Wednesday, September 5, 2012

7 questions on patents

Info

Apple and Samsung are locked in fierce patent battles. Samsung has complained about patent law being "manipulated to give one company a monopoly over rectangles with rounded corners".

How much do you know about inventions?

1.) Multiple Choice Question

This illustration is from a patent dated 1900. What is it for?

Info

This patent from 1919 is along similar lines, but more alarming. J D Humphrey's design is for an alarm clock that wakes the sleeper with a blow to the forehead from a pivoted antennae released by the clock mechanism.

2.) Multiple Choice Question

US inventor Thomas Edison was renowned for the sheer number of his patents. For which of the following was his first successful US patent in 1868?

3.) Multiple Choice Question

The earliest known patent in England was granted in 1449. It was for the manufacture of which of the following for Eton College?

4.) Multiple Choice Question

In the 1930s, Kellogg and the National Biscuit Company (later Nabisco) fought a titanic legal battle over which distinctive cereal?

5.) Multiple Choice Question

The term "patent troll" has come to describe to firms that acquire patents so that they can later extract settlements from companies on infringement claims. The phrase was coined by staff at which company?

6.) Multiple Choice Question

Hollywood actress Hedy Lamarr was best known as a sultry screen siren, but she had a sideline as an inventor. What patent did she approach the US military with?

7.) Multiple Choice Question

This description is taken from US patent 4,022,227: "The hair styling requires dividing a person's hair into three sections and carefully folding one section over the other." What does it describe?

Answers

Your Score

0 - 3 : Out of ideas

4 - 6 : Patent pending

7 - 7 : Eureka!

For past quizzes including our weekly news quiz, 7 days 7 questions, expand the grey drop-down below - also available on the Magazine page (and scroll down)



Source & Image : BBC

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