jefu's Journal: Patent weirdness

Here's a fun patent worth reading. I think it shows just how bizarre the patent granting process has become. It might also help you if you are inclined toward the kind of vague psychological help you find in cheap self-help books. Also, perhaps, if you're a fan of the Madam Blavatsky school of philosophy.

Here are the two (thats all) claims, which seem to me to cover almost anything as long as it has 81 things grouped in threes:

1. A psychological development system comprising triangulation, categorization and interpretation.
2. A psychological development system comprising evaluating at least three things in at least three ways in at least three levels that is repeated at least three times.

And a description that reads rather like Madame Blavatsky and achieves impressive levels of buzzwordy, symbolist vagueness. Just one sample :

The Triangle symbolizes the Personal Realm and relates to the Qualitative Research approach...pointing upwards it stands for ascent to heaven, fire, and the active male principle: reversed, it symbolizes grace descending from heaven, water, the receptive female element.