Wings take to the water
Patents
11/9/2000; 9:41:58 PM 'A retractable boat mast with a variable sail has been developed by a UK researcher after he studied the wings of bats and birds.

'Dr Richard Dryden, a part-time lecturer at the University of Plymouth, believes his patented design will work on a range of watercraft from sailboards and dinghies to larger vessels such as wind-assisted tankers.

'The structure is jointed and segmented which allows the shape of the rig to be adjusted to match the conditions.'

Nothing to do with the Internet, per se... I just wanted to show an example of what I think is a perfectly fair patent.   This is pretty cool.