Abstract
I. Introduction United States Patent 6,293,874 (2001): User-operated Amusement Apparatus for Kicking the User's Buttocks Abstract: An amusement apparatus including a user-operated and controlled apparatus for self-infliction of repetitive blows to the user's buttocks by a plurality of elongated arms bearing flexible extensions that rotate under the user's control. . . . As the user rotates the crank, the user's buttocks are paddled by flexible shoes located on each outboard end of the elongated arms to provide amusement to the user and viewers of the paddling . . . . 1 [SEE ILLUSTRATION IN ORIGINAL] Over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the United States evolved from a colonial backwater to become the preeminent economic and technological power of the world. The foundation of this evolution was the systematic exploitation and application of technology to economic problems: initially agriculture, transportation, communication, and the manufacture of goods, and then later health care, information technology, and virtually every aspect of modern life. From the beginning of the republic, the patent system has played a key role in this evolution. Derived from the Constitution itself, and codified in roughly its modern form in 1836, the patent system was an essential aspect of the legal framework in which inventions from Edison's light bulb and the Wright brothers' airplane to the cell phone and Prozac were developed. Popular discourse regarding the patent system emphasizes its role in creating an economic incentive for the creative act of invention. From an economic perspective, ...