change the world.