Howard Johnson's permanent magnetic motor

[qntmfred]

PF noob here so hopefully this is the right place for this post.

I recently saw this youtube of a working permanent magnetic motor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kki3aBMn_-k

normally i'd dismiss this tinkerer science as "overt crackpottery" but the original work was granted a US patent http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=4151431 so maybe there's something to it.

my question is, is this motor legitimate and if it is, is it remarkable in any way?

[Ivan Seeking]

Welcome to PF.

Please do check the posting guidelines before posting.
http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=5929

You will see that we don't allow discussion of perpetual motion or free energy, nor is a patent listed as a valid scientific reference. If there was anything to the claim, it would be the lead story on the evening news.