[aerohead]

from Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary:
* 'idea'..... any conception existing in the mind as a result of mental understanding, awareness, or activity... a thought, conception, or notion, impression, plan of action, intention, concept developed in the mind.
* ' ideation'..... the process of forming ideas or images.
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* ' Ideation is probably the most important single step in the creative design process.'
J.S. Rising et al., page-8, ENGINEERING GRAPHICS, FOURTH EDITION, COMMUNICATION * ANALYSIS * CREATIVE DESIGN, Iowa State University, William C. Brown Publishers, Dubuque, Iowa, USA, Copyright 1953, 1959, 1964, 1970, ISBN 0-697-08601-1, Fourth Printing, 1975.
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* 'drawing' ( illustration ) :
- graphical description of a device, product, or process
- conveys an idea to another
- a recorded idea
- to communicate an idea
- an idea manifested in an image
- a primary vehicle for conveying ideas
- a form of symbolic language to communicate with conceptual exactitude
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I personally submit that, every extant patent and trademark is an 'idea'.
I also submit that, any new patent or trademark will also be an 'idea'.
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All patent and trademark applications are 'screened' for disqualified 'ideas,' in compliance with standard patent approval protocols.
Applications containing disqualified 'ideas' fail approval.
Applications containing 'ideas' which fall within bounds for approval receive a patent of trademark, if meeting criteria for novelty, or are re-issued on the basis of special dispensation criteria and previous merit.
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To make an oversimplified, non-contextualized assertion, in open disregard to obvious and clear counterfactual evidence supplied by the US PATENT OFFICE itself that, the US PATENT OFFICE does not patent 'ideas' is patently absurd, misinformation, and completely intellectually dishonest.
Exceptio probat regulam.
Caveat emptor.