It struck me the other day, with software patents and especially business process patents, why can’t the networks protect their intellectual property with patents? Why can’t Fox patent a production where a group of women compete for the affection of one bachelor or where one singer is selected through a process of weekly viewer votes based on individual performances? Nah, no one would attempt to patent a television show, right?
Uh, you guessed it. Here’s a recent patent application (#0020091564) for a reality game show where the audience picks a child to adopt:
Method and system for enabling viewer polling and election of prospective parents in broadcast child adoption proceedings
Abstract
A child adoption proceeding is conducted in the form of a television game show and online media event, wherein couples compete against each other to win legal custody of the child. Adoptive parents are selected using a vote-by-phone and/or Internet voting scheme, together with 24-hour surveillance of the prospective parents, which enables television viewers and Internet users to inspect prospective parent-contestants in detail before voting for the winning parents. The present invention overcomes inequities of state-run or private adoption agencies, permitting a fairer selection process while providing greater time and access to observe a pool of prospective parents.
I have no idea if television shows are patentable, but why not?
Think of it this way: What if I create an application on the Internet where synthetic characters compete online in a virtual environment and through a bidding process viewers vote for which avatars they’d like to see more of. The money collected would pay for the broadcasting to continue. Sounds like a patentable business process and software application to me. Now replace the synthetic characters with real actors. Doesn’t it seem worthy of a patent application? Yeah, not to me either, but I mean in terms of all the other patents issued today, it doesn’t seem like too much of a stretch.
I guess all of this is already playing out. Turns out as E!Online reports 20/20 aired an adoption “documentary” this spring where couples “competed” for the right to adopt a child. Yep, the submitter of the above patent isn’t too happy and is off to see their lawyer.
I’m crossing my fingers that patent application #0020091564 will be thrown out. But what if it isn’t? Maybe it’s time for an IP land grab of television shows. Hmm. I need to start thinking of some off-the-wall show ideas…
[Update: BoingBoing covered this back in April here and here the Patent office has a whitepaper that tries to reassure us that business process patents are nothing new.]
Prior Use: truman show (1998).
Our Patent System is so broken….
Yep. What I’d like to see is someone break from the corporate pack and encourage congress to fix the worsening problem. I don’t see this happening though.
As more software and business process patent fights flood the courts, I’m concerned that small developers and businesses will be forced out of the market–at least the product market. We could always get into “early” R&D and focus on developing patentable technologies instead.
Along these lines, I’ve wondered if all of us small development houses shouldn’t join forces in a patent consortium to protect ourselves better. We need defensive patents or we’re going to have a terrible time in the future negotiating rights to technology owned by our competitors with larger legal teams.
Rather than Open Source, what about small software companies pooling their patentable IP together? The consortium would pay for the costs of getting the patents and royalties (from non-members) would help keep things going. To seed the process, there would need to be a team of lawyers and aspiring patent attorneys that would be willing to contribute their time to help file the patents. Someone with a dollar or two would have to be willing to help out too.
With all the small developers and businesses out there, this consortium could very well become the fastest and largest holder of patents. It wouldn’t fix the fundamental problems with software patents, but it could empower the next generation of developers and businesses.
I read earlier today in a comment somewhere that Microsoft, Intel? and several other big corporations were banding together to fight copyright. I mean I’m sure Microsoft is unhappy with the whole Eolas plugin debacle. (losing $500-some million would make me unhappy) I think that was what the comment was in reference to and I don’t remember the evidence. The poster made a good point though–do we really want the new patent law birthed by the mega-corps? They have their own agendas. *Sigh*
Copyrights > Patents, oops.