A Plot or Storyline Patent application seeks to patent the underlying novel and nonobvious storyline of a fictional story. Such protection is to be contrasted from the copyright protection of one of millions of possible expressions of an underlying storyline. The field of possible applications is broad, and may tentatively be split into an entertainment-advertisement dichotomy. The epitome of an entertainment application is an original, thought-provoking, often shockingly unique movie plot. Several potentially patentable features may have been found in the plots of, Memento, The Thirteenth Floor, Being John Malkovich, Butterfly Effect, The Game, Fight Club, The Matrix, Total Recall, The Truman Show, Minority Report, The Village, Groundhog Day, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, to name a few. The epitome of an advertisement application is one of the many thoughtfully hilarious "Super Bowl commercials."
Quoted from: Knight and Associates - Applications
My friend Aaron dropped a link to this article about these guys, Knight & Associates, who are applying for plot patents on novel parts of plots and stories. This is insane. I mean, how can the Matrix even be argued -- when it is itself an amalgam of a dozen existing plots and the only novel thing it brought was a pause and spin camera aspect. It's nuts. Just nuts. And wrong.
A cop or a cup?
DWO?