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USPTO Issues Provisional Storyline Patent
cheesedog writes "The USPTO will issue the first storyline patent in history today, with two others following in the next few months. Right to Create points out that this was anticipated several months ago in a story by Richard Stallman published in the The Guardian, UK. With the publication of this not-yet-granted patent, its author can begin requiring licensing fees for anyone whose activities might fall within its claims, including book authors, movie studies, television studios and broadcasters, etc. The claims appear to cover the literary elements of a story involving an ambitious high school student who applies for entrance to MIT and prays to remain sleeping until the acceptance letter comes, which doesn't happen for another 30 years."
RMS: If patent law had been applied to novels in the 1880s, great books would not have been written.
USPTO: Ooh, good idea!
Seriously, the US patent system is very broken, and it appears they are moving in a direction to expand, rather than contract, the amount of things that are patentable. They clearly have no care for whether the patents they grant are stifling innovation. Action is needed to reverse this, but I doubt we'll see it while Bush is still in power.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
Hopefully someone will patent reality TV shows. I am rather sick of those.
Wait no, this wont work. You need to have a story to be able to patent it. Soon all that will be on the air is reality TV. Noooo!
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
Claim 1: a communication process that represents, in the mind of a reader, the concept of a character who is so shocked and enraged by the concept of patenting a storyline, that he "snaps" (see USPTO #12006213391)
Claim 2: a communication process according to claim 1, wherein said character subsequently goes to his bedroom, where he keeps a loaded Glock 32C, and racks the slide.
Claim 3: a communication process according to claims 1 and 2, wherein said character subsequently flies to DC and unloads his plastic fantasic on an unsuspecting USPTO in a singlular act of biblical fury.
Claim 4: a communication process according to claims 1 2, and 3, wherein said character subsequently returns to his hometown and has a slurpy, cosmic justice being served.
trustedworlds.net - gaming, security, and the gunk that lives in between
Patenting for the sake of patenting.
Ok, time to move on. Let's abolish the patent system altogether.
So y'all thought software patents were evil incarnate. Well it was only a matter of time until someone came along and made them look reasonable. And here it is.
This is so fucking depressing. Do Australians have to honour this patent within Australia? Did the government fuck us over with a treaty that makes it so any of our work falls under this god-forsaken piece of shit?
I don't know why they want to spend billions going to Mars... this planet is bizzare enough.
Get it right. Even the article does. These are patent applications that are being published because of a recent statutory change requiring publication of all patent applications 18 months after filing. This has nothing to do with whether or not letters patent will be granted.
There was Cowboy Neal at the wheel of a bus to never-ever land.
[wo]man vs. nature
[wo]man vs. [wo]man
[wo]man vs. the environment
[wo]man vs. machines/technology
[wo]man vs. the supernatural
[wo]man vs. self
[wo]man vs. god/religion
That pretty much covers everything.
Things you think are in the Constitution, but are not.
The system is now officially broken, and anyone who takes the USPTO seriously after today is part of the problem.
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
the process of bombing the USPTO?
The Repuklicans pro-business interest (in getting funding for election fraud and TV commercials) is behind the changing of patent law to make it a farce. Being anti-science is being pro-Bush. Being anti-science is supporting the patent "reforms" bought and paid for by the special interests fudning the Republikan party. By the way, for those who look to blame others, the House, Senate, Judiciary and Presidency are all over-run with Republican majorities. So, don't go looking to blame others for the problems created by these crooks. If you do, explain who is fixing the problem today???
Thanks, Bush, for being anti-science. You have done so much to help the future of this country. So much.
Didn't Shakespeare already write all the blockbuster plots?
Whoever owns him will be bigger than Elvis.
Uh oh...
You could probably go back and find folk tales throughout history that are superficially the same, this just has a couple pertinent details changed. Oh, and I imagine that the rest of the story after the 30-year timeline has elapsed is a classic fish-out-of-water tale, like that one Brendan Fraser flick where he grows up in a fallout shelter?
I also thought that this was supposed to be covered by copyright law, but apparently this guy wants insurance in case somebody comes along with a better or more widely-acclaimed version of such a story.
Male romances Female with witty remarks at party or dinner, then they make love back at his/her place.
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From the USPTO link: Before a patent will issue, however, the application must overcome the hurdles of utility, novelty, and nonobviousness found in U.S. patent laws.
Is prior art no longer considered? I would think that it would be really tough to come up with an original literary element considering the amount of material published before this new type of patent...
The NSA: The only part of the US government that actually listens.
... that's got to be the lamest story line I've ever heard.
Not to mention the fact that Rip Van Winkle, King Arthur, and Sleeping Beauty are all prior art.
Hrm.
Sleeping Beauty?
Maybe the worst part is what Disney is going to do to this guy...
Any sufficiently well-organized community is indistinguishable from Government.
Linked article title:
U.S. Patent Office Publishes the First Patent Application to Claim a Fictional Storyline; Inventor Asserts Provisional Rights Against Hollywood
Thanks to the posters below, thought I would put it up here so people see it.
- TheSpoom
There's a good body of prior art out there to invalidate many patents. All you need to do is work on an existing story archetype. That's a pretty wide range, covering the entire literary world to date.
According to Joseph Campbell, nearly all good stories conform to a standard cycle (the name of which eludes me right now), making all heroic-type stories unpatentable.
Shame about originality though. And also a shame that if someone comes to sue you, you've got to go through a long process to prove that you weren't copying their stuff. The one with the biggest legal bill will probably win.
What was wrong with copyright anyway? All works of fiction are under copyright, and there are existing ways to deal with transgressions. Plagiarism is anethema to real authors, as well.
If Knight just copyrights the story, there should be no issue. Patenting it seems like a stupid move - although it effectivly locks out any one else from writing a story about the following:
(my list, not one that I've seen) plus any others covered.
Compare the list above with the list below:
Anybody spot the prior art?
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, however, there is.
Did the submitter RTFA? The patent is not being "issued". They are merely making the patent application public.
The cake is a pie
However, the fact that the USPTO accepted the application at all merely reinforces my assertion: The USPTO is now officially broken.
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
but the concept of a p-zombie really hasn't filtered into the public conciousness.. any film that adequately explained it would probably be smash hit. Simply because we all love zombies and anything novel is, by definition, fun. I wonder if his storyline patent would actually cover a completely different storyline that just happened to include the concept of a p-zombie.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Rip Van Winkel as a story is almost 200 years old, too.
isn't there supposed to be some sort of requirement that patent examiners be alive, breathing, and not vegetables? if so, they are surely not meeting it in their hiring.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
"...applies for entrance to MIT and prays to remain sleeping until the acceptance letter comes, which doesn't happen for another 30 years"
Okay, we all know McJobs suck, and people do sleep through them for 30 years while waiting for something better to come along... but this patent had better cite prior art involving wannabe actors who spend their entire adult lives as waitstaff. If not, I'll be first in line to march on the patent office and demand examiners that aren't brain dead.
In his book Palm Sunday Kurt Vonnegut talks about a project he completed in school where he graphed the happiness curve of the main character over the course of the book/story. He examined many popular stories and found out that all of the stories he looked at shared only a handful of common graphs. It's been a while but I remember him saying that the book of genesis has the same graph as cinderalla for example.
Whoever patents the five or six storylines that are the basis for virtually all books will become richer then Bill Gates.
The neat thing about this is that you don't have to actuall write the books yourself. The patent office punishes the people who get off their ass and do things while rewarding people who get in the patent line early and patent things they have never built or made.
evil is as evil does
Storyline patents are just as valid as the software patents, i.e. both are equally screwed up and in no way they promote innovation.
Boy meets girl, boy falls in love, blah-blah-blah..., you are infringing on our intellectual property.
This may be good though as it may help the majority of people realize how bad US patent system is.
Cause that industry can afford to pay big bucks and they only have one storyline:
Knock knock!
Who is it?
Pizza Delivery!/Copier Repairman!/Pool Cleaner!
