Patent of the Week: Prayer Counter

President Obama was in the news yesterday for reaching out to the "Islamic Republic of Iran."  In his honor, here is the Patent of the Week:

 

U.S. Patent No. 7,508,316 Portable interactive Islamic prayer counter Filed: May 28, 2008 1. A method for indicating a current or completed Rakah of a plurality of Rakat performed by a user during an Islamic ceremonial prayer, the method comprising: providing a prayer counter with an indicator for indicating a prayer count; a first proximity sensor for sensing when a Sudjood position has been assumed by the user, the first proximity sensor sensing the Sudjood position without physical contact by the user; and a processor operably associated with the indicator and first proximity sensor for updating the indicator to the next Rakah thereby informing the user of the user's progress during the Islamic ceremonial prayer; programming the prayer counter with one of a plurality of Islamic ceremonial prayer modes, the plurality of prayer modes including a first prayer mode for performing two Rakat; a second prayer mode for performing three Rakat; and a third prayer mode for performing four Rakat; sensing the Sudjood position; and updating the indicator when the Sudjood position has been detected.

Commentary: This is not the first religious-based patent I've come across.  In December, I had a long string of emails with some Israeli patent attorneys about U.S. Patent No. 7,469,494 "Reading assistant for Torah scrolls". And there is U.S. Patent No. 6,589,056 "Hand held, hand operated, mechanical rosary prayer sequence symbol prompter."  And lots of others, too.  Heck, there are 326 utility patents that have "Christmas tree" in their title.

But the difference (non-substantive, obviously), is that today's patent was filed under the Acclerated Examination program.  The Brazilian inventor apparently thought this invention was valuable enough to warrant the extra effort and expense (and seeing that it was examined in the 2600 TC, this may have been wise).  As we've seen before, the examiner in AE once again appeared to be very helpful during prosecution, even recrafting an apparatus claim into the method claim that is now claim 1.

But one has to wonder about market demand for these products, particularly as religious affiliation is dropping in the US.  Given that most religions have been around for centuries or millenia, it's tough to imagine a patentable improvement to ritual that is going to catch on widely enough to turn a big profit.  I mean, it's not like the portable hookah system and hookah containment device of U.S. Patent No. 7,404,405, also an Accelerated Examination patent. For that one, I could understand why the inventor wanted to see his invention patented in 6.5 months. After all, "As hookah us increases in prominence, the need to make hookah smoking more amenable to a larger market increases in importance."