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Philippe Douaire and Sandrine Vincensini of Paris want to stop people choking
on large tablets that go down the wrong way and wedge in the windpipe. They are
filing patents on the idea of moulding the tablet with a central perforation so
that there will always be a channel that lets some air through whichever way the
solid object jams (WO 99/66905). It remains to be seen whether international
patent examiners will think the idea is significantly different from the
well-known Polo—the mint with a hole.