8-Year-Old Receives Patent

Knile writes "While not the youngest patent recipient ever (that would be a four year old in Texas), Bryce Gunderman has received a patent at age 8 for a space-saver that combines an outlet cover plate with a shelf. From the article: '"I thought how I was going to make a lot of money," Bryce said about what raced through his brain when he received the patent.'"

so sad

[Anonymous Coward]

Something about this story just makes me want to cry soo hard. Faith in humanity lost yet again..

Re:wtf

[Arancaytar]

These things have been available for years.

When has that ever stopped a patent?

What's in a number?

[geegel]

The age seems pretty irrelevant. He actually invented an useful contraption, which he intends to produce and sell. This is actually a patent working as it should.

Corrupt legal system.

[Anonymous Coward]

Convict?!? What would happen is that the kid's father, probably the one who really "invented" this, would sue and then settle out of court for tens of thousands of dollars. Rinse - repeat. Considering how expensive it is for us hoi polloi to defend ourselves in court, the kid's father will clean up with out of court settlements.

Let's face it, our legal system is corrupt. He who has the most money, or free legal advice, wins!

Re:so sad

[bluefoxlucid]

That was my first thought too. We see cartoons where talking animals kick over a rock and it's a lump of gold and "GUH GUH GUH GUH GUH GUH GUH GUH GUHGUHGUHGUHGUH O_O" ... I don't even do that when a hot 18 year old girl sits in my lap. I mean I make a grab for the hips and keep her close but hey. I certainly don't get an unmitigatable hard-on over a couple tens of thousands of dollars in front of me; my first thought is, "What's the catch?" (the catch is you have to market this shit, and you're minimally likely to change our cultural view of what outlets look like; this is a gimmick.)

A better man would have thought about the practical purpose of such an invention. A thinking man. A man who is going to invent something even better.

Re:wtf

[Java Pimp]

Only the first link is similar to the kid's "invention" because it is the only one that is a replacement wall plate. The kid did improve on the invention by placing the shelf "above" the outlets instead of below so you can actually stack things on the shelf without blocking the outlets. Of course IANAPL but the kid's idea is probably sufficiently different from the first link that neither infringe on each other's "IP". I mean he didn't patent "wall plate shelves" (overly broad) but only his "design" of the wall plate shelf (specific)...

Pretty good for an 8-year old if you ask me...

Re:so sad

[j00r0m4nc3r]

What made you sad?

It makes me sad too. Here's an 8-year-old kid who is already turned into a money-grubbing materialist by his parents. The quest for money is the most empty and fruitless thing in life but our society idolizes it beyond everything else. He should be out playing with his friends and teasing girls and enjoying his youth instead of writing patent applications and worrying about how much money he's going to make and what useless crap he's going to buy with it. Not only that but he's going to take his money and feed it straight into the pockets of overpaid professional sports players, who certainly don't need it. I don't blame the kid because he's probably just emulating his patent-lawyer dad, but it would be nice if our society was less focused on money and material possessions and more on things that actually matter. Maybe the kid will turn out alright, but I don't hold much hope.

Re:so sad

[kheldan]

IN THIS COMMENT: Butthurt Anonymous Coward cries and whines over the fact that someone of single-digit age came up with a simple yet innovative idea that might just put him through college one day, while the AC OP sits lonely and fat in his stepmother's basement, unable to even hold down a job at the local Burger King.
Stop being such a fucking whiner, AC. Go back to community college and actually learn some job skills (Protip: XBAWKS360 doesn't count as "job skills") and maybe you'll actually get a job someday.

Re:so sad

[gstoddart]

There is no engineer here just another money grubbing human being that has no interest in the advancement of society but only the advancement of their own pockets. It pains me to see such vile behaver in someone as young as this.

Seriously, it can be two things.

You can make the world a better place, and get some for your own stack.

Altruism is all well and good, but the profit motive is perfectly reasonable as well. Maybe some of the truly Open Source die-hards think we should all live in communes and evolve beyond the need for money like in Star Trek ... in the meantime, I still expect to get paid.

However, having said that, he's the son of a patent lawyer ... he will almost never do anything for the good of society without considering the paycheck. Then again, neither will most people.

Re:so sad

[HaZardman27]

It pains me to see an adult (I'm assuming) get so butt-hurt about an 8 year-old succeeding that they'll whine this much about so-called "vile behavior." He didn't come up with this design to save the freaking world, he recognized his father's problem and then realized he could make money for solving it. Do you go to work every day for free?