McDonalds Sandwich Making Flow Chart Patent Application

[Marc]

McDonalds has applied for patent WO2006068865, which carries the title 'METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING A SANDWICH.'



John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich, can eat his heart out. Undoubtedly, some people are contemplating whether there's anything novel in this patent that is somehow obscured by its generic title. The good news is that, given that it only mentions generic sandwich making 'tool(s),' rather than any specific machine, it might not survive after the In Re Bilski decision, which was meant to put a stop to absurdities such as this. But until McDonalds's application is rejected or invalidated, make sure you don't use their flowchart when making sandwiches. After all, if you 'apply appropriate condiments to appropriate compartment,' you might infringe upon their 'intellectual property'.

[Howard Atkins]

At least the patent does not including eating

[MIREGMGR]

All of my previous occasions to interact with work product from the World Intellectual Property Organization have been jokes as well...though in all cases, I assume whoever filed the patent disclosure with them had serious intentions. But, they apparently are willing to grant rights to some goofy stuff.

They must have strange rules for what's allowable.

I really don't like intellectual property protection systems that make it easy to get a patent, on the assumption that validity can always be challenged in court. It makes intellectual property effectively belong to whoever can afford the biggest lawyer bills.

[wmarhel]

Well, based on the 2nd last step I'm going to corner the market on gyros then. Since I don't need to "close" a gyro I will just amend that step, re-submit, and claim a breakthrough. Do I hear IPO???

Wayne

[Craig H.]

I have an idea. Why not pass a law requiring McD's to certify that all of their employees can actually use the flow chart?

[somerqc]

Although, around here they follow the letter of the law. At 3 different McD's, my daughter wanted a cheeseburger nothing on it.....can we guess what she got?

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A hamburger!! Yep, they took the "nothing on it" to the nth degree and took the cheese off a cheeseburger!

[RickRay]

Although, around here they follow the letter of the law. At 3 different McD's, my daughter wanted a cheeseburger nothing on it.....can we guess what she got?

Yes that's happened to us before too. So now we always say 'Cheeseburger, plain, with cheese'.

[Peter West]

Strictly speaking they did provide what the client wanted . There should be more detailed flowcharts for their individual sandwiches and client requests to account for these exceptional circumstances.