Bow-chicka-bow-bow
Liberals call everyone Nazis yet they are the closest thing to it.
available here. I've not seen such a good treatment of it before.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Isnt this what we have strict copyright law for? Sure software is different and there *maybe* some room for patents there, but surely copyright offers sufficient protection for litertature.
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.
Yup, that's the USPTO alright.
> USPTO Issues Provisional Storyline Patent
Wrong. The USPTO published a storyline patent application.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
So if I were to photocopy a page out of a textbook and give it to students would I be a) infringing the patent b) violating copyright c) both? There's a lot of money in this...
We don't believe in radical loony monotheistic religions from the middle east -- we're Christians.
THUMP...THUMP...THUMP
Papa Bear: Who is it?
Voice outside the door: Sir? I'm from Hickey, Boyle and Schwartz, attorneys at law, and I have a Cease And Desist Order here...
Papa Bear: OK, wait a minute...
Narrator: Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess, and...
THUMP...THUMP...THUMP
Voice outside the door: Sir?...
Narrator: Oh fer cripessake...
Long ago, in a galax...
THUMP...THUMP...THUMP
Narrator: Doh!
THUMP...THUMP...THUMP
Narrator: Now cut that out!!
THUMP...THUMP...THUMP
Voice outside the door: Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated...
Narrator: Now you're doing it!!
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
It may set a horrible precedent; but it's pretty specific, and a pathetically lame story line.
Many of the not so credible patents have inate and self-evident common senses that have been documented by Greek/Roman historians in B.C. times!
This is not what us commoner had envision for our ideal patent system. Oh boy, Adam Smith must be hotly spinning in his grave!
--
Disclaimer - I, too, am a pending patent holder.
This is the reason that science fiction writers will always have a job... nothing in any book can be nearly as bizare as the real world when the laws of the US and/or politicians are involved....
Even if no patent is issued, I am unbelievably dumbfounded by this application. Copyright should apply, not patent law... As soon as these kinds of dweebs start messing with patents and online content, delivery, and features, no one in the US will be able to watch or listen to anything, and all the past Hugo award winners will be sitting in their dens laughing, mumbling over and over, "we told you so"
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
This is *very* exciting to me. Why? Because in order for the patent system of the United States (hell, the mere IDEA that you can 'OWN' an IDEA) to die, it has to collapse in on itself like a black hole.
CAPTAIN, WE'RE ABOUT TO HIT CRITICAL MASS!
(Oh, and I'm staking my claim here and now for this plot line. Patent pending, motherfuckers.)
Books with hot [wo]man on [wo]man action! You are a genius.
From the novel Autumn Rangers: http://autumnrangers.com/
The alarm interrupted the Geeks' game of Quake and brought Tucker running into the control room from his office.
"It's Ranger's signature attack," Geek1 said. "He's scrambling it, but it's him." Geek1 was what everyone called him.
"Impossible," Tucker said. "Ranger's dead."
"It's him." APRIL said. "He's alive."
In a Cold War weapons lab a mile deep in Doom Mountain, Tucker Johnson's frown was bathed in APRIL's soft blue glow. He looked at her through double-pained, bullet-proof glass. Her biosilicon computers had grown to fill four seven-foot racks, networked with billions of nano-fiberoptics she herself had designed. Somebody had just hacked into her deeper soul.
As the CEO of Silicon Virtue, Tucker presided over a team of master Geeks at the bridge and an army of slave Geeks manning cubicles on a vast floor behind them. Behind them sat the legions of patent lawyers patenting any and every aspect of APRIL that might or might not be, using the random patent-claims generator software APRIL invented to bolster patent production. Tucker would outsource their jobs to India and Asia soon enough, but they needed to get off the runway asap to close the next round of venture funding. Silicon Virtue, founded upon the APRIL (Artistic Psyche-Robotics Interface) technology invented by Ranger, was seven months old. They had to hack or reverse-engineer the source code to her deeper soul, or there'd be no IPO.
"We could Open Source APRIL and get the hacker community to reverse-engineer her." Tucker said. "Would that speed it up?"
"Definitely. We should Open Source APRIL." Geek1 said. "Such knowledge needs to be shared. She's based on natural algorithms which are discovered rather than invent--"
"But then we wouldn't own her." Tucker backtracked. "Let's try to hack her a few more months on our own--keep on patenting her--as long as the patents pass the examiners in DC, she's patentable."
"But it's not right--you can't--"
"What do you think Geek2?" Tucker asked.
"Keep APRIL closed and proprietary." Geek2 said. "Patent the hell out of her. It's our time, money, superior expertise, and--"
"But Ranger invented the basics--we'd just be fencing off his mountaintop. And plus we can't compete with a world of hackers--"
"Hackers can't compete with a world of patent lawyers," Tucker joked.
"Something this big is meant to be Open Source," Geek1 said. "Shared like the laws of physics. Ranger would've--"
"Open Source can't be trusted." Geek2 interrupted. "It won't scale for an enterprise system like APRIL--"
"We can't be trusted." Geek1 said. "APRIL's power will be immense. If we--"
"Well you two figure it out--write it up for Friday's meeting." Tucker would always say and head out to play golf.
APRIL had grown since Ranger last saw her at MIT, before his advisor Dr. Kervian "forgot" to renew Ranger's fellowship, and they reactivated him to fly the F/A-22 Raptor on its first live missions. Ranger was a Top Gun. Uncle Sam had granted him leave to pursue a Ph.D. developing the F/A-22 Raptor Radar. But once in the lab, it was hard to concentrate on Dr. Kervian's projects, as radar, retinas, physics, poetry, and AI all bled into one. It was a myth of the small mind that physics and engineering and poetry different fields, that one could truly know one without knowing them all, that one could enjoy a symphony without hearing by just counting the notes. And soon Ranger got to thinking about Beatrice's soul. Was there a chance of bringing it back?
And so he lost himself in MIT's heaven of well-funded labs, free to follow his passions in the good company of fearless grad-students, with a soldering iron in one hand and a lab book in the other, pioneering the western frontier of knowledge. But no heaven on earth lasts for more than a second, and Uncle Sam called him on home to serve. Uncle Sam invested millions into each Top Gun, and thus they were only granted leav
If the simplest methods of software, even those that mirror brick-and-mortar methods of business, can be patented, if the idea behind or attributes of a fictional story can be patented...why not a Bill and therefore, the Law it becomes? Eventually the legal system would find itself in the same bleak future that may befall software and now, fiction. I have a feeling that would finally reveal to those that control the US Patent Office budget just how broken the system has become. It would only take one politician to start the ball rolling and once it does, the Republicans and Democrats will jealously guard the laws that they each "own"...wait a second, I need to patent this as a story idea *before* it actually happens!
now my copyright of living will finally go through.
I am licencing out the right to live for a weekly fee of only a million, zillion, kajillion smackaroonies!
sweet.
serenity now!
Could this mean Hollywood teaming up with the open source movement to destroy software patents ? Could music content (i.e. the meaning of the words) be covered. Thus seeing the RIAA teaming up with the open source world as well !
http://autmnrangers.com/
"You'd have to ask the Geeks--but I do know this much--instead of using bits, quantum computer uses quantum bits, or qubits, which contain both states, on and off, at the same time. So a quantum circuit can assess all possible states simultaneously, as long as we learn to formulate the problem right. To make a long story short, a quantum computer can solve problems in a few seconds that would take today's computers billions of years. Couple this with APRIL's creative consciousness, and her power will be vast."
"So when APRIL invents, who owns the patents?"
"Silicon Virtue, as APRIL is our employee. Which brings me to--" "How do you know it'll be used for good?" "No--how will you know?" Tucker asked.
Krista looked at him.
"Would you come aboard as our IP lawyer?" He asked.
"You serious?" She asked.
"There's no one better for posthuman bioethics." Tucker meant it sincerely. In a world ruled by sound bites, appearance, and pomo hipsters, articulate intelligence trumped all as long as it was presented by a hot lawyer. APRIL would become Silicon Virtue's lead lawyer--Krista would be the face to sell it, as APRIL's superior logic and reason would offend too many pomo lawyers without some serious buffering.
