By Christopher P. Singer —

In the spirit of the Thanksgiving holiday, we take
a closer look at U.S. Patent No. 6,708,440,
entitled "Turkey Decoy" (which is admittedly outside our usual biotech/pharma focus).  The
'440 patent addresses a problem that has long-plagued
the turkey hunting arts, specifically that prior turkey decoys were not
laterally mobile and did allow for "movement of the tail to include
outward fanning . . . or movement of the wings and/or back."  The result is striking; as described in claim 1, we seem to be
one Cyberdyne Systems neural net CPU away from another James Cameron box office
smash.

Claim 1:  A turkey decoy, comprising:
    a flexible skin covering at least a portion of said
turkey decoy;
    a robotic frame for supporting said at least a
portion of said turkey decoy, said robotic frame further, comprising:
        1) a mobile carriage mounting to a mobile base for
traversing over the ground surface;
        2) at least one post having a vertical axis
projecting upwardly from said mobile carriage;
        3) a central frame member supported on said least
one post defining a body;
        4) a neck supporting frame portion mounting on said
central frame member projecting from a first end thereof;
        5) a tail supporting frame portion pivotally
secured to said central frame member projecting from a second end thereof said
tail supporting frame portion defining a tail of said turkey decoy including at
least a pair of tail members moveable relative to one another for selectively
varying the width of said tail of said turkey decoy;
        6) a first pair of moveable arms mounted on said
central frame member for supporting a pair of wing defining portions of said
turkey decoy;
        7) at least one remotely actuated motor for driving
said mobile base;
        8) a second remotely actuated motor in cooperative
engagement with said tail supporting frame for moving said tail up and down
and/or for moving said at least a pair of tail members relative to one another;
and
        9) a third remotely actuated motor for rotating said
body of said turkey decoy about the vertical axis of said at least one post;
and
        10) said remotely actuated motors being powered by
at least one battery mounting on said mobile carriage and being controlled by
an RF receiver mounted thereon in communication with a remotely located hand
held RF transmitter.

The Figures are particularly "chilling" —

                                        Delectable poultry?

Or a lethal fowl that "can't be bargained with, it
can't
be reasoned with. It doesn't
feel pity or remorse or fear and it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you
are dead!!"

Have a Happy and Safe Thanksgiving weekend! — The Patent Docs.