A patent in which the application is itself an actual example of the invention?

November 4, 2005 11:59 AM

Are there any approved U.S. patents in which the patent application is itself an instantiation of the patented invention?

It struck me that a patent describing a process of relaying a specific story [link to not-yet-approved patent application; discussed on MeFi here] would itself enact a relaying of that story, albeit in a very experimental, bare-bones structural form. Has this level of self-reference ever found its way into approved patents in the past? Examples from other countries would be welcome as well.

posted by nobody to Law & Government (1 answer total)

I'm not going to search for it, but I did hear of a patent application on the process of online patent applications. If that was filed online it might meet your criteria, and it would also become its own prior art.
posted by StickyCarpet at 3:33 PM on November 4, 2005