"Oh Tucker--it's a huge responsibility."
"And a salary to match." "I'll have to think--" Krista thought about her massive student loans. "I'd love to!" "There's something else I need you to think about," Tucker said, producing a small box and freezing her smile. "Will you marry me?"
"Oh Tucker. Tucker. It's so soon." She was about to cry. "Excuse me." Krista rose and headed out to get some air.
She'd buried Ranger's engagement ring only last week. Intelligence said they were sure he was dead, and she'd joined Ranger's mother for a quiet ceremony where they buried his favorite cap, some of his poems, and the engagement ring in place of a body.
http://autmnrangers.com/
I wonder how Story Plot patents and Freedom of the Press will collide? Which will win, and how many years will it take to resolve it?
Edward Burr
Having a smoking section in a restaurant is like having a peeing section in a swimming pool.
I have an idea to help bring about the end of patents. How much do they actually cost to file, without an attorney? We should all pool our resources (everyone being all of those that think patents have gone wild, from corporations to individuals) and write as many patents for as many possible things as we can think of. File, file, file, file, file a trillion patents until you're liable for damages if you're not careful about how you lock your door at home. I'm starting to be convinced that the only way to deal with this nonsense is to send it soaring ahead, because hell, maybe it would just burn up in the atmosphere.
that it will be impossible to patent any porn storylines whatsoever (due to the overwhelming amounts of prior art)
info@plotpatents.com
AC comments get piped to
It seems to me that Knight submitted this patent explicitely to show how stupid storyline patents, and by extension software patents, are. Basically, he took the oft-suggested business method patent on making stupid patents and decided to try a variant of it in reality.
When I first heard about this I was concerned that all the good storylines would get patented up. Needless to say, when I saw that the first one in line was "MIT-Van Winkle", I was relieved.
Mr Taco, Mr Neal et al. the bill is in the mail.
This post patent pending.
Seriously fucked
What sickens me is your sickness is going to seep into Canada. I'll fight this one tooth and nail.
Really, at the risk of being redundant you are deeply badly fucked.
"Academicians are more likely to share each other's toothbrush than each other's nomenclature."
Cohen
This is fucking redundant as hell but fer gods sake s/issues/publishes/ in the freaking posting. I hear the gurgling of the toilet as slashdot circles and I wonder what the heck I am doing coming back here day after day...
...fall asleep for twenty years, and when I wake up there has been a revolution in America, and everything is different. Wait... that sounds like some kind of prior art or something. Oh well, you don't need me to point out what a, cough.. ahem... umm... Rip-off this is.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
To patent any dramatic structure that has any "variation of conflict or humorous elements thereof".
Let's see someone not pay us then!
What on earth does the statue of the Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima have to do with this patent company's About Us page?
:)
They have another reason to be ashamed... Not to mention their whole site looks like it was done in Front Page. Oh wait... It was
meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 5.0"
This guy is way out there
This is just a sign that we've run out of frickin' new ideas for stories - now we have to patent all of them. Never mind, I'll make up a story about a freyuasd who was the colour fghsdw and had a semi-lifelike state of existance in the 345-drfetys. Sooner or later a asdfghsd would come along and they would both sdfhsdfkk which would mean that gyudsfsdf asdf fs sdgji wetiwtl sdhaslfa laasfhafslf. COMING SOON!
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
I already wrote a story about patenting religion. Hope nobody comes along and tries to patent religion or patent my story cause I'll fight it.
When travelling, it's ok if the airlines lose your emotional baggage.
Forrest Gump?
run Forrest! Ruuuuuuun!
I wonder, could you patent the setup and punchline of a joke ?
In Soviet America the banks rob you!
Simpsons did it first!
WTF? The "About Us" section of Knight's website states:
"Recognizing that fierce competition for publication and financial reward focused on the quality of storytelling, as opposed to the quality of the underlying storyline itself, and further recognizing that even the world's most skilled storytellers (of which he is clearly not) rarely turn a profit, his unique fictional storylines have matured into pending patent applications instead of novels or screenplays. He thus seeks reward on the true value of his innovations--the underlying storylines--instead of forced, sub-par expressions of these underlying storylines." (http://www.plotpatents.com/about_us.htm)
Basically, he wants to get paid for coming up with a story idea and not the work of turning the idea into an actual GOOD story because he is not a skilled storyteller. Here's an idea for you: (1 come up with a good story idea (2 find a skilled storyteller and (3 contract them to write the story (with both names appearing on the work maybe? or not in which case this is just hiring a ghost writer). Oh yeah, he'd have to actually DO THE WORK of looking for a skilled storyteller he is able to work with. How about this one then: (1 come up with a good story idea (2 write a BAD story (3 what for someone to copy it and (4 sue them under copyright law. Oh yeah, the duplicate story would have to be VERY similar to the original to be considered for copyright infringement and would most likely be just as bad as the original and not sell either, so he still would not get paid. I can see why so many foreigners see us Americans as lazy...
Besides, the idea behind the patent system is you can patent your idea, PRODUCE your idea (which Knight apparently IS NOT GOING TO DO with his story ideas), and try to make money from it without having to worry about a bigger competitor copying your idea and profiting from your creativity... Oh yeah, the patent system is still broken... never mind...
I don't see the utility of a plotline for a story. Things to be patented have to have utility.
I think that we can extrapolate on that and declare the United States broken.
DT
Is this thing on? Hello?
Very nice explication of the situation; thank you. I just wanted to add in the expansion of the acronym (it being novel, useful, and non-obvious).
A story has no utility.
Do you claim that entertainment is not a utility?
Is it just me or that story is a rehash of "sleeping beauty"?
"... a story involving an ambitious high school student who applies for entrance to MIT and prays to remain sleeping until the acceptance letter comes, which doesn't happen for another 30 years."
So the lad gets awakened by the MIT entrances director dressed in sparkling blue?
those who can, do.
those who can not, patent.
it's so fucking crazy, when you tell people about it they're not liable to be outraged, just incredulous. Seriously, I'm still not sure if this is a joke or not. Jesus, if it's not, this is without a doubt the most fucked up thing I've ever seen.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Claim 5: ???
Claim 6: Profit!
Whoever patents the five or six storylines that are the basis for virtually all books will become richer then Bill Gates.
This reminds me of something somebody sent me a link to the other day. From here:
We identify the seven original stories.
1. ACHILLES: the flawless person...well...almost flawless! A good example is SUPERMAN, but the Achilles source story can be seen in any story about a person with a fatal flaw, be it literal or psychological.
2. CINDERELLA: the dream comes true. Think PRETTY WOMAN, STRICTLY BALLROOM, even ROCKY.
3. CIRCE: enchantress who casts bewitching spells. Seemingly an innocent, she turned Odysseus' men into swine. Think BASIC INSTINCT, BODY HEAT or DOUBLE INDEMNITY. Of course, we reserve the right to reverse the roles!
4. FAUST: You can sell your soul for success but the Devil will one day have his due. WALL STREET and THE FIRM or, more literally, THE DEVIL'S ADVOVATE and BEDAZZLED.
5. ORPHEUS: who descended into the underworld in search of his dead wife Eurydice. Granted leave to take her back to the land of the living, he broke the rules by gazing back at her, and she was snatched back to Hades. They were later re-united in death. This source story influences all tales concerning a metaphorical descent into hell or the depths of one's own psyche, eg SEVEN or THE SIXTH SENSE and stories about loss or grief.
6. ROMEO and JULIET: the so-called 'foe' love story, eg TITANIC.
7. TRISTAN and ISOLDE: man loves woman...unfortunately one or both are already spoken for. Examples of this story are as diverse as BRIEF ENCOUNTER and FATAL ATTRACTION.
Somehow I doubt that the patent is gonna help this guy.
1. US Patent Application 20050244804
2. USPTO explanation of provisional patents
3. FAQ about provisional patents
4. This is also being covered at Peter Zura's Two-Seventy-One Patent Blog (Peter Zura "is a registered patent attorney practicing in the Chicago area. He is a former patent examiner and has considerable experience in patent litigation and patent portfolio development and management.")
