Patent of the Week

Every Tuesday, Glenn MacStravic adds a new - and strange - patent to his website. When I checked, the patent of the week was the Thermochromic Urinal Mat. The mat is fitted inside a urinal and when, umm, "used", causes previously invisible text or artwork in the form of a joke or advertisement to appear on the mat, delighting the user to no end. Yes, this patent is real, and the site shows the real, filed document in PDF format. There are plenty of patents to browse through (the site dates back to 1998) and you can even suggest clever captions for some of them.