Featured Toyota patents flying Prius...

In Minnesota, a Mirai would need a heater in its exhaust system. The only thing coming out of the exhaust is water, and what happens to water when the air temperature drops below freezing?...

Bill the Engineer

 

I'm well aware of the patent system intent. Heck, I even have a corporate patent for work someone else did. While the "rules" are the same, it has long since changed from something intended to protect the originators from predatory corporations. The system has been converted into a standard weapon predatory corporations use to create empires. By using expendable engineers to generate anything and everything "novel", they can claim all intellectual property to be subject to corporate ownership. I've seen how it works from the inside, and it is the exception where a patent protects a single inventor.

 

I thought this particular requirement was effectively thrown out the window long ago.

 

That might be US only.