It would probably never occur to most of us to try to patent one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (although the Hanging Gardens of Babylon are ripe for the taking), and that's because it almost certainly wouldn't work. Unless you tried to do it indirectly, which is what inventors Daniel Dudek and Pamela Heard did when they applied for a patent for pyramids in 2002. And it totally worked.
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"This oddly shaped mountain gives me an idea!"
Brilliantly, the patent never actually uses the word "pyramid" -- it simply describes a "burial structure for the interment of human remains and significant memorabilia [...] providing space for multiple human remains [...]." The structure "prohibits access to the individual cremens [sic] or bodily remains [...], allows the forming of the mausoleum into innovative designs and shapes [...], and is kept safe from vandals and other intrudes [sic]."
And here's one of the drawings they submitted with the application:
U.S. Patent Office
Great minds think alike. And several thousand years apart.
That is a mummy-laden stone tepee if we've ever seen one.
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