back to article Wallace and Gromit get patent-happy at Science Museum

A Wallace and Gromit exhibit aimed at guiding students through the world of cheese-fuelled innovation will open its doors at the Science Museum in London tomorrow. Visitors will be encouraged to learn more about what the museum described as "some of the greatest objects ever invented". The Intellectual Property Office-backed …

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  1. The BigYin
    Unhappy

    Inventors receive diddly

    It's the rights holder who reaps the rewards.

    So remember kids; if you invent the next cool thing either shove two fingers to the world and do a Dyson, open source it or be prepared to get screwed over royally by the business types.

    Actually, that last one will happen anyway as your idea will be copied and exploited by those who can afford better lawyers than you.

  2. Craig

    A new episode?

    Do you think the Intellectual Property Office would sponsor a new episode of Wallace and Gromit? I can imagine the storyline revolving around Wallace being beaten to the punch by big corporates when trying to register his patents, and on the few successful applications the story gives insight into how the big corporates walk all over the small guys and ignore the patents they own.

    At least it would be educating the visiting students with some real world insight into how patents work!

  3. Cucumber C Face
    Paris Hilton

    Kerrrrr-chingggg

    Aardman Animations have done [great] ads etc for many years. But W&G kept themselves clear from TV commercials and commercial sponsorships for 20 years. For that they deserved serious respect. Maybe I'm old-fashioned but it's a pity they couldn't have kept it that way.

    Paris - because even she can only just about afford to visit this exhibit

  4. Jonathan McColl

    What article?

    I can't see the article title because there's a Microsoft ad covering it up, but it seems to be about Wallace & Gromit in the Science Museum and I like them.

  5. Geoffrey Summerhayes
    Stop

    Erm...

    "Memorable creations have included techno trousers..."

    Weren't the techno-trousers purchased second-hand from the space program and not a Wallace creation? He could get in legal trouble claiming them as his own.

  6. Liam Johnson
    Linux

    Technotrousers

    ex-NASA, great for walkies, but not invented by Wallace.

    Watch out for the penguins :-)

  7. jake Silver badge

    Ups & downs of a world economy ...

    "Aardman Animations have done [great] ads etc for many years. But W&G kept themselves clear from TV commercials and commercial sponsorships for 20 years. For that they deserved serious respect. Maybe I'm old-fashioned but it's a pity they couldn't have kept it that way."

    On the bright side, I can get proper Wensleydale Cheese locally, here in Sonoma California. It's not quite the cheese that I remember from my yoof in Yorkshire, 30ish years ago, but it still really works well with a Gravenstein apple pie & a pint of good local beer :-)

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Horns

    Apple

    Next month on El Reg... Apple launches new patents based on ideas stolen from W&G! Claim "inventions" as their own.

  9. Dave Harris
    Boffin

    Great inventors

    So where are Drakken and Doofenschmirtz?

  10. Trevor Watt

    Free Museums

    Under a VAT deal with the government some museums became free, including the Science Museum. So if it is an exhibition in the museum then a fee must be paid? I don't understand this, either all the Museum should be free or the VAT deal should be cancelled.

  11. Neoc
    Thumb Down

    Whoop-de-doo

    "Otherwise adult visitors need to pay £9, a family of one adult and two kids pay £21, and a family of two adults and two kids pay £30 for the exhibit."

    A=9

    A+2K=21 (9+2K=21, 2K=12, K=6)

    2A+2K=30 (check: 2x9 + 2x6 = 18 + 12 = 30)

    Couldn't you have just said "Adults pay £9, kids pay £6", since there appears to be no discount for family groups?

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Oooo 'eck Gromit

    That ain't half expensive!

  13. Psymon
    Pirate

    Great Inventors and their just rewards

    Ah yes.

    We have a long history of great inventors, all with happy endings, like Alexander Flemings' discovery of penicillin - oh wait, that was stolen from him by an american corporation.

    John Logie Baird was compenmsated for his invention of the (mechanical) TV and... oh no. Died penniless in ill health.

    when Frank Whittle invented the jet engine he er, had his prototypes taken off him, his project closed down, and the brittish government gave the entire kit and kaboodle to the Americans with no explination.

    Crossing the pond, we have Philo Fanrsworth, credited with the entirely elctronic television, who's rewards included er, dying penniless from alchoholism (brought on by depression, in no small part from having his inventions stolen).

    Elisha Gray - the man who actually won the race to develop the telephone, had his ideas stolen by Alexander Bell IN THE PATENT OFFICE. Bell bribed the clerk (with money from his big corporation sponsors).

    In fact, it seems you need to go back about 150 years to see the de facto standard of the inventor being screwed change to that of prosperity resulting from their inventions.

    It makes you wonder what's changed in the last 150 years...

  14. David Shepherd

    @ A new episode?

    No need .... W&G have already covered patent infringement ... in "A close shave" when Wallace sees the copy of his "knit-o-matic" in Preston's dog food factory he say "hey, you can't do that, I've got pats pending"

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Psymon

    There are plenty more to add to the list but the obvious one is the UK-invented LCD...

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Clean?

    "But W&G kept themselves clear from TV commercials and commercial sponsorships for 20 years."

    You can't have seen the Typhoo endorsements

  17. BioTube
    Alert

    @Psymon

    Sometimes people just invent things independently. For example, a Swiss(or was it Swedish?) chemist discovered around 19 elements, none of which he ever got credit for. He published in obscure journals, other people discovered the elements and published in widely circulated journals. His reward? A painful death from his habit of tasting everything he concocted(as I recall, he had several around him that could've caused his untimely demise).

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