America-Israel Patent Law Blog

For all its discussions of different topics, the Talmud contains only a few that relate to what today we would classify as intellectual property, and there's no notion of a patent in the Talmud. Nevertheless, once in a while my professional background proves useful in my study of the Talmud. 

Case in point: my son and I were learning Masechet Sukkah the other day. On folio 4A of the standard Vilna edition, the editor added a drawing to try to illustrate two different cases discussed in the Gemara. Glancing at the edition I was using (on the right below), which was a more recent update of the Vilna edition, he said to me, “You got one with a good drawing. The picture in mine doesn’t make sense.”

I compared the two and quickly sized up the situation. “The one I have is a perspective view, showing the construction of a three-walled sukkah from the open side, in one case having a platform running along the middle wall between the other walls, in the other case having a platform running along a side wall from the middle wall to the opening. The drawing in yours shows shows the same thing, but it's shown looking down at the sukkah from above.”

After a few seconds, “Oh, wow!”

“Aren’t you glad your dad’s a patent attorney?”