Yes, that was a joke, and it's probably the thought that enters everyone's head the first time they hear the term "patent leather." I don't want to ruin your good time here, but... it's not the leather that's patented, it's the process of making the outside of a bovine into a shiny surface. From Wikipedia:
An early reference to patent leather is in the 1793 British periodical The Bee, or Literary Weekly Intelligencer, which notes, in an article entitled "Hand's patent leather", that "a gentleman of the name of Hand" in Birmingham, England, obtained a patent for preparing flexible leather having a glaze and polish that renders it impervious to water and need only be wiped with a sponge to restore it to its original luster. In November 1799, inventor Edmund Prior, of Holborn, London, England, received a patent for a method of painting and colouring all kinds of leather; and, in January 1805, inventor Charles Mollersten, of Hackney Wick, received a patent for applying a chemical composition in the preparation of hides, skins, and leather to give "a beautiful gloss". However, patent leather primarily owes its popularity to Seth Boyden.
