Zoomable paper map

[tilt]

hmmm can you patent a fold? ... not that I want to want to try it in court (not for a competition) - but one could always ask nicely - it would be publicity for his map. Then again - while its fun, its not really competition material... it is after all just a question of making 2 sizes of a map.

[RobA]

hmmm can you patent a fold? ... not that I want to want to try it in court (not for a competition) - but one could always ask nicely - it would be publicity for his map. Then again - while its fun, its not really competition material... it is after all just a question of making 2 sizes of a map.

Disturbingly there are a number of patents issued for folding maps:
http://www.google.com/patents?q=fold+map

I couldn't find one though that resembled this claimed patent (I was looking to find out how the fold was made which would be revealed in the patent).

I tried to make such a fold and it took about 10 seconds of playing with a scrap of paper:


I have no problems posting this here. I would think the portion that could be patented would be the use of such a fold to create a "zoomable map" and not the fold itself. It is virtual the same fold as used in a number of different origami projects i have seen previously.

-Rob A>