On 3/24/07, Peter Jacobi peter_jacobi@gmx.net wrote:
Patents are used a lot as references in our dark corner where death rays, anti-gravity devices, free energy machines, and the like are nurtured by their fans.
Indeed - however, patents are useful sources for more detail or to shore up a claim of invention date. They can't be used to establish the importance of a topic or the accuracy of the claims because a patent is essentially a self-published document with only a degree of review; plenty of bogus things have passed inattentive patent examiners.
It's also worth noting that the patented version of an invention is often rather dissimilar to the eventual mass-produced item.
-Matt