Entertaining Cat With A Laser (Patent) (google.com)

Well, I violate that one on a regular basis...

How can you patent something that exists in two separate forms:

   1.  playing with cat
   2.  flashing a laser around

Or is that like mixing chocolate with peanut butter and making a new candy to patent?

There has to be prior art before 1995 no? (look how large that laser is! mine is the size of a AAA battery)

So can I patent making a ball out of tin-foil and throwing it around with my cat (she chases it like crazy).

Well - I just lodged a patent:

Method of entertaining a human with a cat.

PISS OFF IT'S MINE!

Amusing still, but one of the longtime examples of an obvious invention.

Am I the only one reminded of this Monty Python classic

Confuse a cat :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2Je1CEPkUM

"The involuntary and almost imperceptibly slight movements of the hand holding the laser device of the present invention creates a jittery animated effect in the light pattern at the opaque intersection appealing to cats even when the device is held essentially steady."

I hope the production model infantry laser rifle of the future is forced to include patent 5,443,036 on account that even in the hands of a bio-mechanical super-soldier, the jittering effect of the laser's appeal to cats was patented decades earlier.

Webcatting: Saw this last month at NYU's ITP

http://itp.nyu.edu/~nbe206/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/s...

Natalie's blog: http://itp.nyu.edu/~nbe206/blog/