Microsoft Awarded Ridiculous Patents

From the Raw Feed:

Microsoft was awarded a U.S. patent Tuesday for a "Method and apparatus for transmitting power and data using the human body." That's right. If you want to use human skin as a data bus or muscle tissue as a conduit for electricity, you may need to pay Microsoft a licensing fee.

It may sound farfetched, but it's a near certainty that eventually all kinds of gadgets -- wristwatches, glasses, hats, etc. -- will communicate with each other via electrical impulses sent through the body.

You'll even be able to exchange contact information with someone by shaking their hand. Microsoft will get a penny every time that happens.

This wacky sounding patent comes on the heels of recent reports that the company had received patents for the ideas of double-clicking on a PDA, and a method for programmers to keep a running "to do" list in code comments. Very recently, Microsoft has been granted patents for a "Hand-held personal computer," a "multilingual user interface for an operating system," "thread-based e-mail" and even "one-pass greedy-pattern-matching finite-state-machine code generation."

I don't know what that last one is but it sounds difficult and painful.

The U.S. Patent Office even accidentally granted Microsoft a patent for a new variety of Apple tree -- the Burchinal Red Delicious -- earlier this year.

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