Weekly Worthless Patent

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Soft toss pitching machine

This was the first patent I looked at for this week and I almost didn't look at any others. Pitching machines of various flavors are a VERY POPULAR "invention" for beginners. I remember a "home made" pitching machine that someone brought to the practice fields when I was in little league in the early 1960s. Aside from that I read the first claim and it specified "said ball tube assembly being multi-curved," that's when the alarm bells all went off. What does "multi-curved" have to do with anything and why a "tube," none of those are new to pitching machines and since hoppers and troughs are common all anyone needs to do to "work around" this patent it looks like to me is use a hopper or a trough--or even a tube with a single bend!

Then I looked at all the other claims in the patent and found they all depended on Claim 1; "work around" that and the patent is totally worthless. A closer inspection of the patent showed many detailed detail drawings each one-to-a-page and page after specification page with describing intricate details of the device. I also noted that the patent issued in less than a year--very fast compared to most patents, so I looked up its file wrapper online. The day after the patent examiner got the application he mailed the allowance notice.

How about that, a slam dunk patent (to use a metaphor from the wrong sport). This patent appears to have all the earmarks of a scam "inventor help" operation, whether it was done by one or not I don't know. (I haven't included all 20 pages---those page charges really add up!)

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