In short, the provisional patent application becomes enforceable as of the publication date, if the patent is eventually awarded. This is why "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.'"
In other words, you could infringe this provisional patent if you wanted, even after being notified by Mr. Knight, but if he is successful, you will owe him royalties.
I hope this doesn't make sense to you -- because it doesn't. We are laboring under an extremely broken system which, rather than rewarding innovation, rewards monopoly stagnation and locking up ideas from the public.
You really should get involved in the fight against this nonsense. Right to Create and freeculture are good places to start.
This storyline seems to owe a lot to the storyline of the movie Memento. Funny how he mentions Memento so much.
The impression I've been building as I read each example of this kind of crap is that the US through organizations such as the WTO and internally with "IP" laws is trying to grab as big a piece of the pie as it can in the initial Information Age. Nobody knows what the future is going to be like in 20 years but it's a safe bet that if you weight the rules to favor your nation (which doesn't neccessarily mean individuals within it) so that you "own" everything then stategicaly you should be better off. If something like this idea isn't making it's way through the machinery of the US government then they must simply be incompetent or playing pork barrel games.
You know, in China which tends towards the opposite of US IP laws, every motivated individual still has their stuff but as you work up into business organizations they simply have different rules that make things work their way. For example, music piracy is (more) rampant in China so instead of record labels sitting back and raking in the dough there are no record labels and artists are paid through corporate sponsorships - different systems that accomplish the same effect of getting a person their music.
Shh.
association.
"
I need help! I am worried about not violating anyones god given right to intellectual property, capitalism, free enterprise, Americanism, etc etc etc .
You see, my problem came to me in the bathroom today. I was taking a shit. Then a thought occured to me. Did someone else already think of taking a shit? Did they patent it? Do I have to pay royalties? Can I afford to? Can I even afford to do a patent search before I take a shit? And can I hold it in that long?
What if my shit is in a swirl in the toilet? Is that patented? What about the way I wipe? Is it OK to twirl the paper around my hand 5 times or do I have to fold it neatly into a little square? Or are they both patented and I will have to pay licensing fees or if I can't afford it, just use my hand?
Please, please help me. It's been about 6 hours and I'm feeling a little cramped. Thanks alot
"
Um, please be sure to read the links that you use as rebuttal. For example, in the first paragraph of the USPTO link, it says:
p pxl_35_U_S_C_122.htm
"Under the provisions of 35 U.S.C. 119(e), the corresponding non-provisional application would benefit in three ways: (1) patentability would be evaluated as though filed on the earlier provisional application filing date, (2) the resulting publication or patent would be treated as a reference under 35 U.S.C. 102(e) as of the earlier provisional application filing date, and (3) the twenty-year patent term would be measured from the later non-provisional application filing date."
Note that the term of the patent starts running from the time of filing of the non-provisional application. Note also that the page never uses the term provisional patent. That's because there is no such thing. Your link to the patent FAQ says that very thing in its first question.
Thank you for the link to Peter Zura's page, as well as the link to the published application. Mr. Zura's page does confirm what I said about this just being a press release. You all are giving the idiot who filed exactly the publicity he was looking for.
Now, I'm not saying there aren't flaws in the system. The Lundgren case on business method patents seems like a stretch, for example. (Sorry, I'm a little tired to go looking for a link right now. I believe it was mentioned on Slashdot a couple weeks ago.) However, this situation isn't an example of those flaws yet. The USPTO hasn't looked at the application yet, so we don't know whether they'll grant it or not. I'm betting on not. Regardless, it will be several years before this is resolved.
Thank you also for the links to the two blogs. I've seen a lot of complaints about the patent system on Slashdot over the years, but few suggestions on how to improve it. Maybe the blogs will have something useful in that area.
For more information on publication of applications, check out 35 U.S.C. 122:
http://uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/documents/a
In a nutshell, it says that applications are made public 18 months after they're received by the USPTO. This doesn't apply to provisional applications.
1. The word 'provisional' is being thrown around an awful lot. In the patent world, a provisional application is simply a preliminary filing of your invention to establish an earlier filing date, with the "real" application which will actuially be reviewed being required to file within a year.
If all that is being talked about is a provisional app, from which I read sounds like the case, then it means nothing.
2. If this an actuial application that has made it to the approval phase, there should be a pre-grant publication out there considering the amount of time it takes the average patent application to be processed. Does someone have this information?
I'm gonna patent Hollywood Endings in hopes of never allowing them to be used, ever again. [satanic laugh from Sundance crowd]
Yeah, I know there might be some prior art issues, but I'm reasonably confident that the patent office will never notice.
Sounds like an updated Sleeping Beauty.
Wasn't Rip-Van-Winkle that slept for 30 years?
Can he now collect on all printings of those stories?
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
This story is a lot of hype over nothing. This is what is going on ...
(1) By a recent act, every patent publication since 2000 or so is published. According to the linked articles, this is what all the hoopla is about... the application being published. It has absolutly no bearing on the odds of actuially getting a patent. If you dig around the PGPub database a bit you can find other amusing PGPubs, for example, ressurection machines.
(2) This patent will never overcome 35 USC 101, the key part being that an invention must be tangable. The patent office has been taking a lot of heat recently over 101 interpretations, and has recently formed a group whose only job is to review patents for 101 issues. Considering a lot of traditional safe-havens of software patents are being destroyed left and right (i.e. "a computer-readable medium containing methods for... used to be enough to get around 101, and a LOT of software patent apps contain this sort of language), this will never make it past scrutiny.
See the work of George Polti, whose book, "Thirty Six Dramatic Situations" has been reprinted several times since 1921.
All the plots, ladies and germs!
And give Aristotle some credit too, for inventing drama.
The way to deal with these bastards who think they're going to get rich quick with this scheme to patent storylines is to fight them with their own bullshit. Across universities in the United States, there needs to be some teams of English professors and students, and law professors and students sitting down to devise the broadest storyline concepts possible and allowable under this new legal concept. The thought here is that if this patent system is allowed under law, which although we hope it won't be, might just happen, then we can at least wrestle control of what gets patented from money-grubbing slackers. With these broad, sweeping patents, these academic coalitions could then effectively negate the fact that this new patent law even exists. If the patent holders are unwilling to prosecute the people who are violating their patents, then the law is negligible, meaningless. It's a legal loophole, but it's a damn effective way to ensure that we don't put an effective end to American literature.
Hurry, somebody patent "A man goes on a journey" and "A Stranger comes to Town" They're the only actual stories in the whole of the world, you'll be able to argue that everyone violates your patent.
By the way, wouldn't Rip Van Winkle be prior art for this patent?
The about section of the website for the lawyer prosecuting this is hillarious... not only has he only graduated law school THIS year, but read this:
:)
The connection between patent law and unique fictional storylines necessary to conceive of Storyline Patents may never have been made if Andrew Knight did not occasionally dabble in fiction.
I guess that seeped into his patent applications themselves too.
He also seems excited about a business model for advertising only a link to a web page in your local classified ads, and posting most of the info on a custom-named website. Prior art is everywhere, including an EXACT implementation of his patent I did a couple years ago to sell my car: www.cazabon.com/car (even the format of the URL is identical!)
How do I submit prior art to bust that one?
MadCow
I used to have a sig, but I set it free and it never came back.
Too bad prof. Stallman never makes predictions about the stock market. I would be reading his site 3 times a day instead of 1.
Yes. Australia / New Zealand will have to honor the literature and software patents as part of the recent 'free trade' agreement had them as riders. So far Europe has escaped, but only because the antagonists thought that the proposed legislation would not go far enough. They've had half a year already to cook some new tricks up to drag out next summer while everyone steps out for holidays. It's easier to fight it now, but as usual people will wait until it's late or too late to even say anything to their political representatives.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
Did I misread or is this a patent for a movie about a man sleeping for 30 years? I'm sure everyone in Hollywood would want to copy this brilliant idea.
