To be fair, the patent was filed by a five year old whose patent-attorney father...

antiterra · on Sept 28, 2012

It's also expired due to nonpayment of fees.

ctdonath · on Sept 28, 2012

Confirmed; the US Patent Office says "Patent Expired Due to NonPayment of Maintenance Fees Under 37 CFR 1.362".

danielweber · on Sept 28, 2012

And as scott_meade points out, all the claims were canceled.

innguest · on Sept 28, 2012

Good! I can finally swing from side to side again.

MartinCron · on Sept 28, 2012

When I explained the patent system to my young child, he came up with an invention for a marshmallow roaster that roasts from the inside. I was tempted to go through the steps of filing a patent for him so we could both learn from the process, but the time effort wasn't worth it.

No, we have no working prototype for this world-changing device.

sailfast · on Sept 28, 2012

Thank you - this article was a key piece of the puzzle and should certainly temper any severe rage over patent trolling on swings.