How to Make a Sandwich
In case you are starting from scratch.
I caught this on Slashdot this morning. Apparently, McDonalds, not satisfied with making people fat, is now making a move to take over the sandwich market: completely. They have filed a patent for the process of making a sandwich. David Adam has a good article on the topic as well.
This is a flowchart detailing the process which they are trying to patent:
Call me crazy, but I think that they making of a sandwich is pretty self explanatory. Also, what if other fast food chains are using this same method? Does that fall under prior art? Will Burger King be sued? Will local sandwich shops either be sued out of business or have to pay licensing fees to the burger giant?
These are uncertain times.
Regardless, patent law in the states has a few problems. Though, this likely will not effect everyday users of sandwiches and sandwich construction materials. Just don’t try to use this process and then sell what you made or you might be in for a nasty surprise lawsuit.
2007–2010 John D. Martin III
1
I suspect a prank, but then again these are the people who sued a vegetarian restaurant for calling itself “McDharma’s”.
2
I would have thought the same, but I think that this might be real. Think about it: if they have to take the time to flowchart this in order to teach employees how to make a fucking sandwich, then they might as well patent it.