As a record store owner, My business faces ruin...
Hollywood will die slowly as a new Hollywood without patent restrictions will emerge in Europe or Asia.
Maybe it'll be the end of the Oscars as a bonus.
home
...volcanoes, nuclear bombs and body thetans.
Wouldn't Scientology get a tickle out of that one?
1 - Patent any comment containing "all your base", "Imagine a beowulf cluster of", "I for one welcome our new ????? overlords" (where ????? is anything)
2 - Sue most of the Slashdot posters
3 - ??????
4 - Profit!
Hey - maybe I could patent this too!
- Dr Evil
a story involving an ambitious high school student who applies for entrance to MIT and prays to remain sleeping until the acceptance letter comes, which doesn't happen for another 30 years.
... that sounds like a really awesome plot. Damn, I'd kill for 30 *minutes* of sleep right now ...
I'm there now
....to see who can write as many versions of this silly story as possible. One could even draw up a flowchart (shades of National Lampoon's Sci Fi Story Chart) listing all the forks one could lay down. Here's an example: substitute girl for MIT, kiss for letter, there you go! Or make the guy an AI, MIT a planet, and the letter into establishing orbit around the planet. It just dawned on me, I think there is prior art, this is a variation on Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle."
Could be worse.
Oh yeah! I'm going to file a patent on a story line about a world where all the formulaic Hollywood storylines and all the forumlas for crap pop bands are patented, forcing writers to actually come up with new storylines again! The RIAA and MPAA go out of business and the last scene will be Jack Valenci and Hillary Rosin being impaled because my regime finally found its way to power! It will be the blockbuster hit of the summer!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
I'll see your copyright lawsuit and raise you a story line patent on your latest blockbuster film.
And I would be just as magnanimous as the MPAA in setting the value of the patent license. They charge $4000, irregardless of the value of the item involved, so they're charging by the wealth of the defendant for a quick settlement value, poverty line is roughly $16,000 so a ratio of 25% is being used so... if the movie firm is making $1,000,000,000 I'll ask $250,000,000.
Having a personal portfolio of such applications could be very useful in defending ones self in today's litigious environment.
...to see civilization of "intelectual property" (ehemmm) to arise.
Ok, see you there guys.
You fucked up. Seriosly. Big time. You failed. And I _don't_ say capitalism failed. I say - US failed to stop monopolies to grow too big, too much out of control. So they start to act like Mr. Smiths - destroy all around you. It is VERY hard to imagine what drives them - sorry, tradicional claim "greed" doesn't cut for me, because most people are fine with half a million.
Poison of power? It seems so. "Lord Of The Rings" isn't just a fairy tale, it talks about very same issues - those who are weak, in the face of power and money turns into greedy monsters.
That was a lesson - it is absurd, but democracy and capitalism works only in that way, that you keep those who are very hungry after power, in check. If you NOT, then...
You see what is happening. No one says that you didn't get warned.
Ok, enough of emotional emptiness
user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
I am going to patent a story line of people doing stuff!!!
n gbirds/drinkingbirds.htm
Or better yet.
I am going to patent: A plotline about a politician(s) doing political things in United States of America.
After that I'll demand that all new papers be burned and that .
----
Dear Mr Bush.
I am sending you this cease and desist. Please stop doing political stuff in Washington DC because its my IP.
P.S. I also have patents on the rest of the US and two on Crawford, Texas.
I know who runs USPTO. Those little dippy birds.
http://www.backstreet.demon.co.uk/oddstuff/drinki
What about parody? Surely this would prevent anyone parodying said stories either? Copyright law protects the right to make parodies of copyrighted works, but I'm guessing the same doesn't apply to patents on storylines.
I have a dream..... sorry its pantented, that will be 100$
Yes, I read TFA...
"...Andrew Knight received his undergraduate degree in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Florida in 1999, his Master's degree in Nuclear Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2001, and his Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center in 2005..."
This doofus JUST GOT OUT OF LAW SCHOOL.
So currently, if someone has an idea for a book / play / screenplay, they work hard for a couple of years, produce their book, and if it's good enough and they have a bit of luck, they reap the rewards for all their hard work.
But this bill changes the balance of power dramatically. If outlines, sketches of stories, and synopses are allowed to be patented, then all the power lies with the person holding the patent and not with the person who produces the material.
My argument is beginning to sound slightly socialist - the owner of the factory / idea benefits from the poor worker's toil, but it's pretty true that in this case, the fundamental notion of effort being rewarded is totally undermined.
>> see it while Bush is still in power.
>
> I'm not a Bush fan in the slightest, but I don't see it
> being the kind of thing a Democrat president would give
> a crap about, either.
So long, and thanks for all the fish — Douglas Adams:
I see the utility there... and it may server for a reduction in mumber of ads.
I wonder if there are any plans to incorporate the security features that OpenBSD has been introducing.
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
an ambitious high school student who applies for entrance to MIT and prays to remain sleeping until the acceptance letter comes, which doesn't happen for another 30 years.
There goes my exact story I was writing for NaNoWriMo this month. Now I'll have to go change all my references from MIT to Georgia Tech. And make it a girl. Who prays to remain stoned until she is accepted. And it will take 27 years.
Yup, that'll fix it. No infringement here.
the AC
No smileys, there really isn't any humour to be mined in such an appalling mis-use of the patent system as this
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on
Considering that there are only about 30 plottypes this could dry out the content creation for all kind of media pretty fast. Patenting the plottypes would be even more rewarding. Oh crap! You can't patent them any more because of prior art. Now THAT would have been a money printing machine. You see where the patent law has failed, that something as important like this can not be patented anymore. So much money lost for the industry.
(Just posted this on another site, but it should be here as well:)
And here's the patent application:
The relevant parts:
I claim:
1. A process of relaying a story having a timeline and a unique plot involving characters, comprising: indicating a character's desire at a first time in said timeline for at least one of the following: a) to remain asleep or unconscious until a particular event occurs; and b) to forget or be substantially unable to recall substantially all events during the time period from said first time until a particular event occurs; indicating said character's substantial inability at a time after said occurrence of said particular event to recall substantially all events during the time period from said first time to said occurrence of said particular event; and indicating that during said time period said character was an active participant in a plurality of events.
OK, so this claim covers all stories which involve characters that wish to sleep until something happens, apparently achieving this wish, and then discovering that they were awake but don't remember everything that happened in the meantime.
Typical practice in patent applications is to put something very broad in the first claim in the hopes that it will be granted, but not to actually expect it to be enforceable because the chances are somebody has done something similar before. (If anybody can name stories that follow this structure, published before Nov 28, 2003, now is the time to tell the USPTO about it).
2. A process of relaying a story as in claim 1, comprising: indicating that said particular event has occurred at a second time in said timeline at least one week after said first time; and indicating said character's substantial inability at a time after said second time to recall substantially all events during the time period from said first time to said second time.
Claim 2 is the same story where the event waited for takes at least a week to occur, and everything that happened is forgotten about.
3. A process of relaying a story as in claim 2, wherein said second time is at least one year after said first time.
The same, except a year or more elapses.
4. A process of relaying a story as in claim 1, wherein said particular event is at least one of: a passing of a particular amount of time; a notification of a decision; and a relief of a pain.
5. A process of relaying a story as in claim 1, wherein said plurality of events comprises at least one of said character's wedding, a birth of a child of said character, and performance of said character's occupation for a substantial portion of said time period.
Things a character might wait for and things that might happen during the wait.
6. A process of relaying a story as in claim 1, further comprising indicating a belief held by at least three other characters that said character was conscious during said active participation in said plurality of events.
Something that's likely to happen after the character 'wakes up'.
7. A process of relaying a story as in claim 1, wherein each of said steps of indicating comprises indicating in a written form.
8. A process of relaying a story as in claim 1, wherein each of said steps of indicating comprises indicating in a video form.
Books, TV series and films are covered.
