21.   Four Virginia inventors won a patent for a sucker holder that offers a light-and-music show with each lick.

22.   Ford Bowers, who lives in Zephyrhills, Fla., has won a patent for a microwave that reads bar codes printed on prepared food packages.

23.   He decided early that transmissions were the weak link and last week he won a patent for an eight-speed automatic transmission.

24.   He won a patent for a picture frame that snaps onto garments.

25.   He won five patents with his colleagues on ways to make biological weapons.

26.   He won a patent this month for a shoe bottom with a recessed track into which letters, symbols or emblems can be inserted.

27.   In August, Rowan Dordick of Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., won a patent for an inflatable keyboard.

28.   In most countries, those filing applications first win patents.

29.   In fact, hundreds of ball games, computer games, board games, card games, arcade games and athletic games win patents each year.

30.   In the true spirit of Halloween, Alan Geller, who lives in Sea Cliff, N.Y., won a patent this year for a costume that bleeds.