Patented prime numbers

[l@odewijk.nl (Lodewijk andré de la porte)]

Every patent is contained in the grammar of English. Finding a meaningful
pattern that others haven't yet, that seems to be what a patent needs. They
found some prime numbers, very useful, and someone else found the nuclear
reactor, also useful.

The nuclear reactor's design follows directly from the current state of
engineering (valve?steam?superconductor?etc) and some properties that
follow directly from physics (uranium and water -> good).

So it's wacky to patent a number, but not that wrong. Don't forget finding
primes is actually a pretty expensive exercise.
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