POPQuiz #2 Results: The Vladdest of the Vlad

Thanks to everyone who submitted their vampire-inspired patent findings for POPQuiz 2. We had a lot of fun looking through them. It did took us a little while to sort through your answers and decide which submissions were the Vladdest – but here they are.

RECAP, BEcause it’s been so very long

Vampire hunting is serious business, and it takes a fair bit of energy, which evidently was poured into your submissions.

Here’s an excerpt of the original challenge:

We are looking for Dracula-inspired patents that maximize a highly arbitrary score we’ll call the VI, also known as the Vlad Index, or Vampire Index.

In this challenge, we’re not looking for an answer we already think we know. Instead, we want to know what you can find.

The Search Parameters

1. We are interested in patent and patent documents that relate to the acquisition of vampire-like superpowers (non-limiting examples: shapeshifting, mind control, levitation, immortality or extraordinary longevity). You may find this compilation on Wikipedia a helpful reference.

2. We wish to find patents and patent documents on the subject that maximize the VI – that is, the document’s connection to the themes that inspired this challenge.

You can read the full background on the original challenge here. We posted some interim results a few weeks ago, and if you feel like checking out what high VI social media might look like, check out our other post as well.

And now, for the REVEAL…

our top 3 Submissions

immortality, GAMES, and Dance moves

It’s hard not to want to list all the weird and wonderful things our POPQuiz challengers submitted to this quiz, even if they didn’t make our top 3. The patent literature hides a lot of really weird things, so if you find yourself needing distractions one day perhaps you should check some of the submissions below.

RU2010105950 - Method for Increasing Human Life For Centuries (according to an automated translation)

This was submitted by Hideaki Hashizume, who submitted a long list of patent documents, mostly on the subjects of immortality and telepathy. This one was my favourite of Hashizume’s list, although they were all a little strange.

I don’t read Russian, so I had to rely upon an automated translation for this one. This one touched on a kind of immortality, but less of the “life extension by sucking someone’s blood” kind but more of the “human gets reincarnated” kind.

As far as I can tell from an automated translation, this invention isn’t meant to solve the problem of reincarnation itself – that appears to be taken as a given – it’s more about “how do I get to keep all my stuff”? The abstract suggests a method for identifying the reincarnated person so that they can receive the property of the officially-but-not-really-dead person. I’m wondering whether the procedures to identify the Dalai Lama might have been cited as prior art. I’ll leave the exploration of the file history to people who can actually read Russian.

US20120136403 Medically perpetual persistence of essential human life

This one also comes from Hideaki Hashizume . Again, it has to do with immortality. I would argue that the kind of immortality in this document is less reminiscent of vampire lore than it is of science fiction stories such as Altered Carbon. This application went through its own series of reincarnations, with the original application being filed in 2010 and eventually being abandoned. It goes in great detail about a technique to transfer the brain activity patterns for one human brain to another human brain. It’s an interesting read.

Have a clone and a method to download your consciousness into it? Why not check out this document? If it doesn’t get revived, it’s public domain. Someone needs to write a guide for public domain resurrection methods.

US7118107 Role-playing game with interactive cards and game devices, namely in the form of linear and rotary slide rules, novel use of dice, tactical combat, word-based magic, and dynamic attrition.

This one came from IP_Octopus, and if you’re a gamer, you might enjoy checking out the creators’ website at https://www.audaxcor.com. There you’ll see many images from the patent, except as part of the game guides, and there are several free downloads of a sample game for those who are interested in the game itself.

Oh, and look: a bonus photo of the inventors!

US5255452A Method and means for creating anti-gravity illusion

Poonam Thakur submitted several documents relating to the idea that vampires often seem to have magical powers – especially the kinds of powers having to do with levitation. This one in particular, however, is worth mentioning for the inventor (or one of them, anyway), and the fact that the invention was used in real life. Can you guess the identity of the first inventor?

Poonam also kindly provided a link to the story behind the patent. It’s a fun read.

It’s worth noting that the first inventor on this patent was also known for spending time in a hyperbaric chamber, claiming that it could help him live to “at least 150”. It didn’t, sadly, but that’s another story.

Strange. The hyperbaric chamber looks rather like a glass coffin. Some definite VI point upgrades here, Poonam.

All right. Back to the crypt for now…

Wow. Those were a lot of high VI documents.

I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling a little drained right now – and I didn’t even get to the high VI index patents Guido found. I’ll leave you to explore those on your own: search for the inventor Isao Kajisa, and scan at least a few of the 90 or so patent documents associated with that inventor name. Resurrection, elixirs of life, cyborgs, freezers for dead people. And more.

Don’t let anyone ever tell you that patent searching is boring.

We know better.

Want more? Check out the original post for POPQuiz 2 here, and the interim results list here. And of course, remember you can come to Bucharest and really immerse yourself in the land of Vlad at Patent Olympiad 2019. Time to register is running out!