Re: [Patents] Storyline Patent Application Published

[Simo Sorce <simo.sorce@xsec.it>]

Will this article and this mail violate that Patent in case it is
approved ?


On Fri, 2005-11-04 at 06:04 -0800, Seth Johnson wrote:
> > http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2005/11/emw303435.htm
> 
> 
> U.S. Patent Office Publishes the First Patent Application to
> Claim a Fictional Storyline; Inventor Asserts Provisional Rights
> Against Hollywood
>       
> 
> 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."
> 
> Before a patent will issue, however, the application must
> overcome the hurdles of utility, novelty, and nonobviousness
> found in U.S. patent laws. According to Knight, the utility
> requirement addresses whether an invention falls within statutory
> subject matter, while novelty and nonobviousness address whether
> the invention is identical to or impermissibly similar to
> previous inventions. That fictional storylines may be patentable
> was first suggested in a November, 2004 article in the Journal of
> the Patent and Trademark Office Society, "A Potentially New IP:
> Storyline Patents." The article argues that binding case law
> strongly suggests that methods of performing and displaying
> fictional plots, whether found in motion pictures, novels,
> television shows, or commercials, are statutory subject matter,
> like computer software and business methods.
> 
> Regarding the utility requirement, "The case law of the Court of
> Appeals for the Federal Circuit has established that virtually
> any subject matter is potentially patentable," explained Jay
> Thomas, Professor of Law at Georgetown University. Further, "Due
> to the broad scope of patentable subject matter, novel storylines
> may fall within the [utility requirement]," said Charles Berman,
> Co-Chair of the Patent Prosecution Practice at Greenberg Traurig
> LLP.
> 
> The real issue? According to Berman, "Non-obviousness probably
> presents the biggest challenge to patentability" because minor
> variations on a central theme may generate so many different
> storylines. Nevertheless, Knight asserts that his claimed
> storyline meets all statutory requirements, including
> nonobviousness.
> 
> The fictitious story, which Knight dubs "The Zombie Stare," tells
> of an ambitious high school senior, consumed by anticipation of
> college admission, who prays one night to remain unconscious
> until receiving his MIT admissions letter. He consciously awakes
> 30 years later when he finally receives the letter, lost in the
> mail for so many years, and discovers that, to all external
> observers, he has lived an apparently normal life. He desperately
> seeks to regain 30 years’ worth of memories lost as an
> unconscious philosophical zombie.
> 
> Will Knight’s claimed storyline pass the rigors of nonobviousness
> and issue as a U.S. Patent? If so, the stakes are high. According
> to Thomas, "Given the robust scope of patent protection provided
> by the Patent Act… storyline patents potentially provide their
> owners with a significant proprietary interest."
> 
> The U.S. Patent Office will publish subsequent storyline patent
> applications, also invented by Knight, on November 17 and
> December 8 and 22.
> 
> For an information packet, including a copy of the JPTOS article,
> contact Andrew Knight or visit www.PlotPatents.com.
> 
> ###
> 
> 
-- 
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