A post from our student blogger Nicole

So today I decided to focus solely on our Patent Law and Prosecution class.  For those of you that don’t know, Patent Law and Prosecution is here to help you with an understanding of the legal base of the US patent system.  It will help you become familiar with MPEP sections important for the practice of a patent agent.    I would like to start off by saying all of our teachers are hilarious, and today I’m going to focus on our funny prosecution teacher.

He really knows how to make the class interesting and keep us focused.  My favorite part of his class is when he shows us examples of patent applications related to the topic being discussed.  Some of them are so ridiculous and funny you wouldn’t believe how kooky people are.  Either that or they just have way too much time on their hands and nothing to spend their money on.  Let’s take application 11/161,345 for example (I say application because it was never patented, only published).  First off the title is Godly Powers.  Yes you read that right.  Someone actually tried to get a patent for godly powers, but beware if you’re a magician because he doesn’t like you!  This patent is definitely worth reading so I would read it if I were you!  Another patent we looked at was patent 3,963,275 Method of Breaking Free-Standing Rock Boulders.  The title doesn’t seem too bad until you see the picture!  A canon? Who uses canons to break rocks?  The patent was from 1976, but I’m pretty sure we stopped using canons in the 1900’s.  There were others as well, but I won’t spoil his class by giving away all the funny patents he likes to show.  You’ll just have to wait and see for yourself!  And by that I mean come here and become part of the Notre Dame Patent Law family!

Another thing that’s great about his class is when we do patent bar questions from old patent bar exams.  He wants us to be ready for the real exam, and what’s even better is he makes you real nervous during class because you don’t know if he’s going to call on you or not.  But don’t freak out too bad if he does, because he will help you get through the question or you can phone a friend for help!  I find these questions very helpful and hopefully you will too.  There are a bunch of little tips he tells us that will help with the exam so definitely take note of them!

P.S. The title is dedicated to my dad because it’s his favorite quote!