Potential Pirate?

From my thread in General...

My answer to him:

Not really. I had studied patent law and procedure for 7 months in order to write and prosecute the patent myself. I knew that this was one of those rare patents which no one could get around. It was the main reason for making no application aspects on the application.

The examiner at first objected to not showing an application and rejected it for that reason. I went into the patent office for a meeting with him, and proved to him that it could be used for simple applications just with the four plates illustrated. I don't think he truly understood it before that.

He looked at me and said "Some day this is going to be in the Encyclopedia Britannica." That was the second of many ego boosts with this project.

The first came from my dad. When I first invented it, he was working part time for me, and was grinding electrodes when I went into the shop to tell him about it. His reaction, typical for him.. "There must be something wrong with it or someone would have already done it." and went back to work.

I took him with me to Arlington (patent office) to do the searches, and he still didn't get it.

Finally, when the application was ready, we were driving to Arlington to file it, he read it with understanding for the first time. He said, "Do you know what you have here?" Well duh, I told you that almost a year ago. (Didn't actually say "duh".. that was before that expression came into being.)

All my life I had sought his approval with only a small amount of moderate success. To finally get significant approval from him was my first real ego boost.