A private South Korean company (the news report from which this tale is spun was, alas, insufficiently specific) filed for a patent in February 2003. The patent application covered a portion of the process involved in the government's new fake-ID-catcher system.

The patent was granted in October 2004. File a patent and have it granted a year-and-a-half later. Hey kids, don't try this at home! (By that I mean expect the USPTO to fork out an allowance within two years.)

A spokesman for the patent-holding company observed: "The ministry and the minting corporation had been aware of our application of the patent but has not prepared any countermeasures, as they overlooked the possibility of us of obtaining the patent." Apparently, the people at the aforementioned ministry and minting corporation are the Korean counterparts of the American clowns who planned the occupation of Iraq.

Getting down to the nitty gritty, the spokesman added: "If the government uses the system and provides it to private companies without fee, we will not claim a charge. But if it provides the system with fee, we plan to demand the government pay us 10 percent of the fee for the patent royalty."