I Ching Patents

[Sparhawk]

Very good article by Steve Marshall about filings for I Ching patents:

I Ching patents

 

[fkegan]

Hi Luis,

Fascinating article, though one quibble with your description, SM is only dealing with actual ISSUED patents, with numbers from the U.S. patent office!
The filings are confidential since their release would complicate things, and if someone took the filing and built their own version, they would be free to market it (before any patent issued) and the patent might not ever issue.

Patents for novel inventions to cast Yi Oracles tickle me...what total misunderstanding of the Yi and of oracles and the process of casting.

Frank

 

[proserpine]

I Ching patents

That was hilarious Spar.
Rather Steve Marshal is.I've read his reviews but this was quite different.
I loved his remarks.
As for the idea of patenting methods, I've never heard of that.I knew some games and 'games' were patented of course.
My assumption is that the inventors of these new methods, patented their inventions because (as has actually happened wiht other inventions) if one of 'em should take off suddenly so that everyone was using it, and proclaiming it as the best way to cast a hexagram--the method's author wanted to be acknowledged(and paid?)I'm not talking about the rightness or appropriateness of it--just that it must be the idea, no?

 

[fkegan]

That was hilarious Spar.
Rather Steve Marshal is.I've read his reviews but this was quite different.
I loved his remarks.
As for the idea of patenting methods, I've never heard of that.I knew some games and 'games' were patented of course.
My assumption is that the inventors of these new methods, patented their inventions because (as has actually happened wiht other inventions) if one of 'em should take off suddenly so that everyone was using it, and proclaiming it as the best way to cast a hexagram--the method's author wanted to be acknowledged(and paid?)I'm not talking about the rightness or appropriateness of it--just that it must be the idea, no?

Hi proserpine,

Yep, the idea of a patent is to have a monopoly of your new invention so you can take all the credit for it and cash that credit to your bank account. Most inventions, even with patents don't take off and make big bucks, and then things like the Pet Rock do.

The thinking behind these particular patents is that they can improve upon the low tech options of throwing coins or splitting bundles of yarrow stalks, or in an earlier post improve upon Tibetan trigram wheels. They are all very cute and humorous--an interesting glimpse into their assumptions about the importance of technology and probability in casting oracles.

Different strokes for different folks.

Frank