9. A process of relaying a story as in claim 8, wherein said process is a process of displaying a motion picture having a timeline and a unique plot, comprising: displaying a video representation of an actor acting as said character; displaying a video representation of said actor indicating at said first time in said timeline a desire for said at l
It's common stated that there are only a handful of plots in literature, and most books are variations on these themes. Depending upon how broad the patent office chooses to be (and we've seen some doozies from them in the past), this could be disasterous for literature (at least in the US).
Good reference to this concept is here
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
Y'know, I think this is right in line with the push in America to get people to stop thinking altogether. What kind of nation have we become where the only ideas out there will be the ones that are bought and paid for with large sums of money and licensing fees?
Abolish the USPTO now. It has swayed too far from it's charter.
Wasn't there a case recently when imports of a better chemotherapy drug were blocked at US customs because they were patent infringing? The patient had gone through part of the treatment and paid a lot of money, but was unable to complete treatment thanks to someone's "Intellectual Property".
The storyline is a bit ironic, since even though I'm not an mit student I am praying to remain sleeping until the patent system gets reformed, which also probably won't happen for another 30 years...
(this is offended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars)
Would it not be very easy to get round such patents by claiming that your book/film was based on real life events and any similarity to such patents is purely coincidental.
At least now we have a good chance of getting some original storylines out of hollywood and anyways, did anyone read the storyline? - i personally am glad that this one is going out of circulation.
I was crazy back when being crazy really meant something. (Charles Manson)
But is this Knight guy actually serious about this? Is this all just satire to show that the USPTO is incompetant?
The site is so absurb that it almost does count as some kind of anti-patent comic sketch.
May the Maths Be with you!
This is the internet age of the "Have you been injured in an accident" commercials. He created his "law firm" (which trust me, regardless of the "and Associates" consists of himself) to prosecute this genius idea of crossing copyrightable material into the realm of patents. Except that this is a brand-new (graduated 2005) lawyer practicing solo who is getting FREE advertising with a ludricrous claim. You know nothing about being a lawyers in your first year of practice, let alone the ethical rules regarding advertising and taking cases in which you have little or no experience.
Unfortunately, this is the type of behavior that gives us lawyers a bad name. I'm sure quite a few people will come running to this guy to protect their "idea" only to find out a year from now and a couple of thousand dollars later that they have nothing, except of course, that they have bankrolled the start-up costs of his law firm.
Seriously, this is one of the first signs of the impending apocalypse.
To all of our USAsian friends, it's time to leave the party. The music is still playing and the lights are still on, but there is most definitely noone home.
Spider Robinson figured out where this ends long ago in this story. Worth a read.
Well, it's only a matter of time before the application travels down the conveyor belt and reaches the red rubber stamp machine. Unless someone can break in and sabotage the automated automatic approval device that is the USPTO, well... no one will be allowed to write anymore.
May the Maths Be with you!
Burrows: Well, absolutely, and what makes it worse, sometimes at the end of a sentence I'll come out with the wrong fusebox!
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
This is not only the oldest story in the book, it's the template that all books are written on. I seem to remember that just about every good work of fiction comes down to a derviative of the following:
Boy wants Girl
Boy can't have Girl
Boy tries to get Girl
Boy either does or does not get Girl
(Don't yet all me for objectifying women, but) Replace Girl with another object of desire as needed and Boy with Girl/Group as needed.
As far as I can tell, almost every story breaks down into this replacing Boy and Girl with repitions of various steps. Quick, name ten novels people are likely to have heard of that does not follow this story line. Remember, fiction only.
So, as far as I can tell, the summarians must have a prior art or a patent on this that long expired, as that's the earliest I've seen a story from a culture. Are Shakespeare and an Anonymous Summarian Author listed as owners of prior art?
This doofus JUST GOT OUT OF LAW SCHOOL.
This "doofus" is part of the New Wave of Hip young legal eagles, trained in the modern intellectual property mindset, who are going to sweep away all your old outdated notions of "justice" and "fairness" and take the legal industry to new heights of glorious profit!
So Preacheth The Church Of The New Global Economy! Hail Satan!!
May the Maths Be with you!
First thing into my head was "You guys are from NASA!!" from "Conspiracy Theory".
Is the MPAA trying to get more ways to play their game and push their protections? Or is Google going to back some of these in an attempt to beat out authors in their battle to scan books for their new search toys for Book Searches? Or for that matter, is another search site going to use this to battle Google in the Book Bin?
Trust NO ONE!! (I wish I could still sleep...... That basic book burner thing just does not do it for me.)
mod me down
Patent the process of patenting new processes.
That'll fsck 'em.
First to file people. First to file.
Brigadoon!
The breakdown using the mit plot parallelled with brigadoon:
"Any group of people/persons (student/village) who pray to be delivered from some unfortunate circumstance (waiting/pillaging), who therefore fall into a long slumber to wake at some later time (30 years / one century) until the spell is broken (letter arrives / --)"
In the case of Disney's Gummibears, I believe the spell was broken.
meh
That just yesterday Slashdot had an article
4 6&tid=217&tid=166
... I can't see anything good coming from ability to patent an idea. How many great teen movies (e.g., Sixteen Candles, Better Off Dead, The Sure Thing, etc.) would we have missed out on if similar ideas were subject to a patent infringement lawsuit? This is just CRAZY!!! There will always be similar threads of thought in the world and if we try to limit that our creativity (and subsequently our lives) will be stifled.
.02 cents
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/03/13162
on how two Washington Times writers feel that Google's digitizing of books will result in "crushing creativity" of other authors.
Well
Just my
Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
This is one of the more absurd patents to come out of the USPTO in a while. Hopefully, absurd enough that the average American will see how broken the patent system is.
The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer. - Edward R. Murrow
Unfortunately, it's rather tough to fix, as we're being made into an "ownership society," and 95% of us fall into the category of "property" instead of the category of "owners."
Wanna know what it was like to live in Germany in the 1930's? If you've lived in the US for the past 4 years and have been paying ANY attention, then you already know...
"My strength is as the strength of ten men, for I am wired to the eyeballs on espresso."
The "plot twist" on this is essentially the same as the movie "Frequency". I'm sure there are other, even more direct examples--no doubt more than one episode of any of the Star Trek series may apply.
What we may end-up with is case law similar to music copyrights, where a court (in Chicago maybe?) declaired that if, on the average, every third note is different, then a song is sufficiently unique from another to warrent copyright protection. Literature is going to be a bit more involved... simply changing characters' names or genders or settings but essentially leaving their personalities the same doesn't really change the story. Look at all the TV and movie adaptations of various works of Shakespeare where the gender of the characters are switched and the setting is in the 20th (or 21st) century.
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
...since the story of the MIT candidate sleeping for decades is simply a retelling of Rip Van Winkle.
There aren't many new story ideas--maybe even no story ideas--that are completely independent of inspiration and formula from previous legends, myths, history, and pop culture sources.
"I drive way too fast to worry about cholesterol."
The linked article says that the patent office is publishing the applicaiton, not actually issuing the patent. This doesn't mean that the patent has been granted, only that anyone can now look at the application.
I... ah... I can't even... Nevermind. Must. Suppress. Rage.
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
FREEUSER: FreeUser thinks he's the smartest cooking in the cookie jar, so he plans a flawless crime where both he, his wife, and their friends get everything they want. He forgets noothing, being perfect, and his plan works flawlessly.
:-)
... but there are probably not more than a hundred storylines that can be fitted around just about every story ever told, if not precisely, then close enough to facilitate patent litigation. This development is beyond appalling. If this application is approved, and the courts uphold the patent as legitimate, it will spell the end of huge areas of creativity: novel and short story writing, film, stageplay, and any song lyric that tells a story.
Of course, while good for me, the story is probably less intersting to others, and lacks the "drama" of people who actually have to suffer, but it works for me, and it is an 8th story type (now patent pending).
You're right, there are more than 7 basic categories
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
It's sort of like calling "dibs" if you are buying a house. It just tells the world that you are doing something, but nothing is really legally binding until a real contract is in place, and even then it's not very binding for the buyer until closing.
