When filling out a patent application, the purpose is two-fold. The first purpose of the application is to provide enough information for the patent examiner to determine if your invention is original and non-obvious, thus patentable. The second purpose of the application is to provide enough information for someone skilled in the art the invention falls under to recreate the invention. Often to fulfill these two purposes it is necessary to include illustrations to help visualize key parts that may be difficult to explain solely in writing. Yet, what happens when you strip these images out of the application and look at them without any context at all? Would you be able to discern just from the image what the patent is? Via io9, we learn of a Tumblr account that takes this idea of context free patent illustrations and runs with it.

Let's take a look at a few of these illustrations and see just what each might be:



Either Ian Bogost has been granted a patent for clicking a cow on the internet or someone has patented the sirloin steak.



It looks like someone has invented a new method for dispensing cats for adoption via a very large crane game. Not sure how happy the cats will be when adopted, but the game sure looks fun.

While I have often wondered why my 6 year-old's crayon drawings need copyright, I can tell by these next couple of illustrations that even without copyright she could make quite the living drawing illustrations for patent applications.





I can honestly say, my daughter's art is way better.



Who would have thought that people might want to wear shoes while wrestling? I know I certainly wouldn't have conceived of the idea had it not been for this patent application.



Ooh. Looks like someone has been awarded a patent on modern copyright maximalist strategy. The mine cart represents the one track mind of those seeking more enforcement legislation. The Whac-a-Mole represents how effective those measures are in real life. I like it.

While I feel that illustrations can be invaluable to a properly filed application, especially for those seeking to use those applications when the patents expire, one must really look at these sample illustrations and many of the others posted in the Tumblr blog and wonder, "Are these illustrations really helping to promote the progress?"