Sometimes a headline, and the story behind it, just makes our day. (Elefant channeling Patently-O). Given that the “inventor Clive D. Menezes is a Halliburton patent attorney”, and Halliburton as a big industrial company has presumably gotten shaken down by patent trolls many times in the past, it seems to have taken some of the commenters at Patently-O a while to catch on as to possible satirical intent.

Update: Or maybe not precisely satirical intent: Halliburton has issued a statement saying that it “has no intention of applying the technique offensively. Rather, Halliburton intends to use any patent that may issue from this application defensively to discourage entities that engage in such tactics.” (AmLaw Daily).

Filed under: patent trolls