So there's really nothing interesting here, yet, other than someone applied for a provisional patent for a story line. If the person doesn't apply for a real patent in a short amount of time (1 year I think) then nothing really happens. And if a real patent is submitted, it will be subject to actual scrutiny. We can discuss how good or bad that scrutiny is, but it's infinitely more scrutinous[0] than what is given for a provisional patent.
As usual, IANAL, but I have been an author on several patents.
Not that slashdot folks would care these days. "The patent office is so lame! OMGWTFSQLBBQ!" On the other hand, I guess the author of the book is pretty smart, by applying for a patent you get Slashdot to give you free advertising for your novel.
Actually, I think that there might be some existing basis for this kind of application. For instance, you can patent the decorative pattern of a set of silverware, preventing from others using your cool new pattern... for a while. Which is the whole theory behind patents... you get a monopoly on your idea for a while, but in exchange you release the idea to the world.
I also think that it might be better for Free Software folks to work with the system rather than against it, by building a patent portfolio of patents under a GPL-like licensing agreement, something that uses patent licensing in a similar way to copyright licensing. It does take money, though.
[0] Scrutinous may not actually be a word. I am not a philologist either.
-- Erich
Slashdot reader since 1997
The author is describing *MY FUCKIN LIFE*
I wrote MIT 30 years ago, AND... I woke up 30 years later with a letter from MIT!
How can this possibly be prior art?
I'm 45 now and want to stick a 45 against my head.
This may sound radical, but.... Than, perhaps what we first need to do is remove the pockets. End all campain donations, gifts, etc. Make all people running for office only allowed to use X amount of provided money by the government. Then everyone person running is on equal ground and all people elected have to listen to the people, since there would be no one tickling their ears with whispers and perks for scratching backs.
I have respect for patents that protect inventions from infringement where the individual or company seeking protection is engaged in day-to-day activities that make use of the invention in some way in their business process or by incorporation of the invention into their product. As we all know, intellectual property becomes a commodity in itself if you are not actually using a patent to protect your actual revenue generating day-to-day activities.
One way that the concept of a story line patent may very much differ from a 'classic' patent is that a patent application for a classic invention is strengthened if it incorporates or relies upon elements from an existing approved patent. I don't see how this can apply to a story line in a reasonable way. If I were to patent a story line where an MIT applicant is a walking zombie for 30 years only to wake up when his acceptance letter arrives, and then I add a new patentable plot twist (which I can't reveal because my application isn't done yet), does my patent application become stronger because it incorporates a previous patent, or does it actually get rejected because of prior art/infringement? Maybe I would have to put the zombie story line into a flashback segment so it seems like a reusable component of a larger more complex story line.
Maybe this is just a government plot to create more jobs at the USPTO for english majors instead of engineering majors? Wait a sec - maybe I can patent THAT story line.
I'll go for the future copyright now. You have been so warned not to touch my story.
This guy seems serious. Now let's just hope the USPTO realizes the stupidity of allowing even an application for this sort of patent. Stories have been around since the beginnings of humanity. Patenting the ideas behind them would be like patenting speech itself.
I still can't believe this. It's like something out of The Onion.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
Oh, please kill me now.
I've read a lot of authors who talk about all the people that come to them and say they've got a great idea. If the author will write it up, they can split the money. Ideas are all over the place, free for the taking. It's turning the idea in to a good story that is the hard part. If they start patenting story ideas, it just gives all these idea yahoos an extortionate claim on the hard work of the writer who actually made something out of it.
That was a really fascinating read. I had seen references to Orgone energy before, generally in old comic books a pulp sci-fi, but didn't know where the idea came from. It's kind of scary to think of the FDA wielding such power, but, on the other hand, having known many people who can't afford it being taken in by quack medical procedures, I have some symptahy for the FDA. Still, burning all of his works?
This sig has absolutely no significance and serves only to take up screen space and waste the time of the reader.
Imagine, not having to worry about more than one such crappy story about a rip-van-winkle waiting to get into MIT in the course for the next 17 years!
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
Anonymity is a key part of freedom. It allows you to vote without coercion, to perform your daily tasks untraceably, and it allows you to speak without retaliation. That said, much of what is posted on Slashdot wouldn't incite retaliation by the powers-that-be anyway.
Sure I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
Read. Alan Cheuse (NPR) told me that when I took my advanced fiction writing course and later my independent study which produced the first draft of my novel. Read and learn from what others have written, is what my teachers told me when I was growing up. I went to many different schools and had many different instructors, but the lesson was always the same. Great writers absorb and learn from great writers. This is an attempt to end that tradition of literature building on top of literature. Further it misses the point of great art. How many stories have been told and written of starving artists who endured not because of great wealth but often in spite of it. Art, whether in literary expression or code is the germination of the intangible, a compulsion. This guy's front page has the word thieves in it. Well that is what is going on here, theft. This is theft of the artistic tradition. If this indeed an attempt to grab what little money real artists have this individual discredits the greatness of those who proceeded him, as well as those who would follow him. He ignores the concepts and ideas upon which future concepts will and should be built and discredits those of the past. In his desire to prove himself unique he does himself and the tradition a great disservice and made himself a cliche'. That is my opinion.
While I agree that patenting plotlines is a stupid idea, it all hinges on how detailed the plotline should be described to allow patenting. "Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love with girl. Boy loses girl. Boy finds new girl." Definitely is not specific enough. However, a plot outline that details from paragraph to paragraph I would have no problems with making patentable. The problem is, of course, that no-one would be interested in a patent on that, because it would be too easy to circumvent the patent while still using the plot - just change a few paragraphs.
There aren't many new story ideas--maybe even no story ideas--that are completely independent of inspiration and formula from previous legends, myths, history, and pop culture sources.
Of course there aren't - but how many starving writers have the cash to pay for all the lawyers needed to prove that?
Do you... ?
I mean, that's a weird idea, but it seems to me that they're basically forcing the government to deal with the problem. Surely any halfway intelligent person can see that this system just isn't working
I've highlighted the flaws in your argument. Otherwise, it's the only sane explanation.
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
That's it. I'm going to patent "Comments designed to cause emotional depression in a forum-like communication system," to hopefully stop posts like this.
Dude, you're bringing me down. I don't want to face the raw truth of our own state of fuckedness. Please, post something happy, like an amusing story in which MIT accepts an application to their school 30 years late, but fortunately the applicant had the foresight to pray himself to sleep beforehand.
Please?
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
You just Godwined us!
Wait... you said 1930s, so there's some time there prior to full-on nazi party control...
You just pre-Godwined THEM! It's like Alice in Wonderland. You've derailed the opposition by claiming that TOMORROW they'll be like Hitler! They're doomed now!
(Oh please let this work. Oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please...)
If that doesn't pan out, we'll have to fight it with popular opinion. Think a good rallying cry would be "Works under Copyright don't fall under Patent"? How about "Patent and Copyright don't mix"?
I have no idea what to do about this, but it's really bad. I don't want to be property, but I'm already feeling like it. At least my 'owners' used to be good old-fashioned creditors, specifically credit card companies. I don't play into most money-scams for various industries, because I basically don't buy much of anything. On the other hand, this is taking food out of peoples' mouthes. It's not just taking away my rights of freedom of speech, it is going to make it more difficult for authors of any age to succeed.
As the SO of an playwright, I am very, very scared, and very angry. This is incredibly demeaning to authors, as it makes them more like 'professionals' and less like 'artists', not that authors cannot be very serious about their work. I think it is a sign of the apocalypse when everyone has to be a lawyer to survive. I think it is a warning sign regarding aspiring authors' bank balances when they also have to be lawyers.
We have to fight this. We really cannot let this stick. If it does, all of our cultural heritage will be used to destroy us. How far back can prior art for patent issues go? Will we end up only writing stories legally in the US that have 'prior art' in the public domain, rather than the other way around, i.e. 'original works'? There is no good outcome from this, and no utility.
I'd riot if I thought it would help. Where do we do that?
Playing pornographics games during the day is evil! Play at night!
