Calling it a “circular transportation facilitation device”, a man named John Keogh was issued an innovation patent by the Australia Patent Office. Here was the design he included in the application:
The claims of the invention are as follows:[1]
A transportation facilitation device including:-
a circular rim;
a bearing in which a hollow cylindrical member is rotatable about a rod situated within the hollow cylindrical member; and
a series of connecting members connecting the circular rim and the hollow cylindrical member in substantially fixed relation; wherein the rod is positioned on axis perpendicular to the plane of the circular rim, and substantially central of the circular rim.
A transportation facilitation device in accordance with claim 1, wherein a rubber layer is provided on an outer surface of the circular rim.
A transportation facilitation device in accordance with claim 2, wherein the rubber layer includes an inflatable tube.
However, unlike many aspiring “inventors” out there, Keogh’s intention was simply to demonstrate the weakness of the new patent system introduced earlier that year, which was designed to provide small businesses an easier way to apply for new patents.[2] Keogh, himself a freelance patent lawyer, felt that the system was too loose and prone to be misused by patent trolls.[3]
This “achievement” didn’t go unnoticed. In that very same year, the Ig Nobel prize in Technology was jointly awarded to John Keogh for patenting the wheel, and the Australian Patent Office for granting him Innovation Patent #2001100012 (Ig Nobel prize is a parody of the Nobel Prize, awarding trivial or unusual achievement by humanity).[4]
Although the patent was quietly revoked several years after, Keogh remains as an example of somebody who succeeded in reinventing the wheel. Literally.
Footnotes
[1] https://www.tuv.com/media/germany/50_trainingandconsulting/pdf/patente/Circular_transportation_facilitation_device.pdf
[2] Wheel patented in Australia
[3] Patent troll - Wikipedia
[4] Improbable Research