I've seen legends similar to that before; afraid I can't offer anything solid in terms of prior art examples but it's hardly as revolutionary as they seem to think. Pretty absurd if you ask me; On Wed, Aug 5, 2009 at 7:34 AM, "René A. Enguehard" <ahugen...@gmail.com>wrote:
> I suspect they might be applying for the patent but in for quite a surprise > when it gets rejected. Features for maps would be very tricky to patent and, > more importantly, not in the interest of the general public. As such the > patent applications would probably get rejected. Would we really want people > patenting things like projections, north arrows, scale bars or legends? I > don't think it would be productive and suspect any patent office in its > right mind would see it the same way. > > Patents were created to help people protect their ideas for a length of > time so they could reap the rewards of their work and refine it without fear > of being copied or undercut. This works very well for many things but fails > miserably for conceptual things like maps or layouts for books or posters. > This is why many patent offices now require people to patent "systems" > rather than "things". I don't see how a wrap-around map could be explained > as a system. > > René > IANAL > > Landon Blake wrote: > >> >> The latest issue of the ACSM Bulletin had an interesting article about a >> map matrix that wraps around the edge of a paper map. It seems the company >> that is using this feature of hard copy map design is applying for a patent. >> I didn’t even think you could get a patent a feature of a paper map. It got >> me wondering who holds the patent on the use of a north arrow and scale. >> >> At any rate, here is the article if you are interested in reading it: >> >> http://www.webmazine.org/issues/current/documents/wrap.pdf >> >> I couldn’t find the patent application, or I would have posted a link to >> it. Let me know if you have any comments. >> >> Landon >> >> >> >> *Warning: >> *Information provided via electronic media is not guaranteed against >> defects including translation and transmission errors. If the reader is not >> the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, >> distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you >> have received this information in error, please notify the sender >> immediately. >> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Discuss mailing list >> Discuss@lists.osgeo.org >> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss >> >> > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > Discuss@lists.osgeo.org > http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss >
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