Brian G. writes “It appears that potentially the United States Patent & Trademark Office and our court system may be deciding the future of literature, movies, and other forms of entertainment. A person has filed a patent application for a specific storyline.
The published application can be viewed at the USPTO web site.
See some on going commentary and discussion at Groklaw .”
obvious to those skilled in the art … to keep them out of production. It’s hard to believe this is a serious application, but there are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamed of in my philosophy.
Well,gag. I hope someone has the fortitude to see whether this is already a well-known plot. It would seem that any plot could be judged “obvious to those skilled in the art,” the killer term for many patents. Of course, someone truly skilled in the art probably wouldn’t touch the plot in the patent, so maybe it’s ok if bad plots get patented