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The USPTO has outdone itself again: "storyline patents"

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  • The USPTO has outdone itself again: "storyline patents"

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will publish history’s first “storyline patent” application today from an application filed in November, 2003. Inventor Andrew Knight will assert publication-based provisional patent rights against the entertainment industry.

    Falls Church, Virginia (PRWEB) November 3, 2005 -- Further to a policy of publishing patent applications eighteen months after filing, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is scheduled to publish history’s first “storyline patent” application today. The publication will be based on a utility patent application filed by Andrew Knight in November, 2003, the first such application to claim a fictional storyline.

    Knight, a rocket engine inventor, registered patent agent, and graduate of MIT and Georgetown Law, will assert publication-based provisional patent rights against anyone whose activities may fall within the scope of his published claims, including all major motion picture manufacturers and distributors, book publishers and distributors, television studios and broadcasters, and movie theaters. According to the official Patent Office website, provisional rights “provide a patentee with the opportunity to obtain a reasonable royalty from a third party that infringes a published application claim provided actual notice is given to the third party by [the] applicant, and a patent issues from the application with a substantially identical claim.”
    story

    I don't know if I should be laughing because this is so hilariously boneheaded, or sad because the US patent law can be abused so easily, posting a serious threat to everybody else.
    (\__/) 07/07/1937 - Never forget
    (='.'=) "Claims demand evidence; extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence." -- Carl Sagan
    (")_(") "Starting the fire from within."

  • #2
    So what's this SOB trying to do? Make it so folks have to pay him to write an SF story that has certain elements in it? Like blue-headed aliens with gills?

    Gatekeeper
    "I may not agree with what you have to say, but I'll die defending your right to say it." — Voltaire

    "Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart." — Confucius

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    • #3
      Why can't the SOB just publish his stupid "zombie" story? The dumbf*ck would have the copyright.

      Gatekeeper
      "I may not agree with what you have to say, but I'll die defending your right to say it." — Voltaire

      "Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart." — Confucius

      Comment


      • #4
        I guess that's because patents are stronger than copyrights.

        Copyrights protect the works themselves but not the ideas. So you to can write a story about blue-headed aliens with gills (oops, did I just infringe upon your patent? ) if there's already another book out about it. Though if it is patented you can't.
        (\__/) 07/07/1937 - Never forget
        (='.'=) "Claims demand evidence; extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence." -- Carl Sagan
        (")_(") "Starting the fire from within."

        Comment


        • #5
          Won't work.
          In Soviet Russia, Fake borises YOU.

          Comment


          • #6
            indeed. i suspect if this gets challenged then it will fail.
            "The Christian way has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found to be hard and left untried" - GK Chesterton.

            "The most obvious predicition about the future is that it will be mostly like the past" - Alain de Botton

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Urban Ranger
              I guess that's because patents are stronger than copyrights.

              Copyrights protect the works themselves but not the ideas. So you to can write a story about blue-headed aliens with gills (oops, did I just infringe upon your patent? ) if there's already another book out about it. Though if it is patented you can't.
              As inhumane as it sounds, folks like this guy really need to have someone throw them up against a wall and beat out what little brains they have. They're a frickin' pox on humanity.

              Gatekeeper

              P.S. I do a little writing on the side, hence my vehemence toward this joker.
              "I may not agree with what you have to say, but I'll die defending your right to say it." — Voltaire

              "Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart." — Confucius

              Comment


              • #8
                I hope the US Postal Service sue him for suggesting that a letter could be lost (by them) for 30 years.
                Other than that, the idea's absolutely awful.
                If he has to pay big bucks for his patent, then let him - no-one with half a brain would want the idea anyway. Oh, but Fox might.

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                • #9
                  And I thought patenting genes and getting 100-year copyrights was rediculous. The patent laws have become so absurd that they do the opposite of what they supposed to do, reward people for innovation and creativity.

                  Comment


                  • #10




                    Right, I'm patenting the use of the :dance: smiley in OT threads to denote a DL (or potential DL, as the result of a hilarious joke about a particularly n00bist moment one of the regular posters may have had), so every time you buggers post one, then you have to pay me $10.

                    Anyone know the patent office's phone number?


                    Patent pending: duke o' york

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Odin
                      And I thought patenting genes and getting 100-year copyrights was rediculous. The patent laws have become so absurd that they do the opposite of what they supposed to do, reward people for innovation and creativity.
                      The sad thing is some examiner at the USPTO actually issued a "provisional patent" to Knight instead of laughed him out of the office.
                      (\__/) 07/07/1937 - Never forget
                      (='.'=) "Claims demand evidence; extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence." -- Carl Sagan
                      (")_(") "Starting the fire from within."

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by duke o' york




                        Right, I'm patenting the use of the :dance: smiley in OT threads to denote a DL (or potential DL, as the result of a hilarious joke about a particularly n00bist moment one of the regular posters may have had), so every time you buggers post one, then you have to pay me $10.

                        Anyone know the patent office's phone number?


                        Patent pending: duke o' york
                        I ain't paying you anything.

                        Comment

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