Storyline Patents

Posted by
November 21, 2005
MP3

Storyline patents: They’re real; they’re here; and they’re horrifying.

On the “I Should Be Writing” Forums, dustrider posted a link to an eMediaWire article on storyline patents.

Patents are not like copyrights, which cover the artistic work. Patents cover the ideas and can be used by deep-pocketed patent holders to attack independent artists and publishers. As a result, storyline patents both unnecessary and dangerous for creativity.

First a disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. Nothing here should be taken as legal advice. If you have a legal question, please consult a qualified attourney.

Patents are not like copyrights. Two people can independently create very similar works, and each is copyrighted by its author. Another person can only infringe the copyright if he actually copies the copyrighted work, not if he independently comes up with a similar work. But patents are more exclusive. Only one person can hold a patent on an idea. If someone else independently comes up with the same idea, the patent holder can sue for patent infringement, even if the other person had no knowledge of the patent and didn’t “copy” the idea.

In order to get a patent, your idea must be useful, nonobvious, and never before done. If the idea has been used before, we say there’s “prior art.” If the Patent and Trademark Office issues a patent and if the patent holder sues someone for patent infringement, that someone can prove that there was prior art and invalidate the patent. But in practice, lawsuits are messy and expensive and can be used by deep-pocketed companies to bully smaller ones, even if the patent is invalid.

The U.S. PTO issued an actual storyline patent to Andrew Knight of Knight & Associates, who has the site www.plotpatents.com. Because of the way patents work, writers and small publishers need to be aware of what stories are patented, so that we don’t accidentally infringe someone’s story patent and get sued. If you think this is reasonable, read the abstract of the above patent. If that doesn’t mortify you, try reading and understanding the entire patent.

News of this patent seems to have gotten more attention in the technical press than in writer’s circles:

Storyline patents are conceptually much like software patents and will cause all the same problems, but on a much larger scale:

From WikiPedia: John Carmack of id Software said, “The idea that I can be presented with a problem, set out to logically solve it with the tools at hand, and wind up with a program that could not be legally used because someone else followed the same logical steps some years ago and filed for a patent on it is horrifying.”


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