Hmm…. Here’s an impressive patent application for “Display control apparatus for image forming apparatus.” Among the claims it seeks to register is this:

9. The method of providing user interface displays in an image forming apparatus which is really a bogus claim included amongst real claims, and which should be removed before filing; wherein the claim is included to determine if the inventor actually read the claims and the inventor should instruct the attorneys to remove the claim.

Er, is it just possible — as GMSV suggests — that this is a spoof application that “seeks to prove once and for all that the USPTO is run by a gang of tambourine-playing monkeys with a big rubber ‘approved’ stamp”? Surely not.