Cheesedog, can you please tell us where you got that this is a provisional patent application? (BTW, there is no such thing as aprovisional patent). No disrespect but you seem way out of your element. You don't really know what you are talking about.
I posted this already but here it is again for your benefit (and that of anyone who reads your "rebuttal"): Provisional applications are never published. A provisional patent application simply gives the applicant to the ability to file a non-provisional (i.e., "real") patent application within 1 year and claim the benefit of the early filing daye of the provisional with respect to prior art. NO OTHER RIGHTS are conveyed by a provisional patent application. Therefore, a provisional patent application is not "enforceable" against anyone or anything. Provisional patent applications are NEVER examined. They simply sit in a file.
Having said that, the application we are talking about is a non-provisional application and makes no reference, nor claims any priority, to a provisional application. I don't know wher you got that this is a provisional application.
A little knowledge truly is a dangerous thing.
The USPTO did not "issue" a storyline patent. They published a copy of the patent application filed by some idiot who wants a patent on a storyline. He gets no rights unless the PTO actually grants the patent. So far no one has ever been granted such a patent. You can file an application asking them to give you a patent on anything - it doesn't mean you're going to get it. Don't shoot the PTO until they actually grant this one. They are legally obligated to publish it - so that means nothing. The application was published, not "issued." There's also a lot of confusion here over the word "provisional" as used with patents. There is something called a "provisional patent application" and there is something called "provisional patent rights." They are totally different things and are unrelated. The "provisional patent application" is a way of starting the patent process. You get no rights with it unless you later file a patent and that patent is approved. Provisional patent applications are never examined and are never published. "Provisional rights" refers to rights you get after your non-provisional patent application is published. Patent applications used to be secret. When the decision was made to publish them, it seemed only fair that if somebody learned about the invention because of the publishing and began to copy the invention, the inventor should get a "reasonable royalty" for that copying. Provisional rights apply only if the patent is ultimately granted, and only if the infringer is actually notified of the provisional rights. The inventor only gets a "reasonable royalty."
Wasn't there an episode of Futurama that featured a plot very similar to Mr. Knight's? Yeah, I'm pretty sure there was; a rip in time caused people to find themselves in surprising situations with no memory of having gotten there, but realizing that they'd led perfectly normal lives in the meantime. In fact, that episode was on Adult Swim just last night.
-- The reason it's called the right wing? Irony.
The claims appear to cover the literary elements of a story involving an ambitious high school student who applies for entrance to MIT and prays to remain sleeping until the acceptance letter comes, which doesn't happen for another 30 years."
I claim prior art. I wrote a story, published in The GOT magazine at Simon Fraser University, about an ambitious high school student who applied for entrance to Grad School who prays to remain sleeping until the acceptance letter comes, as he lies in a cairn in the Quad.
So it sounds like this patent violates my prior copyright, since I sent in the requisite copyright registration to both the US Library of Congress and Canada's depository as well.
I'll be expecting a license fee of half of all the profits for none of the work, as always.
And, don't forget my codicil in my license, which states the publisher has to use the phrase "All Your Words Are Belong To Us." in the text of the story.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
In essence this "news story" is no more authoritative than me posting on LiveJournal that I have conclusive proof that the moon is made of green cheese, and I have submitted a paper to the presentation committe of the IAU to demonstrate my proof at their next conference.
-- Old Man Kensey
I'm really getting sick of people disparaging the patent office soley based on patent titles and patent abstracts. I looked through that list and those patents aren't nearly as obvios as they seem. The patent title and abstract are just a SUMMARY of what the patent is about. If I create a revolutionary new display technology, for example, it might have the mundane, unoriginal title of "technology for displaying pixelated graphics on a screen." YOU NEED TO READ THE DAMN PATENT TEXT.
And it seems you didn't read the responses to the comment you linked to. As one person pointed out, the patent for the stamp applicator was actually referring to something LIKE a human tongue (as in it resembles one physically), but which is not actually one. I went to the official US patent office website to look at the illustrations for the patent and it's very clear that it's a unique mechanical device.
democracy manufactures legitimacy by consulting the will of the people. all other forms of government experience decays of legitimacy over time. no matter much the dear leader is first loved, after years or decades, mistrust grows. it's a completely natural, unavoidable process
therefore, democracy is the best government because it is the most STABLE government. a lot of people romanticize revolution, but none will admit how messy and unjust it is, and that what comes out of revolution is often just as unjust as what came before, if not worse
therefore, the stability of a government, in many respects, is even more important than respect of individual rights. why? because the state of no government, weak government, anarchy, or revolution, certainly has nothing but disrespect for individual rights. ANY kind of government: theocracy, autocracy, your beloved monarchy, is better than a weak or government or no government for preserving individual rights. no system of laws and no police to enforce them is not a state you want to live in if you care about individual rights
so the problem with your supposition that you would rather live in a monarchy that respects individual rights more than a democracy that doesn't is that your monarchy won't be around very long to preserve your sacred rights. and what if the king's son is an autocratic jackass? poof, no more rights
meanwhile, in your democracy with no individual rights, the STABLE government you will recall, you are given plenty of time and incentive to build individual rights. the principle of respecting the will of the people in how they vote is the tool you use to initiate or preserve respect for your individual rights. that is why democracy and respect for individual rights often go hand in hand: stability of government
again, this is my lesson for you: the STABILITY of a government might not get your respect, but without that stability, you can say goodbye to your much vaunted individual rights. therefore, caring about the stability of a government should be more important to you than respecting the concept of individual rights in a vacuum of other issues. simply because without stability, your individual rights will decay over time
so you care about individual rights? then you invest in democracy. because without democracy, there is no stability to create the social and political environment that is important to you
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Why doesn't somebody just patent the idea of taking a patent out on any obvious solution?
The next idiot that tries to sue because his patent for an obvious solution was violated would in turn be sued for violating the patent on patenting the patently obvious.
On the 'Boy meets girl' patent.
This could mean that there will never be any more new movies like Beverly Hills Cop, shows like General Hospital or "House", citcoms, or Star Trek movies. Cool beans!
Kodos.
(I'm such a Simpsons nerd >_)
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
1.Patent the "storyline" of a people being led to freedom from slavery by a courageous leader.
2.Sue every church, synagogue, hotel chain, bookstore, and crappy historian I can.
3.???
4.Profit!
The problem with letting anyone just patent anything, without checking up on it first, is that then it becomnes a burnden on those in potential infringement of the patent to disprove it -- a burden of time and money.
I am an audio engineer, live in Nashville, and tend to deal with copyright issues on a regular basis.
To clear a few things I'm going to post a few simple realities:
There are currently 3 types of property in the US:
1) Personal - should be obvious
2) Real - land/buildings
3) "Intellectual"
There are mostly 3 types of "Intellectual Properties"
1) Patents - systems, processess, formulas, etc
2) Copyrights - original writings or works of art from an author or artist
3) Trademarks - logo, name, design, slogan
4) Trade Secrets - anything a company uses secretly which is not patented
Novelty and inventiveness are required for a patent, but not for a copyright.
Anything that has a minimal degree of creativity meets the threshold for copyright can be copyrighted
A creative work is copyrighted the instant it is put in the form of a tangiable medium.
IDEAS ARE NOT PROTECTED BUT WORKS THAT CONTAIN IDEAS ARE COPYRIGHTABLE.
What can be copyrighted?
Literary works, musical works (including lyrics), dramatic works (music too), pantemines, cheorographic works, pictorial, graphic, scupltural work, motion picture, a/v works, animations, sound recordings, archetectual works.
Ok.... now with that - I do not see exactly HOW IN THE HELL these guys got a patent on this?!?!!?!?!?!
This is a creative work of art, NOT a process, protocol, forumula, etc...
Libertas in infinitum
Publication of a patent by the USPTO means nothing as to its validity. They are automatically published according a set time after filing.
Please everybody - stop feeding the applicant's hype (the link in the story was to the applicant's own press release - with the bias and misinformation you'd expect). It's just another business hype-up.