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Show HN: Print iconic patents for your walls

241 points| AlexMuir | 10 years ago |howacarworks.com

51 comments

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[+] amelius|10 years ago|reply
I would prefer to put "silly" patents on my wall instead, such as [1], [2], [3].

[1] http://www.google.nl/patents/US4320756

[2] http://www.google.com/patents/US4022227

[3] https://www.google.nl/patents/US1106495

[+] ThePhysicist|10 years ago|reply
This is hilarious! The "toilet breathing tube" [1] actually had a prominent appearance in this year's movie "Kingsman - The Secret Service" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2802144/), where a group of trainees used shower tubes to breathe through the toilets when their dorm was flooded with water. I guess they were lucky that the patent on this has already expired, otherwise they would have drowned for certain...
[+] provemewrong|10 years ago|reply
I can't believe someone patented a combover.
[+] radiorental|10 years ago|reply
Wish we had seen these when we were decorating our office. The architects, who happened to be involved in decorating as well, had picked out some 'iconic patent images'. The only problem was they were from an Etsy store and the artist just collected random, but plausible, image from the web.

We had a patent for Sputnik, that might have been ok until I spotted this https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/c7/4f/06/c74f...

Its a V2 rocket.

[+] jbuzbee|10 years ago|reply
These do look cool and perhaps are examples of inventions that should be patented, but unfortunately for me, patent abuses have turned me off to the whole patent system. I wouldn't want reminders of this broken system staring me in the face every day.
[+] rayiner|10 years ago|reply
I think that view is a bit short sighted. For example, Xerox PARC was bankrolled by Xerox's monopoly on copier patents. In an environment where the company didn't have to worry about counting pennies in cut throat competition, it was able to fund fundamental research into technologies we take for granted today (dynamic languages, the GUI, networking). After Japanese companies successfully sued Xerox and got a consent decree to force licensing of the patents, the company, and PARC, quickly declined.

Monopolies are often good for fundamental innovation. How much of modern computing traces back to either Bell Labs (built on the AT&T monopoly, which traces back to the Bell patent) or PARC (built on the Xerox patent monopoly)?

[+] geon|10 years ago|reply
How about printing software patents on toilet paper?
[+] mycelium|10 years ago|reply
I've been discouraged from looking at software patents by lawyers because apparently knowledge that you're infringing can be bad news bears even if the patent is frivolous.

If you actually read the toilet paper it could put you in a legally precarious situation. Funny as hell.

[+] soundsop|10 years ago|reply
I created a page at https://society6.com/constantchaos where these can be ordered as prints.

I was so intrigued with the drawings that I started to look for additional patent drawings to add. My favorite new ones are the Gameboy patent drawing and 3 drawings related to Curta mechanical calculators.

I developed my own vectorization and re-rasterization process that I believe offers a slight improvement in faithfulness to the original drawing (took a few tries to get the Curta ones right).

[+] hallman76|10 years ago|reply
The blog post mentions "the images are too low resolution for a good print. We've made the high resolution versions available below for you to download."

Does this mean higher res versions came from another source or that these were somehow enhanced/cleaned up?

[+] AlexMuir|10 years ago|reply
We converted the original PNGs to vector using Illustrator's image trace, then cleaned up some noise and removed some bits of pixelation before scaling them up and resaving them as raster.
[+] rev_bird|10 years ago|reply
I'm fairly sure the USPTO has higher-res versions.
[+] Animats|10 years ago|reply
As for "remastering" the patent images, here's how to do it.

Patent images are stored by the USPTO in TIFF form, which is a lossless compression. For years, they were delivered to users from the USPTO site in TIFF form, and you had to have a TIFF plug-in to view them. Last year, the USPTO switched to displaying PDF files instead. Those are harder to process in programs.

You can still download the TIFF files, but only in bulk.[1] They're available in blocks of about 10GB, each covering a range of patent numbers. You need about 10TB to store the whole set.

[1] http://patents.reedtech.com/pgyb.php

[+] brador|10 years ago|reply
What's the copyright on patents? Could this be done as an actual business?
[+] rgbrenner|10 years ago|reply
USPTO has the answer: http://www.uspto.gov/terms-use-uspto-websites.html

Patents are published as part of the terms of granting the patent to the inventor. Subject to limited exceptions reflected in 37 CFR 1.71(d) & (e) and 1.84(s), the text and drawings of a patent are typically not subject to copyright restrictions.

And if you follow the links to those laws, you'll see this:

(d) A copyright or mask work notice may be placed in a design or utility patent application adjacent to copyright and mask work material contained therein. ... Inclusion of a copyright or mask work notice will be permitted only if the authorization language set forth in paragraph (e) of this section is included at the beginning (preferably as the first paragraph) of the specification.

(e) The authorization shall read as follows: A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to (copyright or mask work) protection. The (copyright or mask work) owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all (copyright or mask work) rights whatsoever.

[+] olalonde|10 years ago|reply
According to http://patents.stackexchange.com/a/78, "the text and drawings of a patent are typically not subject to copyright restrictions" (except when specifically accompanied by a copyright notice). So I suppose the answer is yes, this could be done as a business.
[+] iDemonix|10 years ago|reply
As someone who is fairly good at this (I spend a fair bit of time creating vectors of old motorcycles for livery design), I'm also intrigued to know.
[+] donpdonp|10 years ago|reply
I would really like to see the patent expiration date on the diagrams. To give an idea of how long the screwdriver, for example, was patented.
[+] branchless|10 years ago|reply
First couple just made me think "how does that get a patent". Philips screwdriver - a flat screwdriver with another blade across it. Lego - a brick.

Nice illustrations but maddening.

[+] falcolas|10 years ago|reply
Well, one of the novelties of the Phillips screwdriver is its ability cam out of the screw head if it encounters too much resistance.

While frustrating to many who use it, it does prevent the all too easy case of sheering off the screw head because the screw met resistance (something I've done a few times with hexagonal heads and flat screwdrivers).

Lego - completely novel for its time. Just because it's not novel now, doesn't mean it wasn't novel when it was invented.

[+] mattwad|10 years ago|reply
I recently watched Lego's "Brickumentary" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3214286/)... according to the movie, Lego's major invention was putting cylinders inside the bricks, which allow them to be stacked in all kinds of ways. I think that qualifies for a patent.
[+] NeutronBoy|10 years ago|reply
Everything is obvious after it's been invented.
[+] darkstar999|10 years ago|reply
Welcome to the US patent system, where everything can get a patent and you just battle it out in court!
[+] qtrain|10 years ago|reply
Awesome! What are the specific sizes for the prints and the frames?
[+] CmonDev|10 years ago|reply
Can you add the best of Nikola Tesla section?