Perhaps it was inevitable...

[randomways]

Those of you on my JF f-list have probably already seen this on fandom_rant.. Those of you who aren't, pay attention:

A "lawyer" has apparently submitted an application to the U.S. Patent Office...to patent a plotline.

Forbes, among others, has picked it up, so -- while not ruling out the possibility of an elaborate hoax -- it seems that this is

Comments

[deecers]

I'm confused - wouldn't blatant similarity of plot already fall under copyright law? For example, couldn't the makers of The Clonus Horror (or whatever it was called) sue the makers of The Island based on copyright? I've always been under the impression that patents covered things (or ideas describing things) that were more, well, tangible.

[randomways]

AFAIK, only if you can establish a verifiable link between two works. That's why non-obviousness is the key issue in the patent -- if an idea is generic enough, it can't even be copyrighted. Else, genre fiction would suddenly become very limited. What the patent attempts to do is restrict usage of the plot itself and the elements contained therein. Therefore, the next person who writes a narcoleptic amnesiac story might find his or her ass hauled into court for writing something too similar to this idiot's plot. Taking it one more step: you could theoretically be sued by the Tolkien estate for making a movie about a group of dwarves, elves and humans who seek to bring down an Evil Overlord by destroying his talisman in a pit of lava. Granted, ripping off LotR like that is skeezy, but think about what it implies for the expression of creativity. It would have a profoundly chilling effect on the freedom authors feel to write a story without worrying about whether someone will sue them for using a plot they'd never even seen before

[bhadrasvapna]

Aren't most of the best stories just a rip off of various other works? Even Tolkien wasn't original.

The trick is to combine enough things for a slight of hand that mesmerizes the reader.

[randomways]

Which is the point. There may be nothing new under the sun, and everything might have been said before, but if government decides to awarding proprietary rights for plotlines, I have little doubt where that'll lead: an establishment of literature as an exercise in jurisprudence. As it stands now, a causal connection must be established for copyright violations, and even that isn't terribly easy to do. If we start patenting basic storylines, we're looking down the barrel of authors having to prove in court that their ideas are substantially original enough ab initio that the plaintiff shouldn't be awarded monetary damages. If someone rips off someone else, that's one thing. If someone happens to be inspired by an idea that unknowingly parallels a patent, that's something else altogether.

[angels_nibblet]

So... which of the seven basic plots do you think would make me the most money?

[randomways]

I think you'd be best off with #5 -- the "gratuitous sex with lots of euphemisms" plotline. Cause who wants to read some boring old plot about a hero and redemption and whatnot?

[knullabulla]

Last I checked, patents apply to things that can be manufactured.

I'd like to see the processing plant that's capable of manufacturing *ideas*.

You could (theoretically) patent the process used for creating the physical manuscript--the paper itself--but not the *ideas* contained in that manuscript.

[randomways]

You can manufacture an idea -- it falls under intellectual property. The problem is, in your terms, the person wants to patent the idea as a process capable of manufacturing a story. Copyright protects works already created; a patent would, in essence, allow someone to hoard the ideas without even having to write the story. And that's the least of the problems with the proposition.

[knullabulla]

Well, I don't have a whole lot of faith in the patent office--so I can see them approving this proposal. But (see my reply below), such a patent would be legally invalid. If anything, the guy should have tried trademarking his plot. Trademarks and copyrights are for I.P.

[knullabulla]

here's what the US patent office says