submarine patent n.— «Occasionally, patents take a decade or two to be granted because they are held up in appeals and amendments in the Patent Office. When this happens under the existing system, an inventor can obtain a 17-year monopoly...
stove pipe v. to develop, or be developed, in an isolated environment; to solve narrow goals or meet specific needs in a way not readily compatible with other systems. Also attrib. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
stove pipe v.— «“There are a lot of data processing systems out on Navy bases and stations,” he said. “But they’re, for lack of a better word, stove-pipe systems that found one specific application and solved that problem very...
stove pipe v.— «Each of these systems is supplied by different manufacturers with particular and typically focused disciplines. The various systems get “stove piped” and opportunities resolved within their discipline and...
stove pipe v.— «In short, Apple had the sort of confusion present at most older organizations, where databases grew up with stove-piped or isolated islands of proprietary automation.» —“In The New Era Of Systems Architecture, Apple...
rat n.— «State officials who are seeking to find pork-filled amendments say they are currently on “rat patrol.” Legislators sometimes disagree whether a bill is a rat or simply represents an effort to help someone who has been...