From the Annals of Patent Law

Dave?  It’s Scott.  Did I catch you at a bad time?  Great.  I had this really interesting case come in that I wanted to bounce off you.  Yeah, that’s right, an interesting patent case!  Okay, get this, the client wants to patent a number.  Have you ever heard of that?  No, it’s not part of any catchphrase, just a number.  Yes, I’ve heard of ’84 Lumber,’ that’s a number and a word.  This guy just wants a number, so that I guess everyone would have to pay him if the say that name in public.  No, it’s not like ‘Lebron23!’  Are you listening, just a number.  No, I don’t even know who this guy is, but he must have deep pockets because the firm has three partners researching this.  What number?  If it makes a difference – 45.