Whilst reading about Dyson spheres on Wikipedia, I came across this article on Statites; it's a cool idea, but this paragraph jumped out at me:
The concept of the statite was invented by Robert L. Forward. No statites have been deployed to date, as solar sail technology is still in its infancy. See Forward's US Patent 5,183,225 "Statite: Spacecraft That Utilizes Light Pressure and Method of Use." filed 9 Jan 1989 issued 2 Feb 1993.
Let's see, if this patent was issued in 1993, that means it will run out in 2010. Filing a patent costs considerable time, money, and effort; you don't file a patent just for the hell of it, unless you're rich. SO this dude evidently thinks that he'll be able to reap profits from his patent on statites before 2010. Erm, right.
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