The articles are a bit hard to follow (you can start here for the full story, or just read the title link), but in short, the US Patent and Trade Office has fax software that can’t read an image if it’s upside down.

Note that this is not an issue of the sender flipping the page over and accidentally sending a blank sheet. If the top is not at the top, the software barfs.

Acceptable:

Unacceptable:

And it’s been this way for 22 years.

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