Katherine Griffis-Greenberg Wrote:
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> Rick Baudé Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > At the risk of playing "devils advocate" a
> role I
> > hate. Hawass and Egypt might be within his
> > rights. Not only that but the Egyptians could
> file
> > "design patents" on any and all monuments
> (just
> > like coca cola has a design patent on their
> > bottle. And McDonald's has or had a patent
> on
> > their french fry box, and Col. Sanders had a
> > patent on the recipe for his Kentucky Fried
> > Chicken.
>
> Which they all personally created. Neither Hawass
> nor the modern Egyptians can copyright, patent or
> trademark the ancient monuments, of which they
> personally did not create. Period. Read your law
> on this subject.
I've read the law and reviewed hundreds of patents and design patents, and I see nothing that absolutely forbids them from patenting anything. The patent office knows that the human imagination is so breathtaking that they said you can patent "Any assemblage of matter." The pyramids or the sphinx for that matter the pyramids and the sphinx would fall in that category, all they have to do is figure out something unique like putting a telescope in front of the sphinx and patenting "A method for viewing and photographing ancient Egyptian Monuments". Before you say it's ridiculous, trust me I've researched absurd patents and there's some lulu's out there. Would it hold up? I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that it would. For instance somebody once said "build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door." Will guess what there are over a thousand patents on mouse traps, most of them some variation on the snap trap. How about calendars? Do you think that the patent rights to the calendar ended 70 years after the death of Julius Caesar? Not by a long shot, I found what looks like about a thousand or so patents on Calendars and all of them are some variation of the Julian calendar. The first vending machine was invented over 2,000 years ago by Heron of Alexandria the patents on that would have long expired. But again there are thousands of patents on vending machines today and more being filed all the time. Don't forget we're not talking about some minor pyramidiot who tries to patent the GP as a giant water pumping system, we're talking about the Egyptian Govt. who has the power and the resources if they choose, to pursue a patent fight. 
> Such law requires the actual creators to file the
> patents, trademarks, and copyrights. No matter
> how much Hawass may go on about this, the statute
> of limitations for filing such copyrights and/or
> patents of these designs has long since expired -
> as have the creators of the monuments.
I agree they all have expired,
>
> As I noted in my earlier post in this thread, even
> designs which have equal inspiration across
> cultures cannot be copyrighted by any one culture.
> Further, by now even the design of the pyramid
> shape has also fallen into public domain in
> architectural terms.
Perhaps, but with a design patents you can patent they pyramid shape for your particular design. Personally I think this is just another one of Hawass's grandstanding gestures.
>
> Katherine Griffis-Greenberg
>
> Oriental Institute
> Oriental Studies Doctoral Program
> Oxford University
> Oxford, United Kingdom
>
>