The two others are F03G3/00 Other motors, e.g. H02N11/00 Generators or motors not provided for elsewhere Alleged perpetua mobilia obtained by electric or magnetic means.H02K53/00 Alleged dynamo-electric perpetua mobilia.F03B17/04 Other machines or engines, with a 2-dot subclass for alleged perpetua mobilia.

F03G7/10 Mechanical-power-producing mechanisms using energy sources not otherwise provided for, with a 1-dot subclass for alleged perpetua mobilia.

There are four IPC classes that specifically mention perpetua mobilia, and a couple more that seriously think about it. The same goes for perpetual motion, or as the Latinistas of WIPO have put it, perpetua mobilia. Some even explicitly claim perpetual motion as an essential feature.Īs a patent searcher, when I have to conduct a novelty search into an inventor’s magnum opus, and I look at the IPC (International Patent Classification) and find that there is an obscure subclass specifically dedicated to that aspect of the technology, I know things are not going to end well. It is what it is, and a simple googling will tell you so, but that does not stop inventors from claiming machines that do more work or create free energy from nothing. The purpose of this article is not to start reciting and examining the law. Violating a few of the laws of thermodynamics hasn’t seemed to be a problem for countless individuals, even long before there was any way of protecting their intellectual property, and now that there is, the good burghers of IP Land have decided that such machines are unpatentable subject matter. Some energy is always lost through friction or otherwise dissipates so that not all of the energy is produced as work. The second law of thermodynamics relates to entropy, defining that the total entropy of a system will always increase over time. The first law of thermodynamics relates to the conservation of energy, so if you are not adding energy to a system, you cannot take energy out and expect the system to work indefinitely.

Such a machine is impossible as it would violate the first or second law of thermodynamics (that internal groan isn’t likely be your last). A perpetual motion machine is one that can do infinite work with no energy input.

Perpetual motion