Patent of the Day

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Method of exercising a cat

U.S. Patent 5,443,036 · 1995

Inventors
Kevin T. Amiss, Martin H. Abbott
Assignee
(none assigned)
Filed
1995

From the abstract

A method of inducing aerobic exercise in an unrestrained cat by use of a hand-held laser apparatus. The cat is induced to chase the bright pattern of light produced by the laser as it moves across walls and floors.

Note

A real, granted U.S. patent for shining a laser pointer at your cat. The drawings show stick-figure humans aiming a small box at a stick-figure cat mid-leap. The patent is enforceable until 2015 (it has since expired). The USPTO has, in the years since, become more skeptical of method patents over commonplace activity — but for two decades, technically, you owed Amiss and Abbott royalties.

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