Patents are often awarded for the most impossible, absurd, or just plain crazy inventions, discoveries and processes ever thought up. The need to protect hard work and ideas is vital to the independent inventor and corporate entity alike – but there is no accounting for taste. Almost anyone can apply and win a patent for a wide variety of items, ideas, and objects, and as one can expect, this inspires a decent amount of bizarre admissions. From Rube Goldberg-like devices, to totally unfeasible, planet altering projects, the “Mad Scientist” seems to have found a permanent home in the patent offices of the international community. Here are a few examples:

Go-Matic

Patented Swing Technique

Real Unicorns

And many, many more

It seems that the common thread throughout all these devices and techniques is a strong vision from the inventor that simply fails to dawn upon ANYONE else. Some weird patents are one hit wonders, but others are apart of a long history of failure. One man in particular, by the name of A.P. Pedrick, was a tireless inventor, whose many patents that fell short of both scientific, economic, and practical feasibility never seemed to deter him.